One Hit Thunder

In the mid 70s, Wild Cherry thrived in all the funk and disco hot spots, from the Northern West Virginia panhandle to the Ohio Valley region. People were getting down to the sweet sounds of “Play That Funky Music” in Steubenville, Ohio, all the way to the bright lights of the big city…of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The groundswell created by the band’s popularity in these areas took the song all the...

Do you hate it when you show up to a date’s house in your best ripped jeans and leather jacket, only to be offered disgusting food by their scumbag mother? Well this episode’s for you! This week, we’re joined by my good buddy and bandmate Paul Menotiades to discuss Gerardo’s 1990 hit “Rico Suave”, a song that becomes infinitely more shocking when you dive into the lyrics. Oh, don’t worry…we do tha...

Welcome to the most bass-heavy episode of One Hit Thunder ever! Thanks to Level 42’s 1985 hit single “Something About You”, we get into a LOT of talk about the best instrument in the world…the good old electric bass. Frontman Mark King’s bass proficiency is impressive, but his songwriting is…well…next LEVEL. Stay tuned for a fun conversation about a jazz fusion band that drew us into the stream of...

Midnight Oil shined a light on the plight of the Aboriginal communities in the Australian Outback with their 1987 hit “Beds Are Burning”. This anthemic song is widely considered one of the greatest pieces of music to ever come out of Australia, and any Australian listeners will likely be shocked that we’re discussing this band on a podcast about one hit wonders. The charts don’t lie, however, and...

In 1993, the world was introduced to a white Canadian reggae artist named Snow. His hit song “Informer” topped the US Billboard charts for nearly two months straight, while Snow himself sat in a prison cell for maybe or maybe not puncturing another human being with a knife (aka stabbing them). This semi-autobiographical tune echoed a warning to whoever snitched on him, in the form of being “licky...

Sometimes we have to bend the rules to qualify artists as appropriate subject matter for One Hit Thunder, but not this week. Deadeye Dick are an undeniable choice, as they are almost universally known ONLY for their catchy pop rock hit “New Age Girl”. This week, we’re joined by Johnny Yetsconish to decide if the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack was the EXACT place this song should be, or if there’s more...

The songwriting duo Boy Meets Girl wrote chart-topping songs for several iconic artists, but it wasn’t until their 1988 single “Waiting for a Star to Fall” that they made a name for themselves as performers. The song was an enduring adult contemporary juggernaut, even finding its way into the hit film Three Men and a Little Lady a few years later. Even after their marriage ended, their song collab...

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The holiday season is here once again. To celebrate, we’re discussing the bizarre case of The Waitresses, which are a band that we’re able to discuss on One Hit Thunder because they’re a one hit wonder in two different countries for two different songs. While “Christmas Wrapping” is now considered a Christmas classic, it wasn’t well-known in the US until many years after its release. Meanwhile, “I...

Today is our 150th episode, so we had to bring the heat with an undeniable 80s jam. Spandau Ballet may have formed out of a love for the Sex Pistols, but their 1983 musical love letter “True” was inspired by the soulful sounds of Al Green and Marvin Gaye. This smooth pop classic dominated the radio airwaves for years, but we needed to know more. Can Producer Matt Kelly pronounce their name? Is “Tr...

As we near Episode 150, it's time for another Year End Countdown. Where will YOUR favorites stack up this year? Listen to find out!! If you like the show, be sure to rate, review, and subscribe. Email us at onehitthunderpodcast@gmail.com. Also, follow us on our social media: Twitter: @1hitthunderpod Instagram: onehitthunderpodcast Wanna create your own podcast? Contact us at www.weknowpodcasting.c...

This week, return guest Matt Jurcevich joins us to discuss something that’s got US feeling insane in the membrane — the fact that we can categorize legendary rap group Cypress Hill as a one hit wonder. Despite having multiple high-charting albums and decades of widespread popularity, their 1993 single “Insane in the Brain” is the only one to cross over into the Top 20 on the Billboard charts. In t...

Against all odds, a song completely sung in German floated all the way up to #2 on the Billboard charts in 1983, rising above some of the biggest artists of the 80s. Even more surprising, the danceable pop gem “99 Luftballons” was actually a protest song about a theoretical nuclear war. This week, we’re joined by Cheer Up Dusty vocalist Justin Humenik to find out if we should all pick up a few Nen...

