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- [00:00]
Alan Cross
Hey, it's Alan and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing history of new music early and ad free on Amazon Music included with prime it's time
- [00:11]
Paul Jago
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- [00:40]
Alan Cross
further with the American Express Business Gold Card. Earn 3 times Membership Rewards points on flights and prepaid hotels when you book through amextravel.com whether your destination is a business conference or a client meeting. Your purchases will help you earn more points for future trips. Experience more on your travels with AMEX Business Gold Terms apply. Learn more@americanexpress.com Business AmEx Business Gold Card built for business by American Express if a newspaper makes a mistake or leaves something out in a story, they print a correction or retraction as soon as they can. If something erroneous is posted on a website, etiquette requires an update or correction to be added to the original post. In science, if new data comes to light and a previously announced theory or conclusion has to change, that's fantastic. That's what science is. It's a constant pursuit of the truth. And if the facts don't support the theory, well then the theory must be changed. And when you're making a list involving complicated data, especially on a project which few if any people have attended before, it is incumbent upon the researcher to go back and fix any errors and omissions. This is known as an erratum. An error in printing or writing protocol requires that a list of corrected errors be appended to a book, a journal, or any published material. Again, we must go where the facts lead us. This is such an occasion. This is a bonus episode on the 50 biggest all time alt rock one hit wonders. And let's just call this one the Oopsie Show. This is the ongoing History of New Music podcast with Alan Cross. This is chapter six of a five part series on the greatest alt rock one hit wonders of the last 50 years. And yes, I did say chapter six of five. After going through a ton of data radio charts, Spotify plays and YouTube views mostly, I thought I'd compiled A really solid list of one hit wonders. And it was, except for a few things that need some attention. So this is the errata. This means songs that should have been on the original top 50 list but were for whatever reason left out. Omissions like these need to be addressed and we will. I've identified a number of such songs. So if you've been following along and were wondering why a certain favorite one hit wonder was left out, well, I'm trying to give you some satisfaction. Hello again, I'm Alan Cross. Now we're going to get to all those songs later. First though, I want to talk about some songs that did not fit the criteria of making international radio charts and and fell under the minimum threshold of Spotify plays and YouTube views. At the same time though, it just feels like the stories of these songs should be told. You know what I mean? They are great, but they are not the biggest of the one hit wonders of the last 50 years. And we're going to start with something Canadian. It's a little regional, but it's endured since 1994 when the band released their debut album Soap Bubble and Inertia. The group is the Gandarvas. When they were first formed in London, Ontario in 1989, they were known as the Droogs. Nice Clockwork Orange reference there. They evolved into the Gandarvas and released their first record. The title is another literary reference, this time to a novel by Dostoevsky. It became a big alt rock hit in southern Ontario, winning an award or two. But as for anywhere else, it flew entirely under the radar. Just 287,000 Spotify plays and 783,000 YouTube views, for a total of a little less than 1.1 million overall. But still, it feels to me that this song should be acknowledged in some way as a great one hit wonder. So here we go, the Gandarvas and the First Day of Spring. And to give us some background on how it all came together, here is Paul, the lead singer and songwriter of the Gandarvas.
- [04:46]
Paul Jago
Hi everyone, this is Paul Jago from the band that was once known as the Gandarvas. A little known fact about the song First Day of Spring. It was written in around 1993 when we were tracking some demos in a studio in London, Ontario, and with some earnings we had generated from playing all around southern Ontario, between Windsor and Niagara essentially. And those demo recordings would eventually become the first Gendarvis record, which was called Soap Bubble and Inertia. The song First Day of Spring originally had different lyrics than the ones that Ended up on the song. You know, I had a tendency to overwrite things or over complicate things. I still do, but I played it for my, my father and my brother brothers and asked them what, what they thought of it because I really like the song. And they said, well, it's a good song, but you should, you should simplify the lyrics a little bit. So I did that. Which then became the first day of Spring as we all know it. And another little, little known fact related to the song is that the first day of spring is actually my father's birthday and he turns 83 this year. So an element of that song, you know, it's a song about rebirth, obviously. Overcoming the things that restrain you, courage, all those things, you know, culminating in an explos ending and all, you know, all these aspects. Also there's sort of an underlying tribute to my father and all that. And you know, I think the song still does the trick. 30. How many years later? 32. 32 years later. And if you listen to it right, it'll still give you goosebumps. So there you go. First Day of Spring.
