Two-Hit Wonders - the Rewards of Persistence Quiz

Answer: Bangkok

That 1985 song was entitled "One Night in Bangkok" and although it failed to top either the Billboard or U.K. charts, it was Number One in several European countries, among them Austria, Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland.

I knew nothing about Murray Seafield Saint-George Head, excepting his two hits, but his very name suggests that he wasn't some waif and indeed, he wasn't. The son of a filmmaker and an actress, he was well-schooled in French immersion classes to the age of 16 before he left home and embarked on his career in the entertainment industry as a musician and actor. He composed songs and did some acting prior to getting two big breaks in 1971 at the age of 25. First, he was tapped by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to sing the role of Judas on their "Jesus Christ Superstar" album and then, he was third billed in the movie "Sunday Bloody Sunday" behind Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson. This should have catapulted him to bigger things but it didn't happen. He never even got the stage role of Judas, neither in London nor abroad and primarily toiled as an actor in low profile productions for the next dozen years. He also recorded three albums that didn't garner much notice. Finally, in late 1984, Tim Rice called on him once again, this time to sing the role of the American chess player in a play he was creating in partnership with the ABBA boys, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. Following the mammoth success of "One Night in Bangkok", this time Head did get to perform the role on stage in London for three years. Since then, he remains active in both the music and acting disciplines. He has recorded several albums over the years and although they are apparently popular with a small cadre of listeners, they have failed to enter the Billboard Album charts. His acting performances seem to be confined to British television and the live stage in France, Britain and Canada, often in French language productions.

Answer: At Seventeen

For some artists, composing songs and recording them is not about becoming wealthy and famous. It's more about using that unique platform for challenging social mores or getting listeners to consider the impact their behavior might have on others. Sadly, there aren't many entertainers in the business with those noble ambitions... but I believe Janis Ian is one.

Take her first hit for example. She began writing "Society's Child" when she was 13 years old and it's positively astonishing to me that someone of that age could compose a marketable song about how inter-racial dating could be stigmatized as improper. Many believed that the song was autobiographical but it wasn't. She was just one of five white students in an otherwise all black school in East Orange, N.J. and the lyric was based on the behavior she witnessed toward mixed race couples. The topic was so controversial that it took three years for her song to be recorded and released.

Her second and final hit was based somewhat on personal experience. Not being tall, blond or particularly beautiful, she felt the sting of being ignored by the "in crowd", the pain of not fitting in, the agony of being alone at home on prom night. Even if the song didn't change the behavior of the snobs, at least it provided solace for the snubbed knowing that their experiences weren't unique to them. The song earned her a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Throughout her life and career, she's done it her way. Between 1967 and 1970, she quit school to compose and record, had three mediocre album releases, gave away most of her earnings to friends and charities, got married and retired from the music business and unretired even more quickly when the marriage failed. Since her second hit in 1975, she's recorded a number of albums that have run the gamut of such cheery and controversial subjects as the Holocaust, prostitution, domestic violence and homelessness. In 1993, she came out of the closet and admitted her homosexuality and has had a secure domestic home-life with her partner since then. She continues to compose and record, is a published sci-fi author and is a popular attraction at folk festivals and the like, events where her outspoken views have sympathetic audiences.

Answer: Unicorns

Poor Noah! Poor unicorns! The song goes on to explain what happened to the unicorn:

"Old Noah looked out into the driving rain
Them unicorns was hiding, playing silly games
Kicking and splashing while the rain was pouring
Oh them silly unicorns.

Noah cried 'Close the doors 'cause the rain is pourin'
And we just can't wait for no unicorns'

The ark started movin', it drifted with the tide
Them unicorns looked up from the rock and they cried
And the waters came down and sorta floated them away
That's why you'll never see a unicorn to this very day".

There were charting songs about the other animals noted. "Butterfly" was a Number One hit in 1957 for both Andy Williams and Charlie Gracie but it referred to the human phenomenon of the "social butterfly" as opposed to the insect of the Lepidoptera order. The big dragon song was Peter, Paul and Mary's hit "Puff the Magic Dragon" in 1963 while Was (Not Was) took "Walk the Dinosaur" to Number Seven in 1989.

