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What Makes a One-hit Wonder? · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Say something. Um, yeah, I
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: didn't even say say something funny. I just said say
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: something for us. Yeah, it's all right, man. That's good
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: quality in a broadcaster to freeze up on the air
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and a professional talker. Yeah, yeah, how you doing. I'm great? Um,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I'm good man. This is a fun, goofy little topic
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: and we haven't done one like that in a while.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: This was a fun article written by a guy named
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Charles W. Bryant, a writer for the site. Yeah. I
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: will go ahead and say one thing I was disappointed
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: in this article, and I would still like to see
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: someone tackle this in documentary style. Maybe is the psychology
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: of being a one hit wonder? Oh? Like what it
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: does to your psyche? Yeah? Is it better to have
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: that one hit and fade away and at least you
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: had that? Or is it better to have never? You know?
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I just I would be real curious to see a
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: series of interviews with one hit wonders to see, like
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: how they feel about it. You're saying, is it better
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to have hit and lost than never to have hit
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: at all exactly, And I couldn't really find anything on that.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: So I'm sure there's one or two who like listen
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: to the podcast and if you do, right in, let
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: us know how it is. We're interested. Blue Vega, Yeah,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: least um the fake Loue Vega. So, Chuck, I wanted
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: to commend you for this article because you really like
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: this is a tough one for With how stuff works articles,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: we typically take a topic that is, you know, has
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a lot of research done on it, it's very well defined,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: and then we deconstruct it. This one is like I
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: looked on the internet and if you type in one
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Hit Wonder, there is like zero scholarly work done on it,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and for good reason. Yeah. Well, I mean it's interesting
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: though too, Like you brought up the psychology of being
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: a one. Yeah, they're shouldn't been anyone ever done a
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: study like that. There is nothing. It's all just lists.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: And I actually did find one good website. It's called
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: um one Hit Wonder central dot com and they have
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: everything and you can play like every song they have
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: it by year. Who the one hit Wonder was from
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: like the sixties to the two thousands, maybe fifties. There
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: are some of the greatest songs to me, or some
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: of the one hit wonders. And I mean that's the points, Like,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: you know, one hit wonder is just something that everybody
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: liked at one time. We just didn't like whatever else
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: they were making, right, Um, at least as it's a
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: large collective group. Anyway, back to me commending you, Um,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you had to take something that was really amorphous that
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: everybody knew and we knew if you got wrong, and
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: whipping into shape like a definable shape, and you got
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: it right. I think you did a great job. So Um.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: The first thing you pointed out was that no one
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: is certain of the origin of this phrase. That's right,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: but we figured out that it was. It first came
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: in print nine seven, right. Well that's what phrases done
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: work says, and I couldn't find anything to dispute it.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: But a writer there wrote the sentence in July seventy
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: about abba instead of becoming what everyone expected a one
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: hit wonder, they soon had a string of hits behind them.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And although the website phrase dot org does say it
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: appears to have already been a used phrase, but this
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: is the first time they've seen it in print, right,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and and so, and there actually is like a definition
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: for one hit wonder, like there's well, a hit, I
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: guess you can find a hit, and then it's got
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: to be on the because we're so American centric, has
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: to be on the billboard top and then specifically in
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: the top forty to be considered a hit. Right, Yeah,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: technically for like when most people like there have been
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: books written about one hit wonders and that's usually what
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: what they say. Okay, so that wasn't just you or
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: anything saying. And I thought it was a great definition. No,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: it's a good definition. But that's the generally held definition.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: But then that's where it gets really blurry, as we're
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: about to find out, right, well, in many ways, I mean, yeah,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: you make a point that there's a lot of one
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: hit wonders by that definition. Who are legendary musicians like
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Jimi Hendrix one hit, Janis Joplin one hit, Garth Brooks
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: as Chris Gaines. Yeah, that's this only billboard hit. Yeah,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: this is only Billboard top forty hit. Yeah, but he
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: had country hits. It just lived on the country top ten.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: But yeah, as in the mainstream top forty. His only
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: hit was as Chris Kaines with the Haircut and the
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Soul patch Man. That was Yeah, I don't know what
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: song that was even I don't need um Beck Yeah,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the Dead, The Dead, the White Stripes, lou Reid, Iggy
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Pop Divo, some like iconic bands and musicians that have
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: only had one hit. Um. And then you've got artists
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: who never had that hit but are still considered one
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: hit wonders. Because what you end up realizing is, despite
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the definition of what a hit is, a one hit
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: wonder is something different. It's just an artist and a
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: song who captured something for a moment in time. It
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter if it was a top forty hit, right
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: like you you say, Um, Wallavoodoo's Mexican Radio. Absolutely, it's
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: not a top forty hit. No, but that's definitely a
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: hit in the zeitgeist. Did you put it? Absolutely? Who else?