- [07:09]
Alan Cross
London, Ontario's the Gandarvas and the First Day of Spring. It didn't qualify for the master list of the 50 biggest alt rock one hit wonders of the last 50 years, but I wanted to address it for people who emailed me and insisted it should be included. So fine, there you go. This next track is in the same category, although it's probably better known internationally because it was used as the theme song for the Kids in the Hall TV show. The roots of shadowy men on a shadowy planet go all the way back to 1984. They were formed as a quasi surf band in Calgary, although they really don't like the surf rock label they signed to Cargo Records, a pretty cool indie label based out of Montreal that also had Canadian distribution rights for foreign labels like Epitaph and SST and Discord, Sub Pop and a few others. Shadowy man relocated to Toronto where they built a really solid reputation. They wanted Juno in 1992 for instrumental artist of the Year. Fred schneider of the B52s hired them to be his backing band for his solo album. And legendary indie producer Steve Albini loved them so much that he did all the engineering on their 1993 album Sport Fishing for Free. The band broke up in 1996 and everybody went on to do different things. There were a couple of quasi reunions, although two members have since died. For this song, we have to go back to 1988 to a compilation album called Savvy Showstoppers. Fifteen songs on an album that runs under 30 minutes. And here's the track for which they'll forever be known. This is Shadowy men on a shadowy planet with having an average week,
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Paul Jago
A
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Alan Cross
great track that has absolutely no statistical business being included on the original 50 biggest alt rock one hit wonders of all time. But I don't care. I just want it acknowledged. Even though it's had just 1.2 million Spotify plays and just 302,000 YouTube views as of February 2026, that's a total of 1.5 million. Nowhere near enough to qualify for that original list. But like I say, don't care. Next up is sort of a double one hit wonder, which is going to take some explaining. We begin with a band from Belgium called Plastic Bertrand. They sang in French. In 1978 they released what was called both a punk track and a new wave song. Or maybe it was a parody of punk and new wave. We're really not sure. However you want to categorize it, the song called Sa Plin pour Moi, which roughly translates as it works for me in this instance, was released as a B side to Pogo Pogo, a song that nobody remembers. The whole session took about two hours. Who is the singer? Well, we're not sure because that was the subject of a 2006 court case where two people the songwriter, a guy by the name of Lou de Pruck, and Plastic Bertrand himself, the stage name of Roger Jewett. The court case involved scientific analysis to determine who actually sang the thing. And for the record, Bertrand won the case anyway. Supplant pour Moi became a hit in Europe, reaching the top 10 in the UK, where it sold 200,000 copies, and it also became a hit in a bunch of other countries. But it was never an official hit in either Canada or the us. Nothing was ever heard of the band again, hence its one hit wonderness. Now we switch to Alan Ward, who used the name Elton Motello. He was touring Belgium with a band called Bastard, where he encountered Plastic Bertrand recording Saplain Pour Moi. Ward recorded his vocals using the very same backing track, featuring the very same musicians, but with his own English lyrics. It was released at almost exactly the same time as Supplant pour Moi and. And this version became something of a hit, or at least it became a notorious song in places like Canada and the us. It was also used as a TV commercial at least once. So this technically is not a cover. The backing track is exactly the same, but the lyrics and the singer are different, but both songs are one hit wonders related by the backing track so here's the one I want to play Elton Motello and Jet Boy Jet Girl this is from the Canadian edition which was released by Attic Records. The confusing and now highly problematic Jet Boy Jet Girl Girl from Elton Motelo and the only thing we really ever heard from him as far as I know he's working as a producer in Belgium where he's worked on records by, wait for it, Plastic Bertrand. If you want to be complete about things, this song has been properly covered by a bunch of bands including Fiddler and the Damned and Brian Jones of the Damned was once in Bastard with Alan Ward before he became Elton Motello. I know, it's just really confusing. It did not make the original top 50 list, nor should it have 2.8 million Spotify plays and 462,000 YouTube views for a total of 3.2 million. But because there's such a good backstory to the song, I wanted to include it. I really thought this next track would make the official list, but it did not. Despite being very ubiquitous at one time in the late 80s and early 1990s, it's not anymore. Flesh for Lulu came from the Brixton area of London and lasted 10 years, 1982 to 1992. After signing to Beggars Banquet, this song ended up in a John Hughes movie. If you bought the soundtrack to Some Kind of wonderful in 1987, you have it. This turned into something of a hit on alt rock and college radio stations in North America. If you were around back then, you probably danced to this version or the 12 inch REM. Flesh for Lulu and a one time one hit wonder on alternative radio in North America and outside of another song called Every Little World that had some success on the US Dance charts and frankly I don't remember it. I Go Crazy was the only time anyone ever heard of flesh for Lulu. 5.6 million Spotify plays and 1.1 million YouTube views, which is good for a total of 6.7 million. Again, nowhere near close where it needed to be for our top 50 list. But for everybody who asked about the song, there you go. Next up is a one hit wonder better suited for marching bands than alt rock radio. Yet it was a thing for a while. Hang tight.
