It pleases me greatly that there isn't only one band who chose to call themselves The Only Ones. Just as there are many songs that do similar. I guess we all want to feel special, unique, like we're the only one... even if we're not.
THE ONLY ONES #1
"You know I'm just an average, ordinary guy..." sings Michigan's Larry Calder at the beginning of this 1966 song. Calling his band The Only Ones seems rather contrary to that.
THE ONLY ONES #2
One year later, Jim and John Axberg thought they were the Only Ones. Well, they were the Only Ones from Longview Texas... with their old-fashioned, sexist attitudes, damn them!
THE ONLY ONES #3
Peter Perrett, Alan Mair, John Perry and Mike Kellie are The Only Ones most of you will know, with one huge hit and three well-respected albums to their name, released between 1978 and 1980. Except... that huge hit never actually made the charts, reaching only #44... in New Zealand. So how is it we all know it so well?
The band reformed in 2007, following a resurgence of interest, and they're still gigging today... sadly without drummer Mike Kellie, who died in 2017.
Here's that huge hit that wasn't a hit...
I found two other bands called The Only Ones - the first from Minneapolis in 1965, the second from Australia in 1983. Their music can't be found online though, so we're limited to the only three above. But which is The Only One for you?
How AGAP wasn't a huge hit is beyond me.One of the greatest songs of all time.
ReplyDeleteHaha, yes we all like to feel unique and special (I'm always reminded of something Jimmy said in 'Quadrophenia': "I don't wanna be the same as everybody else, that's why I'm a Mod, see?" I know what he meant, but...)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it has to be #3 by a country mile, naturally. Should have been a hit, or perhaps it's actually *too* good? And #2 isn't so bad for its genre, I'd not heard it before, so thanks for the introduction.
Number 3 is the correct answer.
ReplyDeleteAnd as Charity Chic exasperates how was that not a huge hit (it was a bigger hit when used in the Vodafone ad in the late 90s/early 2000s.
The guitar solo is one of the very best (although The Beast on their debut album comes close)