When doing some heavy soul reflection and consideration of one-hit wonders, such as Mr. Moderator’s Lemon Pipers “Green Tamborine,” I came across a sub-genre of 1970s one-hit wonders, songs which I would call the Necro-Pops. I would guess that this form has roots in the 1950s and 1960s car crash scenarios, such as “Tell Laura I Love Her” by Ray Peterson, “Leader of the Pack” by the Shangri-Las, and “Dead Man’s Curve” by Jan and Dean. And then there was the 1960s Bobby Goldsboro hit, “Honey,” as well as Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billy Joe,” which set the tone for the next decade.
Why did the 1970s have a slew of these strangely alluring but awful songs? All of them are over-the-top emotofests. Please consider the following evidence:
- Terry Jacks – “Seasons in the Sun”
- Michael Murphey – “Wildfire”
- Gilbert O’Sullivan – “Alone Again”
- Vicki Lawrence – “The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia”
- Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods – “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero”
There is even a more upbeat version:
- Paper Lace – “The Night Chicago Died”
Wouldn’t we agree that these are horrible songs? But every time I hear one of them, I shudder and keep listening, and am most likely able to sing along with them. Probably you are able to think of more of them (Lord have mercy). But why were they so popular in the 1970s? Was it a social phenomenon? Just an indicator of global bad taste? And why, to this day, when we hear them and sneer, do we also get choked up? I await your consideration.
