One Hit Wonders - 1960s Trivia

1. In 1960 The Hollywood Argyles had their one and only hit with this tune about a popular comic strip character. Do you recall who they were singing about?

From Quiz My One and Only

Answer: Alley Oop

"Alley Oop" was written by Dallas Frazier in 1957, and was recorded three years later by lead singer Gary S. Paxton, using studio musicians as his backing band. The group needed a name for the songs release, so since their recording studio was located at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle Street, they decided on The Hollywood Argyles. The single was a big hit, selling more than one million copies and topping the Billboard Hot 100 for one week in July of 1960, but The Hollywood Argyles' popularity was short-lived. The same can't be said about the comic strip "Alley Oop". Created by V.T. Hamlin in 1932, it still appears in more than 600 newspapers.

From Quiz One Hit Wonders of the 1960s

Answer: The Casinos

The Casinos hailed from Cincinnati, OH. Their one hit was a throwback to the late 1950's doo-wop sound.

From Quiz Obscure One-Hit Wonders of the Sixties

Answer: The Ivy Three

The Ivy Three was a trio that formed in 1959 with three undergrad students at Adelphi University. The group's founding members were Charles Koppelman, Artie Berkowitz (who went by Artie Kaye) and Don Rubin. Koppelman used the stage name Charlie Cane and wrote "Yogi" with Lou Stallman and Sid Jacobson, the owners of Shell Records. After the success of "Yogi" the group disbanded within a year. Charles Koppelman became Martha Stewart's assistant on "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" and served as the CEO of EMI, a music publishing company. Don Rubin remained in the music business as a manager. Artie left show business. "Diamonds and Pearls" was a Top Twenty song in 1960 by The Paradons. A Number 16 version of "Over The Rainbow" qualified The Demensions for one-hit-wonder status in 1960 and The Little Dippers made it to Number Nine the same year with a song titled "Forever".

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 19

Answer: Sunny and The Sunglows

Billboard number 11, October 26, 1963. An all Chicano group from San Antonio, Texas, the group enjoyed their only success with this cover song. They did subsequently try some other covers, but met with no success.

From Quiz 60's One Hit Wonders Vol. 18

Answer: Robin Ward

Billboard number 14, December 14, 1963. Recording under the name of Robin Ward, Jacqueline McDonnell was born in 1941 in Hawaii, and won a talent contest as a pre-teen while living in Nebraska. By 1963 she had moved with her family to California, and was working as a session singer, when she recorded this hit. It was an experimental work by her producer which made her sound like a child, so she decided to use her daughter's name for the recording, thus, Jackie Ward, became Robin Ward. Afer her one hit wonder success, she has had a very lucrative career as a back-up and ensemble singer. She has performed as part of a group on such shows as "The Carol Burnett Show", "The Red Skelton Show", and "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour". She also sang as part of a group or groups, in the theme songs for TV Shows such as "Flipper", "Batman", The Partridge Family" and "Maude", among others, and was also the spooky female voice in the original "Star Trek" theme.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol.17

Answer: The Singing Nun

Billboard number one, December 7, 1963. Jeanine Deckers was born in Wavre, Belgium in 1935. She REALLY was a nun, part of The Dominican Fichermont Convent in Belgium. The song, recorded in French, was one of only two Belgian hits to make it to number one on Billboard's Top 100. She never duplicated her success, and after many years of commercial failure, and financial problems, she unfortunately committed suicide in 1985.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 16

Answer: Troy Shondell

Billboard number six, October 23, 1961. Shondell, from Fort Wayne, Indiana, began recording in 1958, and had some local success in the Midwest, before hitting the national charts with this song. He was gone from the music industry by 1963.

From Quiz 60's One Hit Wonders Vol. 15

Answer: The Marathons

Billboard number 20, June 20, 1961. This group which was active from the late 50's to the mid 70's had another song on the charts at the same time. "The Watusi" recorded by The Jayhawks, was actually the same group. It reached #25. They also later recorded under the name "The Vibrations."

From Quiz 60's One Hit Wonders Vol. 14

Answer: Jorgen Ingmann and his Guitar

Billboard number 2 April 3, 1961. This was a cover version that was originally released in the UK in 1960 by The Shadows. Ingmann was from Denmark.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 13

Answer: Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs

Billboard number one, November 21, 1960. "Stay" also was a Top 20 hit for The Four Seasons in 1964, and Jackson Browne in 1978. This version was the shortest recording ever to reach number one on the Billboard charts, with a time of 1 minute, 39 seconds. Interestingly enough, this version was used on the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack, and sold more copies in 1987, then during it's number one run in 1960.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 12

Answer: Joe Jones

Billboard number six, August 1, 1960. Jones was from Los Angeles, and in addition to laying down these tracks, he also discovered the successful girl group, The Dixie Cups.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 11

Answer: The Paradons

Billboard number 18, October 24, 1960. They were from Bakersfield, California. The group broke up almost immediately after their hit, amidst a dispute over money.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 10

Answer: Larry Verne

Billboard number one, Oct 10, 1960. Verne was from Minneapolis, and did write one other song, called "Mr. Livingston" which topped out at #75 on Billboard.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 9

Answer: Jimmy Charles

Billboard number five, Sept. 26, 1960. Charles was born in 1942, and at age 16 won a talent contest at the legendary Apollo Theater in New York. He won the contest four weeks in a row. He then cut his demo of "A Million To One". The song was a big hit, but Charles could never duplicate the feat.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 8

