A history of popular music, as told by 100 one-hit wonders (part 6)

49. Santa Esmeralda –•– Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood — (Peaked: February 18, 1978 at # 15)        

The Citizen Kane of disco records.

48. The Church –•– Under the Milky Way — (Peaked: June 18, 1988 at # 24)                     

Emo classic with a secret connection to the LA singer-songwriter scene of the 70s. It was produced by Waddy Wachtel (Linda Ronstadt’s guitarist) and Greg Ladanyi (who produced several Jackson Browne albums); the drummer is Russ Kunkel (Jackson Browne and Crosby and Nash’s bands, and the former Mr. Carly Simon). The “bagpipe” solo was a bow played on guitar, then fed into an electronic keyboard.

47. Randy Newman –•– Short People — (Peaked: January 28, 1978 at # 2)          

46. Loudon Wainwright III –•– Dead Skunk — (Peaked: March 31, 1973 at # 16)               

Randy Newman and Loudon Wainwright III came from storied families (Newman had three uncles who wrote Hollywood film scores; Wainwright’s father was a journalist and editor-in-chief of Life magazine) and from the start, both were cordoned off into the “clever artist with a cult following” category. The subject matter of these two songs was universal enough to give each a major hit record, the only two of their long careers.

45. The Penguins –•– Earth Angel — (Peaked: February 5, 1955 at # 8)                                

When WOR-FM changed from underground rock to oldies, it introduced the new format by playing its top 500 songs of all-time (and at that point, “all time” only meant about 15 years). Figuring my musical education was more important, I faked being ill so I could stay home from school to listen. The top two were disappointing because I’d never heard of either “In The Still of the Night” by the Five Satins or "Earth Angel" before, but looking back they made perfect sense, soulful R&B ballads that provided a soundtrack for 50s teenagers to slow dance or make out to. Years later, when WNEW-FM offered its own top 500 of all-time, with the inevitable top two of “Stairway to Heaven” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” – that was much more disappointing.

44. Harry Simeone Chorale –•– The Little Drummer Boy — (Peaked: January 12, 1959 at # 13)

Christmas music isn’t supposed to be haunting, but "The Little Drummer Boy" kind of scared me as a kid, with the hypnotic drone “drumbeat” underneath the choir. As peaceful as stepping outside from a noisy family gathering on Christmas Eve into the cold dark.

43. Reunion –•– Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me) — (Peaked: November 16, 1974 at #8)

42. Pete Wingfield –•– Eighteen with a Bullet — (Peaked: November 29, 1975 at # 15)

In the time it takes for "Life Is A Rock" to unroll, the names of more than 125 singers, bands, producers, record labels, deejays and dance crazes fly by, keeping Billboard subscribers and the nerds who collected the weekly radio station surveys busy for weeks deciphering it (and an idea later co-opted, with all the fun removed, by Billy Joel in “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”) Pete Wingfield was a British recording session keyboard player with a white-guy Afro and remarkable vocal range whose moment of glory was "Eighteen With A Bullet" – a doo wop homage that used music business terms as metaphors for a romance.

41. Zager and Evans –•– In the Year 2525 — (Peaked: July 12, 1969 at # 1)                         

"In the Year 2525" – not to forget its pompously parenthetical sub-title, Exordium & Terminus – stayed at #1 for six weeks through the summer of 1969 – making it the most successful one-hit wonder record ever. Although the lyrics weren’t much more imaginative in describing a dystopian future than your average issue of DC Comics’ Kamandi, it was nominated for a Hugo, the science fiction literary version of an Oscar.