ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "Turn Up the Radio" by Autograph
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- Опубліковано 17 лют 2023
- They got in on the ground floor of hair metal and then got left behind? Why couldn't Autograph turn up the radio a second time?
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Autograph are like a fictional band from a sitcom episode where the sitcom family's teenager and their best friend are trying to get tickets to their show but can't because they don't have the money so they create this money making scheme to raise money like a car wash or a yard sale. However, one thing leads to another and they are back to square one but then the band shows up and, realizing how dedicated they are, gives them front row tickets. Then the episode ends with the teens rocking out to the band's music, which sounds like stuff you would find on a royalty free rock music put to words, at the concert.
That sounds oddly specific and completely relatable.
It's called GTA vice City
@@SENATORPAIN1I’d rather go see a Love Fist concert than an Autograph concert lmao
one of those plots that you definitely saw more than once, but can't tell exactly where :D
I cannot comprehend how insanely accurate this is. You're hilarious.
I don't think you can underestimate the impact Vice City had on the lasting impact of this song.
Knew I heard this somewhere…
VRock is Top 3 GTA Radio Station. I would say it's VRock from Vice City, Radio X from San Andreas, and West Coast Classics from GTA V.
I'd replace West Coast Classics on that list with KDST in San Andreas, but otherwise agreed.
@@philly_sports1558 RadioX introduced me to so many good bands
Exactly. I know it because of vice city. So it puts me in Vice City
Few years ago I found a 45 of this song at a 2nd hand store. No price tag on it, the cashier looked at it and just said "Yaknow what....you can just have it!"
Sounds like he was trying to rip you off.
@@troodon1096 Ha ha!
@@troodon1096.
"I got this record for free, and I _still_ want a refund!"
"No price tag? I gUeSS iTs fReE"
Autograph are one of those bands that you could describe as "always an opener, never a headliner."
Oof
That's a rare insult
I saw them open for Def Leppard in 1984 (I believe)... edit: on further reflection it must have been Van Halen they opened for that I saw.
Agreed. But the third of fourth opener.
Only Todd would randomly upload a One Hit Wonderland in the middle of the night and then completely disappear into the Shadows
He lives in California, so it's only 7 PM there.
It's not the middle of the night if you sleep during the day. Then it's the afternoon!
What a shadowy figure...
It is dark in California
@@joshuarichmond2688 litterly been pitch black for over an hour 🤣
Ah, one of my favorite types of one-hit wonders: Where Todd answers the “Did they deserve better?” question with a chortle followed by a flat-out “no.”
@@jacksonteller3973
Well said. I got all the first three albums and you need to know all the background Stories about the band. How shitty they were treated by the record company and how fast they had to release another record.
That's why they released a shitty album like That's The Stuff. But the third Album Loud and Clear is in my opinion still their best effort.
Btw It's Not true what Todd is telling here. Steve Plunkett released in 2003 an Autograph Album with complete different band members.
yup, the ones where we all know "yeah these people never deserved better"
@@jacksonteller3973
I've got the more missing pieces Album and also the Buzz Album.
they just had bad luck with their image, and they weren't notorious drug addicts and woman abusers like motley crue. They weren't " cool" . And motley crue were talentless from day one.
😶
. .. mm? Mm⁸
There's a boss fight in a game called Alpha Protocol with a Russian mobster who is obsessed with American 80s Culture, he keeps quoting Scarface, and the fight takes place in a disco hall and this song is blasting the whole time. He also keeps running off to do cocaine to regain energy, and you can make the fight easier by bribing someone to spike his cocaine with laundry detergent, which just slows him down a bit.
They picked the perfect song.
That’s amazing
😂😂
I still just love the fact that there was an 80s band called “Silver Condor”.
Underrated game, could've been a classic if it wasnt a broken buggy mess
Oh god the memories. I love this bugged out, barely functional mess of a game with a firey passion.
I love that they throw a mechanical pencil into the audience like it’s a free drum stick
I suddenly want to take the ACT now...
Could have easily blinded that girl. 😉
Even then, everyone around me back in 84 were saying "Turn Up The Radio" would be a 1 hit wonder.
