Thunderclap Newman dies. The ultimate one-hit-wonder?
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Half hit wonder, even: I just listened through the whole song and, given how familiar the main refrain is, was surprised to have no memory of the piano bit at all.
I must know it more from advert and soundtrack use than from hearing the whole thing on the radio or similar.
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Jah Womble wrote: Oh, I think an artist whose record topped the charts for three weeks - at a time when such things actually mattered - can count as a 'whole'-hit-wonder.RIP, Thunderclap.
It is a good record and, as GO suggested, could well be the ultimate one hit wonder where the wonder is why they never did much else rather than the, perhaps more common, examples that leave you you wondering how on earth they got into the charts in the first place*.
* - A rhetorical question. Obviously people will buy any old shit when certain factors align.
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He looked so much older than everyone — ie: me, my friends, and people whose music we listened to at the time — so I'm startled to discover he was only six years my senior. Of course that isn't much now, but it was like eons back then.
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I remember seeing an interview with Andy Newman in which he said that he got the nickname "Thunderclap" because he had hands like hams and was incapable of playing anything subtle on the piano, just these big old chords like a thunderclap. He seemed like a lovely chap, a big ole' hippie with a sharp line in self-depreciation.
The song was originally going to be called "Revolution", but they changed it because they didn't want people thinking it was a version of the Beatles song, which had come out a few months earlier.
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Benjm wrote:Originally posted by Jah WombleOh, I think an artist whose record topped the charts for three weeks - at a time when such things actually mattered - can count as a 'whole'-hit-wonder.RIP, Thunderclap.
It is a good record and, as GO suggested, could well be the ultimate one hit wonder where the wonder is why they never did much else rather than the, perhaps more common, examples that leave you you wondering how on earth they got into the charts in the first place*.
* - A rhetorical question. Obviously people will buy any old shit when certain factors align.
Something in the Air was a rather special moment, however.
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