Customer Reviews

One Hit Wonders: Hard 2 Get Hits

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First let me say that I cannot believe this collection has 160 "One Hit Wonders" and does not have "In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)" by Zager & Evans. But then I already have that classic on another CD, so what do I care? The people who put this collection together are serious about their work. What other collection will give you both "Monster Mash" and "Ice Ice Baby"? Even if you already have "My Sharona" and "Kung Fu Fighting," who does not need to have copies of "Limbo Rock," "Harper Valley P.T.A.," and "I Touch Myself"? What stands out for me in this impressive collection are the instrumental hits that are usually ignored, like "The Stripper," "Nut Rocker," "Love Is Blue," "Popcorn." The main thing is that you look at what is in this collection and you will find yourself saying "Hey, I remember that one" and "I haven't heard that song in years" over and over again. Besides, you cannot beat the price.

I have always preached that if you can find five songs on a hits album like this that you would like to add to your music collection, then I consider it a good buy. With eight discs that would translate into a total of 40 one hit wonders. I found 40 songs that I do not already have before I got through disc 4 and I have over 1000 CDs. I would not be surprised if you look over this massive play list and find over 100 songs worth having. Of course there are some unforgettable songs as well as those that make you gnash your teeth (I have one word to say to you: "Feelings"). But that is why these songs did not launch fantastic music careers. I might quibble with the idea that some of these artists only had one hit, like Don McLean and "American Pie," but that is not a bad fight to be picking over this album.

Several reviewers who gave this compilation 1 star have overlooked one important fact - this is an imported set from Europe. A lot of the groups who were popular in the US were not so in many European countries.

There were a couple of songs - "LA International Airport" by Susan Raye and "I'm Doing Fine Now" by New York City - that I hadn't heard since they were originally issued in the early 70s and they sound just as good today as they did then.

There's a ton of great hits on this set. If you like pop music, grab a copy if you can find it.

First of all, DISKY is a Dutch company, so this One Hit Wonder edition sometimes has Dutch hits too that were a one-hit wonder. Examples 'Weekend' by Earth & Fire, 'If I had words' by Yvonne Keeley,'Windsurfin'' by the Surfers and Eurovision winner of 1975, Teach-In with Ding a dong. Even for people who do not know them (although I guess some of them actually were international hits), they are nice in themselves! But apart from this, the Dutch focus (Focus also included by the way) is minimal and by far the most hits are international.
The Cd's come in a nice compact carton box. It is not the most luxurious looking edition, but the price is great. Although now it is out of print you can still get it on Amazon.co.uk for a reasonable price. Isn't it all about the music? Plenty of that on 8 cd's, and the box lives up to its name, since no doubt you will find some indeed hard to find hits here.
Of course there can be an endless discussion about what qualifies for a one hit wonder. I would say just a song for which a band is known most. So then I think the one hit wonder of Al Stewart has to be Year Of The Cat, although he has had more songs that made it in the chart, but none of them had the same success.
This edition had put the songs in chronological order, 1960-1967, and so on, which is handy. Furthermore, the sound quality is excellent and all the songs are original (no pan-pipe versions). Of course no edition can be complete and yes, also in this box you will find some not at all hard to find hits. But it is great value for money since some songs here you won't find on any edition together. If you want more, the only other game in town is the superb Ulli Wenger's Bayern 3 One Hit Wonder edition. This edition surpasses this one in magnitude, but also in price! The German double cd edition has come to volume 11 at the time writing of this. But then, some hits you find on this DISKY box are not on the Ulli Wenger!
Find it, and you will have 8 Cd's with pure listening enjoyment.

This is a Dutch compilation. Therefore the references to one hit wonders would be according to Netherlands charts.

Yes there are a few artists & groups here that had other great songs but this is the one of the best collections of its kind. Sit back, relax and enjoy for years to come.

The way I look at it, a One-Hit Wonder is a singles-oriented person/group who has either just the one hit or comes up with just one hit single infrequently as opposed to the ones with hit albums over a relatively frequent period. Even then, there are some acts that don't fit this description either like Jeff Beck and Jimmy Cliff who had some brilliant albums but for the most part, this definition holds. In any case, if you can get over the name and not judge the cds by the cover (which is quite cool by the way with 8 cardboard slipcases enclosed in an easy to open larger cardboard case), the quality of the sound that has been very well remastered and the track selections are great. The are many tracks here that I wanted but I just didn't want to get the rest of the fillers that came with their individual albums: "La Dolce Vita", "Hocus Pocus", "Hooked On a Feeling" (made famous by Ally McBeal's dancing baby), "Streets of London", "Loving You" by Minnie Riperton, "Una Paloma Blanca", "You To Me Are Everything" by the Real Thing, "Let's All Chant", "My Sharona" (single version), "Sad Eyes", "Rapper's Delight", "Pop Muzik" by M, "Bette Davis'Eyes", "Centerfold", "Just An Illusion" by Imagination, "Jeopardy" by the Greg Khin Band, and "Don't Worry, Be Happy." Just imagine what you'd need to pay to get (if you can even find them or even want to get the whole albums)the albums these singles came from? Given that and the great remastering job, this is actually very good value for money. A definite keeper for years and years to come. Recommended.

This is a great CD compilation, but the songs are not one hit wonders. Paul Anka... a one hit wonder? Nope.. don't think so. I'd recommend anyone to buy this, because all of the songs are good... but... make sure this is the right CD set for you. It's a great deal also.

I was so disappointed with this box of CDs! I did not think that the "hits" were hits at all! I hardly recognized most of the songs from 1970 up to now! They were NOT hits in my opinion! I went from one CD to the next in shock and disappointment. I would not recommend this, nor would I have purchased this if I had known.

This is one of the worst "collections" I have ever seen. First of all, the definition of a one hit wonder is an artist or group that had only one hit song. Therefore the following artists were NOT one hit wonders: Wanda Jackson, The Shirelles, Bobby Vee, Johnny Tillotson, Chubby Checker, Peter & Gordon, Jay & The Americans, Al Martino, Eric Burdon, Bobby Goldsboro, Tommy James & The Shondells, Don McLean, Paul Anka, Al Stewart, Crystal Gayle, Gerry Rafferty. The Knack, Kim Carnes, Juice Newton, J. Geils Band. Greg Kihn Band, Poison, MC Hammer, and a few that I probably missed. The songs are great, but the misrepresentation is unforgiveable...Save your money on this one if what you are looking for is a true compilation of One Hit Wonders.

Wow, whoever came up with this album chose some great music, just the worst title ever. I didn't recognize all the songs, but as I scrolled down I saw the song "Every Rose Has its Thorn." Poison was NOT a one-hit wonder. I can think of many other songs they sang: Talk Dirty to Me, Fallen Angel, Unskinny Bop, Look What the Cat Dragged In, just to name a few. I also thought it was funny that the name of the artists were left off. Could that be because they didn't want you to start thinking about who the artists were? Hmmmmmmmmmmm.