One Hit Wonders

Los Lobos released an independent LP in the late 1970s, and an EP in 1983. Their first major-label, critically acclaimed release was 1984’s T-Bone Burnett-produced How Will the Wolf Survive? They released a follow up album entitled By the Light of the Moon in 1987. In the same year they recorded some Ritchie Valens covers for the soundtrack to the film La Bamba, including the title track which became a number one single for the band. In 1988 they followed with another album, La Pistola y El Corazón featuring original and classical norteño songs. Seen as akin to commercial suicide, the album sold poorly.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the band toured extensively throughout the world, opening for such acts as Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead.

Los Lobos returned with The Neighborhood in 1990, and the creative and wildly experimental Kiko (produced by Mitchell Froom) in 1992. In 1991, the band contributed a lively cover of Bertha, a song which they often performed live, to the Grateful Dead tribute/rain forest benefit album Deadicated. In 1994 they also contributed a track, Down Where the Drunkards Roll, to the Richard Thompson tribute album Beat the Retreat.

On the band’s twenty-year anniversary they released a two-CD collection of singles, out-takes, live recordings and hits entitled Just Another Band from East L.A.

In 1995, Los Lobos released the children’s record Papa’s Dream on Music for Little People Records. The band also scored the film Desperado and contributed tracks to several other soundtracks and tribute albums. In 1996 they released Colossal Head. In spite of the fact that the album was critically acclaimed, Warner Brothers decided to drop the band from their roster. Los Lobos spent the next few years on side projects.

Los Lobos signed to Hollywood Records in 1999, and released This Time. Hollywood also reissued 1977’s Del Este de Los Angeles. In 2000, Rhino/Warner Archives released the Cancionero: Mas y Mas boxed set.

In 2002, the band released their Mammoth Records debut, Good Morning Aztlan; they released The Ride in 2004.

On the night of October 23, 1999, while the band was on tour, Sandra Rosas, wife of Cesar Rosas, was kidnapped from her house. She was found dead on November 22, 2000. Her half-brother Gabriel Gomez was convicted of her kidnapping and murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Source: Wikipedia

Black Box (later Blackbox) was an Italo-house music group popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for their hit “Ride on Time“. The members of the group included a trio made up of a club DJ (Daniele Davoli), a classically trained clarinet teacher (Valerio Semplici) and a keyboard and electronic music “whizz” (Mirko Limoni.) The three had previously joined to form a group called Groove Groove Melody, producing dance music under names such as Starlight and Wood Allen. They went on to record music under many other aliases.

In 1989, they teamed up with singer/model Catherine Quinol (AKA Katrin) and formed Black Box. By early 1990 they had engaged Martha Wash to perform vocals on a number of tracks which, Ms Wash was apparently told, were ostensibly for club consumption and weren’t for mass-release.
Their first single “Ride on Time” was a hit around the world, making Top 10 in many countries and No.1 in the UK, soon becoming the UK’s best-selling single of 1989. The song sampled Holloway’s 1978 disco hit “Love Sensation” - the title comes from a mishearing of the lyrics “Cause you’re right on time”. “Love Sensation” was written by Dan Hartman who was unaware his song had been sampled by Black Box. According to Hartman’s attorney, Black Box ended up having to give Hartman a good percentage of the royalties. While the song did make it onto the “Dreamland” album when it was released later in 1990, the vocals had been entirely re-recorded, though not by Martha Wash. [1] Rather, Heather Small (best known as the lead singer of UK dance act M People) was enlisted to impersonate Holloway.

Soon after the success of “Ride on Time”, rumours began to surface that the girl in the video might not have been the vocalist. Eventually it was proven that singer Loleatta Holloway actually sang all of the vocals on “Ride on Time” and that Martha Wash was the vocalist featured on every other track on their subsequent album “Dreamland”. Quinol simply lip synched the vocals in live performances and in music videos.

Source: Wikipedia

The Beloved is a British electronic music group. In 1983, Jon Marsh placed an advert in the music press which read as follows:

I am Jon Marsh, founder member of the Beloved. Should you too wish to do something gorgeous, meet me in exactly three year’s time at exactly 11am in Diana’s Diner, or site thereof, Covent Garden, London, WC2.

At the meeting in 1986, Cambridge (Jesus, mathematics) graduate Steve Waddington was present and the two formed the core, with Tim Havard and Guy Gousden completing the lineup. Originally a jangly guitar band, the band shifted to a fusion of psychedelic club music with more danceable, Deep House inspired pop in 1988, when its single “The Sun Rising” became a club favourite. This was followed by the album Happiness in 1990, from which the hit single “Hello” was released.

By 1993, Waddington left the group and was replaced by Jon Marsh’s wife Helena, who was working as a purchaser for the Japanese fashion house Comme des Garçons, for the album Conscience. The band faced some controversy for the video of the single “Sweet Harmony” which consisted of a naked Marsh among a group of women, also naked (although it was shot and edited so as not to show anything which might cause it to be censored). By this time the project had dropped the definite article from its name and was now simply called Beloved.

Beloved singles continue to be remixed and the band has not been formally wound up, but Jon Marsh has for some ten years been concentrating on his flourishing career as a club dj, as well as the raising of his young family. However, a new collaboration with Steve Waddington is reportedly in the works, and the Beloved has plans for a new album release some time in late 2006.

