Which Would You Rather Be... One-Hit-Wonder, or Never-Was?

[Hamerhack]

After asking the question about the solo from "Midnight at the Oasis" (thanks for the replies, by the way), I started wondering about what it must be like to be associated with just one song throughout your entire life.

Would you rather have written and recorded a one-hit-wonder (let's say it was a timeless classic and not some embarrassing novelty number), or would that be too frustrating to have achieved that just once, never repeating that brief taste of success?

[HamerHokie]

After asking the question about the solo from "Midnight at the Oasis" (thanks for the replies, by the way), I started wondering about what it must be like to be associated with just one song throughout your entire life.

Would you rather have written and recorded a one-hit-wonder (let's say it was a timeless classic and not some embarrassing novelty number), or would that be too frustrating to have achieved that just once, never repeating that brief taste of success?

One hit wonder, definitely. I'd be set for life.

[kizanski]

Is there anyone that would pick the struggling-through-life-without-any-recognition option?

I don't see what's so bad about having recorded or written "My Sharona" or "Tainted Love" or any of those "one hit" jams.

Sure beats hangin' out with you bums.

[MCChris]

Is there anyone that would pick the struggling-through-life-without-any-recognition option?

I would, simply because I've been living it for my entire adult life and I've grown comfortable with that status.

[Hamerhack]

I remember Shirley Bassey referring to "Goldfinger" as the bane of her existence.

Seems to me some may not want to be only able to play one song every time you get on stage. (On the other hand, I've never even been on stage, so I can't really relate anyway).

[DavidE]

One hit wonder, definitely. I'd be set for life.

Ah.... there lies the falsehood if you mean financially set for life. A musician is not likely to make much money off their first hit. If the artist retains ownership of publishing etc... (not likely to be a big percentage) there might be some $$$ flow, but it's not what you'd think.

[HamerHokie]

One hit wonder, definitely. I'd be set for life.

Ah.... there lies the falsehood if you mean financially set for life. A musician is not likely to make much money off their first hit. If the artist retains ownership of publishing etc... (not likely to be a big percentage) there might be some $$$ flow, but it's not what you'd think.

No, I'd build it into an empire.

[Steve Haynie]

Residual income from a classic hit song that gets played on the radio every day can be good for some people. It may not set up someone for life, though. The Monster Mash and Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer have kept their writers/performers comfortable.

Having albums that stay in print for decades, but never really having hits might allow you to play shows or get work as a side player to someone who it currently hot. Mark Chadwick of The Godz ended up playing with Bob Seger. Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner never sold many albums on their own, but they stayed in demand. Vinnie Moore started off making albums for shred fans, none of which would have gone platinum, but he has been able to keep working.

Think of it from the standpoint of being an actor. Some people are hot for a while and then cannot make another movie. They end up having to find another job somewhere outside of acting. Others play character parts for decades. You do not know their names, but you recognize the face. Those are the people who have jobs in the field of their choosing.

[MCChris]

The Monster Mash and Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer have kept their writers/performers comfortable.

The rest of the Crypt Kicker 5, though, still has to play the Holiday Inn circuit to make ends meet.

[DavidE]

One hit wonder, definitely. I'd be set for life.

Ah.... there lies the falsehood if you mean financially set for life. A musician is not likely to make much money off their first hit. If the artist retains ownership of publishing etc... (not likely to be a big percentage) there might be some $$$ flow, but it's not what you'd think.

No, I'd build it into an empire.

Well, just make sure you don't share writing credits with anyone and be a solo artist and just hire side musicians.

[kizanski]

The Monster Mash and Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer have kept their writers/performers comfortable.

The rest of the Crypt Kicker 5, though, still has to play the Holiday Inn circuit to make ends meet.

No, the Heartbreakers still tour with Tom Petty.

[blackfbiv]

I'd take the one song...

Tim Hughes will never have to work again. One song...

Here I Am...

This tune is played in multitudes of churches week after week after week... I don't think it's been out of the CCLI top 25... ever.

[Jimbilly]

I'd take anything!, wouldn't even have to be a real hit, just a decent song that got some airplay!

[DavidE]

I'd take anything!, wouldn't even have to be a real hit, just a decent song that got some airplay!

There's the catch 22. It's unlikely a "decent song" would get some airplay! ;-)

[polara]

For what it's worth, a friend knew Tom Gray. He had a band called The Brains, who recorded one of his little songs, "Money Changes Everything."

Then Cyndi Lauper covered it.

Apparently his first royalty check was for $80,000. This in 1980-something dollars.

Hootie and the Blowfish sold sixteen MILLION copies of their first CD. Now they play small clubs and, from what i read, love it... they get to gig, no pressure, and they are all set for life.

Give me the hit, baby!

[sw686blue]

What if you were a never-was and a never-will-be?

[polara]

I'd take anything!, wouldn't even have to be a real hit, just a decent song that got some airplay!

