Tag: One-Hit Wonders

May I Have Another?: Alannah Myles

Ever watch one of those VH1, “one-hit wonders” specials, where the random D level commentators start talking about these artists that had one hit, where half of them actually had multiple songs that charted? Random commentator probably has no idea but then somewhere in there Matt Pinfield comes in with his “I’m smarter than you and probably no fun at all” persona and makes sure you know they had another song that charted exactly at #98 for one week in 1984. Well, I’m the everyman’s Pinfield but funnier and better looking. This series will go back to the 80s and spotlight one-hit wonders (in the US), real (truly only one charting hit) or perceived (other songs charted low but they are known for just one song) and come to a definitive verdict if we should accept or reject their status as that one-hit wonder.

Alannah Myles burst onto the scene here in the U.S. in 1989, with her hit song “Black Velvet” which was a pretty great, sultry blues-pop tune and then she promptly faded away. She had a bigger career in her native Canada but for the purpose of this blog, we focus on the US.

“Black Velvet”

Myles was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as Alannah Byles and was performing from age of 12 or so all around Ontario. She put in her dues for a good six years before meeting Christopher Ward, who was not only a songwriter but the very first VJ on MuchMusic in Canada (think MTV of Canada). Ward truly believed in her talent and although she shopped a demo around for years with no traction, about nine years after they met, he was still working with her and helped her get a record deal with Atlantic in 1987. She then teamed up with Canadian producer and writer, David Tyson and started recording the debut record. Released in 1989, Alannah was already 31 at the time which was a bit older than the age of many of the artists on the radio then. Ward/Tyson had a hand in writing nine of the ten songs on the record including “Black Velvet” which went to #1 in the US. It was actually her second single with the song “Love Is” charting at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 before that. The self-titled debut represents the 80’s pretty well, a bit of rock mixed with adult contemporary pop and Myles had a bit of a smokey voice, with a bit of grit, reminding me of Pat Benatar at that time. The album itself is really enjoyable from front to back. Listening to it in 2019 shows that it’s extremely dated but represents 1989 pretty well.

As good as the debut is, there’s a glaring flaw that is likely the reason she never made another dent in the US charts. Nothing else on the album sounds close to “Black Velvet” and therefore there was no perfect follow up single to the hit. In addition, if you watch the video for the track, she’s dressed in cowboy gear and playing the southern blues chick. It worked well for the track at hand but that didn’t translate to the rest of the album. There’s one acoustic blues track ending the record, called “Hurry Make Love” but it wasn’t a radio ready track. Much of the rest of the album was pretty rockin’ for the time. Her gravely voice blended well with rock guitars and the album focused on that. IMO, if the record company had pitched her as a rock star first and released “Just One Kiss” as the first single, “Love Is” as the second and “Black Velvet” as the third as a ballad from a rocker, she could have had significantly more success. I think if you put “Just One Kiss” up against, say Pat Benatar’s “All Fired Up,” you have a pitch that might have worked in the end. Of course that still doesn’t leave a proper follow up to “Black Velvet” but her persona would have been way different.

“Just One Kiss”

A little over three years later, she followed up with the album Rockinghorse, which followed the same general path as the debut, although I definitely wouldn’t have started the album with a rap like she did on “Our World Our Times.” The album opens up with pure rockers like the aforementioned track, which has a guitar riff very similar to “Kyrie” by Mr. Mister and “Make Me Happy” which seems to share the same bassline as Poison’s “Unskinny Bop.” The track that really should have been a hit was the ballad, “Sonny Say You Will” which would have been a perfect song for 1992. Instead, the first single was “Song Instead of a Kiss” a painfully slow ballad filled with epic string movements. While a good enough song on its own, not something that would have gotten much airplay in the U.S. It did hit #1 in Canada, but here, did nothing. And that was pretty much her last real shot in the states.

“Song Instead of a Kiss”

From this point on, the focus seemed to be on her native Canada where she actually had five hits off Rockinghorse. In 1995, she released her third record A-Lan-Nah, on which she brought in new songwriters. Ward and Tyson had their hand in four tracks on the record but Phil Johnstone (Robert Plant) co-wrote a few tunes and Pat McDonald (Timbuk3) co-wrote two others. The album had a decidedly less rock feel and went more in the pop direction. With acoustic guitars heavily in the fold this time, the disc has an overall singer-songwriter vibe. But the lead track on the disc, “Mistress of Erzulie” sure sounds a whole lot like another top Canadian artist at the time – Alanis Morrisette.

“Mistress of Erzulie”

After her 2007 release, A Rival, she took a break from recording, though still toured over the years. In 2009 though she released the creatively titled Black Velvet which was not a greatest hits record but rather new songs and of course a re-recording of her most famous hit (in a clearly inferior version). 2014 was her 25th anniversary, so you know, instead of repacking the original record and re-releasing it, her label at the time decided to expand the Black Velvet album out a bit, rename it 85 BPM and re-release that, of all things.