Source: Wikipedia

The Proclaimers are a Scottish band composed of identical twins Charlie and Craig Reid. They are best known for their song “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” which became the theme song to the film Benny & Joon, and to the charity event the Terry Fox Run, as well as a Labatt’s Blue commercial.

The brothers are also famous fans of Edinburgh based football club Hibernian F.C.. “Sunshine on Leith” is played at every home match and the refrain from “I’m Gonna Be…” is played when Hibernian score. They are also well known as supporters of Scottish independence and have at various stages of their lives been activists for the Scottish National Party.

On April 30, 2006, The Proclaimers appeared on the hit cartoon show Family Guy, due to the show’s creator Seth MacFarlane being a fan. They appeared in episode “You May Now Kiss The…Uh…Guy Who Receives”, where Stewie Griffin says Brian’s homosexual cousin will fit in the Griffin family as badly as Peter fit in the Proclaimers, as a cutaway shows him fighting over who sings a lyric of “I’m Gonna Be“.

Source: Wikipedia

Divinyls (often incorrectly referred to as “The Divinyls“) are an Australian rock music band. The core of the band is and has been vocalist Christina Amphlett (born Christine Amphlett and affectionately known as ‘Chrissy’) and guitarist Mark McEntee. Amphlett had impeccable pop credentials, being the cousin of Sixties Australian pop icon Little Pattie and closely related to pioneer Aussie rocker Col Joye and his brother, leading promoter Kevin Jacobsen. In her autobiography “Pleasure and Pain” Chrissy talks of the early days, when she was breaking into the music scene, of being arrested for busking when a teenager travelling in Spain, and how her act drew upon childhood pain.

The duo formed after meeting at a Sydney Opera House concert in 1980, and for the first two years they performed in pubs and clubs in Sydney’s Kings Cross. They provided the soundtrack for the movie Monkey Grip with Amphlett also acting in the film. She received a Best Supporting Actress nomination from the Australian Film Institute for her performance and the group had two hit singles, “Boys In Town” and “Only Lonely” from the soundtrack.

Original bassist Jeremy Paul (ex Air Supply) left the group in 1982. He was replaced by Rick Grossman (ex Matt Finish), who left in 1987 to replace Clyde Bramley in Hoodoo Gurus.

In 1991 they released the single “I Touch Myself” which became their only Australian number one single, and it reached number 4 in the US, and number 10 in the UK. A disagreement with their record company in the US stifled their future development, however in Australia they continued to release popular albums, and to achieve several more hit singles (”Love School”, “Make Out Alright”, and “I’m On Your Side”). During the 1980s and 1990s Amphlett began to collaborate as a songwriter with such artists as Chrissie Hynde and Cyndi Lauper, and she and McEntee worked on solo projects.

As their record company was quick to capitalize on their success by releasing the Essential collection of hits from the first three albums, and the Divinyls Live authorized bootleg in 1991, the band did not rush to put out new studio material. In the early 1990s they recorded a series of cover songs for various movie soundtracks, including the Young Rascals’ “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore” for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Wild Ones’ “Wild Thing” for Reckless Kelly, and Roxy Music’s “Love Is The Drug” for Super Mario Brothers.

From the late 1990s, Amphlett and McEntee have concentrated largely on solo projects and their collaborations with other artists. Nonetheless Divinyls, as a recording and performing entity, has never been officially disbanded.

In June 2006, the band were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

A brand new career spanning best-of collection is due to be released by EMI Music Australia in August 2006.

Source: Wikipedia

Kris Kross was a young rap duo of the early 1990s most famous for wearing their clothes backwards. The two members of Kris Kross were Chris (Mac Daddy) Kelly (born 1 May 1978 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA) and Chris (Daddy Mac) Smith (born 10 January 1979 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA).

They were found in 1991 performing at Lenox Mall in Atlanta, Georgia, by Jermaine Dupri. The duo’s album, Totally Krossed Out, was released in 1992 and sold more than four million copies. It included the hit single “Jump“, which stayed at number one on the Billboard charts for eight weeks. This landed them a spot on Michael Jackson’s European tour that year as well as a cameo appearance in Michael Jackson’s “Jam” video.

It became a short-lived fad for youth to wear their pants backwards.

During 1992, at the peak of their popularity, a video game was released starring the pair entitled Kris Kross: Make My Video. It was released on the Sega CD system, and consisted of the player editing together the groups music videos to a few of their hit songs using portions of the original music videos, stock footage, and general video animation effects. Players were prompted before each edit session to make sure to have certain footage compiled into the video. The game was released in the US only to very lackluster sales figures and dismal reviews. It was ranked 18th on Electronic Gaming Monthly’s list of the 20 Worst Games of All Time [1].

Released in 1993, a second album, entitled Da Bomb failed to match their early success. 1996 saw the release of their final album Young, Rich & Dangerous which was also a commercial disappointment. By the end they stopped wearing their clothes backwards.

A curiosity of Kris Kross’ career was a television commercial they starred in to advertise the soft drink Sprite in 1992–93.

After the group’s demise, Kelly and Smith began writing and producing albums.

Featured in the Jermaine Dupri Top 25 Countdown on BET. Ranked as #25.

In 2003 both Smith and Kelly announced plans to come back into the “rap game” hitting heavier and harder than they ever had. Nothing has come of this announcement, however.

Source: Wikipedia