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I'll melt with you Modern English, the Weather Girls, it's
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: raining men Like you would say, all of these are
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: definitely one hit wonders and none of them had top
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: forty hits. Right. So, but sticking to the strict definition,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: um that I mean that still works too. Write like
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the Penguins, Earth Angel. Yeah, in the fifties, right, Um,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: in the sixties you had um Summertime Blues by Blue Cheer,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: but they really spent blue on like there one there
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: one thing there, one shot was covered in blue Blue Cheer.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Did Summertime Blues? Green Tambourine? Remember that song? No, I
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: didn't mean tambourine. It was very like psychedelic No and
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: the Lemon Pipers. You know, it's one of those songs
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: where sort of like h in the seventies Argents hold
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: your head up, like everybody knows that song. But I
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: bet ninety nine people out of a hundred I've never
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: heard of the vand Argent. No, they probably think, oh,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: wasn't that the guests who? Or wasn't that Joe Dirt?
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Or yes, that was it? Yeah, I really I never
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: saw that movie. What I never saw Joe Dirt? Oh man,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: such a great like keep your Chin up movie is
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: so good. Like I really can hate David Spade, you
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: can hate all of that kind of comedy, but that
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: movie has such like it's got heart, It's a cute movie. Well,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: I had friends it's on Netflix streaming. Yeah, I had
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: friends that worked on it, and that's where I had
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: my Gary Busey insider story. Oh yeah, yeah, I think
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I told you. You You know, he was He was supposed
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: to play the father and if you'll notice in the
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: film he does not play the father. No, it's done
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: by one Fred Ward. Yeah. So Gary Busey was on
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: set for a day and it didn't work out. He
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: made it. Wish I could tell the whole story. He
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: made it into Black Sheep with Chris Farley and um,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: David Spade. Yeah, he was like the crazy guy who
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: lived in a school bus in the woods. It was
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the part he was born to play exactly. Please don't
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: come to our office, Gary buy um. All right. So
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: that was the fifty and that's generally when the rock
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: era in the fifties is when you people say you
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: can start talking about things like one hit wonders, like
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: not some guy who had one big band hit in
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties, although I'm sure they were there, you
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: know that's true. Uh, there's been one song that was
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: a one hit wonder for two bands, which is interesting.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, let's here Funky Town really yeah, Lips incorporated
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: eighty and then I don't know if you remember Pseudo Echo.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: They did a version of that in six It was
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: a little more electric and upbeat, and that was a
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: bona fide top forty hit as well. Seems can't people
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: couldn't get enough of Funky Town. I hope whoever wrote
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: that like really cast in. Yeah. So the sixties all right, Now,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the sixties was the green tambour in seventies songs like
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum. That's a good song. Uh,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: it was in Apollo thirteen one took over the line.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: I I literally wrote Shuggar next to that, what like,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: oh you hate that song? It's pretty bad? Brewer and
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Shipley and then Seasons in the Sun, great song, Terry
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Jack's never heard of the guy No No, no Revy,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: no rev um. And you also make the point that
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: the seventies were lousy with disco one hit wonders, And
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: in our disco episode we talked about why because it
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: was all producer driven rather than artist drive. Exactly. I
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: didn't even bother to like list any in here. You know,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: it's you can just name a disco song and there
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: you have. The eighties, of course, you had bands like
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Soft Cells, Tainted Love and Oh Mickey You're So Fine,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Tony Basil, Uh, I want Candy by Bow Wow Wow Kajau.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Remember what song I don't remember is that who was? Yeah?
