A history of popular music, as told by 100 one-hit wonders (part 2)

Second in the series; the criteria for what makes a one-hit wonder is in the entry below. 

90: J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers –•– Last Kiss — (Peaked: November 7, 1964 at # 2)

For a time, teenage tragedy songs were the rage – grim storylines of star-crossed couples who vow eternal love just before one of them is killed, preferably (because it’s a lot closer to home if you’re a teenager who just got their driver’s license) in a vehicular accident. By 1964, the genre looked to have run its course when suddenly “Last Kiss” (and “Leader of the Pack” by the Shangri-Las) pushed with clutching hands through graveyard dirt. J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers were touring the Midwest as "Last Kiss" rattled at the bottom of the charts. Early one morning in Ohio, a car in their caravan drifted into the oncoming lane and rammed head-on into a trailer truck. The driver of the car was killed, and Wilson broke his ankle. The tour continued, with Wilson hobbling onstage on a crutch, and “Last Kiss” began climbing up the charts.  

89. The Castaways –•– Liar, Liar — (Peaked: October 23, 1965 at # 12) 

88: The Elegants –•– Little Star — (Peaked: August 25, 1958 at # 1)

Based as they are on childhood rhymes, these songs offer instant familiarity. The Castaways were a Minneapolis band that mostly played Midwestern frat parties until they cut "Liar Liar" for a local record label. Built around the “liar, liar, pants are on fire” playground taunt, it was a national breakout. The Elegants were five Italian teenagers from Staten Island who reworked “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” to create a doo-wop gem. 

87. Dean Friedman –•– Ariel — (Peaked: June 25, 1977 at # 26)

Dean Friedman of Paramus salutes his hometown’s most spectacular cultural contribution, the waterfall at Paramus Park, as well as Dairy Queen (he mentions getting onion rings, so it was probably the one on Route 4, where you could also get hot dogs and hamburgers from their “brazier”). 

86. Tom Tom Club –•– Genius of Love — (Peaked: April 24, 1982 at # 31)

The three members of the Talking Heads not named David Byrne pay tribute to black music, capturing a very specific time, not unlike Arthur Conley’s shout out of the soul superstars of 1966 in “Sweet Soul Music.” When someone gets around to making a documentary about inner-city culture of the early 80s, “Genius of Love” will play on the soundtrack as kids carry boom boxes the size of window air conditioners on their shoulder and graffiti-covered elevated trains roll by. 

85. Tiny Tim –•– Tip Toe Thru’ The Tulips With Me — (Peaked: June 29, 1968 at # 17) 

84. The New Vaudeville Band –•– Winchester Cathedral — (Peaked: December 3, 1966 at # 1)

Mostly in the UK, music hall and vaudeville were a strange offshoot of psychedelia that not even the Beatles (or at least Paul) were immune to (“When I’m 64” and “Your Mother Should Know”). The New Vaudeville Band were following the trend, but Tiny Tim was the real deal, an eccentric human jukebox who seemingly knew the words and music to every song written since the turn of the century. 

83. The Undisputed Truth –•– Smiling Faces Sometimes — (Peaked: September 4, 1971 at # 3)

Serpentine slow-burner written by Motown’s Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, whose songwriting credits are pretty amazing, including Money, Just My Imagination, Psychedelic Shack, Cloud Nine, Runaway Child, I Wish It Would Rain, Too Many Fish in the Sea and I Heard It Through the Grapevine. 

82. Kai Winding –•– More — (Peaked: August 24, 1963 at # 8)  

Someone at Fairmount School, obviously with a negligent parent, saw Mondo Cane at the Fox Theater and it was the talk of the day. “You really see a guy get killed by a bull? Stabbed with its horns?” When, many years later, the film finally made its television debut on Channel 9 – which should tell you a lot about Mondo Cane – it turned out to be a dull anthology of dated “weird” scenes, like senior citizen bodybuilders. It had a nice theme song though, sort of a rewrite of Telstar (or maybe it was the other way around). 

81. Sheb Wooley –•– Purple People Eater — (Peaked: June 9, 1958 at # 1)

Woolworth's in Hackensack sold one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eater toy figures. They scared me.