Taking spf2119 sugestion, let's see how many One Hit Albums we can think off...These are artists that had that one breakout album with at least 2 or more hits and either never heard of them again, or their follow up album did not release a hit. Unpluggeds and Greateast Hits Album are not included obviously.
All right...off the top of my head i can recall...
Hottie and The Blowfish - King of One Hit Album one day, appearing in TV Funhouse getting ripped a new one by Triumph the Comic Dog (He Rules people!)the other.
Alanis Morrisette - Jagged Little Pill
Green Day - Dookie...I know they had "The time of ur life" but compared to Dookie...not even close.
Pearl Jam - Ten...again in sales...nothing they did after comes close.
Cranberries - Zombie...where are thou Dolores?
Blues Travelers - Four
Eagles - Hell Freezes Over
I'm also willing to include Moby's "Play", because i bet he won't ever come close to this CD...Nirvana's "Nevermind" and Sublime's "Sublime" but obviously they would've had more great music if not for their unfortunate incidents.
All right...let's see how many we can do...go crazy...
Pearl Jam definitely not. It held the first week sales record for a good 6 or so years. And the Eagles are the only group ever to have 2 diamond albums (GH Vol 1 and Hotel California).
Hootie definitely fits, same with Alanis and Blues Traveler. Green Day did have a mega-hit afterwards so it's close. And yes, Triumph is a great comic voice....FOR ME TO POOP ON!
A few others: Oasis - What's the Story Morning Glory Peter Gabriel - So (Even though he's still well-regarded and a legend, the only album that ever sold huge for him was So as far as I know) Weezer didn't sell...*cocks head* what's that....TRL...Carson Daly hanging with Rivers Cuomo...[Farrooq]damn[/Faarooq] Jamiroquai - Traveling Without Moving And of course, the greatest one-album wonder of them all: Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive
Jewel - Pieces Of You Third Eye Blind - (Whatever their album with Semi-Charmed Life, How's It Gonna Be, and Jumper was called... It may not have had a name.)
This is based by sales, not necesarily quality. Ah, the wonders of alternative/grunge...
Local H: "As Good As Dead" Butthole Surfers: "Electriclarryland" (OK! Who else bought this for Pepper?) Nada Surf: "High/Low"(OK! Who else bought this for Popular?) Bush: "Sixteen Stone"
...Some fear the Pink... ...But many fear....THE MOUNTIE! (He's handsome, he's brave, and he's strong, you know)
Damn, I was all set to hop on the Pearl Jam defense, also. Versus is just such the better album.
You *could* include Cake on here, but they seem to have one hit on each album, even though you could splice them together and it would really be the exact same song.
And we must never forget 'The Presidents of the United States of America'. PEACHES.
It's sad to see Blues Traveler on here, but then I realize that Hook was a hit song, so I know that irony is not dead, but instead prospering. But in reality, all of thier albums went at least gold, with "Straight On Til Morning" also going platinum.
The reason Ben Folds Five didn't follow it up was that they had only 1 more studio album which was not radio friendly at all before they broke up. Ben Folds' solo album from last year "Rockin' The Suburbs" is one of my favorite albums of 2001 (Live's V being #1).
Bloodhound Gang Hooray for Boobies, Tonic, and Semisonic.
Bloodhound Gang's Boobies album was their 2nd "hit" album, as "One Fierce Beer Coaster" had the song "Fire Water Burn" which gave them some pretty good notority. And Tonic has also had 2 hit albums, but then they've only had 2 albums to my knowledge.
Peter Gabriel - So (Even though he's still well-regarded and a legend, the only album that ever sold huge for him was So as far as I know)
"Us" went platinum. And "Selling England by The Pound" is a gold album from his Genesis days.
Cranberries - Zombie...where are thou Dolores?
Well, "Everbody Else Is Doing It So Why Can't We" is 5-time multi-platinum, "To The Faithful Departed" 2-time (that's the album with Zombie on it), and "No Need To Argue" 7-time. And their new album sounds pretty good as well, so I don't think their too worried about things.
And also saying that Pearl Jam hasn't reached the sales of Ten is like saying U2 hasn't reached the sales of The Joshua Tree.
For ones to add, I can think of Arrested Development's "3 Years, 5 Months, And 2 Days In The Life Of..." and also from that era/genre, PM Dawn's "Of The Heart, Of The Soul And Of The Cross". And, of course, Boston's self titled album.
"You can see a million miles tonight, but you can't get very far." - Adam Duritz
311 has had singles off 4 albums, "311", "Transistor", "Soundsystem", and the new one I can't name off the top of my head. The local alternative station here still plays them fairly regularly, so I don't know if you can call them a one-album wonder.
