Artists that deserved better/You're surprised were flash in the pans

[GhostMachine]

I'm not necessarily talking one-hit wonders, but artists who had at most two to four songs hit the charts, then were either never heard from again or just plain never had another hit. Post Youtube links, if possible.

Off the top of my head (and yes, I'm old):

 

[JasonM]

Really have to dig deep on the ol' memory, but there's a few.

- Joss Stone, Katie Melua, KT Tunstall. You couldn't get past that style of music in the mid 00s, and it just disappeared from the zeitgeist as quickly as they were part of it. Apparently both of them are still very much active, but more so within the niche rather than becoming the big time artists they seemed like they would become at the time.

- Gotye, had one banger that everyone knows and pretty much immediately fell off the face of the earth.

- More so from their own choice, but LMFAO was EVERYWHERE between 2009-2012. They released 'sorry for party rocking' and apparently took it literal enough to not bring out any music afterwards because they went on hiatus. They're from the Gordy family/fortune, so they probably did their thing and dipped out, but it's surprising with how ever-present they were in terms of pop culture relevancy for that very short period of time.

Also I'm still waiting on more Pendulum,

[Hobo]

1 hour ago, JasonM said:

Gotye, had one banger that everyone knows and pretty much immediately fell off the face of the earth.

I could be wrong but I think in this case it was someone who was a successful musician in their own right having a crossover hit  and then just going back to doing their usual thing. Which happens sometimes.

Some of my favourite artists are essentially one hit wonders in some way. Warren Zevon (best known for Werewolves of London), Randy Newman (better known for his soundtrack work, in particular with Pixar and Toy Story but also had a novelty hit with Short People) and Loudon Wainwright III (whose biggest hit was the song Dead Skunk).

My girlfriend's dad is a massive fan of Dean Friedman whose biggest hit were the songs McDonald's Girl and Lucky Stars.

[GhostMachine]

Gotye was a one-hit wonder because he's in a band and decided to release one solo album.

Here's a live version he did with the band. And they had to talk him into doing it:

 

[Hellraiser]

Does .Fun fall into this category? They broke through with their 2nd album that went platinum in several countries and had 3 multi-platinum single and then announced out of the blue that they were going on hiatus from which they haven't returned yet and probably won't any time soon given how successful Jack Antonoff has become as a producer.

[Skummy]

A lot of supposed "one hit wonders", outside of outright novelty singles, are far more interesting bands than they're ever given credit for.

Bands like Chumbawamba and Dexy's Midnight Runners are only known by one (or, in Dexy's case, arguably two) singles that are far from their best, and far from representative of their best work.

There was a trend in alternative music in the mid-00s toward Swedish electronica, which produced a lot of artists that never reached the heights they could have done. The Knife - and Fever Ray's solo material - looked prised to become something pretty exceptional, especially after Jose Gonzalez's cover of Heartbeats ended up in some commercials and seemed to be everywhere for a little while. 

Lykke Li was another in that same vein; from her first album, I thought she was going to be huge. I thought Little Bit from her first album, and Sadness Is A Blessing from her second in particular should have been massive, but the zeitgeist moved quickly on from that genre. 

[IDOL]

I was obsessed with Savage Garden as a kid. They got, what - two albums before splitting because the two of them can't stand one another? Two Beds and a Coffee Machine is an underrated gem.

 

[Naitch]

3 hours ago, Skummy said:

A lot of supposed "one hit wonders", outside of outright novelty singles, are far more interesting bands than they're ever given credit for.

Bands like Chumbawamba and Dexy's Midnight Runners are only known by one (or, in Dexy's case, arguably two) singles that are far from their best, and far from representative of their best work.

There was a trend in alternative music in the mid-00s toward Swedish electronica, which produced a lot of artists that never reached the heights they could have done. The Knife - and Fever Ray's solo material - looked prised to become something pretty exceptional, especially after Jose Gonzalez's cover of Heartbeats ended up in some commercials and seemed to be everywhere for a little while. 

Lykke Li was another in that same vein; from her first album, I thought she was going to be huge. I thought Little Bit from her first album, and Sadness Is A Blessing from her second in particular should have been massive, but the zeitgeist moved quickly on from that genre. 

Someone I used to work with was involved in music in London throughout the 90s, particularly working for One Little Indian, which was Chumbawamba's record label before they were known. I recall him saying that they hate the song because it's so different to the style of music they actually enjoy, but it's the one that makes them money.

[GhostMachine]

5 hours ago, IDOL said:

I was obsessed with Savage Garden as a kid. They got, what - two albums before splitting because the two of them can't stand one another? Two Beds and a Coffee Machine is an underrated gem.

 

Darren Hayes became a solo artist, and Daniel Jones is now a real estate agent. 

(Every time Truly Madly Deeply comes on the radio when we're in the car, my wife starts singing along with it.)

 

[zero]

Maybe a hot take considering she has one of the biggest singles of the century and has certainly carved out a niche for herself, but Carly Rae Jepsen deserves more than being "girl who did Call Me Maybe and is kinda weird." I think she's the most underrated voice in today's pop landscape and a pretty great songwriter. 

[VerbalPuke]

13 hours ago, Skummy said:

A lot of supposed "one hit wonders", outside of outright novelty singles, are far more interesting bands than they're ever given credit for.

Bands like Chumbawamba and Dexy's Midnight Runners are only known by one (or, in Dexy's case, arguably two) singles that are far from their best, and far from representative of their best work.

There was a trend in alternative music in the mid-00s toward Swedish electronica, which produced a lot of artists that never reached the heights they could have done. The Knife - and Fever Ray's solo material - looked prised to become something pretty exceptional, especially after Jose Gonzalez's cover of Heartbeats ended up in some commercials and seemed to be everywhere for a little while. 