George Millar and Jimmy Ferguson, both from Northern Ireland, met in Toronto in 1963 and started singing together in pubs, mostly for beer money. Joe Millar, George's cousin, joined the group as did accordionist Wilcil McDowell whereupon they decided to join Will Millar, George's elder brother in Calgary where he hosted a children's program on local TV. I was a bit too old for that sort of fare but the band, now dubbed The Irish Rovers and modeled after the popular folk group, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, was right in my wheelhouse and I saw them perform many times at a local coffee house/ folk club called The Depression. It was there that they developed their repertoire of Irish drinking songs and bawdy ballads before touring the notable folk venues in California like the Purple Onion and the Ice House.

"The Unicorn" was written by the famous Shel Silverstein and was regularly performed by Will on his kiddies show. It was a most unexpected hit in the era of psychedelic and bubblegum music but it served them well over the years. The hit opened up a whole new fan base for them and they were obliged to clean up their act somewhat dependent on the audience they were performing for at the time. With a greater inventory of songs to draw on, they became less pigeon-holed and went on to a long performing career. Will retired in 1995, Ferguson died of a heart attack in 1997 and Joe packed it up in 2005. However George Millar and McDowell found suitable replacements and the group continues to record and tour into 2012.

Answer: The Stampeders

The Stampeders were formed in Calgary in 1964 and by 1966 were a sestet with designs on bigger things than what a small burg like Calgary could provide. At that time, they relocated to Toronto, the center of the Canadian entertainment business. Originally, the group had denim outfits of several different colors, cowboy hats and boots and presented themselves as a rock and roll band from the Wild West, the home of the cowboys. They had a handful of moderately placed hits on the Canadian charts but by 1968, the three eldest members of the group moved on with their lives leaving a trio consisting of Ronnie King (bass), Rich Dodson (guitar) and Kim Berly (percussion). In 1971, Dodson wrote "Sweet City Woman" which would become their biggest hit, maybe because of the banjo Dodson played on the track, unusual for the day. For the next six years, they recorded several songs that skirted the country and rock genres which became significant top five hits in Canada but only their cover version of Ray Charles' "Hit the Road Jack" made an impression south of the border, probably because of the vocal appearance of DJ Wolfman Jack whose popularity skyrocketed with his cameo in the movie "American Graffiti" in 1973. Following this final success, the group dissolved until the same trio reunited in 1992 and returned to Calgary, now a much bigger city. They continue to perform at various clubs and special events in the vicinity, mostly in the country genre suitable for the ranch country that surrounds the city.

The Calgary Exhibition and Stampede, usually just called "The Stampede", is billed as the "Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth". A combination rodeo and fair, the city closes up shop and parties for ten days. Of your other choices, the Flames carry the banner of the local NHL hockey team and The Rocky Mountaineers do not, to my knowledge, exist. Regardless, no group with either name had a hit record. The Road Apples were a Boston based group who had one Top 40 hit in 1975, "Let's Live Together".

Answer: Little Green Bag / Paloma Blanca

"Little Green Bag" was written by Dutchmen Hans Bouwens and Jan Visser and recorded by Bouwens' group the George Baker Selection. For most of his musical career Boewens used the English alias George Baker for the name of his band, when he had one, and also as a solo performer when he went in that direction.

The song had a renaissance of sorts in 1992 when it was prominently featured during the introductory scenes just before the credits in Quentin Tarantino's classic "Reservoir Dogs". Then, in that same year, it forged to the top of the Japanese charts when it was utilized for a whiskey commercial in that country. I guess "Paloma Blanca" was just a little too mainstream and "mom and daddish" to entrench itself with the youth in North America especially with the Disco sound just coming into favor. I've always wondered why MOR tunes like this are enormous hits in Europe and virtually ignored on this side of the Atlantic, at least by the younger generation. That will be a research project for me sometime down the road. Anyway, the song wasn't overlooked by those moms and dads here.

