One Song

JOv2

Well-Known Member
Name a musical artist / group who has sustained an entire career as a recording artist from one song.

(Put another way: Name a musical artist who is forever linked with one song — without which, the artist would be virtually unknown.)
 
Marshall Crenshaw: "Someday, Some Way"

(I can't think of anyone aside from Crenshaw fans who know any other song of his.)
 
Rick Astley- Never Gonna Give You Up

What's so weird is that Astley had a pretty good run of Top 40 hits in the U.S. from the late '80s all the way up through 1993, nearly all of them Top Ten hits, at that (i.e. "Together Forever," "She Wants to Dance with Me," "It Would Take a Strong, Strong Man," and "Cry for Help"), save for "Giving Up on Love" and the vastly underrated "Hopelessly." And yet "Never Gonna Give You Up" is the only one in the bunch I ever seem to come across anymore on FM radio.

Terry Jacks "Seasons in the Sun"

--Mr Bill

That one tends to get a really bad rep - I see it pop up often on lists of the worst songs ever - but I actually kinda like that one. The lyric may be on the sappy side, yes, but I've always enjoyed the melody and backing track. I can't defend the B-side, though. That song ("Put the Bone In") must actually be heard to be believed, it's so laughably bad.

Marshall Crenshaw: "Someday, Some Way"

(I can't think of anyone aside from Crenshaw fans who know any other song of his.)
As a performer, this is true. But as a writer, he's had a much bigger hit than that one (and one with a direct A&M connection, at that) - he's the co-writer of the Gin Blossoms' massive hit "'Til I Hear It from You." I'm a big fan of his (and have had the thrill of briefly meeting him, too) so I could name a whole lot more songs of his ("Starless Summer Sky," "Favorite Waste of Time," "What Do You Dream Of?"," "Whenever You're on My Mind," and "Mary Anne" being my personal top five in the bunch), but, yeah, like you say, "Someday, Someway" is pretty much the only one that anyone other than diehards seem to know. It's a shame, 'cause that guy is truly one hell of a songwriter. I once had someone come up to me after a show I performed of original compisitions and rave about my closing song in particular as being "right up there with anything of Marshall Crenshaw's," and I was grinning from ear to ear all the way home. To this day, it's still my favorite compliment I've ever received after a show.
 
Also The Knack did "Good Girls Don't" & from 1980 "Baby Talks Dirty" so there was 3 songs in the Top 40.
 
Mungo Jerry 1970 "In The Summertime", The Glass Bottle 1971 "I Ain't Got Time Anymore", Wadsworth Mansion 1971 "Sweet Mary".
 
Terry Jacks "Seasons in the Sun"

--Mr Bill
This one can be misleading as Terry Jacks was also a driving force behind The Poppy Family who had a few hit records including "Which Way You Goin', Billy? and "That's Where I Went Wrong". He was married at the time to the late Susan Jacks (Pesklovitz) who, like Karen Carpenter, made The Poppy Family so much better. Thet only made two real albums for London. The second, POPPY SEEDS is highly sought after.
 
The Knack "My Sharona"
I also immediately think of:

Survivor: "Eye of the Tiger"

That song was everywhere.

Two intersting side notes...Doug Fieger (of The Knack) resurfaced as a lyric writer for the Manhattan Transfer's Brasil album, the one which immediately followed Vocalese. Fieger is also the brother of (in)famous attorney Geoffrey Fieger, known locally as a trial attorney but perhaps best known throughout the US as Dr. Jack Kevorkian's attorney.
 
Astrud Gilberto -- The Girl From Ipanema
I could almost mention:

Walter Wanderley: "Summer Samba."

He had tons of albums, but the one that charted, and the one that some 60s music listeners know by ear, is "Summer Samba."
 
I also immediately think of:

Survivor: "Eye of the Tiger"

That song was everywhere.

Two intersting side notes...Doug Fieger (of The Knack) resurfaced as a lyric writer for the Manhattan Transfer's Brasil album, the one which immediately followed Vocalese. Fieger is also the brother of (in)famous attorney Geoffrey Fieger, known locally as a trial attorney but perhaps best known throughout the US as Dr. Jack Kevorkian's attorney.
Survivor has some additional singles that got airplay here.
 
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