One hit is all you need for a homerun

Sometimes one song says it all.

Though sometimes dismissed as failures, one-hit-wonders demand respect.  Finding the right combination of lyrics, melody and timing to garner a hit can be like catching lightning in a bottle.  And lightning doesn’t always strike twice.  Whether they completed one great work and then retired from the spotlight (such as Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird) or continued to try to recapture their former glory, one-hit-wonders certainly deserve their place in history.  This past Sunday was National One-Hit-Wonder Day, did you celebrate by listening to your favorite?

For many of these songs, their novelty keeps them restricted to a specific time and place.  There is certainly no need to build an entire genre around Disco Duck, for example.  And sometimes a song perfectly captures a special time in your life – but once it’s over you move on and the artist is only recalled to conjure up that time again.  And sometimes it may be better to fade away.  When a song gets so popular, it may be tempting for an artist to re-write that hit.  And there’s no honor in being a two-hit-wonder.

We asked around the Curio & Co. office to find out which one-hit-wonders are tops.  Margie’s favorite is Angel Baby, by Rosie and the Originals (and Margie’s rendition is certainly original).  Shirley says Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl), by Looking Glass, always takes her back.  And Louis’s favorite is Shrimp Shack by Cap’n Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters – but we honestly can’t picture him at the beach.