Conspicuously similar follow-ups to hit singles that became hits in their own right, but are now mostly forgotten because people only remember the first hit

Hanson - Where's The Love?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK5obmgq6u0

Any song by Aqua that wasn't Barbie Girl.

Ten years from now:
PSY- Gentleman

I heard "Doctor Jones" at a bar mitzvah! Teenagers still dig it!

anyway. Maybe my memory of Britney Spears is not good but "Oops" was the one I seemed to hear referenced all the time. Also a lot catchier (imo)

Lou Bega got so much action he couldn't even remember the girls names after awhile...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFYbm0_Xem0

Well maybe just "Lollipop Candyman" then.

Is "Hey You" remembered outside of Canada?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyMNCqhRNOM

Did not know that Aquarium actually released 7 singles. "Roses are Red", "My Oh My", "Barbie Girl", "Candyman", "Doctor Jones", "Turn Back Time", and "Good Morning Sunshine", surprisingly NOT "Calling You" which is one of the most stupidly catchy songs ever written.

Whether or not "Oops!" was a bigger hit, I don't think people have forgotten it and only remember "Hit Me", so it doesn't fit the spirit of this thread. Other examples are OTM though... Like that Hanson song, I remember it now, but I'd totally forgotten about it before this thread! And it has pretty much the same chords as "Mmmbop", doesn't it?

Oh man, I remember five of those singles, frogbs. Would probably also recall the two other ones if I heard them. Denmark in the nineties was a bad time and place to grow up in.

The videos were all good though! I have heard a few of the Aqua "sound-alike" bands, it seems like most of them either didn't really get Aqua's sense of humor or didn't have a very good grasp of English. In particular I remember "Tarzan and Jane" which is a good example of "bad-catchy" (as opposed to Aqua who I generally like). I can't imagine how much garbage must've been flying around Denmark at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIhNlE4DYO8

Hit #7 on Billboard as the follow-up to "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'"

Four Tops - It's the Same Old Song

xpost - practically all the songs on that particular album (Boots) are about aggressively dumping some deadbeat guy, including gender-switched versions of the Beatles "Run For Your Life" and Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe". The CD reissue spoiled it with three songs that didn't have this theme.

He's got a girl in paris, he's got a girl in rome, he's even got a girl in the vatican dome -- that made my night

The sequel to Hoots Mon - not a carbon copy but the vocal bit is a real give away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUqh0tUtyQw

Four Tops - It's the Same Old Song

― ablaeser, Thursday, November 21, 2013 10:51 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Pretty much the apotheosis of this phenomenon.

Every Everclear song I've heard

Poker Face

Follow-up to "Expressway to Your Heart." Not a huge hit (made it to #33).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vNbOntxgxU

"The Wedding Is Over" Roy C

practically all the songs on that particular album (Boots) are about aggressively dumping some deadbeat guy, including gender-switched versions of the Beatles "Run For Your Life" and Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe". The CD reissue spoiled it with three songs that didn't have this theme.

Yeah. But "How Does That Grab You Darlin'" is not on Boots, it's on the follow-up album, How Does That Grab You?

Also, it's a fine example in that its arrangement is clearly made to resemble "These Boots".

Do people still remember "Original Prankster" by The Offspring?

Four Tops - It's the Same Old Song

This is the Four Tops song I hear the most often.

also lol "Poker Face"? if only people had forgotten that song

Weird, I can count the times I've heard it on the radio on one hand. Way dwarfed by "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)."

xp

Is there a thread for the related topic of "Follow-ups to hit singles that became hits in their own right, but are now mostly forgotten because they were middling ballads?" (Ie: Tiffany's Could've Been)

it may be early for this but

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

Someone remind me what the follow-up to I'm Too Sexy was called

Deeply Dippy?

lol my second guess was going to be "Don't Talk, Just Kiss" and apparently I know more about Right Said Fred singles than I thought

That's the one! You're putting that graduate diploma in Richard Fairbrass studies to good use

the opposite of this is Ace Of Base -
first hit "All That She Wants" was a global smash and a UK #1
very similar sounding follow-up "The Sign" was also a hit, but reached #2 in the UK

in the U.S. the chart positions are reversed and "The Sign" was much bigger - continued Jock Jams level stadium ubiquity.
many Americans, especially sports fans, consider Ace Of Base a one-hit wonder and don't even know "All That She Wants"

further proof that Americans are weird :)

America was a weird follow-up to the UK, and now nobody remembers America.

many Americans, especially sports fans, consider Ace Of Base a one-hit wonder and don't even know "All That She Wants"

I don't think this is true; I've never seen anyone be perplexed by or forget the existence of "All That She Wants" or "Don't Turn Around"

"Don't Talk Just Kiss" is probably one of the most ridiculous songs of all time.