“Black Velvet” 2008 remake

In the end, Alannah Myles career in the US seemed to have been just a series of weird and possibly bad decisions. No one is really going to argue with having a #1 hit but she was a good enough rock artist to have had better success here in the end.

Summary: Despite “Love Is” going to #36 in 1989, no one really knows that song. In the US, it was all about “Black Velvet” and for that, I’m going to accept her status as a one-hit wonder. Part of my accepting or rejecting the status is my thoughts on whether an artist should have been a bigger hit or not but in a case like this, either herself or her label really didn’t do her many favors in their choice of songs. If the singles would have been the right ones but just didn’t chart, I would have rejected the status but in the US at least, the decision makers failed her here, to the point where I simply have to say that one-hit wonder-dom was her true fate.

May I Have Another?: The Vapors

Ever watch one of those VH1, “one-hit wonders” specials, where the random D level commentators start talking about these artists that had one hit, where half of them actually had multiple songs that charted? Random commentator probably has no idea but then somewhere in there Matt Pinfield comes in with his “I’m smarter than you and probably no fun at all” persona and makes sure you know they had another song that charted exactly at #98 for one week in 1984. Well, I’m the everyman’s Pinfield but funnier and better looking. This series will go back to the 80s and spotlight one-hit wonders (in the US), real (truly only one charting hit) or perceived (other songs charted low but they are known for just one song) and come to a definitive verdict if we should accept or reject their position as a one-hit wonder.

The Vapors are one-hit wonders of course for “Turning Japanese” from their debut album New Clear Days, released in 1980. But I wonder if enough people even know about their two albums to understand the band a bit deeper.

The band formed in 1978 as The Vapours but then removed the “u” to seem more marketable in the US. Their debut record came out in 1980 and while “Turning Japanese” was a hit, no other songs really were.

The Vapors were a new wave / punk band and while the hit single was a bit quirky, the rest of New Clear Days is not. In what has to be a pretty rare occasion for a one-hit wonder, the album is actually great. The album deftly mixes new wave / punk and post-punk with socially conscious and political lyrical content. The level of musicianship on the record is top notch with Howard Smith’s drumming really standing out to me.

“Turning Japanese” was the second single they released after a song called “Prisoners,” supposedly because they even thought they might be one-hit wonders if “Turning Japanese” was first.

“Prisoners”

“Prisoners” wasn’t even on the original version of the album released outside of the US. In the US, a few songs were taken out (ironically one of them is the track, “America”) and were replaced by the single. Worldwide, it didn’t appear on a record until the 2000 remaster.

As mentioned, “Turning Japanese” was the second release from their debut and of course, you’ve likely heard the legend that this song is about masturbation and the look you get on your face as you’re um, finishing. Lead singer David Fenton, who wrote the song, claims that’s not true – as the song is simply about losing the girl and then changing into a whole different person because of it. A hit song about jerking off is way more fun to believe though. That Asian-like riff you hear in the song actually is called the “Oriental riff” and is very commonly used to represent Asian culture in western songs.

“Turning Japanese”

In 2009, Kirsten Dunst recorded pretty much a note-for-note clone of the song (yes, that Kirsten Dunst).

Kirsten Dunst, “Turning Japanese”

The band released a third single called “News at Ten” and then a fourth called “Waiting for the Weekend” that failed to chart in the US. However the key track on the album for me is the punkier “Cold War.” It’s a pretty brilliant song with some great lyrics such as “Little white dogs in black and chains / screaming indignation at your high class games / ’til the lights go out / shut your eyes and go back home/ cramped and shocked in leather jeans / stoning priests and virgins ‘cos they’re much too clean / for your new machine / shut your eyes and go back home.” Unfortunately, it was the other tune removed from the US version at the time of release. And then the upbeat punk tinged new wave tune, “Somehow” probably should have been the logical follow up single to the hit. Alternately, the opening track “Spring Collection” is a quick 3-minute burst of energy that also would have made a decent single.

“Cold War”

The Vapors followed New Clear Days up pretty quickly with their second album, Magnets. There were two singles released from the album with neither of them charting. “Jimmie Jones” as the second single was particularly good but was written about the famed cult leader Jim Jones, which really doesn’t scream hit pop song. The album itself pushed the new wave aspect of the band moving forward and backed off on their punk roots, not completely, but enough that the edginess of the first record is kind of lost on this one. It’s still a pretty damn fine record but the debut is significantly better.

“Jimmie Jones”

They released both their albums on United Artists and when UA got sold to Liberty records and that labeled failed to give a shit about the band, they decided it wasn’t worth their time any longer and disbanded. Lead singer David Fenton became a lawyer, guitarist Edward Bazalgette went on to become a TV director, drummer Howard Smith ran a record shop while bassist Steve Smith was the only one to stay in music and at some juncture actually joined a rap/rock band.

Verdict: One-hit wonder status rejected. Yes, “Turning Japanese” was their only hit in the U.S. so by definition, they are a one-hit-wonder however, my goal with this series is to determine if they really deserve that status and The Vapors certainly don’t. There should have been multiple hits from the first record at least and that one is definitely worth your time to take another (or maybe first) listen.