Answer: The Demensions

Billboard number 16, Sept 5, 1960. A doo-wop group from good old Brooklyn, they made frequent appearances at New Jersey's now defunct Palisades Park, as well as TV appearances on American Bandstand and The Clay Cole Show. "Cousin Brucie" (disc-jockey Bruce Morrow) gave them plenty of airplay on the old WABC radio in New York and this led to "Over The Rainbow" being a hit. They were never able to duplicate their success.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 7

Answer: Johnny Bond

Billboard number 26, Aug 8, 1960. Bond was actually a very popular country singer from the 40s through the 60s and had a country hit called "Ten Little Bottles" in 1965, which went all the way to number two on the country charts. However, "Hot Rod Lincoln" was his only appearance on the Billboard Top 40.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 6

Answer: The Safaris

Billboard number six Aug 1, 1960. The group was formed in Los Angeles in 1959, and although they realesed a few more songs after this one, they never charted again.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 5

Answer: The Hollywood Argyles

Billboard number one, July 11, 1960. The group was named after an intersection in L.A. The singer was actually Gary Paxton who was Flip in the group Skip and Flip.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 4

Answer: Harold Dorman

Billboard number 21 May 23, 1960. The song was also covered by Ronnie Dove, Charley Pride, and the Beach Boys. Bruce Springsteen has also performed it at some of his live shows.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 3

Answer: Billy Bland

Billboard, number seven, May 16, 1960. Bland had been with a group called "The Bees" in the 1950, and recorded this hit after leaving the group. He left the music industry in 1963, and operated a soul food restaurant in Harlem, New York in the 80's

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol 2

Answer: Barrett Strong

Billboard number 23 April 18, 1960. This was the first hit for ANYONE on Motown Records. Strong recorded the hit at the age of 19.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 1

Answer: Teen Angel

Billboard #1 Feb. 8, 1960. Dinning, coincidently, passed away in 1986 at the young age of 52.

From Quiz Psychedelic One-Hit Wonders

Answer: Blues Magoos

Blues Magoos formed in 1964 as The Trenchcoats. In 1966 they changed their name to Bloos Magoos and finally Blues Magoos to better identify with the psychedelic trend. After some deals with minor labels, Mercury Records signed the band in 1966. The band's first Mercury LP was "Psychedelic Lollipop". It was one of the first records to actually have the word psychedelic on the sleeve. "The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators" and The Deep's "Psychedelic Moods" were the only other known bands in 1966 to use the word on the cover of an album. Blues Magoos was the house band at Chess Mate Coffeehouse, a venue that also featured bands like Southbound Freeway. At the height of their chart popularity The Blues Magoos opened for The Who and Herman's Hermits. Discouraged by the inability to follow up with another top ten hit, the band went through membership changes until calling it quits in 1972. The only member to stay with the group from inception to their demise was Emil "Peppy" Thielhelm (aka Peppy Castro) on vocals and guitar.

From Quiz One Trip To The Charts (1960s)

Answer: The Jarmels

They were a garage band from Richmond, Virginia.

From Quiz One-Hit Wonders of the 1960s

Answer: Harold Dorman

Dorman also wrote Charlie Pride's 1974 hit 'Cotton Pickin' Delta Town'.

From Quiz My One and Only

Answer: Do You Love Me

"Do You Love Me" was written by Motown head Berry Gordy, Jr., who envisioned it becoming a hit for The Temptations, but due to a mix-up the group was unavailable when it came time to record it. Since Gordy wanted to release the song as soon as possible, he offered it to The Contours instead, and it became their first and only top 40 hit, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in October of 1962. The song enjoyed a revival 26 years later when it was used in the 1987 film "Dirty Dancing". Due to the movie's popularity it was re-released and the song made its second appearance on the Billboard Hot 100, this time reaching number 11 in August of 1988.

From Quiz One Hit Wonders of the 1960s

Answer: Kokomo

Kokomo was really James Wisner, a pianist who hailed from Philadelphia. The song was based on Grieg's "Piani Concerto in A Minor".

From Quiz Obscure One-Hit Wonders of the Sixties

Answer: Philip Upchurch Combo

Philip Upchurch was a guitar and bass player who had worked with with The Kool Gents, The Spaniels and The Dells. He formed his own group and released songs as the Philip Upchurch Combo and several solo efforts including "Upchurch" (1968), "Phil Upchurch" (1978) and "Name Of The Game" (1983). Bob Moore and his Orchestra had a 1961 Number Seven hit with "Mexico". "I Like It Like That, Part 1" went to Number Two for Chris Kenner and "Apache" was a Top Ten for Jorgen Ingmann and his Guitar.

From Quiz 60s One Hit Wonders Vol. 19

Answer: The Caravelles

Billboard number three, December 21, 1963. This British duo took this song which was a cover of a Tennessee Ernie Ford song, and almost got to the top that year, but never approached that success again.

From Quiz 60's One Hit Wonders Vol. 18

Answer: The Wonder Who?

Billboard number 12, December 25, 1965. Frankie Valli was doing a recording of Bob Dylan, and Burt Bacharach/Hal David songs, and was not happy with the way this song was going. He actually laid down the track with his signature "falsetto" voice as joke. Some joke it turned out to be. He did record a total of four songs under "The Wonder Who" moniker, but this was the only Top 40 entry.

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Last Updated Dec 21 2024 5:51 AM

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