Not true they also had other hits such as “Turn Down The Stereo” and “Give Me The Aux Cord”
@@CantTellYou this comment wins the Internet for today.
Yes, but back then, we meant we were wondering how they got even one hit...
@@GrayvornI’m tellin ya. It’s 6 in the morning where I’m at and I’m in bed laughing my arse off.
Literally 1984
A hair metal guy making the theme song to 7th Heaven is absolutely hilarious
When that clip of the theme song came on, I audibly went "Eugh."
@@jbwarner8626 LOL same. Such a lame tv show (and theme song).
It did give David Lee Gallagher a steady job for 20 years as the English VA for Riku in the Kingdom Hearts series. And Jessica Biel had a brief stint as the actress who plays hot bimbos/pinup model. And the minor characters were acting debuts for some celebrities.
@@thirteenfury As far as I’m concerned, the show’s only cultural contribution was providing fodder for A Very Special Episode on Funny or Die. 7th Heaven makes Full House look like Frasier.
@@MichaelSmith-fq6hz LMAO
The drummer from Autograph met Mark Lanegan from Screaming Trees in rehab and is partially responsible for Mark's sobriety towards the end of Mark's life. I think that's pretty awesome.
He helped somebody but himself died from drug related homicide
@@soulbrother5435 Palpatine ironic
Irony is pretty ironic sometimes@@bootmii98
@@KatarnCrusaderHave you ever heard of the tale of Darth Plageuis the wise?
from the paper mate sponsorship, the background as session musicians and ad-jingle writers, and the very ad friendly song that co-opts a coke catchphrase, this band really embodies the commercialism of the 80s pretty succinctly
I hadn’t gotten to the Coca-Cola part of the video yet and was thinking cocaine had a jingle. Which would’ve been even more 80’s if that was the case.
I saw them open for Van Halen in '84. I tried to get to the show late enough to miss them. Sometimes punctual friends can be a curse.
i'm so sorry for your struggles :(
Back in the 80's, the easiest way to get airplay is to sing about how great radio is.
now radio is dead
That is a pretty funny point, stations could have their cake (sell ads) and eat it too (have the content be an ad for their own product)
Yeah, I can think of a handful of radio songs just off the top of my head. By this point, they were usually playing off the nostalgia of a declining medium.
Kind of like doing a song about the DJ to get play in a club.
I want to imagine a modern equivalent, where some guy shamelessly sung the praises of iHeartRadio.
Also, when Lynch was shown shouting "Hey Louie!" did anyone else expect a Scatman John-style posthumous Armstrong collab?
So, I am not here to say they were the bestest band ever. I get why they are where they are in the history of music. That being said, their album Loud and Clear was very enjoyable to me. Plus as a middle school kid I wrote the band like the liner notes told me to do and I got a handwritten letter back from Steve Plunket the lead singer. I still have this letter framed in my office. Means little to anyone else but me, but again he didn't have to and he did anyway. They will always be one of my faves because they made a kid happy.
that's so cool!
That's so awesome - I love when artists do that, it's so incredibly cool to kids.
Aww that's sweet
One of the things that really worked against Autograph, like many other hair metal one hit wonders, was that there was basically nothing to set them apart from the pack. Growing up, I 100% thought that this was a Def Leppard song, and the only reason I even found out it was Autograph was that a DJ said it one day.
As someone born in 1985 who ended up being a heavy metal nightclub DJ for about a decade: I too always forget this wasn't a Def Leppard song.
Ironically enough, Autograph's name was inspired by the Def Leppard song Photograph
Same. My sister use to play Def Leppard all the time, and it was on rock radio a ton, so when this would come up i rotation it just sounds so similar that I just figured it was from one of their early albums like high and dry or on through the night, both cool albums now that I am older.
I knew a guy who thought Journey's "Lovin Touchin Squeezin" was Rickie Lee Jones.
My girlfriend and I have been watching/playing a lot of UA-cam music quizzes (name the song in X seconds or whatever) and it's been kind of startling the sheer number of hair metal bands I've more or less forgotten. Not the songs, but the bands. The ones we remember either had a staggering run of hits (Def Leppard, GnR) or had That One Big Hit (Extreme) and then there are... the rest. I honestly didn't remember this song until it showed up on a quiz and, oh! Right! THAT ONE!
