Mr Bachman Mr Turner & Mr Overdrive "Ain't Seen Nothing Yet"
Supertramp "Breakfast In America"
Van Morrison "Brown Eyed Girl"

Apart from "Whiter Shade of Pale", I can't recall ever hearing anything else by them. Same for Boston, other than "More than a Feeling".

Golden Earring apparently had a good career but I have never knowingly heard another of theirs.

I was listening to the radio once on "Two-up Tuesday", two songs by each artist. They played Radar Love and I couldn't figure out what could possibly come next and... they must have forgotten the format as they only played one song.

To choose a genre:

The Charlatans - The Only One I Know
Happy Mondays - Step On
Stone Roses - Fools Gold

All the above have made far better songs than these, but this is what you generally hear.

[Exception to prove rule: This Is How It Feels by Inspiral Carpets actually is their best song.]

Calling All The Heroes

It's Immaterial Driving Away From Home

Babylon - David Gray. Actually that's not strictly true. Have heard other stuff just wish I hadn't

Babylon's Burning - Ruts. Pretty glad that's all I've heard from them

Silver Machine by Hawkwind, proudly featured in this month's issue, folks. I'm wholly ignorant of the rest of the 'Kwind canon.

And I'm guessing anyone who relies on commercial radio for their musical education will think The Human League's only hit was Don't You Want Me.

'Brimful of Asha' - Cornershop

'Let's Work' - Mick Jagger (I have yet to hear 'Dogshit in the Doorway')

I've been a BÖC fan for years and it does make me wonder. Here's a song which, thirty one years after it hit the charts, still gets airplay. Must be a great song.

But it only got to about eleven in the charts in 1978. Was it that great? Inded, most of the stuff from then which still gets played didn't really trouble the chart compilers much. What were we thinking about back then? Were we all blinded by John Travolta and Boney M?

by the Beatles.
(My radio broke in 1963.)

Have they released anything else?

The only song of theirs getting airplay these days seems to be Take A Look At My Girlfriend. I know they had loads of hits, but maybe just one classic.

They must have been banging on for about a quarter of a century now, but will forever be known as The Kayleigh Hitmakers.

Confusion will be my Epitaph. The Cat Food hitmakers also appeared on Top Of The Pops.

"Miserable now" was it wasn't it? I suspect they had other singles but they were as interchangeable as the parts in a lawnmower really.

This thread reminds me of this Big Train sketch:

I was wondering the same thing on my blog a few days ago after hearing More Than A Feeling on the radio.

I also had Blue Oyster Cult and Golden Earring in the same bracket, but also Ozark Mountain Daredevils (Jackie Blue) and Steppenwolf (Born to be Wild).

I decided to delve into Spotify to see what their other tracks were like and whether the rest of their work was unfairly overshadowed by the big hit. Unfortunately I decided to start with Golden Earring... although they made 20+ albums Spotify only had one track of theirs - and it wasn't even Radar Love!

The amazing thing is that these bands (BOC, Boston, Golden Earring, etc.) are not traditional one-hit wonders: they sold millions of records to their fans, and toured large venues, making a very good living - it is just that they only reached non-fans with one huge record.

Can I add to the debate Gary Numan (Cars) and Kraftwerk (The Model). Although I know a lot of their other stuff I wonder if the average (non-Word type) only know the one song by each?

You're overlooking the mighty "I Want You" with Mark E Smith, Saturn 5, Find Out Why, Joe, Move and She Comes In The Fall....This is How It Feels is mere fodder!

New Musik - living on ? Martha & the Muffins - echo beach. Clout - subsistute. Flash & the pan - waiting for a train, were some bands that had a hit single & great albums that i bought but never remember them having another hit?

There She Goes.

All nicked off the late, lamented Audiogalaxy. None of it was, at the time, available through legit sources. And I'm sticking to that excuse.

