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"Wildfire" did the trick. I always got goosebumps when Michael sang "on Wild-fire, we're gonna ride... we're gonna leee-eave sodbustin' behind..."
When I was a kid, I LOVED story songs (and the vast majority were one hit wonders);"The Night Chicago Died- Paper Lace, Billy Don't Be A Hero -Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods (Paper Lace also had a version), Rocky"-Austin Roberts, Seasons In The Sun -Terry Jacks (not really a one hit wonder. Terry & his wife, Susan, were previously The Poppy Family and had already had hits with Which Way You Going Billy, That's Where I Went Wrong and Where Evil Grows). Judy Mae -Boomer Castleman. Run, Joey Run -David Geddes (who followed up with the less successful Blind Man In The Bleachers which always reminded me of Bobby Goldsboro's -Butterfly For Bucky (it's the blind thing). Delilah Jones -The Mcguire Sisters (handed down 45 from my parents). Witch Queen of New Orleans -Redbone. Tell Laura I Love Her -Ray Peterson, The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia -Vicki Lawrence, Brandy (and Jimmy Loves Maryann)-Looking Glass.
B.J. Thomas had a couple: Billy & Sue and Plain Jane (both death by broken heart songs). Ode to Billy Joe by Bobbie Gentry (what WERE they throwing off that bridge?) Patches by Clarence Carter, Indiana Wants Me by R. Dean Taylor (who had another over the top song that mixed religion, sex and death into Candy Apple Red - no sirens, in this one he recites The Lord's Prayer over a weird psychedelic fadeout).
So many were tragic and SO melodramatic (incredibly appealing to me at the time), many involved the death of a partner, parent or child. Cher had a whole string of them for awhile Gypsies Tramps and Thieves, Half-Breed and Dark Lady - Helen Reddy jumped in with the truly bizarre Angie Baby about a strange girl who shrinks a neighbor boy/peeping tom and keeps him as her 'secret lover' in her radio (!!).
But one of the absolute strangest is the only hit song (that I'm aware of) concerning cannibalism. And that's why it makes the grade with a link. Timothy by The Buoys:
Songwriter Rupert Holmes (who later penned and sang the annoying Escape (The Pina Colada Song) claimed that Timothy was really a mule and not a fellow miner who mysteriously "disappears" (ha ha) after a mine cave in. If you listen to the song, there ain't no way these men would be so emotionally damaged after realizing they had eaten a mule. I do love the complexity of their psychological state though - the level of denial & pathos is extreme (God, what did we do??). It is hysterical.
My stomach was full as it could be and nobody ever got around to finding Timothy...
We are constantly invited to be who we are. Henry David Thoreau
california rick, If you haven't already seen Arsenic and Old Lace, then consider renting it from Netflix. It's before even my time, but I think that you'd enjoy it. Joe
And of course, a "one-hit wonder" thread would not be complete without Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs singing "Wooly Booly". Actually, these guys had more than one-hit: who could ever forget "Little Red Riding Hood."
WHOA! No, how could anyone ever forget any of those songs! "Little Red Riding Hood" was brilliant! While we're on wolfy theme, here's one that's not a one- hit wonder, but so what.
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