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

The last week or so, we've waxed nostalgic on Sly Fox and Boys Don't Cry, along with Kajagoogoo, The Breakfast Club, Baltimora and The System. Instead of starting a thread for each of them (and others), here's a new catch-all thread.

Let's go nuts!

1. Sly Fox - Let's Go All the Way
2. Boys Don't Cry - I Wanna Be A Cowboy
3. Kajagoogoo - Too Shy
4. Breakfast Club - Right on Track
5. Baltimora - Tarzan Boy
6. The System - Don't Disturb This Groove

7. The Partland Brothers - Soul City

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtcCC_Y24FQ

8. When in Rome - The Promise

one hit wonder is used here more as a concept than an actuality, btw. No need for pedantry.

xp YES love "The Promise"!

9. Scarlett & Black - You Don't Know

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6qPno9wOhw

10. Animotion - Obsession

a million times YES to Animotion

11. The Icicle Works - "Whisper (To A Scream)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIxgHu5U1v4

12. Ready For The World - "Oh Sheila"

okay I know we said no pedantry and I LOVE "Oh Sheila" but... "Love You Down"?????????

Funny that Ready For The World turned up. I was just looking them up since my iTunes has Don't Disturb This Groove twice. Once listed as The System and once as Ready For The World. Searched for Oh Sheila after visiting the RFTW discogs page and all I have is the Prince version. Gotta head to youtube I guess.

I had multiple RFTW albums so I can't really argue.

Mental As Anything - Live It Up

13. Freur - Doot-Doot

Ha! I went away for a few minutes and "Oh Sheila" and "Obsession" were the next two songs I'd planned to post. Thanks for reading my mind, ILM! (Though I guess "Oh Sheila" might be disqualified.)

I might be in the distinct minority -- holding this song in any sort of regard -- but:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1EH9vGJ2gI

Wait a minute. This blows my mind. I thought this was Prince the whole time and 'Sheila' = Sheila E. durrr.....zzzzzprttaslznad

Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride

lol after my pedantry fit re: RFTW it seems fitting that say:

15. Level 42 - "Something About You"

I never knew who "Whisper (To a Scream)" was by before just now. Thanks DJP!

16. General Public - "Tenderness"

17. Big Country - "In A Big Country"

Had completely forgotten that "Holiday" song! Obvious touchstone for Alphabeat.

Gah! This thread is crazy. I just clicked on Level 42 in iTunes, refreshed page and bam!

18. Glass Tiger - "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)"

19. Oran Juice Jones - The Rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dZW1C3neao

Gonna go ahead and add this:

20. Electric Avenue - Eddie Grant

yeah, yeah, i know. but if level 42 counts...

lol I messed up that song title, it's "Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly)"

21. Timex Social Club - Rumours

We've already got on cd's worth of "all killer, no filler". Keep them coming.

yeah it's semi-terrifying to me how much I like every single one of these songs

22. Mai Tai - Body and Soul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaL0fs1FYcA

what, "groove is in the heart" was 1990??

23. Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride

(hope i didn't ruin the killer/filler run)

that was already listed!

23. Maria Vidal - Body Rock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv79obqPI-Q

24. Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Love Missile F1-11

25. T'Pau - Heart and Soul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwrYMWoqg5w

25. Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait

doh, 26. Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait

"Body and Soul"! haven't thought of that in a dog's age.

How are we on novelty tracks? Cuz "Pac-Man Fever" is awesome.

lol I'd just put together a T'Pau post.

27. Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio

28. ROCK ME AMADEUS!!

itt a bunch of dudes read each others' minds

29. Nena - 99 Luftballons

Did Shannon have other hits besides "Let the Music Play"? Because if not, she deserves to kick off the mix.

30. Shannon - Let the Music Play

I only know one song by Joe Jackson so to me he's a one hit wonder so, with that in mind...

31. Joe Jackson - Steppin' Out

It's def his biggest US hit of the 80s (may have had some others in the late 70s).

he did "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" so he's kind of a two-hit wonder, though that was in the 70's so I guess yeah

I thought I hated Londonbeat too, but then I just relistened to it and those guitars are pretty delirious and basically I could listen to them all day.

Matos is absolutely right in arguing that those guitars are pure Congolese rumba/soukous.

I can totally hear that now. Also it's not entirely unlike some of the stuff Fine Young Cannibals were doing. Obviously there are the vocal similarities but also those bright fluid guitar sounds over that machine-like backing track.

they were the FYC's backup singers, I think.

Oh really? That would obviously explain a few things!