Just a few:

Susan Fassbender - Twilight Cafe
B-Movie - Remembrance Day
The Regents - 7-teen
Quarterflash - Harden My Heart
Sniff 'n' the Tears - Driver's Seat
After The Fire - Der Kommisar
Laid Back - Baker Man
Barry Andrews - Rossmore Road
The Call - Let The Day Begin
Cowboys International - Thrash

(You can see I'm going alphabetical now..)

has been around for ages, released umpteen records, worked with allsorts and the only song of his that I'm familiar with is "Year of the Cat."

Ditto Ralph "Streets of London" McTell. And (this'll get me shot) the only Sandy Denny song I'm familiar with is the fabulous "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?"

by Peter Sarstedt.

By Nick Drake

I know he didn't record much, but this is the one that even well informed DJs (e.g. Mark Radcliffe) always seem to reach for. It is beautiful though.

Have thought of an example of a band where I only know one song because they play it on the radio 'Honey Be Good' by The Bible. Despite loving the song & owning several of Boo Hewerdine's solo records, I've never really checked out his former band.

Make Me Smile

Strangely, most of his catalogue makes me smile. Or is that grimace?

Peter Sarstedt once held,and maybe still does, a unique achievement with two others in the history of UK popular music....what is it, and who are the two others?

Mott the Hoople, I've only ever heard 'All the Young Dudes'. I understand from the magazine that they did others.

I am surprised at the King Crimson mention of having one song. I haven't even heard that one. I do remember seeing the odd album cover but can't say that I've ever heard a single note.

And I'm with Retro Man on the subject of Free (and I'm older than him). So, to correct it I did buy a best of a couple of years ago and sad to say the only Free song that I can recognise is 'Alright Now', which shows how much impression the others made on me.

To Mark..... only three brothers to have solo hit singles in the UK.

- '99 Luftballons'
The Easybeats - 'Friday On My Mind'
Men At Work - 'Down Under'
Journey - 'Don't Stop Believing'
Oyster Band - 'The Day We Went To Bangor'
Carmel - 'Bad Day'
Janis Ian - 'Society's Child'
Pretty Things - 'Don't Bring Me Down'

All I can say about BoC is 'More Cowbell !'

Save all your bread and fly Translove Airways to "Molten Gold,A Free Anthology". you will not be disapointed.

Have they had more than one hit or is it that they all sound the same. Old gag i know but one that needs to be told

The Shaddap You Face hitmaker.

...It's a squeaky, proggish number. I have no idea what it's called. It's played a lot on US FM radio.

Sorry, my mistake....can't think of any.

Shattered Dreams

O Babe What Would You Say

is the only Deep Purple song I can say I've definitely heard all the way through - similarly Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell!

In the 80s. I was walking along the bank of the Thames during festival time - at the other end of Reading. One of the offshoot bands was playing "Smoke on the Water", accompanied by serried ranks of festivalgoers whose non-dulcet tones I can could hear wafting down the river. A far cry from Lake Geneva(?)

"Hush" wasn't bad, though.

As for Joni Mitchell, you'll find all her mid-70s purple patch on Spotify. Blows "Big Yellow Taxi" out of the water. Please try.

...if you failed to consider this splendid number by Furniture.

No, not that thread, this one. I have only heard one song by the Grateful Dead (apart from a 90 second snippet of a song I don't know that was played on Desert Island Discs when Oliver Sacks was the castaway) - and yes, it's Touch Of Gray.

Slightly off tangent, but why do radio stations represent whole careers with only one, or just a handful of, songs.
If you hear The Byrds announced on a gold station you know it will be one of about five songs that they will play.
Maybe that's why we remember whole careers by just one song?

Steve, only know of his Joker.

Similarly, Steve Harley's Come Up and See Me. I'll also add:
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
O'Jays - Backstabbers
Stealer's Wheel - Stuck in the Middle

err... Sugar Sugar by The Archies?

The album 'Sue' is pretty good too ... never heard anything on the radio but this though ...

I'm still very partial to the late aristocratic Austrian hitmaker Falco's Teutonic pop/ rap/classical crossover 'Rock Me Amadeus' (Salieri mix that is on the album).

...is the only song I know by The Knack.

Not sure of the band though.

