Why is that a One Hit Wonder?

All throughout music history, there has always been musicians and composers, lyricists and songwriters that have dedicated their life to doing what they love, Music. Whether is Mozart or Beethoven, Lennon or McCartney, they have only one goal in mind, creating music. 

Did they have the intention to create music to please the masses? Who knows?  The “Hit Makers” as they can be referred to have various reasons for making the music that they do.  I don’t think any of them ever said “wow! This is going to be an amazing piece of music!”  Okay maybe they did, but sometimes when we think something is amazing, it doesn’t always turn out to be so.

In the olden days, people didn’t have radio or MTV or iPods to get their music from.  They had to go to concert halls or massively rich people’s parties to hear their favorite composers.  You could sit through a concert consisting of 3 or 4 pieces and be there for hours.  Try pulling that off now! The longest concert I have ever been to lasted 3 hours and I honestly cannot tell how many songs RUSH played, but it went by way too quickly. Why? Because they played what the fans believed were their best works.

Mind you, every song is not a hit.  What is one fan’s idea of a hit could be another fan’s idea of a dud.  I know several people that don’t think that Tom Sawyer is a great song.  Their insane, but hey, what do I know.  And that’s my point, to have a hit, you don’t have to have everyone agreeing with you, but you do have to have a mass appeal for everyone that likes it.

My personal musical wheelhouse is 80’s music.  I’m not ashamed or afraid to admit it.  There were so many great, great songs written in the 80's by sooooooo many musicians all around the world.  And they were very inspiring and unique songs too.  Where can you Walk on Sunshine, Walk 500 Miles and Walk Like an Egyptian in the same decade? The 80’s.

Some of you may be asking, “Were all of those one hit wonders?”  Probably not, but they were hits in their own right.  And lots of people loved them.  And the radios played them endlessly, until the next hit came around and took over our minds and became the newest “ear-worm”

The modern definition for “One Hit Wonder” comes from Wikipedia today and says this: “A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success.”

So now that we have our definition, let’s see which song is the most popular One Hit Wonder of all, are you ready?  Here it comes…..Straight from the horse’s mouth, Rolling Stone Magazine polled fans and here are the Top 10 Most Popular One Hit Wonders of All Time..

  

10.  The Vapors-Turning Japanese

9. ? And the Mysterians-96 Tears

8. Chumbawamba-Tubthumping

7. Blind Melon – No Rain

6. The Knack – My Sharona

5. Soft Cell – Tainted Love

4. Big Country – In a Big Country

3. Norman Greenbaum – Spirit in the Sky

2. Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen

1. A-ha – Take On Me

The most popular One Hit Wonder of all time thrills me to no end.  And I didn’t plan it that way either :) Take On Me is my favorite 80’s song of all time and A-ha is my favorite 80’s band of all time :) How serendipitous! Why?  Because this segues nicely into my next comments

At last count according to Wikipedia, A-ha has 10 studio albums, 5 live albums, 18 compilation albums, 4 video albums, 40 music videos, 4 Eps, 39 singles, and 1 audio book.  That may not seem like a lot, but over a 34 year span of their music careers, A-ha has been busy.  And truthfully, you would think that they would have more hits than the one that everyone knows.  Well, believe it or not, in their home country of Norway, they do :) and they are also very popular throughout other countries in Britain and also Brazil.  Somehow when you get to the United States though, you have to prove yourself a lot harder.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.  But judging from our Top 10, the magic seemed to strike in the right place at the right time

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Did you notice that none of the songs that were chosen were from the 21^st century?  I wonder why that was.  If you have the answer, please leave it in the comment box below, I would be interested in your thoughts. 

Thank you again for reading and sharing and liking our blog.  We appreciate your support and hope to be able to bring more fascinating music topics for you here in the future.  I will leave you with something to listen to watch, just in case you haven’t heard it in a while.  Ciao For Now ;)

Open For Business

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times”
“It was a dark and stormy night...”
“Jacob Marley was dead to begin with”

These are all amazing openings of classic novels that really gripped our attention.
Okay, it was a dark and stormy night may have been written by Snoopy, but still, an amazing opening.
It draws you in and immediately makes you want more of the story.

