The joy of six .....one hit wonders

I would say that a 'one hit wonder' is any group or artist that manages to make a mark on the collective conscience thanks to that 'one' record that comes out at a very particular period - 4 Non blondes for example

Some artists pierced, then sank without a trace. Others managed to live and prosper from it.

After all, it's often been said that everyone's got a book inside of them, screaming to get out, so why not aply the same logic to a pop record ?

Others have a song, a song that just goes on giving.

Take Patrick Hernandez's Born to be alive, who won the eurovision song contest for ireland at the end of the seventies and who subsequently disappeared from concsiousness.

Believe it or not, in France right now, he's still hot stuff and often appears on t.v, gives concerts and is still raking in the royalties: all thanks to that one song

We all grew up with The Buggles who presciently helped launch MTV, then volatilised without leaving a trace.

Who'd a thunk it that the mastermind behind 'ohh a oooh' would continue to produce the biggest names in the industry ... come on down Trevor Horn !

Forget the eighties and it's string of aspiring wannabees who unabashedly made us wobble our unsuspecting butts - we should've known better ...

Think about the complete and utter unadorned dross that was Milli Vanilli, Falco or even the rigid Dr Alban (pineapple haircut and plastic catsuit anyone !?!)

Nahhhn, i'm thinking about real one hit wonders, the people where you think whouarrr what happened to those guys :

1) Layla - Derek and the dominos Surprisingly, it's hard to believe n'est ce pas, that this little gem was never bettered by the group. Admittedly, it was an excursion from Cream for Eric Clapton who even upped the ante with a beautiful blues version in the 90's

2) They Might be Giants - Birdhouse in your soul have a cult following and for my money are highly under-rated whimsical wordsmiths, but surprisingly, have only had one hit to date

3) Nena - 99 red balloons another one that had us pogoing at the school disco after a few shots of orange juice punch laced with illicite rum, whisky, gin, vodka, agricultural alcohol ..photocopier fluid ...romanian anti-freeze .. whatever we could get our grubby hands on

4) Toni Basil - Hey Mickey phouarrrrr, brings back fond memories of a poster that i had on my bedroom wall of Herself, more fruity than Shakira bags more sexy than alll the pooosycat dolls in a hesian sack :^*
"oh mickey what a pity you don't understand, you take me by the heart when you take me by the hand"

5) Edie Brickell & New bohemians I once went out with a girl who was the sosie of Edie B. .. boy was i lucky

6) Blind Melon - No rain This may have been a one hit wonder but it's never far from my i-pod play list. What a waste when one thinks about the lead singer

* Arguably, there are many others missing, but i just wanted to include artists that only made it once and who i could feasibly listen to infront of polite company ;)