There's the catch 22. It's unlikely a "decent song" would get some airplay! ;-)

you are correct. I had a song get some respectable airplay in a few college towns.

It WAS fun when we were unloading in Auburn, Alabama and a girl comes up and says "You're like... those guys, right? Who do that song, like, the one, you know, that goes (and she hums the chorus), right?" Replying that we like, were, indeed, you know, like those guys, she promised she'd bring all her friends and they were excited.

Good gig.

[kizanski]

What if you were a never-was and a never-will-be?

Waddayamean "if'?

[DavidE]

For what it's worth, a friend knew Tom Gray. He had a band called The Brains, who recorded one of his little songs, "Money Changes Everything."

Then Cyndi Lauper covered it.

Apparently his first royalty check was for $80,000. This in 1980-something dollars.

Hootie and the Blowfish sold sixteen MILLION copies of their first CD. Now they play small clubs and, from what i read, love it... they get to gig, no pressure, and they are all set for life.

Give me the hit, baby!

Record contracts today aren't what they were back then. Again, the key is retaining the ownership of the songs and I understand that is difficult to do.

Who has songwriting credit for Money Changes Everything? Looks like only Tom Gray. He must have managed to hold onto the rights or got them back after being dumped by the label. Fortunately(?) for the guitar player in the Brains, he became the bassist for Georgia Sattelites.

Take a look at the chart positions for MCE below. My friends in (a current band) had a top 25 "hit" single last year. The singer with principal songwriting credit gets most of what's left of the dough after the record company takes their cut. Now this song was on the radio a lot, was covered by a country artist, was on NOW that's what I call Music, was on KidzBop, was on a Sims computer thing, was the theme song for an MTV tv show. They're not rich. They're not set for life. The drummer needs every $100 gig he can muster. The bassist is working at a computer store and playing in another cover band. The singer was able to make a nice living for a year and I hear she paid cash for her convertible Mustang, but if their new single (Supergirl) out now doesn't hit big, she'll probably do better as a songwriter than a performer in the future. When it comes down to it, the band member who did the best was the guy who quit just before they signed with a major label. He kept getting his royalty check while running his family's restaurant. Most of the other guys have been broke since they couldn't have a day job.

__________________________________________

Here's what Wiki says:

"The song was written by The Brains' frontman, Tom Gray, and was that band's only (underground) hit. This led to the group's signing by Mercury Records. They re-recorded the number under the guidance of producer Steve Lillywhite for their debut album, "The Brains" in 1980."

[edit] Chart performance

Although it did not chart as highly as previous singles, it is still considered by many to be a classic of the era. It charted in the top 100 in 6 countries including:

Chart (1984) Peak

position

U.S. Billboard Hot 100 27

U.S. Hot 100 Airplay 23

U.S. Mainstream Rock Chart 37

U.S. Hot 100 Sales 28

U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40 16

Casey's Top 40 Radio & Records 20

Cash Box Top 100 Singles 31

U.S. Sony 8

Australia ARIA Singles Chart 19

Canadian Singles Chart 30

Chilean Singles Chart 10

Colombian Singles Chart 3

German Singles Chart 54

New Zealand Singles Charts 14

______________________________________________-

Here's what Gray had to say about "Money Changes Everything," circa 1980 and today.

INDEPENDENT WEEKLY: For the history portion, can you talk about the origins of the Brains and the origins of Delta Moon? And what did you do to keep busy musically between the two?

TOM GRAY: Before the Brains, I'd been working in nightclubs six nights a week with dance bands. It was fun and I learned a lot, but it was time to break out of that. Some friends of mine had an original band called the Fans. They'd been driving up to New York, playing CBGB and other clubs, and getting write-ups in the Village Voice, New York Times, etc. I made a trip to New York with them and then joined the band for a trip to L.A. and some gigs around Atlanta. By that time, I had my own body of original songs worked up, and I started the Brains. We played a few gigs around Atlanta and then immediately started following the path the Fans had blazed. That led to a record deal with Mercury. Another band the Fans encouraged to follow that road was the B-52s from Athens.

For several years after the Brains' demise I worked as a songwriter and session player in New York, Nashville and L.A., but home was always with my wife in Atlanta. When my son was born in 1995, I gave up traveling all the time and became a stay-at-home dad. But I couldn't give up playing. I fell in with Mark Johnson, who lived only a couple blocks away, and we started playing slide guitar together in the living room, Mark on bottleneck standard guitar and me on six-string steel guitar. Gradually we added some other members and started playing in clubs around town. Once my son started school, Delta Moon hit the road.

Was there was a feeling with "Money Changes Everything" that it had some extra durability and that it would become your signature song?

I remember the day I wrote the song I was worried it was too simple. But it had such a strong effect on everyone who heard it that I knew it was something special. When we pressed the Brains' 45, I played it for my parents. At the end of the song there was a long silence. Then my dad said, "Well, it's different."

