1980s One Hit Wonders

[Vienna]

Quite a few artists have just one hit record in the charts, then disappear completely! I remember this song as the first record I ever bought, probably from Woolies, during the hot summer of 1983. It reached no. 18. 

[Superclassic]

I have never heard that song in my entire life.Very of it's time!!

[Vienna]

Mar 23, 2015 9:47:18 GMT Superclassic said:

I have never heard that song in my entire life.Very of it's time!!

I have still got the single, although it doesn't play to well now. It never seems to turn up on 80s CD compilations.

[Dirty Epic]

This is my favourite one hit wonder from the 1980's and two fingers to S/A/W for trying to keep it off #1



Someone's also done a Wikipedia entry of 1980's 1 hit wonders too.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_one-hit_wonders_on_the_UK_Singles_Chart

[Gene Hunt]

Good call dirty sod - I mean dirtyepic

Another one hit wonder from the 80's was Phyllis Nelson and Move Closer.

I've spent many a night on the back seat of the Quattro with Bolly while this is playing on the tape deck.



Gene Genie

[Windy Miller]

Mar 27, 2015 15:29:55 GMT Dirty Epic said:

This is my favourite one hit wonder from the 1980's and two fingers to S/A/W for trying to keep it off #1

Good choice. Pump Up The Volume is brilliant.
Multi Sampling was a growing trend at the time, and this set a high benchmark for others to follow.
The SAW thing adds nicely to the storey.
Not often good records get to No.1, but this well deserved to be a hit.

[Tyne Tees Colour]

I liked 'Pump Up The Volume' as well. In some ways, I didn't know what to make of it at the time, but along with certain other producer/DJ-based records of the time, it pointed the way to rave culture and the 90s.

One of these records was Eric B & Rakim's 'Paid In Full', which I bought on a single. The intro voiceover was sampled on several other records and came from the Decca Records 'A Journey Into Stereo Sound' (1958). This was most definitely from another era and was almost thirty years old in 1987. Quite staggering that almost another thirty years have passed since then

Re: Jimmy The Hoover - IIRC there was quite a lot of attention around this band at the time, who were a bit offbeat with their singer Derek Dunbar. I notice that they were on Innervision Records, an indie distributed by a major. Wham were also with this label at the time, but during 1983 a contractual dispute emerged. Wham seemed to have the clout to emerge from this, and were signed to CBS who had distributed Innervision, who folded in 1985 possibly as a consequence.

I suspect Jimmy The Hoover may have suffered because of the labels woes. The case was kind of a prelude for George Michael's later battle to free himself from Sony Music (after they had bought CBS).

[Batgirl]

When I think One Hit Wonder from the eighties then it is 'Flock of Seagulls' with 'I Ran.'  The funny thing is I don't mind it.  Hey no judging !   Such easy fashion then, just wear a plastic garbage bag with a fetching belt.

I'm not sure if they had other hits in England but to me they were a one hit band.

[Tyne Tees Colour]

Their main hit in the UK was 'Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)'.

They had another top 30 hit which I liked, 'The More You Live, The More You Love'.

I thought they were OK, but 'Wishing' had a similar-sounding riff to Tubular Bells and they had distinctive (to put it politely) fashions which dated them to a particular time. 

[Batgirl]

Sept 11, 2015 10:56:00 GMT Tyne Tees Colour said:

Their main hit in the UK was 'Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)'.

They had another top 30 hit which I liked, 'The More You Live, The More You Love'.

I thought they were OK, but 'Wishing' had a similar-sounding riff to Tubular Bells and they had distinctive (to put it politely) fashions which dated them to a particular time. 

Cheers for that info. Tyne Tees Colour.   I don't think 'Wishing' was a hit at all in Australia.