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Uh so the eighties was lousy with it, but a
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: lot of those songs are great songs, and a lot
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: of the artists in the eighties were popular in other countries. Yeah,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: and are known as one hit wonder here in the US.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Like I was reading an article on I think Cracked
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: maybe about one hit wonders and they were saying, like,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Aha had Take on Me, which was a hit here
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: in the United States, but that was it. But they're
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: like one of the top fifty grossing bands of all
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: time worldwide. Yeah. Well, and Aha falls into another weird category,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: which is a band that's known as a one hit
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: wonder who actually had a quieter second hit. Oh really Yeah,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: they had a song called the Sun Always Shines on
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: TV that was like a top twenty hit. I think, Wow,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I don't remember that one. Nobody does. They're good though,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: now they're awesome. Um And then remember right said fred
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I'm Too Sexy huge in England. Yes, like there, I'm
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Too Sexy was actually only hit number two in England.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: They had another one that hit number one, but here
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: in the States. I think it hit number one here
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and then that was it for right, said Fred. Uh
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: the same with Frankie Goes to Hollywood and uh yeah,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: they were really big in Europe and Gary Newman. Yeah
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: that was a good song though, that song holds up
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the car back and listen to cars. Yeah, that dude
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: was a good musician. Well, and he was hugely popular
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: and still like tours today. Yeah, so he's he's one
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: of those guys that's like, please don't call me one.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: I wonder I had a long successful career. Look at
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: my house. You know it's a car. No, I think
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: it's like a mansion. He lives in his car. It's
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: pread feels safest, he can lock all his doors. Uh.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Falco and oh yeah, Nina, we're really big in German
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: speaking countries. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. But you
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: know had the ninety nine red balloons Balloons and then
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Falco's rock Me on My Dais. Yeah, huge hit here.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Like it didn't occur to my young brain that that
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: wasn't from the Ama Dais soundtrack, because remember it came
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: out at about the same time as the movie, and um, like,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I just thought it was part of the soundtrack, yeah,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the movie sound Well the point with this though, is
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: that one hit wonder it's sort of a sort of
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: a derogatory term to throw on unearnest. So a lot
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: of these people are like in America, like you jerks,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: I was huge in Europe or maybe some other country,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: and uh yeah, who cares so much for you? One
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: hit the nineties crash Test Dummies, remember those dudes? Well
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: that was the song. Oh yeah, yeah, that's right, the macarena,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: even though I don't even like to count that. Um,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: what about Faith No More is epic? Yeah, see that's
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: a band that hugely critically popular and had a big
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: cult following. But yeah, just the one hit, the epic
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: the name of it, right, you want it all, but
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: you can't have it? That was I remember here that
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: song on the first time. This is the coolest thing
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: I've ever heard. Yeah, and that lead singer what's his name,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Mike something. He's like super respected. He's been another band
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: like Mr Uncle. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's a big like
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: has a big cult following, and not not among cults,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: even like among people who aren't in cults. All right,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: So that's music. That's an overview. Yeah, you make a
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: really good point in this article that, like one hit wonder,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: that derogatory term isn't just um aimed at people only
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: in the music industry, although that's where the lion's share
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: of it is, but it shows up in sports. You
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: pointed out a couple of them, a couple of instances. Yeah. Well,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: if you have one hit in baseball, then you've been
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: a complete and utter failure. But a couple of guys
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: have had one hit and that one hit was a
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: home run, which is pretty cool, which is pretty interesting.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Who was that? There was a guy named um Chris
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Jellic whose name might recognize for some reason. Yeah, and
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I don't follow the Mets or anything, but I guess
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I just saw that that bit of trivia before that
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: he had one hit and it was a home run. Yeah. Maybe.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: So there's a guy who didn't have a hit UM
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: named Eddie Goodell. He had one plate appearance in a
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one game for the Yankees, and he was
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: a little person. Oh yeah, and they put him in
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: against the St. Louis Browns and he drew four consecutive