It became the Number One Easy Listening hit for 1976 in Billboard just as it obviously was for most of Europe that year. The George Baker Selection disbanded in 1978 and then reformed in 1985 for four more years. In between the two "Selection" bands, George Baker was a solo act and continues to be one, his last CD release taking place in 2009.

Answer: Another Brick in the Wall

The band, of course, was Pink Floyd and their leader at the time, Roger Waters, was not Hot 100 oriented by any stretch. He was in the process of mastering a deliberate formula. Record an album on a theme; make the individual songs of the album co-dependent on each other; sell millions of LPs; go on tour, essentially playing the album live; then, do it again. Because of this formula, individual songs on the album were deemed unsuitable for release as singles since they told just part of a story without context. "Money", released from that juggernaut album "Dark Side of the Moon" was one exception but until "Another Brick in the Wall", no other singles emanated from any of their other LPs and Waters was even reluctant to release what would be their only Number One hit. He only relented when their producer, Bob Ezrin, assured him that the song could stand on its own and that album sales would not be compromised. It would be the last time that this gambit would work. Two other singles were released from subsequent albums but the best either could do on the Hot 100 was mediocre placements in the 70 range.

Waters left the group in 1984 to go solo and the band was inactive until the other three members, Nick Mason, David Gilmour and Richard Wright reformed the group in 1986 and began to follow the exact formula Waters had instituted earlier. Their last studio album was released in 1995 and with the death of Wright in 2008, it appears that if the band still exists, it is dormant as 2012 comes to a close.

Answer: The Temptations

David Ruffin was born in Mississippi in 1941 and began his singing career with the rest of his family as a Gospel group, sufficiently talented to perform as the opening act on some of Mahalia Jackson's tours. By the late-1950s, he and his older brother Jimmy moved to Detroit intent on making it big singing secular music like Sam Cooke. He was taken under the wing of Berry Gordy and began recording for Anna Records which was the precursor of Motown. Although none became anything other than local hits, he was formulating a reputation in Detroit as an up-and-comer and developing a stage presence in his live performances. Finally, in early 1964, Al Bryant, an original member of The Temptations was fired and both David and Jimmy Ruffin were considered as a replacement, David earning the nod because of that stage presence. Jimmy would go on to have a reasonably successful solo career himself.

Originally, David sang back-up with The Temptations with Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks handling lead vocal duties. However, Smoky Robinson recognized Ruffin's talent and penned "My Girl" specifically with him in mind. When that became a Number One smash, Ruffin would remain the group's lead singer for virtually all their hits until his own departure from the group in 1968. Two factors led to his dismissal; cocaine addiction and an out-of-control ego, neither of which the other group members could cope with. As an example of his overblown opinion of himself, Motown had changed the name of The Supremes to Diana Ross and The Supremes and he wanted his group to be known as David Ruffin and The Temptations.

Ruffin had a contract with Motown which compelled him to remain with that label until 1977 as a solo artist. Other than his two Top Ten hits, all of his other single releases peaked in the middle ranges of the Hot 100 or were ignored by the public entirely. When he left Motown, even these minor chart incursions ceased but his drug dependency did not. By the end of the 1980s, The Temptations themselves had seen better days and Ruffin would occasionally join the group for nostalgia tours. He also joined Kendricks and another ex-lead vocalist of The Temptations, Dennis Edwards, for touring and recording purposes under the "Ruffin/Kendricks/Edwards: Former Leads of the Temptations" banner. After a successful month long tour of Europe with the latter group in 1991, he was admitted to a Philadelphia hospital with a severe cocaine overdose which would claim his life. He was 50.

Answer: The Morning After

Maureen McGovern was 24 years old when she finally got her big break after six years of secretarial work and moonlighting with a folk singing group. She had recorded some demos and they were circulating when Russ Regan, who was the head of 20th Century Records, heard one of them. He was looking for a voice to record the theme song for "The Poseidon Adventure" and he just then found it. He hired McGovern sight unseen to record "The Morning After". For some reason, her career immediately stalled although she did record another Oscar winning song two years later with "We May Never Love Like This Again", a song featured in "The Towering Inferno". Rather than top the Hot 100 however, this song could do no better than Number 83, joining McGovern's other releases as chart failures. She continued to specialize in recording songs for the silver screen until 1979 when she scored her final Hot 100 and Top 40 hit with the Number 18 "Different Worlds" from the TV series "Angie".