What do you remember about the process for writing "Money Changes Everything"? Did you start with the phrase "money changes everything" and build it from that, or did that phrase emerge as the song evolved?

I had the keyboard lick and the chords of the chorus, just a little thing I'd bang on the piano. Then in a conversation my landlady said, "Money changes things." I said, "Money changes everything. ... Um, excuse me," and ran down to my apartment to write the rest of the song. It came pretty quickly.

You, of course, recorded the first versions of the song with the Brains, and then the song appeared on Cyndi Lauper's huge She's So Unusual. Do you know of any other versions of the song? If so, how were those other versions arranged?

A few years ago, my brother made me a CD of versions he'd collected from Napster. There was a pretty wide range. My favorite was an Australian lounge singer who'd recorded it with a string orchestra. It's almost unrecognizable.

Can you describe the two versions of "Money Changes Everything" that the Brains recorded? Other than budget, how was the homemade single different from the album version?

On the single, I was just starting to sing with a band and, to my ear now, I sound a little strangled. But we worked very hard on getting the sound the way we wanted. On the LP, we've got the Steve Lillywhite sound of course, since he produced it. I let others talk me into singing a different second verse on that version, since I'd originally written three, but we'd trimmed it to two for the 45. I think I made the right choice the first time. Cyndi must have felt the same, since she sang the second verse from the 45, not the one on the LP.

How difficult or easy was it to reimagine "Money Changes Everything" to fit Delta Moon's musical vision? What was that process like?

Well, Delta Moon's signature sound is the two slide guitars, but that didn't really fit this song. So we ended up using electric guitar and dulcimer, and we invited Zeb Bowles to play fiddle on the record. I'd always pictured a fiddle on the song anyway. Tonally, the song stands a little apart from the others on the CD, but it's not out of the ballpark. We've got other songs that vary the sound, too. It's interesting that Cyndi Lauper recorded an acoustic version last year, and while hers is very different from Delta Moon's, she also went with a dulcimer and fiddle. That's something I'd been doing off and on since the 1990s, but I'm sure she never knew that. So maybe that's just where the song belongs right now.

From the stage, have you witnessed the light coming on for people as they hear Delta Moon perform the song—as in they know that they know the song but can't quite place it and then it finally clicks? And I imagine that more than one person has asked you afterward about your cover of the Cyndi Lauper song... .

Yes, all of that. But it doesn't always click. One recent reviewer accused me of using a cliché for a title. Well, it wasn't a cliché when I wrote it.

Are you still as cynical as you were when you wrote the song about 30 years ago?

Cynical, me?

[hamerhead]

No, I'd build it into an empire.

Can you say 'Achy Breaky Heart'?

[polara]

DavidE, thanks for the background! Interesting.

I thought it was common knowledge that a songwriter gets the money for a hit. If you're in a band and not writing published songs, your income is from performances. Period. Well, if you sold a BUTTLOAD of records you'll get tiny royalties off sales but my statement about Tom Gray making bucks wasn't about, say the drummer from the Brains hitting the big time, but how if you WRITE a hit, it's a good thing.

If you only play in the band of a hit songwriter it might mean you get to play more gigs, thus getting more money.

[serial]

DavidE, thanks for the background! Interesting.

I thought it was common knowledge that a songwriter gets the money for a hit. If you're in a band and not writing published songs, your income is from performances. Period. Well, if you sold a BUTTLOAD of records you'll get tiny royalties off sales but my statement about Tom Gray making bucks wasn't about, say the drummer from the Brains hitting the big time, but how if you WRITE a hit, it's a good thing.

If you only play in the band of a hit songwriter it might mean you get to play more gigs, thus getting more money.

See "Whiter Shade of Pale"...

[geoff_hartwell]

Two great opposite examples:

Don MacLean - American Pie. If you want to download the song, you have to buy the whole album. 10 bucks a pop. And he does THREE, count em THREE versions of the song when he plays live. Which he still does, with his signature model Martin.

Jim Rebhorn - Character Actor. Went to college with Annie's mom. Been in a bazillion movies (he was the snivelling "Yes man" to the president in Independance Day, he was the expert witness in My Cousin Vinny, etc)

In any case, there are lots of ways to make a living. I've known people that teach 70 students and never play gigs, guys that do pit band or cruise ship gigs, praise and worship gigs, etc. There's no limit of gigs to be had, it's just a matter of balancing your life so it's full in all the ways you need.

Geoff

[Boogie1]

What if you were a never-was and a never-will-be?

What if you were a never-was and a never-will-be?

Uhhh.....I already am that.

[radmo]

Some are born to move the world

To live their fantasies

But most of us just dream about

The things we'd like to be

Sadder still to watch it die

Than never to have known it....N. Peart