My favorite part of getting to a One Hit Wonderland early is seeing people go "Oh, I love this song! It means so much to me! It's why I chose to play the music I do" under a video where Todd just makes fun of it
Nothing wrong with that, it's a sign they don't take themselves too seriously. The people you have to watch out for are the ones who're like "NO! I love this song and it means so much to me that any criticism against it is tantamount to an attack on me personally!!"
I think Brickleberry made the best joke about that.
"Steve, you saved my life and inspired me with your music, I love you. You're my favorite singer."
"Butt Love is your favorite song and it saved your life?"
I love how it shows the age of his audience
@@jacksonteller3973 ...that's not what the series is about
Hey, I literally bought a copy of "I'm Good (Blue)" to jam to, and that was Todd's worst song of the year award. He's absolutely right that it is as vapid as it gets. But I still love it and I'm owning it. Deal with it! (And while you're at it, could you Turn up... The Radio!) 😄
13:10 maybe the weirdest thing Neil Kernon did was produce and engineer Cannibal Corpse's fifth album Vile. Yeah, the band with songs like Hammer Smashed Face and Fucked With A Knife got the Hall and Oates guy to produce them. And it actually works because that record sounds crisp as fuck, especially for a death metal album.
EDIT: Fuck me, Kernon has produced SO many great metal records. Gore Obssessed and The Wretched Spawn by Cannial Corpse, Nevermore's first couple records, most of Nile's records, and Jeff Loomis's first solo record. What a legend.
He also produced Michael Bolton's infamous hair metal outing, Everybody's Crazy!
I am not kidding.
Yeah just found this out, blew my mind.
Autograph makes me remember that simpsons joke
-and that was Whitesnake
-we're not whitesnake dude we're Poison
-I thought we were Quiet Riot
I know it's probably been said but I just want to take a moment to appreciate Todd and his work over the years. Bro has grown so much in throughout the years and he's just way too good at his craft.
So thanks Todd.
Side note, I used to blast this song so hard back in the day. It's simple but I did turn my radio up every time I heard it.
I turned it up in my car when it came up on Amazon Music the other day
Bro?
@R W short for brother, an exceedingly common way to address someone in a friendly manner
@@burgermind802 ohhh same thing as how girls use "like" every other word. got it thanks
@@trossk there is not a single way in which vocative “bro” is the same as discourse marker “like”, probably, other than that they’re both words, bro
We LOVE our 80s hair metal here in Trinidad and Tobago, I am honestly shocked this only peaked at #29. I was born in 1998 and I have heard this song on the radio SO many times.
I was a teenager in the 80s and am also all surprised it peaked at #29.
This song sounds era defining
Well damn, now I know where I want to go on vacation
Wait for real? That's hilarious. Keep on rocking, T&T. Sometimes its fun to read about the less scary implications of American cultural dominance.
No shit? That's freaking awesome!
I worked with Randy from Autograph at guitar center! Great dude. Some of the best stories. Can’t wait to send him this.
He passed away april of last year.
@@zaiusbaltar7091 feel like I would’ve heard about that, did we work together?
@@carsonpace4000 no, i'm in canada, check wikipedia , also another comment on here from a long time fan mentioned it.
Cool
@@carsonpace4000 Apparently you wouldn’t have lol
I may be biased because I met these guys when my band opened for them in 2017, but they had some really catchy tunes and they're really nice guys. At the time the only original members were Steve Lynch (Lead guitar) and Randy Rand (Bass), but after load-in we hung out at the bar and all introduced ourselves.
My band went on first, and during soundcheck I was struggling to set up the venue's vintage Ampeg SVT bass head since I was used to the newer models (Typical bass player, amirite?). Someone behind me said "Need help?" I turn around to see Randy on stage with me to give me a hand. He gave me some tips on how to get some great sounds out of it, and he was right! He also offered to help me out if I needed it - Bass players unite!