Wasn't exactly the followup up single (it was one full album later), but I think "I Knew I Loved You" was a deliberate attempt to copy "Truly Madly Deeply" and though they both hit #1 in the US I haven't heard "I Knew I Loved You" or heard anybody talk about it for like 10 years.

The Tamperer featuring Maya's 'If You Buy This Record Your Life Will Be Better'

Crowded House - "Don't Dream It's Over" ---> "Something So Strong"

Edwin Starr followed up "War" with "Stop the War Now," which reached US Pop #26.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_3IlIHYzxo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXHYCP9a0W8

many Americans, especially sports fans, consider Ace Of Base a one-hit wonder and don't even know "All That She Wants"

All That She Wants was big in America. What does sports have to do with anything?

they play songs at baseball games - they play "The Sign" all the time - they never play "All That She Wants"

oh huh -- from how I remember it "I Knew I Loved You" practically engulfed every other single the band did

Everyone remembers "Cotton Eye Joe" by Rednex

At first blush I thought "Hey You" was outkast's follow up to ... ah, nevermind. I'll get me hat & coat...

Listening to "Dance the King-Fu" right now. It's more gloriously dire than I could ever have imagined.

even with Jock Jams ubiquity factored out I guess the Ace Of Base thing can also be explained by the sales/airplay comparison - according to Billboard "The Sign" is the #60 biggest U.S. hit of all time! who knew? (and for the decade of the nineties the two songs rank at #11 for The Sign and #70 for All That She Wants, though the latter was apparently one of the biggest #2 hits ever)

still I was initially surprised talking with Americans who only associated the band with The Sign… learning of the sports exposure helped make more sense of that. anyway, Dan you're hanging out with the rarified Kiss Me (x3) as best Cure album and Leela best companion cognoscenti !

I was under the impression that most people in North America remembered both "The Sign" and "All That She Wants" about equally. It's songs like "Don't Turn Around" that have been more forgotten.

All three of those songs were totally ubiquitous in the mid-90s

Milli Vanilli followed the #2 hit "Girl You Know It's True" with the extremely similar "Baby Don't Forget My Number" which went to #1. It seems completely forgotten now, I don't think I've ever heard it since the late 80's, but everybody knows the first one.

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

"René Dif was a punchline almost immediately."

Wikipedia's image of him is very orange:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Dif#/media/File:Ren%C3%A9DifGade.JPG

With the result that if I Google him, the internet believes that he looks like this:
https://i.imgur.com/gB94mJ0.jpg

Many years from now I will wonder why there was a screen grab of Rene Dif on my hard drive.

"Pure Shores"/"Black Coffee"

“Black Coffee” is hardly forgotten (and I might love it even more than “Pure Shores” these days).

COME PICK MY ROSES

forgotten by the general public I mean

I know it's beloved around these parts

“Crossroads”/“1st Of Da Month”
― Siegbran, Monday, November 11, 2019 8:09 AM

'tha crossroads' was the follow-up in this case. and it was stupid popular by comparison to 'first of tha month.'

also i thought 'top of the stairs' was the better song, but i was a teenage cornball. still am, afaict.

Baccara's "Sorry I'm A Lady", essentially a rewrite of "Yes Sir I Can Boogie", was top 10 in the UK and #1 across half of Europe and seems largely forgotten nowadays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MgX84NR7x0

"Freed From Desire"/"Let A Boy Cry"
"Gypsy Woman"/"Makin' Happy"
"9 PM (Til I Come)"/"Summer"

Benny Benassi's three follow up hits to "Satisfaction" were suspiciously similar, but mostly forgotten: "Able To Love", "No Matter What You Do" and "Love Is Gonna Save Us".

Robert Palmer - "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" (after "Addicted to Love")

I didn't actually know that Nightcrawlers had a follow-up hit to "Push the Feeling On"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P06Xa80nd8g

Apparently they asked Marc Kinchen to produce this one right from the start after his remix of the previous one became so popular.

