Monday, May 08, 2006

Watched the Top 50 One-Hit Wonders last night. Usually, I avoid this kind of programme like the plague as they're normally packed with Z-list celebs, wannabes and never-weres, boasting about how they spotted the underlying drugs and sex related themes of children's TV from the start.

However, I had a feeling I might enjoy this particular trip down memory lane and I wasn't disappointed. Some great songs but also some trivia that I never knew. Who would have thought that Renato, from the great Renee and Renato, has a son running a restaurant in Birmingham where Renato regularly 'delights' the customers by belting out 'Save Your Love'? Renato is apparently his real name and that magnificent jumper in the video really belonged to him!! Renee's real name, however, is Hilary and she didn't want to be in the video so they found a vaguely similar looking girl and plonked a blonde wig on her! Even better, 'Aneka', who was No.1 nearly 25 years ago with 'Japanese Boy', which my sister loved, appeared on Top of the Pops in a suitably Oriental outfit but was really a doctor's wife from Scotland who was trained in singing Scottish folk songs!

The No.1 One-Hit Wonder was the inimitable Carl Douglas with 'Kung Fu Fighting' from 1974. Great scenes - that line 'in fact, it was a little bit frightening' never ever fails to tickle me....but the track doesn't quite make 'Momus' Top 5 One-Hit Wonders', in no particular order...

Toni Basil - 'Mickey' (1982)
'You take me by the heart when you take me by the hand'! And that cheerleader outfit in the video.....:-)

The Archies - 'Sugar Sugar' (1969)
Yes, I know they're a bunch of cartoon characters. But it's so catchy!

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - 'I'm The Urban Spaceman' (1968)
It's mental but it's flippin' brilliant...

Grange Hill Cast - 'Just Say No' (1986)
OK, it's not a great song. Actually, it's rubbish and the video is terrible. But I was in love with Zammo's girlfriend Jackie, alright!!

The Knack - 'My Sharona' (1979)
Hey, it's about a boy who's dead keen on a girl and reckons some physical action would be, ahem, no bad thing. What's not to love??

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