The early 1970s was a period that featured quite a few artists who scored only one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with catchy tunes. More rare during this time were artists whose only major hit reached the No. 1 spot on the chart.
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Some of these chart-topping one-hit wonders found their only success with songs that told engaging yet sad or dark stories. Here is a look at three No. 1 hits from the early 1970s whose lyrics convey interestingly melancholy or ominous tales:
[RELATED: 3 One-Hit Wonders From the 1970s With Tragic Backstories]
“Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass (1972)
“Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” initially was released in early 1972. It was the B-side of “Don’t It Make You Feel Good,” the first single by the pop-rock group Looking Glass. Eventually, Washington, D.C., radio DJ Harv Moore began playing “Brandy” on the song started catching on across the country.
“Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” also was featured on the band’s self-titled debut album, which came out in June 1972.
The song topped the Hot 100 on August 26, 1972, and spent a week at No. 1.
“Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl)” was written by Looking Glass guitarist and co-lead vocalist Elliot Lurie. The song tells the story of a barmaid who serves sailors in a busy seaport.
The male patrons constantly flirt with her. But her heart belongs to a sailor who has left her alone because he loves spending his days on the ocean. As the lyrics explain, Brandy’s love interest has told her, “Brandy you’re a fine girl / What a good wife you would be / But my life, my love, and my lady is the sea.”
Looking Glass also scored a minor Top 40 hit in 1973 with the Lurie-penned “Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne,” which reached No. 33 on the Hot 100.
Lurie left Looking Glass in 1974, and the remaining members changed the group’s name to Fallen Angels later that year.
“The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia” by Vicki Lawrence (1973)
In April 1973, Carol Burnett Show co-star Vicki Lawrence scored an unlikely chart-topping hit with “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia.” The song was written by country-pop singer-songwriter Bobby Russell, whom Lawrence had married in 1972.
Russell had previously written such songs as “Honey” and “Little Green Apples”. They were big hits, respectively, for Bobby Goldsboro and O.C. Smith.
“The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia” tells the story of an innocent man who was hanged for a murder he didn’t commit. Lawrence, as the song’s narrator, explains that the man, who is her brother, visits a local bar to have a drink. There, he’s told by the bartender, Andy, who’s his best friend, that his wife is having an affair with a guy named Seth. Andy also reveals that he’s slept with his pal’s wife too.
The man then returns home to get his gun and proceeds to sneak over to Andy’s house, where he’s planning to confront the bartender. On the way there, he notices a set of footprints smaller than his own. When he gets to Andy’s house, he finds his friend already shot to death. At the same time, police arrive on the scene and assume the guy has murdered his unfaithful friend.
The man is arrested and quickly tried, convicted, and hanged. The narrator then reveals that she killed Andy. Even more shocking, she admits to killing her brother’s “cheating wife” as well and has buried the body where it will “never be found.”
“The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia” spent two weeks at No. 1 in April 1973. Lawrence never had another hot single in the U.S., but, of course, continued to enjoy success as a comic actress. She and Russell divorced in 1974.
“Brother Louie” by Stories (1973)
In early 1973, the British soul group Hot Chocolate scored a Top 10 U.K. hit with the song “Brother Louie.” The tune, which was co-written by lead singer Errol Brown and bassist Tony Wilson, tells the tale of an interracial love affair.
Louie, a guy who’s described as “whiter than white,” falls in love with a Black woman and brings her home to meet his parents. Sadly, his mother and father won’t accept their son’s girlfriend because of her race.
Later in 1973, the rock band Stories covered “Brother Louie” and had a major U.S. hit with the tune. The song spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in the late summer of 1973.
Stories featured lead singer/bassist Ian Lloyd and keyboardist Michael Brown. Brown previously had been a founding member of 1960s baroque-pop group The Left Banke. Brown co-wrote that band’s classic hit “Walk Away Renee.”
(Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Courtesy of Getty Images; Photo by Kama Sutra/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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