INTERNATIONAL ONE HIT WONDER DAY

Ever get a song stuck in your head? Ever waste time on the internet? Got one for ya—today is “International One Hit Wonder Day.” You’ll notice it is not just “regional.”

What’s your favorite? The one that always gets stuck in my head is “The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia.” Vicki Lawrence. Carol Burnett’s sidekick. Who knew?

Here are some more:

“Afternoon Delight.”

“Mickey” This was a drill team song in about 1986 and drove everybody nuts

“In the Summertime.” Should get a gold star for high weirdness of the band’s name—Mungo Jerry—and for a prominent role played by blowing into a jug

Who can forget “Harper Valley PTA,” “Seasons in the Sun,” “Play that Funky Music (White Boy),” or “Girl from Ipanema.” In the bossa nova style.

“Classical Gas.” A guitar instrumental. This is not happening in today’s environment.

“Dominique.” In French, religious, by a Belgian nun. Tragically, she later left the convent and committed suicide with her partner.

“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” Whittled down from the original 45 minutes on the album to 3 minutes for radio.

“Judy in Disguise (with Glasses).” When you’re from Louisiana, it might be hard to understand that kind of English.

They all have in common that these songs were the only time these artists hit the Top 100 charts. You will also notice that they mostly came from that special period of pop music, early 1960’s through the Disco era.

Not much from the highly produced stuff now that doesn’t have much in common with “music.” So fortunate to have grown up in a time that had these outliers and also the great bands and musicians.

Son Matt is a fan of the author Malcolm Gladwell who pointed out that The Beatles were not amateurs who just appeared on the scene, but paid their dues in Germany by performing hours and hours. Eventually attaining the 10,000 hours that Gladwell often used to assess whether a person actually knows what they are doing.