80s "omg I loved that one" one hit wonders mix tape thread

Ollie & Jerry - "There's No Stoppin' Us (Theme from 'Breakin')"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x5JqZNYpRQ

Wang Chung - Dance Hall Days

(actually they had another hit or two... this was the only one to make it to ·1 tho...)

I would have sworn "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" was a bigger hit.

Yeah, in the US anyway "Dance Hall Days" hit 16 and "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" hit 2 and "Let's Go" hit 9.

Their best song, "Fire In The Twilight" from "The Breakfast Club" soundtrack, wasn't a hit at all ;_;

Yeah, Fire in the Twilight is great.

Yeah, in the US anyway "Dance Hall Days" hit 16 and "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" hit 2 and "Let's Go" hit 9.

I'd include Benjamin Orr's 'Stay The Night' here but I don't know if that technically counts as a One Hit Wonder because of Orr's vocals on The Cars 'Drive'. Two hit wonder then? Sure.

I would count it.

I would too, and it's a better song than "Drive."

There I said it.

Orr-sung Cars singles that hit the Top 40: "Just What I Needed, "Let's Go," "Why Can't I Have You," "You Are The Girl."

huh

I don't think I realized until just now that he sang all of my favorite Cars songs

Ric Ocasek's a one hit wonder too! "Emotion in Motion," remember.

Oh how come noone has mentioned this one:

Don Henley - Boys of Summer

Because Henley had a lot more hit singles?

Orange Juice - Rip it Up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESy-Z8vqMrE

They did release several albums and still have some present-day cache, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psT7pKuayYc

xxpost I had never that Orange Juice track and it immediately reminded me of Annie's "Me Plus One".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6zBjYIyz-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJou-XIUywQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRnNpLOhn1Q

Love love love this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-kfmuGHtxo

at what point did we wander away from posting hits

because I have a shitload of things I would post but they are not hits at all

except for this, this was a hit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzwstJmxbuY&feature=related

Oh man, Joboxers, had forgotten about that song! (Although I remembered the Trouser Press review starting "Responsible for a brief Dead End Kids fashion fad in Great Britain...")

Daryl Hall's "Dreamtime" is a good choice.

Eurogliders went to #21 on the Billboard US Mainstream Rock tracks chart, Cock Robin went to #35, and Joboxers went to #36.

"I don't remember this son" != "not a hit"

I was under the impression we were using high placement on the Hot 100 as criteria, not every ancillary Billboard chart that contains songs we like

I am not trying to be Judgy McDouchebag, I just didn't think those charts were in play

The very first song you posted on this thread went all the way to #37 on the Hot 100, so uhhhh . . . xp

I consider Top 40 to be high placement, mostly because that's where the countdown starts.

This is basically jumping up and down upon and mooning the "please don't be a pedant" request but the whole conversation/thread started because we were reminiscing about quirky mid-80s Top 40 songs; I was surprised you were posting stuff that never hit the top 40 and mostly asking if the floodgates were open for me to be a pathetic goth.

(although Gene Loves Jezebel didn't chart as high as I thought they did ;_l)

Is that an emoticon of, like, Ace Frehley crying?

it is now!

Yeah, the original spirit of the thread was to include stuff I actually heard on normal Top 40 radio between the ages of 10 and 14 or so, which is basically how it started out. Now if someone wants to post Joboxers because he or she heard it on the radio as a kid, it's not my place to piss in the punchbowl. It really doesn't have any resonance for me, though.

Wiki for JoBoxers just says it made the American Top 40. I never heard it on the radio, but I saw the video a ton at my local danceteria as a young adult.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sq8VDXlWQk

Had more semi-hits in the UK, but this was the only Top 40 for the US.

oh my God YES

LOVE that song.

I'm going to sully this thread with something that really doesn't qualify, because it was no more a hit than any other song he released in the US in the 80s (though it was big in Canada). I just remember loving it whenever it would play on the radio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD77kyQYifc

okay now you are REALLY making me want to post Mel & Kim

Which single? I looked at Wikipedia and tbh I can't recall any of them by title alone.

"Showin' Out"

it's a big ball of SAW goodness

S-Express - "Theme from S-Express"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKCW3RJNRIw

Danny Wilson - "Mary's Prayer"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hqgC3W9GUI

Just because I'm now obsessively stuck on the pedantry, I checked and Joboxers were #39 on Casey Kasem's "American Top 40" the week of Nov. 5, 1983. If Casey got to say your record's name on the radio, it was a hit AFAIC! And Cock Robin was at #36 the week of Aug. 4, 1985. Eurogliders, not so much, but it's still a great tune.

Okay, I remember that Mel & Kim song (barely).

Black - "Wonderful life"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMXz3TQOS_c

I remembered the name Danny Wilson (probably because I'd seen the record a lot when flipping through dusty lp bins), but I'd forgotten completely the song they were famous for. That's NICE.