'70s one-hit wonders: nothin' matters but the weekend

I'll stretch the time-delineation here by one year, and include a 1980 one-hitter. The Kings doing their mighty "Switchin' to Glide," which is a neat, slick bit of electrified pop-rock. The song appears here combined with another—"Switchin'" starts at the 3:12 mark. I have no idea what the hell the title means, but I wish it had entered the lingo to mean something or other.



And as a bonus, let me throw a 1977 hook-driven gem, Jay Ferguson's "Thunder Island." Ferguson was a vocalist for the great band Spirit, who gave us (among others) two all-time classic tracks, "I Got a Line on You" and "Nature's Way."


Oh, okay, let me get carried away and point you to this godawful vid for yet another super-hooky tune by a guy who left a major band (in this case Fleetwood Mac). Bob Welch actually had his one big hit with "Sentimental Lady," but here's "Ebony Eyes":

'70s one-hit wonders: the peak of pop

There are certain high points in the art of the '70s one-hit, but I'm going to avoid ”Billy Don't Be a Hero” (although it would be VERY interesting to hear a song like this on today's pop charts--it really is a stupid-ass maneuver to volunteer to fight in a war of choice!). Instead, I have to focus on the British band Paper Lace's mega-classic "Night Chicago Died" (1974). Yes, indeed they are not represented on YouTube, except in one TV performance, performing "Billy" (which they had the original version of, and a big hit with, in Europe). Thus, we have fan-created vids for the song, such as this one:



And I just gotta include this "banda" version of the song in Spanish--check out "Senor Al Capone." Killer...


And another sublime bit of one-hit wonderhood, "Skyhigh" by Jigsaw, a song written for The Man From Hong Kong(1975), one of the post-Bond vehicles for George Lazenby. Oh man, the AM memories....


Special kudos to this nonsensical anime homage to the song.