It’s One Hit Wonder Day today. I don’t know whose idea it was—not mine—but it’s a holiday we like around here. If you travel around the music blogs today, you may find a fair amount of misinformation regarding who’s a one-hit wonder and who isn’t. There are fewer of them than most people imagine. As we’ve noted before, if you go by what your local oldies or classic-rock station plays, you’re likely to be especially misinformed. But even I, a chart geek, am often surprised when I go to the books to check certain artists. I finally had to make up a rule that permits me to call certain artists one-hit wonders even when they’re not—the Cymarron rule, dedicated to the group that took the sublime “Rings” to Number 17 in 1971, only to lose its one-hit wonder status when the followup single, “Valerie,” reached Number 96 that fall.
This week in 1966, one of the top songs in the country was “Black Is Black” by Los Bravos. While you might take them for a Hispanic garage band from California, they were actually a multinational group from Europe—four Spaniards and a West German. They sang most of their songs in English, and “Black Is Black” was a worldwide smash. The followup single, “I Don’t Care,” made the UK Top 20. But for Los Bravos, “Black Is Black” was their only American hit. RIght?
Well, that’s what I thought, too. It turns out, however, that Los Bravos put two other songs into the Hot 100. Both were from Spanish movies in which the group starred as themselves, like the Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, although a better comparison might be to the Monkees. In December 1966, “Going Nowhere,” from Los chicos con las chicas, lasted a couple of weeks on the American chart, peaking at Number 91. It feels like a heavier version of the Buckinghams, with some fuzztone guitar and a bigger beat. In the summer of 1968, “Bring a Little Lovin’” was more successful, although how it missed climbing higher than Number 51 in so bubblegum-friendly an era, I dunno. That film, originally titled Dame un poco de amooor. . . !, was released as Bring a Little Lovin’ in the English-speaking world.
The lead singer of Los Bravos was the West German member, Michael Kogel. Allmusic.com compares his voice to Gene Pitney’s, and it’s not a bad comparison. After Los Bravos split, Kogel changed his name to Mike Kennedy (what better choice for a West German in the 1960s?) and embarked on a solo career. In 1972, he became what Los Bravos was not—a legitimate American one-hit wonder—when “Louisiana” made the Hot 100. In April, it would peak at Number 62, right between “Morning Has Broken” by Cat Stevens and “I’ll Take You There” by the Staple Singers.
And that’s all I know about Mike Kennedy and Los Bravos, but it’s more than I knew when I started out. It’s probably more than you knew, too, unless you’re Mike Kennedy.
“Black Is Black”/Los Bravos
“Going Nowhere”/Los Bravos
“Bring a Little Lovin’”/Los Bravos (although several Los Bravos albums were reissued on CD in 2005, they appear to be out of print; get everything you’d probably need on a pricey French import here, where cheaper used copies are also available)
“Louisiana”/Mike Kennedy (out of print)
Filed under: Forgotten 45, Tracks
Okay, jb, where’s the camera? Here I am sitting with my old college station’s copy of “Bring A Little Lovin’ ” laying right beside my laptop, at the top of the “labels to scan” pile, and I begin to read your post about… whoa!!
This is one of my faves from ‘68, written by the incomparable Harry Vanda and George Young. My feet can’t sit still with that irresistible bass line.
I’m guessing that “Bring A Little Lovin’ ” prompted one of my local top-40 stations to see what else might fly from Spain, and KDWB added the ultra-left-fielder “Get On Your Knees” by Los Canarios (Calla 156) to their playlist for several weeks that fall. It was another great horn-rocker, although the English language was evidently more of a challenge to Los C. vs. Los B. While record shopping, I overheard a customer ask for “Get On Your Knees.” The clerk’s reply was that their distributor didn’t carry the label. I’ve often wondered whether it might have broken out of the market, had stock been available to meet the demand.
“Valerie” is a fine one, too.
Well, if I don’t manage to learn anything in any of my smarty-pants university classes today, I can say that I learned that there’s actually a specific definition of “One-Hit Wonder”. Yes, that should have been obvious, but sometimes you hear things and just accept them without thinking about what they might mean. :) Oops!