I dunno...theyre too smooth-sounding. Like if there is a smooth jazz equivalent for pop, that is Londonbeat. and that damn song is an earworm of the highest order

I want every single one of these songs on my iPod and I want to listen to them non-stop for the next six months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rbMt2-U7TU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK5y91US4Zk

Ooh, this one!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN5OgiwprP8

87. johnny hates jazz - shattered dreams

I almost forgot that song existed. O.O

Danny Wilson- marys prayer

Deon estus - heaven help me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezFgMfL39c4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g06TP17rSA4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The Immortal Swayze
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVi4PUx8bXk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FBUbv2LUEc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3Ui8_oqc9Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcC5NKmzK54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgYveDE5BHw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8dCZ_cLAPQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2rYozbfEV4

i love the rusty griswald in the womack and womack video.

Eric Carmen and Jermaine Jackson (unfortunately) not one hit wonders.

Style - Telefon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72eT7L_3WIw

Holy shit I totally forgot about this song...lol late 80s was such a weird time for music

Grayson Hugh "Talk It Over"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiQofU5nvVM&sns=em

Also have we done Baltimora, Tarzan Boy yet? Forgot how much I love that one.

lol yes we have, in the first post of this thread /facepalm

the "16 years old" part is ew creepy but damn I really love Benny Mardones "Into The Night"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bpOBAwrFVw&sns=em

Grayson Hugh "Talk It Over"

I posted that somewhere upthread, but I just wanted to point out that I love it too. Let's hang out and listen to records, VG!

When he slummed as a terrible pop music critic, Leonard Pitts, Jr. used to promote Grayson Hugh as one of the great underrated artists of our time.

Ah, here we are:

Hugh's third album Road to Freedom (MCA Records, 1992) was voted "one of the year's top-ten albums" by Billboard Magazine and received rave reviews. Leonard Pitts, Jr. of the Miami Herald said: "Have I heard any newcomer in the last decade who excites me as much as this guy? No."[1]

Wow, in the last decade. That's a big call.

Is Charlie Sexton mentioned yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7QPBzAJ_io

<3 Charlie

"Talk It Over" is such a blatant ripoff of "Come and Get Your Love" that I can't believe Redbone didn't sue.

for Charlie i meant Beat's So Lonely of course, but perhaps Impressed charted well too.
in any case it has probably the most archetypal video of a certain 80s vibe (that i can't quite quantify otherwise)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOJWVB2sYpo&feature=relmfu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yahBtp_1jWE

Man, you could cut a steak with Sexton's cheekbones.

Also: all his songs have that thud-thud-thud.

Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSv3kSK41Oo

^^^ for JoBoxers - Just Got Lucky, Grayson Hugh - Talk It Over, and The Vapors - Turning Japanese

Alot of new-wavey one-hit-wonders I thought of had their one hit in 1979 so don't count, darn.

God... Charlie was one of my top 5 pinup guys. Forgot those lips! Damn. He was like a hotter, taller Roland S Howard. Slightly goth :D

Face to Face: "10, 9, 8"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmp9kxNZwN8

Bouregois Tagg: "I Don't Mind At All"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gUDMeIEMMI

er, Bourgeois

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMg2keerNHo

Was that a hit in the US? Cause it wasn't even their biggest hit in Canada. That would probably be "It Doesn't Really Matter" or "Crying Over You" or "Situation Critical".

Anyone mention Starpoint's "Object of My Desire"?

Yep, it cracked the Hot 100 at #82, and that was all she wrote. Growing up in Lake County, OH gave me a lot of exposure to bands from Canada that didn't get much attention here, mostly via radio station CKLW-AM but also there was some music video show that was carried on our cable provider at the time. So I saw/heard plenty of Platinum Blonde, Gowan, Luba, Bruce Cockburn, Blue Rodeo, Doucette, Red Rider, …

You all are killing me! Bourgeois Tagg... totally forgotten that band/song, which was excellent.

Luba had at least one minor American hit - "Let It Go" - I was surprised when I found out she was big in Canada.

I have no idea what Joe Jackson is doing on this list. He had lots of hits - "Is She Really Going Out With Him", "Stepping Out", "Breaking Us In Two" (great song, even though it only nicked the charts), "You Can't Get What You Want", "Right And Wrong". Note - I'm not sure of their chart positions, I just know they were frequently played on mainstream radio).

Eric Carmen and Jermaine Jackson (unfortunately) not one hit wonders.

Burning The Ground posted a great rip of the Boy's Don't Cry - I Wanna Be A Cowboy 12". Interesting information included: track was signed by Paul Oakenfold!

Krush - House Arrest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61rFY4VPADE

Laurie Anderson - O Superman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzYu88jIDYs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJsck5oDCuw&feature=BFa&list=AVGxdCwVVULXcwHBF38aFRSW9qKNrDq0tV&index=5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlQ8t71r1K4
#1 in UK and most of Europe, top 20 in the US. She had a second minor hit in the UK but that's all. Massive in Italy though.

xpost. Wikipedia says After 7 had eleven hit singles in the US.

Need to change the title of this thread to "Band who you don't know had more than one hit/ had lots of hits but not in your country/had many hit albums but just one hit single you remember/ otherwise successful artists who released a one-off single under a pseudonym."