« December 2010 | Main | February 2011 »
Year: 1970
Writers: Mike Pinera & Frank Konte
Album: Open
Label: Atco
Highest US chart position: #4 (Hot 100)
Expectations ran high for Blues Image after Jimi Hendrix pronounced them “one of the best up and coming bands” in an issue of Melody Maker.
Download
(3:50)
Year: 1967
Writers: Joe & Willie Chambers
Album: The Time Has Come
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Highest US chart position: #11 (Hot 100)
Upon learning of their new song, Columbia president Clive Davis asked for it to be recorded by a white group, something the band was vehemently against.
Download
(3:20)
Year: 1991
Writer: Lee Mavers
Album: The La's
Label: London
Highest US chart position: #49 (Hot 100)
The story of The La’s is a testament to the power of perfectionism to make and break a band’s career.
Download
(3:10)
Year: 1982
Writer: Ivan Doroschuk
Album: Rhythm of Youth
Label: MCA
Highest US chart position: #3
The track was apparently written in response to bouncers who routinely tossed pogo-ing new wave dancers from the club floor.
Download
(3:03)
Year: 1970
Writers: Corbetta/Riordan/Phillips
Album: Sugarloaf
Label: Liberty
Highest US chart position: #3
The song’s based on a scale exercise in a music practice book. But its free-form-sounding organs and relentless bass line sound like they were recorded in a chamber.
Download
(3:54)
Welcome to a new series of bite-size music segments where, over the course of three to four minutes, I will attempt to explain the appeal of a musician or band that, for one reason or another, came to be defined by one classic song. It’s a little fact and a little opinion, interspersed with excerpts from the songs in question.
A brief explanation. I’m not a musicologist or a music journalist and God knows I’m not a musician, though I’ve been known to dabble. Mainly I’m an audio documentarian who's a keen appreciator of music, which makes me as qualified as anyone, I think, to opine on certain songs.
I started this series as a way of celebrating songs and musicians that I love. I would prefer not to think of these as “one hit wonders,” because (a) that’s a derogatory term and (b) many of them were fine bands, thank you very much. They just happened to be unlucky enough to only hit it big once. Or one and a half times. Hence the designation, “artists who came to be defined by one classic song.” In my opinion.
And that’s where we come to the subjective nature of the exercise. Clearly, I’m the one defining “defined by.” Most of the time, I feel, that can’t be argued with. Artists like The La’s, The Chambers Brothers, and Blues Image were, in their time, bands to be reckoned with, but they only had one real shot at stardom. Other bands, it’s less clear. There could be a very good reason we didn’t hear more from The Shocking Blue (“Venus”), the Edison Lighthouse (“Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes”), or Zager & Evans (“In the Year 2525”). But who am I to say? Many groups build a significant local following before anyone’s heard of them, and it’s only upon not having a second hit that the general public considers them dead in the water. Other bands, like the Buffalo Springfield, came of age in the time of “album oriented radio” – therefore singling out one song is difficult. Yet it can be done.
In some cases, I’ve tried to make a personal connection with a song. Other times, I’ve left well enough alone. Ultimately, whether I saw the band live or have a specific sense memory connected to the song matters little. All of these tunes are great, in my mind, and that’s what prompted me to include them in the series.
Theme music is by Daniel Bautista (creative commons). Thanks to Ross Freedman, Scott Rabin, and Matt Stoulil for early feedback.
I hope you enjoy.
E.W.