The "Fuel" guy in the other thread made me think of that, anyway.
Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry Milli Vanilli - Sorry, I don't know the name of the record. Jimmy Buffet - Songs you know by heart(he's been milking that forever)
I'd tentatively throw a few more up there to see if they stick:
Wallflowers: Bringing Down the Horse (They had a 2nd release, but it's getting/got about zero airplay here.) Counting Crows: August and Everything After (Yes, I know about Raising the Satellites (I believe it's called something like that), but A&EA had most of their major stuff.) Our Lady Peace: Clumsy (although it depends on your definition of "hit") You could possibly include Barenaked Ladies' Stunt, although Maroon did pretty well in its own right. (This is strictly StateSide, I know they're huge in Canada, and I have most, if not all, of their stuff.)
Feel free to tear all of those to shreds.
And Chuck, the fact that you know the name of any Milli Vanilli album is scary.
Bush have had multiple hits since then and are on their 4th album currently.
There`s a difference between having your biggest-selling album compared to other big sellers (Green Day and Pearl Jam both have multiple platinum and gold records) and having one huge album and others flopping (Hootie).
Sheesh, first I defend Fuel, now Bush? What`s wrong with me!
You missed the boat with that one. "So" was his third consecutive multi-platinum album (following "Security" and "Plays Live", and since "So" was released, his 1980 album "Peter Gabriel" sold over a million) and his follow-up sold nearly as many as "So". He was pretty consistent selling albums throughout the 80s, even though he really started to stagnate around the time "So" came out.
So There. :-)
Actually, you have a better case with his duet partner on "Don't Give Up", Kate Bush only really had one album that sold well here in the US--Hounds of Love. A painful fact for somebody who's been a fan since 1978.
However, getting back to one-album wonders, there are all those groups that sound alike but they're all different, like Third Eye Blind, Blind Melon, Collective Soul, Semisonic, Cutting Crows, and those types.
Then you've got Flaming Lips and Pere UBU, who each managed one hit album before retreating into prog-rock obscurity.
And going way back, you've got The Knack, Haircut 100, Wall of Voodoo (one of my favorite bands, but they only had one "hit" album), The Romantics (maybe two hit albums there, I'm not sure), Split Enz (another fave that didnt sell records), and tons more.
More interesting to me are the bands I like that never come close to having a hit album--The Aquabats, The Stranglers, Oingo Boingo (yeah, they sell out west, but I'm in West Virginia and they might as well have been from Mars), The English Beat, The Specials, Fishbone--help me out here, I'm in a Ska rut--ATF, They Might Be Giants....anyway, you get the point.
Alanis was only big before Jagged Little Pill in Canada and/or as a member of the cast of "You Can't Do That on Television", which Somebody else better remember fondly, dammit. That show was so great in a Nickelodeon in 1988 kinda way.
The Aquabats Rule, as is a must for any band with a song called "Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates". Although I suppose Travis from Blink 182 used to be in the Aquabats, if I recall correctly, so they're not Totally without success.
Has no one suggested Prodigy's The Fat of the Land? I dunno about elsewhere, but in America, it was pretty much "Firestarter", "Breathe", and that was it.
Alanis was only big before Jagged Little Pill in Canada and/or as a member of the cast of "You Can't Do That on Television", which Somebody else better remember fondly, dammit. That show was so great in a Nickelodeon in 1988 kinda way.
The Aquabats Rule, as is a must for any band with a song called "Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates". Although I suppose Travis from Blink 182 used to be in the Aquabats, if I recall correctly, so they're not Totally without success.
Has no one suggested Prodigy's The Fat of the Land? I dunno about elsewhere, but in America, it was pretty much "Firestarter", "Breathe", and that was it.
Chris
1) I remember Alanis on that show, just based on the "OH! I know she was on TV once!" reaction-not necesarily for doing anything special on the show. Funny how I used to watch that show all the time when I was about 7, yet I can't stand watching it now.
2) THE AQUABATS KICK ASS! I love the Aquabats. They play with so much energy and they don't seem to give a damn whether or not they are "dark" or anything like that.
3) I forgot about Prodigy's "The Fat of the Land." That was their only success, apparently. I also forgot Jamiroquai's "Travelling Without Moving" unless he had some other hit album I forgot again. Did anyone else mention Chumbawumba's "Tubthumper"?
...Some fear the Pink... ...But many fear....THE MOUNTIE! (He's handsome, he's brave, and he's strong, you know)
Has no one suggested Prodigy's The Fat of the Land? I dunno about elsewhere, but in America, it was pretty much "Firestarter", "Breathe", and that was it.
That`s because they haven`t released an album since then.
Props to Rudy for mentioning TMBG and The Specials, two of my all-time favorite bands.