Todd In The Shadows Thread

The weird thing about Sk8er Boi is that it feels more like a cautionary tale than a revenge song... up until the final verse where you learn that the singer and the eponymous sk8er boi are about to write the song you're currently listening to.

I'm not sure how I feel about the song now. Some of the earlier lyrics feel a bit more... mean spirited knowing that they come from the boi and not some third party observer.

In the first verse it's mentioned that the girl "secretly wanted him" as well. If the song were being sung by an omniscient narrator, then that makes sense, but it's written by the boi. How does he know how she secretly feels? He just assumes that she loved him back in the hopes that the final twist of the knife will hurt her even more.

It's kind of a presumptuous song. It could've been about the tragedy of dismissing someone potentially special to you because of social pressure and fear of losing your status.. But that final reveal makes the whole song feel so much more bitchy.

Edited by GNinja on Nov 27th 2020 at 7:12:55 PM

Sk8er boi's a revenge song, but not exactly the same type as the ones Todd was talking about. It's definitely more of a "be careful who you make fun of in middle shool" sort of thing where the person becoming famous and successful is the revenge.

The last verse kinda confuses it, but the general idea still holds.

I wonder if Todd would be willing to cover Teen Angel by Mark Dinning as a OHW. It would be interesting to see his take on the weird "teen death" song craze of the 50s-early 60s (and it would also supplant Monster Mash as the oldest song he's ever covered).

New One-Hit (actually No-Hit, actually Two-Half-Hit?!?) Wonderland up on Patreon: The Waitresses' "I Know What Boys Like"... or is it "Christmas Wrapping"?

It's gone live

I was vaguely familiar with "I Know What Boys Like." I never heard of "Christmas Wrapping."

My favorite title cards are "7 Years," "Feel This Moment," and "Best Song Ever."

I can't wait for the 2020 best and worst lists.

Were there even twenty new songs that made any sort of splash this year, much less ones good enough to be entertainingly bad or remarkably good?

So I found an old thing on the internet that offers 3 rules for defining a One-Hit Wonder:

1. Scoring a second hit in the top 10 disqualifies someone from OHW status (The Vanilla Ice Rule). This would mean that Blue Swede aren't OH Ws, but there is an exception to every rule. Blue Swede (and Vanilla Ice) are flashes in the pan, not One Hit Wonders.

2. If the second hit is scored within six months of the first hit, and is not in the top 10, the act can still be considered a OHW. (The Ah-Ha Rule) This rule means that Falco, EMF, Geraldo, and Young MC also count as OH Ws since in their cases, the second hits they each had was riding off the success of the first hit.

3. If the artist has at least 3 albums in the Top 10 Albums chart, or at least 3 platinum selling records, they aren't one hit wonders, regardless of their performance on the Hot 100. (The Hendrix/Dead Rule)

What do you guys think?

Edited by Smasher on Dec 16th 2020 at 2:22:50 PM

I agree with the three album rule, if an artist can survive a second album and make a third, that means they are doing pretty well.

I disagree heavily. Longevity and hit maker are very different metrics.

The first two, ehn. I have no strong feelings one way or the other.

But if the albums are hit makers, even if the songs aren’t, that probably means they’ve been cheated out of a singles spot.

I definetly think this rule counts.

This rule also finally gives some “One Hit Wonders” some slack (Faith No More, The Allman Brothers Band, Tracy Chapman, Barenaked Ladies, etc.)

I still feel like some artists are cheated out (e.g. Blind Melon having only two albums in the top 100, as lead singer Shannon Hoon would die in 1995, and having 3 hits but having two only hit the modern rock Chart), But it makes things more fair.

Yeah, a one hit wonder because of death seems like it should fall outside the category.

Number of album sales is kind of outside the One Hit Wonder scope. It is generally understood that the term applies to singles. If you want an album equivalent, that's fine, but it goes in an album category. It has no bearing on the number of hit singles they had.