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: um uh balls and got a walk. Yeah, and his
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: jerseys in the Hall of Fame, and it's you can't
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: see me doing this right now. I'm rubbing my face.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: His number was one eight. Really yeah, but he was
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: I guess you could say a one hit sports wonder.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: It was kind of a fun story until then. Yeah,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: but I mean that's that was his jam, that's what
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: he got paid for, and that's I mean, he was
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: aware that he was a little person. So off. What
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: about the art world, design world. There's a very famous person,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Harvey Belle, who has the perfect name for what he did.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Why is it the perfect name, Harvey bell It sounds
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: like the creator of the smiley face. Yeah, the iconic
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: seventy smiley face. He created that as a marketing campaign. UM.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: It sounded like an internal um morale campaign for State
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: UH mutual Life Assurance company UM and it took off.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know if the company made the money or what.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: But he was paid two forty bucks for it. And
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: he never had another artistic no hit. And I looked
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: to see if there were any other artists who were
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: considered one hit wondering. I found some, but I didn't
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: recognize any of them. I did recognize one Grant would
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the painter of American Gothic. Oh yeah, he painted that
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: and was he won all sorts of prizes, became like
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: this like caused celeb like all over the art world,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: and the media started digging into his life and realized
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: that he was a middle aged bachelor who lived at
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: home with his mother and sister and like wanted to
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: know more about that, and all of a sudden he
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: like just really couldn't handle the the limelight. And it's
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: it's a pretty sad story. I think I read an
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: article about it on Mental flass. It was worth reading.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: So he never painted again, or I don't think he
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: ever kind of went for the Gusto if he didn't
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: just stop painting altogether. I don't remember that to the article. Well,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the art world certainly has a lot of people famous,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: super famous for a single painting, but they may have been,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: you know, very revered in other areas like faith no more.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: That's right, the faith no more of the art world.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: I told just all the scream this last trip to
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: New York. Oh yeah, and you were like, yeah, this
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: was like I can see what you're talking. I mean,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: like you build something like that up in your head
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: see it everywhere, and then just to see the real one.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: It's either going to go one of two ways. You're
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: gonna be underwhelmed or amazed. You know, I completely agree,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: And that's been my uh, that's been what's happened to
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: me with art, because you know how I feel about art.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: I know, how do you feel about art? I love it?
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: What about books? Yeah, um, To Kill a Mockingbird. Yeah,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: that's the one most often cited as the one hit
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: wonder because Harperly wrote one book. That's some one of
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: those rare ones where I actually think the movie is
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: better than the book. And I love the book. It's
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: one of my favorite books of all time. And I
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: hadn't read it in a while, and I went back
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: and read it, and then I watched the movie shortly after.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: I was like, holy cow, the movies better than the book. Yeah, man,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Gregory Peck, I mean yeah, talk about one of the
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: best casting but everybody, like, all of those actors were amazing,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: every single one of them. Yeah. Yeah, that's good stuff.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: She wrote, um, the one book, and she worked on
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: a second for a while called The Long Good Vibe,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: but shelved it. Then in the nineteen eighties, she started
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: another book and never finished that one either, And I
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: guess she just procrastinated. I think she just I don't know.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know if anyone has an answer why she
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: never wrote again. Same with the Sallenger, Yeah, Catching the Rye.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: That was it, except he wrote short stories too, But
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think he never published another novel and
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: I will never know. And John Kennedy Toole, sure, Confederacy
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: dunce is, how often do you think about that book
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: just in your normal life? How? I don't know, Almost never? Maybe, yeah,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: a couple of times a year, maybe when it's like
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: a movie be in the works that never happens. I
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: was thinking about that movie or that book yesterday and
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: I hadn't read this article yet. Have you read it? No? Yeah,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: it's good. It's like I think a lot of people
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: have these expectations because it's known as his like genius