Johnny Kidd and The Pirates - Shakin' All Over (you'd think although I remember 'I'll Never Get Over You')

Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime.

A worldwide hit from 1980 and much covered song; Yazz, Erasure, Zucchero and Glasvegas. Marc et Claude took it to number one in 2000 with their dance version, as I Need Your Lovin'.

This song is now in the repertoire of Stackridge live shows since the Korgis were formed when that group first split up. The original Korgis are now safely back in the Stackridge fold once more.

P.S. see above. The Dream Academy did a version too.

Despite one of the biggest selling albums ever ( possibly), you'd think he only ever released 'show me the way'

...sounds like a brilliant evening to me, but I'm assuming it was meant to be an insult.

Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
New Order - Blue Monday

they may have recorded others but I seem to remember that their major claims to fame were that one of them married Caroline Aherne and another did some appalling rap with Tranmere Rovers manager John Barnes

'Fanfare for the Common Man' because it was on TOTP or something. I'm well aware they did other things (That bloody armadillo LP cover everyone used to have under their arm in the 70's) but I neither know nor care about about the rest of their body of work. Come to think of it I hated the aforementioned FFTCM. It looked liked they were playing it in the fuckin' Colosseum or somewhere up Mount Etna. Pricks.

The one good thing about it was it introduced me to Aaron Copland, and others. Good enough?

Making Plans For Nigel

I want you to want me

The Motors - Airport

The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost that Loving Feeling

- I mentioned them in another thread and suddenly realised they belonged here:-

In a Gadda Da Vida

Wah-Story of the blues
Ramones-Sheena is punk rocker
Yes-Owner of a lonely heart

Born to be Wild - Steppenwolf (a staple in any rock compilation and played to death on rock radio)

and these too

Black Betty - Ram Jam
Turning Japanese - The Vapors
My Sharona - The Knack
Centerfold - J Geils Band
Inside - Stiltskin
Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
I Just died in your arms tonight - The Cutting Crew

did this lot do anything else that sold more than 10 copies?

... Which was about bands/acts who have a substantial body of work behind them (obviously a rather vague criterion), so not one-hit wonders - by whom we've only heard one song. I've thought of another one anyway. I don't know how long Destiny's Child/Beyoncé have been going, but however many chart-topping hits there have been I've only heard Crazy In Love.

Yes, I know there's Dr Mabuse but no one ever plays anything other than Duel, do they?

That's what I think of when I hear their name.

Terry Wogan playing The Big Bopper: Chantilly Lace, first thing in the morning is my idea of hell. Radio 2 plays that record like it's in the top 10 and I've never heard anything else by him.

Sparks I know are a decent band but only "This Town aint big enough for the both of us" comes to mind. I know I have heard others on Jonathan Ross but don't know the tune.

I only remember that one about "I'm miserable now".

I once heard one with an Edge-like guitar intro with too much reverb

You must be quite a young fellow stimpy; if you were my sort of age it would have been impossible to avoid them in the 80s. The one with the reverb is How Soon Is Now, their greatest song IMO. Incidentally, I liked Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now more when I found out that the title is a reference to a Sandie Shaw song called Heaven Knows I'm Missing You Now!

by Europe. Did they do anything else because I havent heard it.

Come to this late and missed the earlier discussions on Free. They were superb - second band I ever saw live and remember the concert as if it was yesterday. A much under appreciated song of theirs is Mourning sad morning (or is it the other way round? I dont have the cd in front of me.) The vocals are superb as is the very understated bass and flute. Not your typical Free song but absolutely beautiful. Agree about My brother Jake though - fantastic, makes me sing my heart out which is pretty erxcruciating for all in earshot.

Didn't they have a hit once or am I hallucinating?

I'm afraid I only know that Jeremy one

But I've never heard anything other than Venus

You only hear Oliver's Army regularly, don't you?

Occasionally, another pops up on the radio, but not often.

Hawkwind: of course, the one I know is The One Everyone Knows. However, reading a piece in the Guardian by Ed Vulliamy last week has made me curious to hear more.