Yep, that's a similareeee

Back when Aqua was hitting with Barbie Girl this satire comedian made a sketch where they talked about how they really wanted to prove that they were more than a 'Barbie-band'. Cut to five years later and their next hit is 'Slime, I'm a can of slime, play with me, I'm a can of slime'. And now they really want to prove they are more than just that 'slime-band'. Five years later. 'Tetherbaaaaalllll! Teeeeeetherbaaaalllll!'

In the real world it only took Aqua three years to follow up the album Aquarium and the hit Barbie Girl, with the album Aquarius and the hit Cartoon Heroes...

I don't think there was ever any risk that they would develop into The Cardigans, their sound was too thin, and the split between the artists and the eye candy was too stark. René Dif was a punchline almost immediately.

― Frederik B, Sunday, November 10, 2019 6:47 PM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Is this the same Aqua who had two further UK number one hits with two very different singles, both excellent in their own way? The Aqua who anyone but the most blinkered rockist could tell were playing with the form of pop music and having fun with it? That Aqua?

Apparently they asked Marc Kinchen to produce this one right from the start after his remix of the previous one became so popular.

― Tuomas

Back when Aqua was hitting with Barbie Girl this satire comedian made a sketch where they talked about how they really wanted to prove that they were more than a 'Barbie-band'. Cut to five years later and their next hit is 'Slime, I'm a can of slime, play with me, I'm a can of slime'. And now they really want to prove they are more than just that 'slime-band'. Five years later. 'Tetherbaaaaalllll! Teeeeeetherbaaaalllll!'

In the real world it only took Aqua three years to follow up the album Aquarium and the hit Barbie Girl, with the album Aquarius and the hit Cartoon Heroes...

I don't think there was ever any risk that they would develop into The Cardigans, their sound was too thin, and the split between the artists and the eye candy was too stark. René Dif was a punchline almost immediately.

― Frederik B, Sunday, November 10, 2019 6:47 PM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Is this the same Aqua who had two further UK number one hits with two very different singles, both excellent in their own way? The Aqua who anyone but the most blinkered rockist could tell were playing with the form of pop music and having fun with it? That Aqua?

― Anti-Cop Ponceortium (Camaraderie at Arms Length), 3. syyskuuta 2020 12:46 bookmarkflaglink

I think they only had one hit in the US, with "Barbie Girl"? So maybe this sketch was from there?

Ann Peebles "I Can't Stand the Rain"..."Do I Need You"

It's not a follow up but I happened to notice the other day that "Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On)" by Lee Dorsey is a crafty re-write of "Working in a Coal Mine".
That's probably the most obvious one, but Toussaint and Sehorn recycled licks from "Coalmine" in several other Dorsey sides ("My Old Car" among others).

― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, November 4, 2019 12:34 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

"sneaking sally thru the alley" comes to mind

― budo jeru, Sunday, November 10, 2019 11:31 AM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

And "Bad Luck" by Betty Harris (which I just heard for the first time last night).

...and on a related tip, I always wondered why Toussaint & Sehorn didn't try recycle "Ride Your Pony" with Lee Dorsey the same way they did "Coal Mine"... except they did, on the rarely anthologized flop "Vista, Vista" in '67.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-GPrBin0LI

"panini" by lil nas x absolutely fits this bill

Edwyn Collins, "Girl Like You" > "Keep on Burning"

Panini is forgettable but doesn't sound much like Old Town Road.

Singles that sound exactly the same as the one previous...

true, i missed the conspicuously similar part

You take out the Funkadelic reference in the chorus and Gerardo's 'We Want the Funk' is basically 'Rico Suave'.

I'm now listening to more Lee Dorsey (always a good thing), and "Go-Go Girl" is kind of a "Ride Your Pony"/"Working In The Coalmine" hybrid.

lol, only just realized that Chubby Checker hasn't been invoked once itt. He pretty much made a career out of this.

He is mentioned in the other thread

I mean I don't think song titles like "Let's Twist Again" are exactly conspicuous like people aren't going "hmmm I wonder if this is similar to his first hit, The Twist"

that's exactly what conspicuous means!

Oh, I just thought of one. Went to #23 on the R&B charts in '73, a year after "Why Can't We Live Together"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6_lCi9DQJ4
Timmy Thomas - People are changing (1973)

wouldn't conspicuous mean you're trying to get away with something?