Songs are like that too.  Great opening lyrics have been responsible for many a fabulous hit song.

One of my favorite 80’s songs is Shattered Dreams by Johnny Hates Jazz “So much for your promises” is the very first line in the 1st verse of the song.  It immediately tells you that you are in for one helluva story.  And it was, it was love and loss and lies and deception and of course ultimately Shattered Dreams.

Songwriting is not for the faint at heart.  Writing isn’t in general, but songwriting is something that you have to dig down deep inside to find.  It’s personal. That’s the avenue to me for songwriting, personal feelings and emotions and experiences.  Now more than ever there are expositions of how and why songwriters write what they do.  Do they know it’s going to be a hit? Rarely.

My friend and music mentor Sami Chohfi writes in his song It’s Just Me, “They say that being lost is a great place to start, I think that being lost is the way to find your heart” Immediately these lyrics invoke vulnerability and sadness and a yearning to be found when lost.  We want to continue on this journey to find out what lies ahead.  It’s our desire as a human to want to help.

On the other hand, we can get harsh, sarcastic almost violent lyrics from some of music history’s biggest hits.  The Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the UK with “I am the Anti-Christ! And I am an Anarchist!”  Johnny Lydon declares this is who he is and he doesn’t care who knows it!  We are on-board with this chaotic set of emotions too because we are all for a good fight and wanting to be heard and standing up for what we believe in and down with the system.  Humanity is prevalent once again.

Too harrowing? How about a beautiful love song?  Eric Clapton wrote an amazing song called Wonderful Tonight, inspired by Pattie Boyd as he was waiting for her to get ready to go out. “It’s late in the evening; she’s wondering what clothes to wear. She puts on her makeup and brushes her long blonde hair” The story behind this relationship is a bit harrowing as well, but you get the idea.  Who doesn’t love a good love song?

Love, Hate, Sorrow, Joy, it all makes for a great tale to tell.  I’ve been known to write a few memorable song lyrics in my day.  You just need to decide when you sit down and spill your insides out for the world to hear, what do you want to say?  Which story of your life do you want to share?  It’s not going to be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is.  Take it from me if you have something important to say, you have to make it so that people will listen.

Here’s where we part ways, I hope you enjoyed the blog feel free to leave a comment and let me know what some of your favorite great opening lyrics are.  A word to the wise, “Don’t start me talking, I could talk all night” (Oliver’s Army by Elvis Costello) Ciao for Now!

It's Just Sami

I first met Sami Chohfi in the Spring of 2018.  I was on my Twitter Page @dragonsrosered trying to develop a music career, again.  I have been working on an album for 10 years now.  Not a lot of actual work, I was pretty much was still in the planning stages.  All of the music that I had been posting on my YouTube page were covers.  Darn good ones too if you ask me, but, I digress.

I received a DM from one of the band members of Blue Helix asking me to check out one of their newest videos from their album Anti-Social Butterfly.  I was familiar with the band itself as they are local, but honestly up until that point I had not listened to them very much (sorry guys)

So I agreed to watch the video and had to hold on to my proverbial hat. HOLY CRAP!, I'm thinking "Who is this guy? Why's he so pissed? and Where the hell can I get vocals like that!"  I was thoroughly impressed, needless to say, with what I saw and had no qualms about telling the person that sent me the link to the video.  I believe one of my comments was "Wow! Wish I had that kind of power, if he ever decides to give voice lessons, let me know"

Have you ever said or done something in the moment and knew that you weren't really aware of what you were saying, but yet you said it because, well you wanted to compliment or edify the person you are speaking about. Kind of like "oh sure, let's do lunch sometime? I would love to catch up"  That was me at that moment in time.  Now that I think about it, I'm almost positive that I was having an out of body experience.

The person on the other of the DM (who I found later was Sami's beautiful wife Renata) said, "He does teach voice actually, if you are interested I will give you his number"  I truthfully wanted to say no, straightaway.  But, unfortunately I was at an impasse on the whole "make an album thing" I knew I needed something to jump start my interest again, but I had no idea what THAT was.  I was going to find out very soon.

