One-song wonders

I was lunching at a much-frequented club in Bangalore last week with a few old school friends, old being the operative word. Just to be clear, we were class mates in school about 60-plus years ago and this was one of those nostalgic, beery get-togethers we periodically indulged in. The WhatsApp message from our Group Administrator would invariably say something like, ‘Hi guys, how about next Saturday for a beer lunch at the club? Do come without fail. Who knows how many of us will still be around next time we meet!’ Such an enticing invite which none of us could possibly refuse, given that we are all well into our 70s. On schedule, we gather round our favourite table at the club waiting for the chilled mugs and khababs to arrive.

As if on cue, the sound system starts playing Those were the days by Mary Hopkin, a song that was a huge hit just around the time we were passing out of school. 60 years on, it is still a party favourite. Hopkin was herself an attractive, blonde teenager then. To think that she could be a grandmother now makes the mind boggle. Some stars are perennially meant to be teenagers. The thing that struck me about Mary Hopkin was that she was forever branded with just this one song. She released several more records, but no one remembers anything else by her, barring her immediate family and record company. In short, a one-song wonder. Yes, yes, I know she had another moderate hit, Goodbye, composed by Beatle Paul McCartney, but that song was more famous for the composer’s name. And he is now pushing 80! Goodness, Gracious Me, as the late Peter Sellers memorably put it while medically examining the ravishing Sophia Loren, now into her 90s.

Mary Hopkin set me thinking about other singers from the western pop world who became victims of one, huge hit and walked off into the sunset. Unsung and unheard of thereafter. Unlike The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel and others whose list of memorable hits are as long as your arm.

Who remembers Peter Sarstedt? The name may not ring a bell to many, but Where do you go to, my lovely almost certainly will. As an aside, he was born in New Delhi in 1941. The song lives on even if Sarstedt is no more. If he released another hit, we are not in the know. There are some great lines in this song about a girl who consorted with the high and mighty in fancy destinations. Your name is heard in high places / You know the Aga Khan / He sent you a race horse for Christmas / And you keep it just for fun, for a laugh, ha-ha-ha.

Then there was Honey by Bobby Goldsboro, a teary, soppy sentimental, albeit melodious song that had the ladies reaching for their tissues. I should not be so cynical because the song was moving, the tune catchy and the lyrics heart-tugging. Apart from puppy dogs and Christmas Eves, the protagonist of the song is caught up in his bereavement. Now my life’s an empty stage / Where Honey lived and Honey played. Sniff, sniff. ‘Love means never having to say you’re sorry’ from Love Story came a couple of years later. The song always left me wondering if Honey was her name or if honey was just a typical American endearment to a loved one. Anyhow, that’s the last we heard of Bobby Goldsboro, at least here in India.

All these songs, and the ones to follow are of the 60s and 70s vintage. That is inevitable when one is looking back with rose-tinted glasses. Taylor Swift and Beyonce are ruled out, thank goodness! They will have to wait for another 60 years for today’s teenagers to wax eloquent and blub into their beer. Sometime circa 2080 sounds about right.

Flower power and the drug scene inspired some amazing songwriting during those magical days of our youth, none more evocative than Scott Mckenzie’s San Fransisco (Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair). I am sure he had many more songs to his credit but the song about ‘Frisco will remain in our hearts and minds forever. As will marijuana, Woodstock, free love, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg et al. – staple diet for most pop stars of that era.

Harry Nilsson’s Everybody’s Talkin’ (never hear a word they’re sayin’) which was featured on the soundtrack of the acclaimed 1969 film Midnight Cowboy, is still a favourite on the music circuit. As hobos Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, both skint and miserable, take their last ride together on a Greyhound bus, Harry Nilsson croons over the touching, final scene, I’m going where the sun keeps shinin’ / Through the pourin’ rain / Going where the weather suits my clothes. Wide-eyed hustler Jon Voight cradles a dying Hoffman as the bus heads out towards Miami. If I didn’t choke, it was a near thing and the song had much to do with it. Everybody was talking about Everybody’s Talkin’ but nobody is talking about Harry Nilsson.

How many of you can recall the name Mungo Jerry? I don’t see a single hand going up and I am not surprised. It was not the name of a person but that of a British band and their name was inspired by ‘Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer’ from T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Which in turn inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber’s monumental musical, Cats, which is expected to fill theatre halls in London till the 25^th century and beyond. Mungo Jerry released a song called In the Summertime around 1970, a bouncy, infectious reggae-inflected number that had half the world singing and dancing to it. They may have released more hits after that, but that remains a closely guarded secret.

In 1967 a band called Procol Harum gave us A Whiter Shade of Pale, a song which headily combined the finest qualities of baroque, soul and blues with a memorable instrumental backing that just stayed with you. Unsurprisingly, it went straight to the top of the charts when The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were shutting out all competition from the hit parade. The lyrics of A Whiter Shade of Pale was pure, abstract poetry. Except no one understood what it meant. Not even the composers themselves! Try these opening lines on for size, We skipped the light fandango / Turned some cartwheels across the floor / I was feeling kind of seasick / He said that her face at first just ghostly / Then turned a whiter shade of pale. But what the heck? The music was divine. Looks like Procol Harum felt they had nothing more to give after this. They were probably right.

South African singer Miriam Makeba may have had many hits to her credit in her country, but in the rest of the world, her 1967 sing-along, dance-along number Pata Pata became massively popular. Its driving beat and Makeba’s unique bi-lingual delivery had everyone instantly on the dance floor. Here in India, our very own Usha Uthup made Pata Pata a regular item on her varied repertoire. Word has it that the great Nelson Mandela introduced Usha to Makeba and they sang this song together on stage in Johannesburg! Once again, I am stumped if you ask me to name another song by Ms. Makeba.

I can go on this vein, but let me just provide a quick rundown, without much elaboration, of some of the other singers who made their fortune with a single hit but were largely anonymous for the rest of their careers.

Lee Hazlewood may be a relative unknown but his duet, Summer Wine, with Nancy Sinatra was on everybody’s lips during the late 60s. And still is. British singer Sandie Shaw had a clutch of hits during the 60s, but her Eurovision Song Contest winning entry, Puppet on a String is the one song she will forever be remembered for. Christie’s Yellow River, Lynn Anderson’s (I never promised you a) Rose Garden, The Archies’ Sugar Sugar, The Equals’ Baby Come Back, Zager and Evans’ futuristic In the year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus) – futuristic because the song was written in 1969 and ends with a doomsday prediction in the year 9595! I am sure you, dear reader, can add more examples. Provided little kids around the house call you Grandpa or Grandma. Daada, Daadi, Thaatha or Paati will also do nicely. Finally, those of you unfamiliar with the songs I have been rambling on about, you could do worse than visit YouTube or Spotify and go retro with a tall glass of whichever poison you fancy. And those moth-eaten bell-bottoms could come in handy to shake a leg.