Her career was going nowhere again in the early 1980s and she was back working as a secretary to make ends meet when she decided to abandon singing movie scores and moved to New York to tackle Broadway. She was successful in her auditioning and was chosen to replace Linda Ronstadt when she left "The Pirates of Penzance" in 1981. Since then, McGovern has carved out a successful career on Broadway, in musical theatre at various milieus throughout North America and as a concert performer. In 2012, she was performing in The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies in Palm Springs, California.

Answer: Sugarloaf

One of the many pleasures I derive in crafting quizzes in this forum is the opportunity to research and learn new things about recording artists from the days of yore. Neither the group nor their two had hits had ever been a feature of any of my previous quizzes so I was looking forward to the opportunity of learning new things about them. What a disappointment! Sugarloaf probably had the lowest profile of any popular group from the early 1970s.

Their total legacy was those two significant hits, the other three chart duds and three albums of which only their first, similarly entitled "Green Eyed Lady", made a serious impression on those charts at Number 24. Basically, they labored in relative obscurity in the Denver area for five years then disbanded. Only the group's leader, keyboardist and lead vocalist, Jerry Corbetta, seems to have remained successfully engaged in the music business releasing a solo album in 1978 then joining The Four Seasons as a writer, producer and backup musician.

Then in 1990, he helped found a touring rock band called the Classic Rock All Stars. Other band members included Pete Rivera, the original drummer and lead vocalist for Rare Earth, Mike Pinera, former lead singer of Blues Image and Larry Prentiss, long time bassist with Johnny Rivers. Spencer Davis was also an original member but he later withdrew to pursue other projects. I visited the band's website and was left with an impression that it might be derelict and that the band is no longer active.

Answer: I Will Survive

While the brothers Gibb (The BeeGees) were the Kings of Disco in the late 1970s, Gloria Gaynor could have been the genre's Queen had she been a little more prolific on the charts. Instead, the title fell to the late Donna Summer whose career clearly eclipsed that of Gaynor's.

She was born in 1949 in Newark, N.J. and grew up in a poor but happy home filled with music. She dabbled in singing whilst a teenager but at her mother's insistence, completed her education before commencing her professional music career as a member of an R&B group, The Soul Satisfiers, in the early 1970s. She was discovered by record producer Mike Curb who signed her and began promoting her as a solo act leading to the release of her first hit "Never Can Say Goodbye". The dearth of subsequent hits has been attributed to changes in her production team and their failure to match her strengths to appropriate material.

Then came the real breakthrough. Originally, "I Will Survive" was to be the "B" side to another song entitled "Substitute", which was becoming something of an international hit for a South African group called Clout. During the disco era, songs of the genre were subjects of numerous production processes such as voice over-dubbing, the extensive utilization of back-up singers and techniques to adjust the speed and pitch of the recording. Since "I Will Survive" was to be a "B" side, it was spared these production enhancements and that may have been the reason it became a hit. A Boston DJ was the person responsible for first playing that side and was amazed at how "clean" it sounded. Through his tireless promotion of the song on his show, it became a regional hit then Polydor Records printed up more copies with "I Will Survive" as the "A" side. Achieving nationwide recognition, it quickly soared to Number One where it stood for three weeks.

Although Gaynor would return to the charts a short time later with a Number 42 charting release, she was unable to follow up her success for one simple reason. The disco craze had run its course, at least in North America. As such, throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s, Gaynor primarily performed in Europe which has always been more sympathetic to the genre but she did continue to record music that maintained a modicum of popularity on Billboard's Dance chart and in the dance clubs that catered to that style of music. During this period, she also became reborn in the Christian faith and now in her 60s, is reinventing herself as a singer of contemporary Christian music.