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

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