One Hit Wonders of the 90s (Part 23)

Hello, dear reader. I have a favour to ask you. The original post begins after all of the asterisks, if you want to skip this.

Now that the One Hit Wonders of the 90s series is over, I'm not going to be doing my weekly revisiting of all these posts (I had to do that to add the new post to the bottom). Thus, I won't be able to catch any broken picture links or deleted videos any more. Yet I want these posts to be as good as possible.

Please, if you happen upon one of these posts, or if you take a walk through a whole bunch of them, let me know if you find anything that doesn't work. You can leave a comment, or you can send me a message using that handy "Contact Me" page linked above.

Also, feel free to let me know what you think of the post or any of the videos!

Thank you.

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As my earlier post today states, this blog is now one year old today! What does that mean? Well, it still shits in its diaper, but it's a lot more fun at Christmastime than it was last year. It might even be able to open its own presents (though it will probably just try and eat the paper). It might start walking soon, though!

One of the things that keeps me regular on this blog is the weekly one-hit wonder post! No matter what kind of blogging funk I've been in, I've been able to keep this up for a large number of weeks without missing one.

The other thing that keeps me regular is this.

Which can also help with funks of other varieties.

A good friend of mine over at Game Informer has come out against regular blog series because it's difficult to stick to the schedule. While I definitely agree it can be hard, sometimes it's what keeps you going, you know? Some weeks, I just don't feel funny, and I think that might show on the blog ("So you mean every week, right?" - the Peanut Gallery). But I know some of you enjoy them, so I work through it and get them done! Of course, some weeks when I'm done, I look like this:

But that could just be me.

This week, we speed into 1996, and it looks like it's going to be a good year! I actually recognize some of these songs. As usual, you can find the list I'm taking these from here.

Without further adieu, here we go!

1) Deep Blue Something: "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (#5)



And we start with one of my favourites of the year! I love this song to death.

Of course, you know there's a problem if the only thing you've got in common is that you both "kind of" liked a movie. But hey, you have to start at the bottom, right? Oh, and I wouldn't try to hitchhike in New York. You never know who's going to pick you up.

Yikes!

I do love the New York scenery in the video, though (I've never seen it, actually, just heard the song). It's a pretty cool video too.

Ok, a bit too much prancing in the park, but you can't have everything.

2)Planet Soul: "Set U Free" (#26)



I cannot find the original version that actually made the charts, there are so many remixes of it.

So I'll just leave it here without comment. How can I make fun of it when it's not the original?

Though this just reminds me why I don't generally like dance music.

3) Joan Osborne: "One of Us" (#4)



Another of the big songs of the 90s that's still played today occasionally. What if God were one of us?

What's this blatant religious stuff doing on the charts?? Who authorized this? Some heads are going to roll.

Do you get the sense that I don't think this song would become popular if it were put out today? Unless it was on the Gospel channel or something. Of course, that reasoning totally backs up what Osborne seems to be saying in the song, how people have lost touch with God (i.e. if he were one of us, he'd be alone, nobody calling on the phone, etc).

Quite the heavy message, and one that a lot of people nowadays wouldn't want to hear.

And since this has exceeded my "Seriousness Allowance" for this post, let me balance the scales...



4) Folk Implosion: "Natural One" (#29)



What a f-ing bizarre video! I know! Let's put astronauts out in the desert! Interacting with wind-up animals that sometimes appear to be mating! Um, ok?

I think that if the lead singer were any more deadpan, he'd be dead! It's kinda sad when the wind-up animals have more life than the band (and yes, I know that's probably intentional...it's just stupid)

This is a weird song, too. It doesn't get me moving, thinking, or even really caring. In fact, it's putting me to sleep more than anything else.

5) Everything But the Girl: "Missing" (#2)



Now this is dance music I can get behind! I love this song, no matter how it's remixed (they say this is the original mix, but I'm not sure how a "remix" can be original. Shouldn't it be "original mix?" Anyway, this appears to be the radio version, as it's not all hyped up, but it's still dance music.

And I still love it. The song is kind of heartbreaking if you really listen to it. You don't know what happened, just that they're not together now and she really misses him. "Like the deserts miss the rain" is quite the powerful image (though it is kind of repeated a lot...um, we got it the first dozen times?)

I love the desert metaphor of the city streets at night, completely empty of anything except cars.

Can you tell I like this song?

Ok, it's not like I want to have its babies or anything, but I'm talking some serious like.

6) 3T: "Anything" (#15)



Tito's kids! Yes, we have some more Jackson progeny. They became kind of big in Europe, but this is the only song that went anywhere in the US. Why is that? I don't know. Maybe they didn't trade in on their heritage (though Michael did guest on a couple of their singles).

I'm not sure why they didn't get bigger in the US. It's the kind of sappy pop that people generally eat up. They're fairly talented singers, they could have had the power of the Jackson name behind them.

Maybe they knew that they'd eventually gain fame on an obscure blog's one-hit wonder list, and that's enough for them?

7) Seven Mary Three: "Cumbersome" (#39)



This is kind of a cool song, kind of rockish without being too heavy. The words are pretty good too (and you can see what they are!)

Seven Mary Three was big on the Mainstream Rock charts, though this is the only song that made it on the generic Top 40 list. Not sure why that is, actually. Sometimes I wonder if it's a choice by the artist? I'm completely mystified.

I love the origin of their band name, too. Seven Mary Three was the call-sign of one of the cops on the 70s series "ChiPs." Awesome!!!!

So there you have it. Part one of five for 1996, and not a rap song in sight! Let's hope it stays that way. I think there might be a couple coming our way in the future, but not too many.

Let's all breathe a sigh of relief right now.

All better? Good.

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's something I've got to take care of.



Yeah, my first day was kinda painful.

Edit #1 (7/19/10): changed "prodigy" to "progeny" in the 3T song entry. That's kind of an embarrassing slip-up. Thankfully, I caught it before anybody else did.



One-Hit Wonders of the 90s
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40