Is it any wonder?

Just for shits and hoots, here's a little salute to a few one-hit wonder/lost classic favorites of mine from throughout the years...

"Get It On"—Chase (1971)  One of the funniest albums reviews of all-time came from Rolling Stone regarding the band Chase.  It read simply, "Flee!"  Funny as it was, I totally disagree with it, because this was a cool song in my book!  And it didn't take long for this one to catch on with college marching bands in the early '70s, as I often heard "Get It On" being played during football game halftimes—back in the day when they actually showed the halftime shows on TV.  Even though it wasn't on our playlist at KKJO in St. Joseph, I used to sneak "Get It On" in now and then during my graveyard shift gig on the radio, and those horns surely woke up a few St. Joseph-ians.  If I'd cranked my studio speakers up all the way, I might've shattered every window in the station, too!  Sadly, trumpeter Bill Chase and his entire touring band were killed en route to a concert at the Jackson County Fair in Minnesota in 1974 when their plane crashed just short of the runway.  Here's a video (if you want to call it that) of the song to give you a little taste of it. You can also find it on Rhino's Have A Nice Day-Super Hits of The '70s, Volume 5.

"Sausolito Summernight"—DIESEL (1981)  Diesel was a band out of the Netherlands, and this one got a lot of airplay on old KY-102 during the autumn of my senior year in high school.  It's sort of a sequel to Lobo's "Me And You And A Dog Named Boo" (ten years later) all about trekking around in a piece-of-shit car.  Here's a video that has nothing to do with the song, other than the driving in a car part.

"Hallelujah"—SWEATHOG (1971)  Back to that magical year 1971 for this one, and a bnad which had nothing to do with Horshack and Barbarino.  I really like this song, in spite of its pseudo-religious overtones.  It was your basic early '70s garage-band Rock, and had a nice attitude anyway.  I couldn't find a video for this one so you're on your own unless you can snag it on Have A Nice Day-Super Hits of The '70s, Volume 7.

"Also Spratch Zarathustra"—DEODATO (1973)  Is this not the coolest version of the 2001-A Space Odyssey theme, or what?  It begins and ends very morbidly, sounding as if recorded in a graveyard, then sounding a bit like the "Barney Miller" theme in places, this little jazz-fusion thang grooves throughout.  I loved how Deodato managed to make his guitar sound like yowling cats, too.  Here's yet another video that has nothing to do with the song in question, and you can find this one on Have A Nice Day-Super Hits of The '70s, Volume 10.

"Last Song"—EDWARD BEAR (1972)  Not to be confused with the Elton John song of the same name, this mopey little ditty was high on the charts in late '72/early '73 when I was in third grade.  Edward Bear wasn't a man, but rather the name of a group from Canada, and they never sniffed the Top 40 again after this one.  Here's a video that's kinda-sorta about the song.  Also available on Have A Nice Day-Super Hits of The '70s, Volume 10.

"Timothy"—THE BUOYS (1971)  Oh boy—the ramifications of this one!  Not since Cannibal & The Headhunters in 1965 had cannibalism been involved in a Top 40 record.  Written by Rupert Holmes (of "Pina Colada Song" and "Him" fame), I was blissfully unaware that the title character was eaten by the other two guys when I listened to this song at age 7 on WHB here in K.C.  I merely thought that Tim got lost and was never found.  Could this be where the band Fine Young Cannibals derived their name?  Available on Have A Nice Day-Super Hits of The '70s, Volume 6, "Timothy" is dissected furthermore in this little video presentation.

"Hocus Pocus"—FOCUS (1973)  The summer of '73 produced two really cool Hard Rock instrumentals, Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" and this one from Holland's Focus.  If you can get past the Benny Hill-esque yodeling from their manic organ player, these guys sounded very Deep Purple-ish at times.  Here's a little taste of the song played live (although played way too fast).

"Painted Ladies"—IAN THOMAS (1973)  You'd be hard-pressed to find a better dead ringer for Neil Young than this dude.  Turns out that Ian Thomas is the brother of SCTV's Dave Thomas ("Good day, eh?").  Released at the tail-end of '73, this was a minor hit (#34 in Billboard), but a pretty cool song, all the same.  Available on Have A Nice Day-Super Hits of The '70s, Volume 17, here's a rather un-scintillating video of the actual record spinning 'round and 'round...