Lykke Li was another in that same vein; from her first album, I thought she was going to be huge. I thought Little Bit from her first album, and Sadness Is A Blessing from her second in particular should have been massive, but the zeitgeist moved quickly on from that genre. 

I was going to say Chumbawamba also. They were really good up to Tubthumping, and after actually. I've honestly not really even checked that entire album out and now feel like I should just to see. I really liked their early output that was more along the anarcho punk lines, but think an album like Anarchy would be a good starting point for people as it still maintains their spirit but is probably more accessible musically. It's a brilliant album. I'd also note that I think the vocalists are brilliant and are really the selling point for me in a lot of their work. 

 

[GhostMachine]

Call Me Maybe is the only song of hers that I've ever heard on the radio. And that came out over a decade ago.

The Loneliest Time, which she did with Rufus Wainwright, is a solid gem.

 

[Skummy]

On 25/04/2023 at 13:07, Naitch said:

Someone I used to work with was involved in music in London throughout the 90s, particularly working for One Little Indian, which was Chumbawamba's record label before they were known. I recall him saying that they hate the song because it's so different to the style of music they actually enjoy, but it's the one that makes them money.

It was, at least in part, an experiment in writing a "hit record", but the timing of it right after they signed with a major label made it look like they'd sold out. It's not a great song, but more interesting musically than it's perhaps given credit for. 

I haven't watched their recent documentary, but they had a lot of idealism around the idea that by getting booked to play on TV, at big festivals, and so on, because of Tubthumping, they could sneak in anarcho-left wing messages on a major platform. I suspect that the general message of the documentary will be that it didn't work. 

They're a brilliant band, though I lean more towards their folky output than the early punk stuff these days. "A Singsong and a Scrap" is one of the best modern folk albums ever. 

[Benji]

The Fratellis are somewhat recognised as one hit wonders given the popularity of "Chelsea Dagger", but they've got some absolute bangers of songs anf albums.

A little off the beaten track, but Jim Burke (part of Collapsed Lung of one hit wonder "Eat My Goal" fame) has some stupendous work as Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer.

I would say by far the biggest crime to be forgotten is Electric Six. They got "Danger (High Voltage" and "Gay Bar", and then people basically forgot them, but they have numerous albums, all of which absolutely bang as good or better than both those tracks. Switzerland, as well as I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master as albums in particular are phenomenal.

[METALMAN]

I’ve been trying to rack my brains over this. At first I thought of the retro-soul scene that seemed to be all over the place from about 2005-2009. And a lot of that lot are unheard of now. Of the two big names though: Adele is still very much with us and Amy Winehouse has an excuse for her recent lack of activity. Either way the music is still around but they were the only two artists of real enduring talent so that’s not a surprise. The ones that deserved to stick around did. The others that didn’t were by no means bad. They just weren’t special.

I tried to think of some others and I still couldn’t hit on any that surprised me. In some cases the band or artist just wasn’t able to adapt to changing tastes. In other cases - Chumbawumba being a good example of those already mentioned - they had their big moment and were happy to go back into relative obscurity afterwards. In other cases they just weren’t that good in the first place.

I think in pop music everyone - perhaps except juggernaughts like the Beatles and the Stones and Abba* - will eventually be reduced to one or two songs. You might love Guns n Roses and Nirvana and they might be your life but to most people they are just Sweet Child O Mine and Smells Like Teen Spirit.

The one that I feel a bit here is the UK “landfill indie” scene. This was very much what I grew up with and now it is (to my mind a bit unfairly) maligned but 15 years on pretty much all of these bands are still plugging away, on tour to promote their eighth album. But even though these were the bands of my youth I don’t give a shit about their eighth album. I only care about the music they put out when I was 16 and I feel that phenomena can explain the fate of quite a few of the bands we’ve been discussing here.
 

*And perhaps over time even those at that tier will be forgotten. I mean Beethoven has as fine a corpus as you can get in music, and by no means low profile. But ask a random to name a tune and you’ll be lucky if you get DUN DUN DUN DUUUUN

[Colly]

In fairness Duffy got kidnapped. Horrible story.

I'm with you on the landfill indie though, that's my early to mid 20s after I'd finished uni, and we would literally turn up to our local indie club in Middlesbrough, pay £5 in and just discover that Razorlight were on just after midnight. For them in particular I wouldn't even listen to their old stuff again, but that list also included Mystery Jets, Bloc Party etc etc. Still wish Late of the Pier would put out a second album though.

[GhostMachine]

Sometimes a band/artist not going anywhere is due to interference from their record label or management. 

The Romantics, for example. They're still around, but I doubt most people can name anything aside from What I Like About You and Talking In Your Sleep. Their management misappropriated funds and licensed their songs for commercial use without their permission. The legal fight that ensued prevented them from performing or recording any new material for almost a decade. By the time it was over (they won), everyone forgot about them.

Tara Kemp, the first artist I posted a video for, had two top 20 hits in 1991, but her record label (a Warner Brothers sub-label) started interfering with the recording of her second album. So she requested a release from her contract to go to another label, which had already signed most of the acts that belonged to that WB sub-label. Problem is, for some reason that other label decided not to sign her. 

[RPS]

On 24/04/2023 at 13:42, Hellraiser said:

Does .Fun fall into this category? They broke through with their 2nd album that went platinum in several countries and had 3 multi-platinum single and then announced out of the blue that they were going on hiatus from which they haven't returned yet and probably won't any time soon given how successful Jack Antonoff has become as a producer.

I remember hearing the Format in 2006-2007 and being convinced that they would be a huge act. Partially right. I get the impression Jack Antonoff is likely a pedantic perfectionist who is better suited to produce songs.