Clive Thompson
You know about one-hit wonders ...
... bands that charted a single hit, but never again
what about "two-hit wonders"? Are there bands that charted *two* hit singles, but never another?
Chris Dalla Riva dug into the data and found some ...
... surprising results
Pink Floyd?
Item #2 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here: https://buttondown.com/clivethompson/archive/linkfest-33-two-hit-wonders-moonglass-and-trees/
Kim Scheinberg
@clive
I thought the conceit of a one-hit wonder wasn't about how many songs appeared on a Billboard chart but rather how ubiquitous one song was, only for the artist to be barely heard from ever again
Terry Jacks' _Seasons in the Sun_ is my goto example
My first thought on two-hit wonders using his definition is Warren Zevon (not on the list, but technically should be). But can you really be a two-hit wonder if you have a Greatest Hits album?
Kim Scheinberg
@clive
Crowded House is the big surprise. I think we have a bias for remembering music from teen years, so anything popular when I was in high school is over-represented in my head
Last night at trivia the first general knowledge q was, "Which new wave band had a hit in 1983 with _Too Shy_?" I knew it immediately, but the woman running trivia couldn't even begin to pronounce it (nor could most people on my team, which ranges in age from 17 to 71)
Fun post! Thanks for the brain tickle
Clive Thompson
yeah, that's what he ponders later in his calculation, so he does another crunch looking for bands that a) had two hits, but no more, while also b) never having a top-selling album
that second list is quite interesting! it's in my post, check it out
Kim Scheinberg
@rednikki @clive
When I was running the ISP in New Zealand in 1995, I got to pay a service call at Tim Finn's house
Noting my American accent, he seemed *very* surprised that I had any idea who he was. I did not tell him about my bunkmate at summer camp who played nothing but _I Got You_ on repeat for nearly an entire month
rednikki
@clive @kims If a large part of your friends circle is from NZ or Aus you will also think this.
Clive Thompson
glad you liked it!
same here with crowded house, they were absolutely huge amongst my friendship circle so I have always thought of them as absolute monster hits lol
GNU social JP is a social network, courtesy of GNU social JP管理人. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.2-dev, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.