Five one-hit wonders with a great catalog of other songs

1960s – THE SEEDS – PUSHIN’ TOO HARD

The Seeds orbited ’60s protopunk like your stoned cousin who shows up at family functions and always manages to do something to capture your attention. Their hit, “Pushin’ Too Hard,” barely cracked the top 40 in 1966 (of course) and was eventually included in the original Nuggets album – a splendid collection of mid-‘60s garage rock. It came off their self-titled debut album, and another track, “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine,” barely missed Top 40 status.

Another four albums didn’t yield any other commercial success, and frontman Sky Saxon split the band up in the early ‘70s. He went on to work with other important bands like Dream Syndicate and the Plimsouls, while occasionally reforming the Seeds.

The original Seeds discography is filled with a fabulous array of oddities. From the drugged-out “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine,” to the Dylanesque “900 Million People Daily,” – from the hillbilly punk of “Falling Off the Edge of My Mind,” to the straight proto-punk of “Out of the Question,” Saxon’s snarl made everything interesting. If Jan Savage didn’t play the most technically proficient guitar, and if Daryl Hopper’s keyboards were all over the map – they were always insistent and usually compelling.

Saxon, who early in his career went by the stage name Little Richie Marsh, could even do a pretty good Little Richard on “Daisy Mae,” or could predict a band like the Dead Milkmen on “Wild Blood.” Today, we mainly think of the Seeds as lo-fi garage rock, but they had tidbits of Britpop and smatterings of psychedelia. They had showmanship. Above all, they had a lot of great songs.