I get it, when I saw Thomas Dolby on One Hit Wonderland, my first reaction was, "Lies! All Lies!", as a person who owns every studio album, two copies of Golden Age of Wireless(original and Collector's Edition), two EP's and his video game soundtrack, believe me, I get it.

But even though I might be able to sing(for a given value of 'sing') any ten of his songs by heart given the flimsiest of excuses, when it comes to top ten charting songs, he only had one.

I guess that goes to show there are plenty of perfectly good artists who still count as one hit wonders.

Just because you're a big fan of that artists doesn't mean everyone else is.

For example, The Grateful Dead has a huge fanbase, multiple platinum albums, and an Ice Cream flavor, but they only had one hit in the top 100.

I think the 3 album rule here is neccesary, as for most one hit wonders, Album 1 would probably be "The One With The Hit", Album 2 would be "The One Following The Success Of The Hit", and it would stop about there. If you can prove to be succesful for 3 albums, I don't think you can count.

Yeah, if you have another chart topping hit single. That's the thing that's being counted.

Even if you have ten really great albums that fill all the spaces from one hundred and one to one hundred and ten for the next ten years, you've still only had one hit single. You remain a One Hit Wonder.

The Grateful Dead is an example of a cultural icon. That's different from a One Hit Wonder, which they also are. Those things can both be true, and don't cancel each other out.

Ah, and they were so long before they had their hit. Touch of Grey came some twenty years after their recording history started.

Edited by Daremo on Dec 16th 2020 at 8:04:38 AM

If you're selling multiple platinum albums, you can hardly be considered a one hit wonder, even if you did not have multiple top 10 hits.

If you win one baseball game, and then go on to win multiple championships in cricket, rugby, swimming, weightlifting and caber tossing each, while you might be a greats sportsman, you're still a one time baseball game winner. No one says, "They won in all those other categories, we should count them as having won more than one baseball game." They didn't. It was just the one.

..That's not the best metaphor. It would be more like if a Director only won an Oscar for one film, but they have multiple other iconic films that were nominated.

That might not be the best either but I tried

Okay, hang on, are you using Todd's "...Primarily known for having one hit song..." definition of One Hit Wonder? Because that's a slightly different thing relying on amorphous popular consciousness rather than hard data, mainly so he can sneak in things like Smasher's category 1, people and bands that had more than one hit, but people mainly just remember the one, ie Vanilla Ice or the Waitresses.

Just for fun, here's the artists from the VH-1 list of greatest OH Ws covered by Todd:

• Carl Douglas
• Billy Ray Cyrus
• Young MC
• Men Without Hats
• The Waitresses
• Biz Markie
• Michael Sembello
• OMC
• Lipps, Inc.
• New Radicals
• House of Pain
• Haddaway
• The Weather Girls
• Rockwell
• The Proclaimers
• Divinyls
• The Cardigans
• Falco
• Billy Paul
• Modern English
• The Vapors
• EMF
• Wild Cherry
• Thomas Dolby
• Iron Butterfly
• Dee-Lite
• Van Mccoy
• Sir Mix-A-Lot
• Debby Boone
• Geraldo
• ah-ha
• Baha Men
• Toni Basil
• Right Said Fred
• Dexy's Midnight Runners

That's 35. The list is, of course, from 2002. Carl Douglas was #100, and Dexy's was #3. Six of the top 10 have been covered. The other 4 are Vanilla Ice-who is not a OHW, even though most people think he is-, Nena, Soft Cell, and Los Del Rio.

I can't wait for the Nena episode. Would that be another new stop on the international tour or was there a OHW from Germany already?

Falco was german. Though it would be the first OHW sung entirely in german.

Edited by FirstSnow on Dec 16th 2020 at 12:32:58 PM

Nope, he was Austrian.

While I dont see a OHW episode on Vanilla Ice, he does qualify for a trainwreckords. Question is, which one do you cover, Mind Blowin or Hard to Swallow?