- [14:26]
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- [15:13]
Alan Cross
the four songs that probably should have made the master top 50 all time alt rock one hit wonder list, I want to address another track that did not qualify and frankly I thought it would. But it turns out that while it was big for a time, it hasn't displayed any longevity in the digital era and therefore was eclipsed by other songs when it came to gathering data. The track is Papa's Got A Brand New Pig Bag by Pig Bag. The title is a play on James Brown's single Papa's Got a Brand New Bag from 1965. The band's name came from a beat up bag, an actual bag that one of the members used to carry stuff around in. There was a screen print of a warthog on it. Pig Bag was a short lived thing that lasted from about 1980 to 1983 and was based in Cheltenham, northwest of London and over that time 11 different people were in the band. The project started as a jam session among friends. Eventually a rhythm section was added and slowly Papa's Got A Brand New Pig Bag took shape. They got a deal with Y Records for the uk while Rough Trade exported it to North America as a special import at home. This was a number three single. It also found its way onto the top ten charts in Ireland and the Netherlands, but the best it could do in North America was number 56 on the dance charts in 1981, thanks to an extra funky 12 inch remix. Alternative radio North America picked up on it too. They had some really cool music industry fans too. Johnny Rotten, late of the Sex Pistols, was a friend of the band. So was Nelly Hooper, who would become a producer for people like U2 and Bjork, and one or two members of Duran Duran were acquaintances. But by June 1983 they were done. Everyone went off to be in other bands. However, Papa's Got A Brand New Pig Bag lived on. It became a favorite crowd pleaser at English football league games. Madness covered the song occasionally when they played live, it appeared in a series of movies, and in Canada it became the theme song for the new music on tv. And I think they might have used it for about 25 years, but alas, it has not translated well into the digital era. 5.7 million plays on Spotify and 2.7 million YouTube views, bringing things to a total of 8.4 million. Not good enough for our list, but come on, still a great track, right? Pig Bag and Papa's Got a Brand New Pig Bag released in the spring of 1981. Definitely a one hit wonder, but definitely not on the master list. Let's look at some songs that should have made it and I accept full responsibility for not including them, but outside of burning everything down and starting the series all over again, I am obligated to mention them in the errata. This addendum to the series as you've probably noticed by now, the alternative era of the 1990s delivered a ton of great one hit wonders. And this is another one that if I could go back and do this again, would have squeaked onto our list at number 46. I remember hearing this song for the first time in 1996 and immediately I just loved it. The refreshments came from Tempe, Arizona. They went from nobodies to touring with some pretty decent sized bands in less than a year. After winning a battle of the band staged by Ticketmaster, they started making records. Their debut major label album was called Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big and Buzzy and it arrived at the end of February 1996. Points to everyone who understands it's a play on the title of the 1971 Greatest Hits collection from the who. Called Meaty, beaty, big and bouncy, this record featured a lot of re recorded material from their indie album and I'm pretty sure that this was the first single. Roger Klein the singer had spent time as a broke college student and fantasized about escaping his debt by robbing a convenience store and then making a run for the Mexican border. When he presented the rough sketch of the song to the band, somebody threw in the reference