Happy One Hit Wonder Day!
Categories: Fiesta!, Obscurity Knocks
Today marks that most significant of festivals: National One Hit Wonder Day. It's time to celebrate "The Macarena" and "What I Am" and "Come On Eileen" and "I'm Too Sexy" and "Afternoon Delight" and "'She Blinded Me With Science" and my own personal bête noire, "Barbie Girl."
A question to ponder as we observe today's holiday: Why are so many one hit wonders so annoying?
Oliver Miller attempts to solve this philosophical conundrum in his essay One-Hit Wonders: A Philosophical Explanation. I never heard of Miller before today and will probably think of him only fleetingly in the future, which probably qualifies him as a one hit wonder as well.
Shockingly, VH1, the ultimate one-hit wonder arbiter (of the 80s, at least) appears to have no plans to observe this sacred day. Instead its programmers have decided to bombard us with episodes of Tila Tequila and Eddie Griffin and the Behind the Music about Bobby Brown (whom one can accuse of many terrible things, but one-hit wonder is not among them).
Fortunately, there's a list of the 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s, complete with videos, on the network's blog. The website One Hit Wonder Central goes even further, covering more than half a century of one hit wonders from "Sh-Boom" by The Chords (1954) to "We Fly High" by Jim Jones (2007).
Observe the holiday by listening to a few tunes, then dial 867-5309, just for fun. (I actually did this once. Nothing happened. Nothing interesting, anyway.)
A question to ponder as we observe today's holiday: Why are so many one hit wonders so annoying?
Oliver Miller attempts to solve this philosophical conundrum in his essay One-Hit Wonders: A Philosophical Explanation. I never heard of Miller before today and will probably think of him only fleetingly in the future, which probably qualifies him as a one hit wonder as well.
Shockingly, VH1, the ultimate one-hit wonder arbiter (of the 80s, at least) appears to have no plans to observe this sacred day. Instead its programmers have decided to bombard us with episodes of Tila Tequila and Eddie Griffin and the Behind the Music about Bobby Brown (whom one can accuse of many terrible things, but one-hit wonder is not among them).
Fortunately, there's a list of the 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s, complete with videos, on the network's blog. The website One Hit Wonder Central goes even further, covering more than half a century of one hit wonders from "Sh-Boom" by The Chords (1954) to "We Fly High" by Jim Jones (2007).
Observe the holiday by listening to a few tunes, then dial 867-5309, just for fun. (I actually did this once. Nothing happened. Nothing interesting, anyway.)
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