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.
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(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.
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(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.
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(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.
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(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.
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(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.
Story by: Susan Collins
Recorded: November 2010, Brooklyn, NY
Music: Oursvince
When a L.A.-based actress embarks on a search to uncover the truth about her birth parents, a series of uncanny coincidences paves the way.
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(17:32)
Susan Collins is an actress who has worked in both NYC and L.A., in TV, film, and theater productions, including such shows Star Trek: Next Generation, Murder One, a Roseanne Barr Movie of the Week, Murder She Wrote and many others. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY, where she is the mother of two and is working on her one-woman show. The photo above is of Susan's birth parents, George and Judy, at their prom. You can read more about the ALMA Society, referenced in this story, here. You can listen to more creative commons music from the artist Oursvince here.
Story by: Joan Liman
Recorded: July 2010, New York, NY
Music: Kurt Weill; with selections from the musical Signs of Life, music by Joel Derfner, lyrics by Len Schiff, book by Peter Ullian
From a childhood in Brooklyn dreaming of a career in the theater to the producer of a successful off-Broadway musical. From motherhood, through medical school and beyond. Though illness both physical and psychological. A portrait of a life, well-lived and hard-fought, that is the very definition of survival.
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(22:15)
Joan Liman, MD, MPH, MC* is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of The State University of NY at Buffalo who spent her post-college years working in human resources in New York and New Jersey. She eventually went on to earn MD and MPH degrees from New York Medical College (NYMC). She spent more than two decades working in medical education, retiring in 2008 from Metropolitan Hospital in NYC. Joan's website can be found here. The selections from Signs of Life are from the Village Theatre (Issaquah, WA) production. You can read more about the show here. Read about Amas Musical Theatre here. (*Master of Cancer)
Story by: Bradley Teal Ellis
Recorded: August 2010, New York, NY
Music: Ryan Rumery; with moments of Radiohead, The Commodores, and R.E.M.
Broadcast January 3, 2011 on KUT-FM's "O'Dark 30" (Austin, TX).
An unfortunate car accident on the way to a Radiohead concert at Stone Mountain Park, Georgia sets the scene for a life-changing encounter at a Waffle House outside of Athens.
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(15:25)
Bradley Teal Ellis is a Brooklyn, NY-based dance artist and improviser. Ryan Rumery is a Brooklyn-based musician and composer. Read more about Ryan here. Note: this story assumes some familiarity with two public figures: Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead, and Michael Stipe, lead singer of R.E.M. Thanks to Bradford Louryk and Emily Kent.
Chain of Missing Links
Story by: Eric Winick
Read by: Timothy McCown Reynolds
Recorded: May 2010, New York, NY
Music: The Books
In which, following a 10,000 Maniacs concert, the author is accidentally left by friends at an outdoor amphitheater ninety minutes from his home town.
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(3:00) A Cold Freezin' Night
Story by: Eric Winick
Read by: Danny Bowes
Recorded: May 2010, New York, NY
Music: The Books
In which, to curb his kids' insatiable greed, the author's father takes it upon himself to call off one of the most anticipated holidays of the year.
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(3:00)
All You Need is a Wall
Story by: Eric Winick
Read by: Matthew Rauch
Recorded: June 2010, New York, NY
Music: The Books; Marvin Hamlisch
In which the author, at a low point, embarks on a relationship with his housemate -- only to learn that she is bipolar and prone to some odd behavior.
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(3:00)
These pieces were entries in Third Coast International Audio Festival's 2010 ShortDocs Challenge. Note: the photo in the upper left is of Great Woods, now called the Comcast Center. It is surrounded by the parking lot, which figures prominently in "Chain."
Timothy McCown Reynolds is an actor, director, playwright, poet, painter, illustrator, sculptor, scholar, swordsman, and mage. All Love and Work dedicated to Fast Eddie, the Emperor Maximillian, and the Lorelei of the Mississippi. Danny Bowes is an actor, writer, and filmmaker from Brooklyn, NY. For more on Danny, click here. Matthew Rauch is an actor and writer based in New York City. He has appeared in plays both on- and off-Broadway, at regional theaters throughout the US, on every major network, and in half a dozen films. He is the author (with Brad Shelton) of two films and three television shows, one of which is in development for Working Title Television and NBC.