to Jean Luc Picard because they were all Star Trek fans. It was an immediate alt rock hit in Canada and the US. It even made the proper top 40 charts in Canada, peaking at number 20 and it helped the album sell a very respectable 60,000 copies in just a couple of months. As of February 2026, this song has had 15.9 million Spotify plays and 2.9 million views on YouTube. That brings everything to 18.8 million. And if I had been smart enough to include it the first time, like I said, this would have been good for a song. Number 46 out of 50 it's the refreshments and Bandidos. The Refreshments and Bandidos Their one and only hit? Well, not exactly. If you've ever watched the TV show King of the Hill, think of the theme song. The official title is Yahoo's and Triangles. That's the Refreshments. They performed the song for the show's first 13 seasons and then someone else covered it for the revival in 2025 and all I can say is I hope they made good money from that. There is another Refreshments related theme song. The D Back Swing is the official theme of the Arizona Diamondbacks. But as for, you know, traditional rock band stuff, Bandidas was it for the Refreshments. The follow up to Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big and Buzzy spent exactly one week on the charts before disappearing forever. So where are they now? Well, singer Roger Klein has an interest in a premium brand of tequila and owns a restaurant called what do you think Bandidos. Bass player Art Edwards is now a published author and one of his books, Stuck Outside of Phoenix, was made into a feature length movie. And Paul P.H. naffa, the drummer still plays with Roger Klein. This next song could have made it onto our all time alt rock list of one hit wonders from the last 50 years, but I actually made an executive decision to pull it. Although the song did get its start at alternative radio, it quickly departed the format and went elsewhere, largely into the jam band universe. The group is Edie Brickell and New Bohemians. They were formed in Dallas in 1985 and after playing around the area for a couple of years they were able to get a deal with Geffen Records and released an album entitled Shooting Rubber Bands at the stars that was 1988 major hit, Double Platinum in the US and it got as high as number four on the Billboard Top 200 chart. The song was top 10 on the Hot 100, but the follow up didn't do anything at all and the group broke up in 1991. E the singer married Paul Simon, whom she met on the set of Saturday Night Live. They have three kids, she's recorded solo and there was one collaboration album with Steve Martin. Yes, him. The drummer's name is Matt Chamberlain. He's a much in demand session player who has worked with everyone from Elton John to Bob Dylan to Tori Amos and Pearl Jam and David Bowie. Bass player Brad Hauser went on to design a line of bass guitars before he died of a stroke in 2023. And keyboardist Carter Albrecht is no longer with us. He was actually shot and killed by his girlfriend's neighbor after he went berserk following a night of heavy drinking. About 56 million Spotify plays and 35.2 million YouTube views. That's a total of 93.3 million. And before I made that executive decision and pulled it out of the list, it was at number 29. What I am is what I am
- [22:59]
Commercial/Announcer
you what you are oh what what
- [23:03]
Alan Cross
I am is what I am you what you are oh, I'm not aware. Edie Burkel and New Bohemians with what I am from 1988, it did make my list of the top 50 all time alt rock one hit wonders until I decided, however unfairly you may think it may be, that there was something better to include. So apologies to Edie and her husband Paul Simon. Coming up next, I'm going to talk about two songs that could have definitely made the list. In fact, you may argued that they should have, but they did not. And there's one song that definitely should have. And there's just no other way to frame this. I screwed up.
