Colm O'Regan: Let's not be snarky about one-hit wonders
Roger Kenny Photography Actor Head Shots www.rogerkenny.ie
As soon as it came on it we knew. NAAAH nanananNAAA nanananNAAA nananananan nananana nanananaNAAA.
We were in a taxi on the way into see Mac Fleetwood, a Fleetwood Mac tribute band. Mac Fleetwood had no truck with band puns. This was no Bjorn Again or Oasish or Stereophonies. Just a simple switcheroo.
They didn’t need a pun. They were excellent. They still are. Go see them.
Singers who can all sing, musicians who can musish. If you don’t know much about Fleetwood Mac it’ll be a fun night of saying “Oh is THAT a Fleetwood Mac song. I never knew” (see also Steely Dan).
Meanwhile, in the taxi, the nas were over. It was time for Ini Kamoze to sing some lyrics. You know the one. It’s a reggae hit from 1994.
“Here come de Hot Steppa”.
And then remember you pretty much pretended you knew the next word.
“Burger-wrap”, “Bubbila”, “Werb It Up” were your best guesses. Though they were all wrong.
You found out a few decades later it was “Murderer”.
By the way a hotstepper is not someone good at Irish dancing (or at least marked by the judges as good, see All The Scandal). It’s said to be a Jamaican slang term for someone always on the run from the law.
‘Hot Stepper’ will appear frequently on ‘one hit wonder’ lists. The late nineties were a good time for that.
There was Babylon Zoo in 1996 with ‘Spaceman’ (26 years later, I’ve just found out he says “intergalactic Christ” in the chorus bit and not intergalactic fnihhh) and Chumbawumba with Tubthumping (about getting knocked down but getting up again).
If you want a trip down “I actually have no memory of that” lane then look up the Wikipedia page for one-hit wonders in Ireland - songs where the band singing them only achieved one top 40 hit.
A song called “Welcome John Paul II” by Jim Tobin got to number one in 1979. I doubt that Jim – a very successful country and showband singer- was bothered it was his only number one.
You’re never going to make a living off papal welcome songs. If you did, it would probably be a sign the Vatican City had gone a bit more Borgia.
Like The By-road to Glenroe is one example. A song from the soap Glenroe sung by Mick Lally where he pays tribute to Biddy Byrne his wife. There was no follow single called the Byre-Rode to Glenroe after his roll in the hay with Fidelma.
As we move on in time we encounter a raft of Eurovisiony sounding ballads and a thousand songs recorded after a scrappy draw in a play-off secured our place a big football tournament.
And of course Maniac 2000, a song which has taught generations about Oggie Oggie Oggie, Oi Oi Oi.
There is snark around one-hit wonders. Whatever happened to…? I have no time for that snark.
Can you imagine creating something that will outlive you? That will be heard in a taxi 30 years later and connect with someone.
One is so much more than none.
Also one-hit wonder list compilers seems to suggest that the person never hit the heights after that. But so what? Maybe they did. Maybe they had a good run, got some money and now keep bees. It’s no one’s business.
And who’s to say that 200 years from now amongst the wreckage of civilisation, maybe we’ll have forgotten the sacred knowledge of Rhiannon or You Can Go Your Own Way.
And someone will uncover a dusty TDK90 with hits of Now That’s What I Call Music 95 written in neat Bic Handwriting and from a battered old Sony CFM-120, will ring out “nanananNAAA”
Colm’s latest book “Climate Worrier” is in shops and available on audiobook now