After two decades of pursuing a music career, a 30 year old Canadian singer named Alannah Myles scored a #1 hit in 1989 with “Black Velvet”. While her success continued for years after in the Great White North, she completely fell off the Billboard charts of the United States. This week, we try to determine if the blame for her US decline should fall on the lack of promotion from her record label,...

We’ve discussed close to 150 one hit wonders on the podcast at this point, but none have had as bizarre of a series of events that led to a hit as Primitive Radio Gods. Producer Matt Kelly considers “Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand” not only a song title that he’s sure to butcher in this episode, but also a song that he considers one of the greatest of the 90s. Does the...

Originally intended to be a theme song and nothing more, “I’ll Be There For You” gave The Rembrandts a Top 20 Billboard hit on the wings of NBC’s juggernaut of a sitcom Friends. The visual that the song provokes in everyone’s mind, however — that of a group of white twenty-something Manhattanites dancing and clapping around a fountain — soon led to the band actually apologizing for the song on MTV...

Hey Party People! One Hit Thunder back again. This week, the REAL tag team - myself and my co-host and producer Matt Kelly - jump in the ring with the massive stadium anthem “Whoomp (There It Is)”. The song never REALLY went away, but a recent resurgence thanks to an ice cream themed insurance commercial exposed this party classic to a whole new generation. Should Tag Team continue to repurpose th...

In 2010, a song by a ten-piece hippie folk pop group unexpectedly started appearing in seemingly endless amounts of movies, TV shows, and commercials. This sincere and lively tune caught the ear and heart of this week’s guest Tessa Markle, who later found herself dancing and singing along to them at an Arts Festival. The singsong love ballad leaves all of us asking what “home” really means, and if...

Phantom Planet had a modest radio hit with their single “California” in 2002. When a little TV show called The O.C. debuted and used the song as its theme song, however, it skyrocketed the band to stardom. The album The Guest was not just a favorite of this week’s guest Matt “Team Goldie” DiStefano, but it also had a permanent place in the CD rotation on early Punchline tours. When it came time fo...

Break out the cherry wine and prepare to have your brain stimulated…we’re FINALLY taking a deep dive - or should we say SKINNY DIP - into Jermaine Stewart’s hit 1986 single “We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off”! Does a man REALLY want to be approached cool and romantically? Should we REALLY take our time to get to know each other slow and easily? Should we all avoid showing up at Matt Kelly’s ho...

This week, we’re joined by Horror Movie Night co-host Kyle Kuchta to discuss Orgy, an industrial nu metal band that rose to fame thanks to a questionable cover of New Order’s 1983 classic “Blue Monday”. Was Kyle right to ask his parents for an Orgy poster for Christmas, or did his middle school newspaper make the right call in simply referring to them as “the opening band” on the 1998 Family Value...

This was recorded as the Patreon bonus episode to our Sagat episode ... enjoy this episode and hear more Patreon episodes like this every Friday on Patreon.com/OHTPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s a good chance that if someone mentioned the song “But It’s Alright” by J.J. Jackson, you would say “uh…how does that one go?”. The second you heard the iconic opening guitar riff, however, you’d undoubtedly say “Oh, OF COURSE I know this one!” This week, we’re joined by A.J. Santini to discuss this soulful 60s belter, and try to figure out why this big guy (285 pounds, to be exact, as made...

Being that Matthew Milligan is currently our most frequent guest, we tend to give him a little more leeway with his song choices. That being said, he chose Kid Sister and her minor 2008 hit “Pro Nails”. Prior to this episode, neither producer Matt Kelly nor myself had ever heard this song from the Chicago based artist, which is surprising because it features Kanye West during a very prolific era o...

Our Patreon supporters voted, and they made it clear…they said YOU GOTTA BE crazy if you don’t do an episode about Des’ree! Don’t worry Patreon, we’re not crazy…but we ARE bad, bold, wise, hard, tough, strong, cool, calm, together, and everything other positive self-affirmation you can imagine. But did the signature Des’ree mix of pop and soul make us want to listen as our day unfolds, or leave us...