One Hit Wonderful

I’m listening to the Cardigans‘ album, Gran Turismo, the follow-up to their fairly big hit album, First Band on the Moon (remember “Lovefool”?). This album basically sank without a trace upon its release in 1998, but it’s really good. The Cardigans certainly seemed like a deserving one hit wonder candidate–”Lovefool” was catchy and cute in a Scandinavian mindless pop sort of way (more on this later) but as far as I could tell the lead singer was signing phonetically and there was no reason to think they would ever release another song worth hearing. It turns out, though, that Gran Turismo is an ambitious, moody, well-crafted, and haunting album. The single “My Favorite Game” is an awesome song–you can hear the echoes of their hit single in it–but there’s a lot more going on throughout the whole album. Two thumbs up!

Anyway, that got me thinking about other bands that don’t deserve to be one-hit wonders. Here’s a brief list:

• Reel Big Fish:
  Best known for “Sell Out,” the meta-single that came out in the 10 minutes in 1997 when people thought ska might be cool. That didn’t pan out for anybody but No Doubt, who made a smooth transition to pop rock, but that’s another story entirely. Reel Big Fish is still together, more or less, and although they haven’t managed to put together another album as amazing as “Turn the Radio Off” the new stuff is still pretty good, and they have a great sense of humor about the vicissitudes of fame (“One Hit Wonderful” is the title of a song on their most recent album
• The Refreshments:
  1996′s Fizzy, Fuzzy, Big & Buzzy featured the border-crossing robbery narrative single, “Banditos.” It got a ton of radio play at the time but I don’t think I ever heard another Refreshments song on the radio. It’s too bad, because that entire album is great and the follow-up, “The Bottle and Fresh Horses,” is too. These guys, with their focus on tequila, Mexico, and the American Southwest, were covering much more interesting territory than most of their contemporaries, and it’s too bad that nobody bought their albums. Anyway, the lead singer formed a new band that carries on the Refreshments tradition, such as it is, today. I highly recommend that you check them out.
• The Caesars:
  You remember these Swedes from that iPod ad, right? The song featured in the ad, “Jerk it Out,” is certifiably excellent, and for a little while I think I heard it every time I went to a cool kids bar in DC. Well I’d like to say that it’s not the highlight of their discography but that wouldn’t be honest. Much like Blur’s “Song 3,” it’s basically the platonic ideal for a rock single. But it’s not a red herring, either; these guys know how to craft memorable, catchy tunes. Who cares that the lyrics read like a selection from Highlights for Children? Their next album, whenever it is released, is going to be a monster hit. You heard it here first.
• Chumbawamba:
  Okay, okay. I guess I’m just kidding about this one. But I have a major soft spot for Tubthumper, the 1997 album that featured the horrifically-overplayed “Tubthumping” (I get knocked down; I get back up again, etc.). I bought it for the single, of course, but there are a bunch of songs on the album that manage to be really catchy, musically, and utterly bonkers, lyrically. Suffice it to say that most of their other albums manage to hold onto the latter but stumble on replicating the former.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of others (Tommy Tutone!). What are your favorite bands that are unfairly one hit wonders?