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Song Parodies -> "One-Hit Wonders"
Original Song Title:
"One Tin Soldier"
Original Performer:
Coven/The Original Caste
Parody Song Title:
"One-Hit Wonders"
Parody Written by:
Mari Aranoff
The Lyrics
A parody of a one-hit wonder song, covered by two one-hit wonder bands, about one-hit wonders.
"Hey There Lonely Girl" - "All Right Now" - "Chevy Van" - "Green Tamborine"
"Dirty Water" - "Dueling Banjos" - "Feelings" - "Mississippi Queen"
"More" - "MacArthur Park" - "The Rapper" - "Harper Valley PTA"
"Timothy" - "I'd Love to Change the World" - "Last Kiss" - "Montego Bay"
There are bands and singers making the top forty frequently
What about the many others who but only once you'll see?
Country, soul and instrumental, comedy and rock songs played
By the flash-in-the pan acts on this one-hit wonder hit parade
"Judy in Disguise (with Glasses)" - "Gone - "Elusive Butterfly"
"Harlem Nocture" - "Eres Tu" - "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye"
"Angel of the Morning" "Cool Jerk" - "D.O.A."- "Have I the Right"
"Come on Down to My Boat, Baby" -"Help Me Make it Through the Night"
Some of them you'll hear forever, and they've made the writers rich
Some are brilliant; some are stupid - hope you can tell which is which
So some I wish would be obscure now, like so many bad brain farts
But it's one big wacky group of one-hit wonders on the charts
"Joy" - "I Had too Much to Dream Last Night" - " My Pledge of Love" - "How Long?"
"Mr. Bass Man" - "Mr. Big Stuff" - "Hocus Pocus" - "Bang a Gong"
"Dancing in the Moonlight" - "Dead Skunk" - "Brother Louie" - "Chick-a-Boom"
"I Can Help" - "One Toke Over the Line" - "Smoking in the Boy's Room"
Some of them you'll hear forever, and they've made the writers rich
Some are brilliant; some are stupid - hope you can tell which is which
Some will make you think and some will put your brain in a vise
And because two bands performed it, "One Tin Soldier"'s on there twice
"Dirty Water" - "Dueling Banjos" - "Feelings" - "Mississippi Queen"
"More" - "MacArthur Park" - "The Rapper" - "Harper Valley PTA"
"Timothy" - "I'd Love to Change the World" - "Last Kiss" - "Montego Bay"
There are bands and singers making the top forty frequently
What about the many others who but only once you'll see?
Country, soul and instrumental, comedy and rock songs played
By the flash-in-the pan acts on this one-hit wonder hit parade
"Judy in Disguise (with Glasses)" - "Gone - "Elusive Butterfly"
"Harlem Nocture" - "Eres Tu" - "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye"
"Angel of the Morning" "Cool Jerk" - "D.O.A."- "Have I the Right"
"Come on Down to My Boat, Baby" -"Help Me Make it Through the Night"
Some of them you'll hear forever, and they've made the writers rich
Some are brilliant; some are stupid - hope you can tell which is which
So some I wish would be obscure now, like so many bad brain farts
But it's one big wacky group of one-hit wonders on the charts
"Joy" - "I Had too Much to Dream Last Night" - " My Pledge of Love" - "How Long?"
"Mr. Bass Man" - "Mr. Big Stuff" - "Hocus Pocus" - "Bang a Gong"
"Dancing in the Moonlight" - "Dead Skunk" - "Brother Louie" - "Chick-a-Boom"
"I Can Help" - "One Toke Over the Line" - "Smoking in the Boy's Room"
Some of them you'll hear forever, and they've made the writers rich
Some are brilliant; some are stupid - hope you can tell which is which
Some will make you think and some will put your brain in a vise
And because two bands performed it, "One Tin Soldier"'s on there twice
Songs by RAD & MAD, aka Rick & Mari Duncan (and their co-conspirators), can be found at website
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Voting Results
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Voting Breakdown
The following represent how many people voted for each category.
| Pacing | How Funny | Overall Rating | |||||||||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 5 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
User Comments
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Incredibly clever. DRTOS, but rhyming those OHW titles in meter alone is 555 worthy.
Welcome back! I've missed you so much.
Very impressive--I always wanted to parody this but never thought of a decent sub. Yours is perfect. Bonus points for mentioning "Chick-a-boom" by Daddy Dewdrop; I used to love that 45.
One-derfully done. high 5's
HAHAHA...great job....5s
OMG this is amazing! The scary part is I know every song mentioned here (and my wife has been known to sing the original song as a lullabye to our kids)!