One of things that people that were in my support system were telling me was "you know, if you had just a bit more power in your vocals, your songs would come across with more vibrancy and emotion."As much as I wanted to argue the point, I had to agree. So I made the call, set up the time to attend my first lesson, and waited with much anticipation and over analyzing as I could possibly muster.

When I finally met Sami in person, it was almost surreal.  His presence was very serene and I felt a sense of peace and tranquility as I entered the studio with him.  It was the calm before the storm, and I didn't even see it coming.

In the hour that I was there, he called out every flaw, bad habit and complacent attitude that I had had towards, my singing, my voice and my attitude in general.  I'm still baffled to this day how he was able to call me on my bullshit.  Now mind you I didn't go there with the intent of really giving him any bullshit, it just kind of happened.  I had to prove that I had talent and gifts and years of experience too.  The only problem with that?  He actually knew what he was talking about and worked extremely hard to get where he was.  If you ever want to know his secret, that's it folks, hard work, determination and the love of what he does.  I would find that out later.

Developing a relationship in any vein is no easy task.  Months went by and I began to learn things about my self that I honestly didn't know.  Don't get me wrong, Sami isn't all hard and unforgiving.  He is very nurturing, encouraging and patient. (I truly wish there was a bigger word for patience) but he also likes to see results and progress, as any great teacher would.

While I was progressing and feeling more confidant about myself as singer/songwriter (yep, the songwriting came from the lessons also) Sami was molding and shaping his own future.  He had decided to take a left turn at Rock Street and head towards Acoustic Ave and began writing songs for his solo album.  Every so often I would listen to something he had just written and sat in amazement of his lyrical and musical dexterity.  Knowing that he had poured his heart and life experiences into every song that he had written made each song more memorable.

Fast forward to this year in February 2019.  I was making the long trek home from Seattle where I work and had to stop for a bit, because that was the week that it decided it was going to snow like nobody's business and well, there's only so much trudging through snow a person can do without having to take a break.  As I sat down on the bus bench, I opened my phone to check my email and I had received one from Sami with an attachment.  It was an MP3.  The email read something like.."Check this out, I just wrote this, I want to know what you think" (paraphrasing)

The song was called It's Just Me.  I had never heard Sami sing with such grace and emotion.  It made me cry.  I couldn't stop listening to it.  That was the first recording of it as he was singing it.  I wrote him back and told him how much it moved me.  I stood up to continue on my journey when my phone rang. It was Sami. "Did you really like it? Truthfully, you can tell me if you didn't, did it sound too sappy?"  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  He added "I'm thinking of leaving it as it is, flaws and all, and just recording it like that" I think I said something like "absolutely! leave it just the way it is, it's amazing."

He eventually ended up making a few minor aesthetic changes and sent the song off to his mixer and mastering studio.  I think that once it was released, I must have bought like 3 copies, even though I still had the original, I wanted to support him in any way I could.  The next big thing to happen after that, was the video for the song, filmed in Seattle.  Up until that point, I had no idea what to expect. If you think the song is awesome, you will truly be amazed by the video. Very powerful and emotionally charging.

That's when I knew I had to do everything I could, to help and support Sami.  I offered to create the fan pages and be there for him when he needed me.  I'm still taking vocal coaching from him and he's graciously offered to help write the music for my album.  Finally the direction I needed to make my dream come true.   But that's the way Sami is.  He has the heart of lion and the determination and motivation to keep going no matter what.  He cares about people and is not afraid to show it.

I'm glad I stuck it out, it's been an amazing journey and it's only the beginning.  If you haven't heard  It's Just Me yet, you should.  I will leave a link to the video and his Spotify page, and his website so that you can read more about him and become more familiar with him as a musician and a humanitarian.  But be prepared, he's definitely that calm before the storm kinda guy.


Spotify, It's Just Me 
https://spoti.fi/2JDQXmR

SamiChohfiMusic.com

It's Just Me Official Video
https://youtu.be/kixPuMdldCw