The Giant Panther

You think about your one hit wonder bands and there is always a caveat. Well, they weren't REALLY one hit wonders...there was always a couple of back up cuts that diehard fans felt eliminated said artist from that particular discussion. I was just hanging around at One Hit Wonder Central and I took a quick gander at their Top 100 One Hit Wonder list for fun and games. Some of you folks might be a tad young to remember, but number two was Tighter, Tighter by Alive & Kicking (check), Fijid Pink's version of House of The Rising Sun at number four (check), Bobby Bloom's Montego Bay at number six (check), Edison Lighthouse's Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes at number eleven (check), The Divinyls I Touch Myself at number twelve (check) and Soho's Hippy Chick at number thirteen (check). No issues there at all. I was impressed with Norman Greenbaum's Spirit in The Sky, David & David's Welcome To The Boomtown, Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight, Autograph's Turn Up The Radio, Blue's Image's Ride Captain Ride (although Pay My Dues was a great "B" Side) and Mungo Jerry's In The Summertime as selections as well. This is when a couple of semi questionable selections start to creep in; Jimmy Eat World's The Middle. Big Country's In a Big Country (Fields of Fire was a definitely a minor hit, but we're splitting hairs here I suppose). They righted the ship with Lipps Inc's Funky Town, Marmalade's Reflections of My Life, R. Dean Taylor's Indiana Wants Me and Dee-Lite's Groove is in The Heart. But then things deteriorated with Devo's Whip It, Gary Numan's Cars and Mountain's Mississippi Queen. No Way on all three counts. Anyone with a lick of rock & roll sense knows, at the very least, Mongoloid, Down in The Park and Theme For An Imaginary Western disqualifies those three acts on the spot. Anyway...

One hit wonder discussions are the life blood of the crossroads of where pop fluke meets real artist. I'd kill to have written Turning Japanese, Come On Eileen, The Rapper, Venus, Time of The Season, Vehicle or Tainted Love, but I'm just a consumer. I can't imagine what a real artist who thinks his tune is one of several great songs must angst over. At the end of the day the 80's seem to have this amazing aura about them that I guess I just didn't grasp while I was living them. I knew Punk sort of gave way to the Synth of A Flock of Seagulls and the quasi polished Punk of Billy Idol, but I never really separated a great song from a genre. To a certain degree I still don't. My Way Back Machine song today is Peter Godwin's Images of Heaven. It is such a one hit wonder that I couldn't find anything remotely redeeming on his Greatest Hits record released years later. In fact, much like Lene Lovich's New Toy (Please don't confuse her with a one hit wonder artist as she has several good tracks in her catalogue) there wasn't even an album to attach the song to. Usually you can at least affix a great track to a overrated album, but not this one. I don't care who thinks I'm a slug for loving this song to be honest. I thought a lot of it then and I think a lot of it now. I play it too much at the gym in fairness. If I lost it for a couple of years I'd love it even more I think.

This posting, in fact. might be my way of excising it from my decades long play list. After all 1982 was a freakin' QUARTER CENTURY AGO! I swear, when you folks are on the verge of turning 49 as I am next month you will understand. At least I know I'm not alone in respecting this African born one hit wonder artist. David Bowie covered a Peter Godwin song called Criminal World on his mega smash Let's Dance in 1983 (yeah...I know what you're thinking...doesn't that make him a two hit wonder by definition?...ah, no...ever hear David Bowie's version on the radio?). Bet Peter didn't mind that one iota. He had a one hit wonder AND a piece of one of the hottest selling records of all time. Good for him I say. He earned it. Today he's an acclaimed author, but once upon a time...And there's nothing I can do, the camera made you, and there's nothing I can do, 'cause you don't exist, you don't exist...just Images of Heaven. The actual value of the music of the decade of the 80's is a bit overvalued for the moment, but when I hear this song on Leftover Lunch or my Sony iPod (sic) I always get a bit psyched. For whatever reason, it does the job for me. I hope it does for you too. For a Synth Pop song it has balls and that's a rare animal indeed. Just don't look for a comeback anytime soon though. I'm sure he doesn't want to jeopardize his one hit wonder status. Ya think?