- [23:46]
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- [24:11]
Alan Cross
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Alan Cross
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- [24:28]
Alan Cross
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- [24:34]
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- [24:42]
Alan Cross
Three more songs for this addendum to the 50 Biggest Alt Rock One Hit Wonders. Before we wrap this whole project up, here is another song I agonized over. Should I include it or not? Is it from the alternative world or does it really belong in the dance universe? In the end, that's the direction I went. Largely because although this song did get airplay on alt rock radio and some play in dark dance clubs, it Never made any major alt rock charts. The song is Groove is in the Heart by D Light. They're from New York and had only one successful album. It was called World Clique. 10,000 copies sold in Canada, 100,000 copies in the UK, 500,000 copies in the US. This single was top 10 around the world. And although alt rock radio did play it, in fact it played it first. That is not where it flourished. Originally I had this at number 15 on our list. 275 million Spotify plays 100 million views of the video on YouTube and that's a total consumption number of 375 million. But I just couldn't in good conscience include it because there were more indisputably pure alt rock songs that were one hit wonders that needed to be included. Now I'm going to play it, but this is the only acknowledgement we'll give it. And despite the longevity of this song, D Light never had anything close to a hit this big ever again. Okay, we're done with that fun stuff, but outside the criteria of this all time alt rock one hit wonders list of the last 50 years. Let's see what you think of this next exclusion. Had I used it, the song would have been slotted in at number four. So what kind of rationale did I have for not including it? And I know that some people will want to fight me because they consider this song to be part of the whole New wave era. Others will agree, pointing out that the majority of this song's life has been in the pop universe. And others still will say, hey, they had more than this one hit. Which is true if you look at the group's history in the uk. But the fact is that it's the only hit this group is ever had in North America. In fact anywhere in the world outside of the uk. And I will admit that the song certainly got airplay on whatever alt rock radio stations existed in 1982, but the crossover to pop and other softer formats happened pretty much immediately. And that's where the song lives today. Although if you do go to an alternative retro night in a club or listen to a retro show on the radio, it will occasionally pop up. Just over 1 billion Spotify plays and 38 million views on YouTube. That adds up to a consumption number of 1.1 billion. So impressive. Should this song have been at number four on the list or do you agree with me that it should have been left off? You mean everything you, Dexie's Midnight Runners and Come On Eileen. A pure one hit wonder. If we look at the standard North American definition of the term, which is their only song to make it inside the top 40 of Billboard's Hot 100. But is it an alt rock one hit wonder? Well, despite the protestations of some people who have been following the series, no. Finally, one song that I will admit should have been on this list but wasn't, and that is totally my fault and I just gapped on it for some reason. Had I run through the titles and numbers one more time, I might have found that this song has been streamed on Spotify 1.1 billion times and seen on YouTube 122 million times. That's 1.35 billion in total. It should have been a comfortable number three on the all time alt rock one hit wonders list of the last 50 years. The group is American. They're from Santa Monica. They were formed in 1988 out of the ashes of a band called Opal. And in their resurrected form they were part of a West coast scene known as the Paisley Underground. Bands with a jangly pop sort of sound, but they could also be extremely mellow. And this is where we find their massive and only hit. It's dream pop with just a dash of goth and psych and maybe, just maybe a little country and folk. Their second album, which arrived early in the fall of 1993, sold around 2 million copies. The hit had a little pop success. It was number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and it has become a genuine alt rock classic. It never made it to number one on any alt rock charts. It stalled at number three. But it has endured and endured and endured. The album was so tonight that I Might See, it's Mazzy Starr and Fade into youo. Fade into you. Strange, you Never. Yes, that song should have been on our top 50 list of the all time alt rock one hit wonders of the last 50 years. But it wasn't because I missed it. I feel shame. Had I got it right, the number 50 song go from tones on Tale would have dropped off and Fade into youo would have really been at number three. So damn sorry. Let me give you some songs that were considered for this list but just didn't make it based on numbers or whatever. There was the First Picture of youf from the Lotus Eaters, lovely mellow techno pop song from 1983. The Time Lords, Doctor and the Tardis, that was 1988. Hippie chick from Soho, 1989, the Demics from London, Ontario with New York City, Canadian punk classic from 1979 and the Verve Pipe with the freshman, but none of them had the numbers or whatever. I also considered tracks from It's Immaterial, Coolest, Shaker, X Ray Specs, Candy Flip, Louis xiv, and a bunch more, but the statistics just did not lie. And despite being as careful as I possibly could, I can't shake the feeling that I've still missed something. Maybe you can fill in some gaps. If you do, or if you just want to yell at me about something to do with this series, drop an email to AlanLancross CA and we can debate it. Or I can just take my lumps if you missed any of the six episodes in this five part series. And that does make sense, trust me. They are available as podcasts. Just search for ongoing history of new music wherever you get your podcasts. And check out my other program, Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry. It's all about true crime in music. If you have a chance, Visit my website ajournalofmusicalthings.com it's updated constantly with music news, recommendations and opinion. There's the free daily newsletter that's worth getting and I'm on all the social media platforms. This was fun and I hope you had fun listening. Technical productions by Rob Johnston. We'll talk to you next time. I'm Alan Cross.
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