Who knew?

[yendi]

Out of curiosity (after hitting "Don't Fear the Reaper" on iTunes), I checked out the Greatest Hits of the Blue Öyster Cult on Amazon. Since I could only recall one other song by them ("Burnin' for You"), I was surprised to find that their Hits album has a whopping sixteen songs on it. That's fourteen songs that never even landed on my radar.

Browsing Amazon for other one and two-hit wonders, I found that A-Ha has a sixteen-song Greatest Hits compilation, in spite of only "Take on Me" and "The Sun Always Shines on TV" getting any airplay. They get extra chutzpah points for including "Living Daylights," which was the James Bond songs what Tomothy Dalton was to James Bond actors.

Of course, neither A-Ha nor The Blue Öyster Cult have the claim on obscurity and one-hit wonderness that Lipps, Inc has. Yet, there's a CD called Funkyworld: The Best of Lipps, Inc, which can only prove that there are still record company execs snorting cocaine (or there were, as of the early '90s).

The good news: I can't find any mention of "Chumbawumba's Greatest Hits," or "How Bizarre: The Sixty Greatest Hits of OMC in One Box Set."

Comments

[sirinek.livejournal.com]

I'm one of three or four people who owns "Bananarama's Greatest Hits"

[yendi]

Well, I can think of at least four worthy songs off-hand (Shy Boy, Cruel Summer, Venus, and I Heard a Rumor), which puts 'em way ahead of the other three.

[bassfingers.livejournal.com]

How can you forget BOC's hit "Godzilla"??? "History shows again and again how nature points up (out?) the folly of men."

[sirinek.livejournal.com]

Damnit now I got that in my head!

go go godzilla!

[yendi]

Just went to iTunes and played the clips, and I remember it now, but I had no idea that this was the BOC.

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

Somebody beat me to it! This was my uncle's theme song, since he was called Godzilla when he was an army mechanic based in Panama. There is NO possible way that I could forget that song.

Also, they were pretty damn popular all the way around in their time.

[seattlejo.livejournal.com]

It doesnt surprise me about Ah-ha I acutally have a second album by them. Maybe they were a hit elsewhere? (UK? )

[hockeyrules88.livejournal.com]

The thing about bands like A-Ha is that they have a pretty big following in their native countries. I have a couple albums from them as well as their greatest hits album. Their stuff really isn't bad, it just doesn't fit into the programming of most radio stations here in the states.

Another band that has a couple greatest hits albums is Big Country. Now most people only know about their one hit "In A Big Country", but they had a huge following in the UK. Their stuff is really good, but again, nothing playable here in the states. I have 2 of their albums, and just picked up a couple more.

[demetria23.livejournal.com]

You know, the Chumbawumba CD after Tubthumping wasn't half-bad.

[yendi]

The only post-Tubthumping CW work I'm familiar with is their guest appearance on an Oysterband CD. What was their sound like on the next album?

[crystalrowan.livejournal.com]

You've never heard "Godzilla" by Blue Oyster Cult? You would love it! Here is a sampling of the lyrics:

With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down

Helpless people on a subway train
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them

He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town

Oh no, they say he's got to go
Go go Godzilla, yeah
Oh no, there goes Tokyo
Go go Godzilla, yeah

I LOVE that song. :)

[yendi]

As I mentioned above, I had to head to iTunes and listen before I reconized it. Sounds nothing like the other BOC music. :-)

[crystalrowan.livejournal.com]

You're definitely right about that. I heard it before I knew it was by them and was completely baffled when someone told me it was Blue Oyster Cult.

[fings.livejournal.com]

"Astronomy", or more precisely, the version off _Imaginos_ (not the _Secret Treaties_ version), was a minor hit back around 1990. I don't know which version is on this compilation.

As for the rest of the tracks, there's some good stuff in there, but aside from "Don't Fear the Reaper", "Burning for You", and "Godzilla", none that I would classify as a commercial hit.

Sorta Bewildered.

[deep-bluze.livejournal.com]

BOC a one-hittish sort of band? um....eeer ye NUTZ? (lol)

Do ye not ken the movie HEAVY METAL

"Here I stand the victim, of a thousand psychic wars..."

Buck Dharma is one of the under-rated guitarists in rock

and they have some of the most thoughtful, enduring lyrics in rock, as well, but they ARE one of those bands that has such a maleable sound that you often end up thinking...DAMN, they did THAT?

DNW

Re: Sorta Bewildered.

[yendi]

and they have some of the most thoughtful, enduring lyrics in rock, as well, but they ARE one of those bands that has such a maleable sound that you often end up thinking...DAMN, they did THAT?

See, I think that's one of the problems I had -- I completely failed to associate "Godzilla" with them, because it sounded nothing like the songs of theirs that I'd heard.

Alas, I haven't see Heavy Metal since it came out (and I was a little bit young then), so the soundtrack doesn't really stick in my head.

Re: Sorta Bewildered.

[deep-bluze.livejournal.com]

You sorta nudged me into going to their website. The band has been around since the late 1960s and have done tons of good stuff -- three decades, and I bet every decade remembers a couple of songs...but different ones.

DNW

[photognome.livejournal.com]

Ah-ha has to get some special mention for having one of the coolest videos of the eighties though......

[photognome.livejournal.com]

Ah-ha has to get some special mention for having one of the coolest videos of the eighties though......

[photognome.livejournal.com]

Ah-ha has to get some special mention for having one of the coolest videos of the eighties though......

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

BOC was the first tape I ever bought.

[two-star.livejournal.com]

The most obscure artist I know with a CD entitled "Greatest Hits" is Amy Denio, who is just a hit away from being a one hit wonder. (You may know her from her work with Tone Dogs, Pale Nudes, FloMoFlo, and the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet. But I rather doubt it.)

[raptorgirl.livejournal.com]

I didn't know A-ha sang "The Sun Always Shines On TV." I heard that on Sunday Night Vinyl (local retro radio show) last night and thought it sounded familiar, but I didn't catch the artist's name because I reached my destination (I was driving).

"Did Anyone Approach You?" by A-ha is only about two years old and very beautiful.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Just because a band didn't gte much USA airplay doesn't mean it didn't have hits or that it wasn't popular. Pink Floyd took quite some time, for example, to be recognized in the USA (and even then didn't have a whole lot of hit singles).

Airplay means nothing, neither does MTV play time. The most popular bands in the clubs almost never show up on the radio or tv.