Latest / Stuff You Should Know / SYSK Selects: What Makes a One-hit Wonder?

Transcript

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

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