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: work after this guy committed suicide, and it is really good.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: But um, I don't think it's like one of the
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: greatest books of all time or anything. Yeah, so what
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: happened to him? Do you know? No? I I just
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I've never read the book. I don't know much about it.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: I know it's kind of like a wacky Southern gothic Yeah, yeah,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: um kind of novel he lived with his aunts, I think,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: or something like yeah, this crazy character in Louisiana that
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: it's always grabbed my attention because it's just like a
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: perfect title. And then the guy's name is perfect as well,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: John Kennedy tool yea or the character his the author
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: got you, well, he killed himself. He was clearly now
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: suffered some sort of mental illness and um, could not
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: get published and that drove him to eventually commits suicide
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: in nineteen nine. And then his mother made it her
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: life's work to get it published and did so. And
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: then his second book was published in the On Bible
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: I think in six and that was made to a movie.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: So he's not a one hit wonder then, well Neon
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Bible wasn't a huge hit, but but yeah, I would
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: say he's a one hit wonder. Um. And you also
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: bring up movies too, man. Yeah, and on books again.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Sylvia Plath is on here for the bell Jar. I
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: kind of wish I hadn't put that in here because
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: she was a well known poet. That's why I hadn't
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: mentioned it, you know. But she did write the one book,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: and then would she do stick her head in the
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: oven or something. I don't know how she killed herself.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: I think Virginia Wolf drowned herself, right, Sylvia Plath on
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: herself on herself? I think did she? That sounds right.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: I remember that scene in Wonder Boys where Toby McGuire
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: rattles off the famous celebrity suicides. It was really great.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: That was a great movie. Joseph Heller with Catch twenty two. Yeah,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: that's certainly a one hit wonder um. So yeah, movies, um,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I mean there more directors and actors that you could
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: even mention that had one hit, but legit super super hits,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: people like Michael is it Chimino or Samino? Samino? I think,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: although if it's if you're speaking in the Italian, it
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: would be Chimino. Uh. He did The Deer Hunter, of course,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: one Best Picture in four other Academy Awards. Did he? Huh?
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Did he? Mal? That's what they tell him when they're
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: like making them play Russian Roulette? Did he? Yeah, except
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: they probably scream it. Yeah. Yeah, that scene was so intent.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: I saw that very young, really young to be seeing
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: that movie in retrospect it made an impression on you. Yeah, huge?
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Um but yeah. He famously made Heaven's Gate Um as
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: his follow up, which was one of the notorious disasters
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: along with Ishtar. Was it like water World Skate Warren
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Baby movie too? Or is that Heven Can Wait? He
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: was in Heaven Ken Waite and his Star, So what
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: about Heavens? What was that about? Yeah? I think it
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: was a western if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, and it
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: was just a notorious failure and a very expensive one.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: And then Tomino never He made a few other movies,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: but you haven't heard of many of them. He did
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Year of the Dragon was like with Mickey Rourke, which
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the only other like notable movie that was supposed to
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: be a good one. Yeah, but it was far from
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: a hit, you know what I'm saying. And then my favorite, uh,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Steve Gordon one of my favorite movies of all time.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: I have not seen it. You didn't see Arthur. Not
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: only have I not seen the original Arthur, I haven't
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: seen the remake that includes our friend Hodgeman as a
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: candy store manager believer. That was terrible, by the way,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: not Hosman's bit, not Hodgement was great, but the remake
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: was really bad, and it was so sad because Arthur
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: is one of the movies that I hold very very
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: dear to me. And Steve Gordon wrote and directed it
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and then died after when it was the only movie
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: he ever made by his own hand. No, I think
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: he had a heart attack or something and died young
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: but young ish. Uh. And it was just so like
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: it was a gut wrenching experience watching the remake for me.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Why did you watch it? Like, for example, I think
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Red Dawn is one of my favorite movies of all time.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: There's not a chance that I will ever see the
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: remake of Red Dawn. Well, I'm not either, And I
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: learned after Arthur. So yeah, so that's the one that
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: taught you the lesson. Yeah, I'm not gonna watch anything