Hear me, ye parody writers, hear me! Bow down, bow down and kneel, kneel, KNEEL before Her Highness Mari Aranoff Duncan, Queen of Pacing! A 555 carat diamond for thy Pacing-Crown, My Queen!
IFOS (I Forgot the Original Song), but I will take Johnny's and everyone else's word for it....it's hard to pace a song with just a list (ask any "We Didn't Start The Fire" parodist--that's why list songs usually stink!). Good job, MAD! 555
Amazing trip down memory lane.
Leo, Claude, Dee, Alvin, Mason, Johnny, Agri, John... I'm glad that you liked it! I've missed "hanging" with y'all, although Rick has kept me posted. It would have been nice to work "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Ha" into the parody. Oh well. And if you'd like a nostalgia trip, go to http://onehitwondercentral.com/
Mari - DKTOS but a lot of fun. I tried to see if I could match up the performers on them (just from memory, no cheating, never left this page except to copy it to a Word Doc). There may be some incorrect answers here - I welcome being set straight if I am wrong on any. "All Right Now" by Free, "Green Tamborine" by The Lemon Piper's, "Dirty Water" by The Seeds (Featuring Sky Saxon), "Mississippi Queen" by Mountain, "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris (the actor), "Elusive Butterfuly" by Bob Lind (or Lund ?), "NaNaHeyHey..." by Steam, "Angel Of The Morning" by Marianne Faithful, "Come on Down to My Boat, Baby" by The McLeans (or something like that?), "I Had Too Much To Dream Last NIght" by The Electric Prunes, "How Long" by Ace, "Bang A Gong" by T.Rex, "Brother Louie" by The Stories, and "One Toke Over The Line" by Brewer & Shipley (I have many of their records, a fine duo). I know a lot of the other songs, the music is floating around in my head right now, but I just can't place those band names. Again, fun stuff here, Mari...and now you've got me thinking about who else might fit the "one-hit wonder" description...hmmm...Dobie Gray's "Drift Away"...ok-ok, I'll stop and leave some room on the comments thread for other people tonight...
Let the record show, though, that, by strict definitions, Lou Reed, Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead were all "one-hit wonders." Unlike the Duncans.
I wouldn't mind being a one-hit wonder, Michael. Paul, you really know your stuff. You only missed a couple: "Angel of the Morning" was Merilee Rush & the Turnabouts. "Come on Down to My Boat" was Every Mother's Son. "Dirty Water" was by the Standells. Uh oh, I feel a nostalgia trip coming on... The Standells opened for Three Dog Night in 1969 at my high school for the "Candy Drive Assembly." If a student sold at least two boxes of World's Finest Candy, they'd get a free ticket to the concert. The student body was in agreement: Three Dog Night rocked, The Standells sucked.
Mari D - Thanks! Yeah, one-hit, especially by the criteria that site used (a top-40 hit) is not that shabby. And as you certainly know, "top 40" doesn't necessarily mean squat as far as the talent or ability of an Artist or Group. I noticed that Richie Havens, Janis Joplin, and The Buffalo Springfield were also on that list over at the "one-hit wonder" site. I think at least 2 out 3 of them are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Joplin & the Springfield) and if he's not, Havens may very well belong there. You know he opened Woodstock with a memorable set that included just about every song he knew at the time (no other bands had arrived yet due to the traffic snarl up, the next to arrive and perform was "Sweetwater", by helicopter, whom I've already rambled on about somewhere else on this site on one of your pieces). His Dai-Shiki (spelling?) was drenched by the time he was finally done. Thanks for pointing the site out, it was fun browsing the titles and artists over there. I might have got some parody song ideas from it, too...OH...more trivia, I noticed "Radioactive" by The Firm, on the list also. I would note that the lead singer of 'The Firm' was Paul Rogers, also the lead singer of another "one-hit wonder" group, 'Free', which did "All Right Now". Wonder if there are any more Artists who performed in more than one "one-hit wonder" band or group? Wait, in fact I think "The Firm" also had Jimmy Page in it. I'm going to look it up and get back over here because I know everyone is absolutely dying to know...uh huh...
Well, a quick trip to "allmusic" confirmed and even expanded on my thought. I did misspell a name, it's "Paul RODGERS" and he indeed was in "Free" AND "The Firm", AND also --- "Bad Company", as well. And, yes, Jimmy Page of Led Zep fame was in it, too, as was Chris Slade, formerly of 'Uriah Heep' (probably no top 40's for them, however). Also in "The Firm" a bass player named Tony Franklin that I was not familiar with from anywhere else. The Biography over in "allmusic" noted that "The Firm" went out of business in 1986 after a brief two-year span, mostly due to lack of interest...
This is OUTstanding, Mari...I'm amazed! 5s!
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