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: that was really precious to me if they rebooted or
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: remake it again. Never again. It sounds like Hodgeman tell
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: you a valuable lesson. Yeah. And I like Russell Brand,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: you know, and I thought, you know, they made Helen
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Mirre and John Gielgood's character and was just enough of
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: a spin and I was like, well, that's could be interesting.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: But then everything about the movie was just some new
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: little spin to make it different. And it was like, hey,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: let's make the man a woman. Let's make the the
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: white guy Puerto Rican, you know, and it was like
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Louis Guzman. It was just it was bad, so bad.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I got you. Yeah, Well that's it for Arthur. Yeah. Um,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: if you want to learn more about Arthur, you can
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: type that word in this search part. Isn't that what
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: this podcast is about? I forgot it? Arthur One hit wonders,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: study more. That's what it was. You should read this
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: article by Chuck. It's a good one. Um. You can
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: type one hit wonders in the search bar how stuff
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: works dot Com and it will bring up this article again. Uh,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: commendable article. Thanks uh and I said commendable. So it's
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: time for word from our sponsor. Just starts so much star.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Now it's time for listening her mail Josh, I'm gonna
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: call this. Uh, We're gonna give this guy's wife a
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: tongue of my shoe. Oh jeez, what you do you'll see? Uh.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Dudes have been an avid listener since shortly after its inception.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan, especially enjoy listening to it while
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: I'm stressed out. That always assumes the my nerves tack
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: her your banter. Over the years, I've tried to convince
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: my now wife Elizabeth to listen. Unfortunately, she's always insists
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: that you two are stoners and that you're ritty repartee
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: is contrived, that's so far off. She makes me change
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: over to this American life for radio lab great shows.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: What's your podcast? I download to fill the time between
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: stuff you should know releases. I've repeatedly informed her that
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: you guys are not stoners. You've done frequent podcasts on
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the ill effects of drugs, and this is not convinced her.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Still listen within me. When you read letters during listener
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: mail about couples who enjoy listening together, that's so sad.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: If I'm not mistaken, one pair even became engaged during
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: a listener mail segment. Yeah, we don't know about that yet.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: I'm not vouching for that. Um. It recently struck me
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: that perhaps if you were to give Elizabeth a shout
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: out at the end of the show, she might be
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: impressed enough to become a fan as well. You could
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: say hi to Elizabeth at the end of the show.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: You'd be contributing to my marital bliss. So wait a second, way, second,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: you realize what's going on here. We're being manipulated, Yeah,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: to to say hey to somebody who doesn't even like us.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I know, I feel like there should be some money
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: exchange for this. Well, no, I feel instead of saying
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: hi to Elizabeth, she needs to get a tongue lashing
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: for these baseless accusations of us sitting around like in
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: a garage, smoking marijuana, woking marijuana and just like talking. Yeah,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: that's b s. That's someone who's never listened to the show.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: We have banter. We might go off on tangents and
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: we might say like five million times in a sentence,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: but we're not sitting around smoking weed just rambling. Yeah,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: we're just relaxed. A lot of work goes into the show.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: So Elizabeth mellow out, dude, Yeah, seriously, maybe you need
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: to go in the garage. Not maybe. So Anyway, this
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: guy's a neurologist and he said the alien hand syndrome
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: part struck close to his heart. Awesome and devon. If
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: this doesn't do it, then Elizabeth, you can just go
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: listen to this American Life and Radio. Let her hang
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: out with ire A Glass, and I'm sorry for your
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: marriage because it is clearly clearly headed in the wrong direction.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: I think we had her until just that last things
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: right there. No, she's great on Churchill partial to man Um.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: We'll find out. Let us know, Devon, will you if
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: you want us to say something specific to somebody you know? Um,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: we very well might do it if you ask it.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Might we have before? Um. You can tweet to us
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: at s Y s K podcast. You can join us
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: on Facebook dot com so list Stuff you Should Know.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: You can send us an email to Stuff Podcasts at
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Discovery dot com. End you can always find us at
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: our home on the Internet, Stuff you Should Know dot com.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com. H