After the show we all hung around over some beers. I remember at one point being alone outside with Steve Lynch and just talking guitar. Like you said, the dude literally wrote the book on shredding, yet he was so nice and humble. And before you write him off as an EVH clone, he did something I rarely see people do with tapping, which is using all 4 fingers on the "strumming" hand to tap the notes higher up on the neck. By doing this he opened up more options to tap harmonies, crazy rhythms, or just tapping faster. The song/guitar solo "Hammerhead" is a great example of this: ua-cam.com/video/vHzpv25UX44/v-deo.html
I’m super curious, what’s your band’s name ? That sounds like a pretty awesome experience
“We were THIS close to a song being called ‘Rockin’ the Rockity Rock Rock’.”
That’s the name of my debut single now, no one else gets it.
To be fair, this was not a "hair metal" or 80's thing. Off the top of my head, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay, Rock Around the Clock. Jailhouse Rock. I'm not even to 1960 yet.
Reminds me of 'when loving lovers love'
Don't you mean "Rockin' the Rockity Räk Roque"🤔? 🪨🪨🪨🪨🙃
Only if it's a country ballad.
@@NatalieValentina6 Rockin’ the Rockity Rock Cock
My god that snide comment about Kirk Cameron might be the low key funniest thing he's ever said in a review.
Came looking for this comment! 16:09
I feel like Autograph is the exact band that Limozeen was parodying
i'm integrating this into my belief system now, they're really such a Limozeen ass band 😂
"Nirvana killed my career" themed episodes of this show are always the best!
"a hair band covering Louie Louie is like sampling Rick Astley now"
WELL ,TELL THAT TO YUNG GRAVY, TODD
Absolute shade lmfao
In his Top 10 worst songs of 2022 video, he did briefly acknowledge Yung Gravy's sampling of Rick Astley, saying it was actually one of the better instances of sampling that year compared to the really bad ones we did get, especially with David Guetta and Bebe Rexha when they sampled Eiffle 65's "Blue" for "I'm Good."
That says things about how terrible was 2022 for sampling
I've been watching Todd to fall asleep lately, and man do I love this series. It's like Behind the Music but only the fun shit
Which is basically half the episode, LMAO! Paramount Plus brought that show back last year, by the way.
That’s a good way to put it
@@pervertedalchemist9944 Didn’t know about Paramount+ bringing back BTM
@@eyeheartsushi2212 Yeah, they brought back that, Yo! MTV Raps and Beavis And Butt-Head. All with new shows alongside the old ones.
They always need a sorta "happy ending". The remastered Styx episode jarring cause the whole band is really optimistic but DeYoung isn't even mentioned, and we all know the band isn't charting Top 40 hits anymore.
Led Zeppelin -> Def Leppard
Photograph -> Autograph
The circle of life.
Yeah, except Joe Elliott never pretended it was anything but completely intentional. He was always open about it being a nod to Zeppelin. He was also about 17 when he came up with the name. These guys were fully adult industry professionals.
The most damning shot at Autograph is definitely having a Christian band's rework of their only hit used for the "cover plays while credits roll" song
Fun fact: if you replace the word “rock” by “fuck” in any song, the lyrics suddenly make sense. I wanna rock? With you baby. Let’s rock around the clock until my clock is sore.
I love fuck and roll? Fuck of ages?
I am a fuck
I am an island
Oh God this is making too much sense and I feel like an idiot now...
So Twisted Sister were actually singing "I WANNA F*CK! F*CK!".
That's because the term "rock 'n' roll" is 1930s/40s AAVE slang for sex. Rock has always meant "sex"
Steve Lynch is truly one of the underrated guitar heroes of the hair metal era. He and Reb Beach of Winger were the best at innovating with two-handed tapping after EVH brought it to the rock mainstream.
Winger was actually a decent band. If you like 80s rock you will probably like them. By the time they got going Nirvana had taken the world by storm.
Vito Bratta was a great tapper as well.
@@doomdimensiondweller5627 Ok Stewart 😂
@@rachel_sj I was going to mention that
Any relation to George Lynch from Dokken?
A lot of the stuff you mentioned here, Autograph, quiet riot, loverboy, david lee roth, ozzy, foreigner, hall&oats etc. all appeared in GTA Vice City which is how many of us first heard these bands
"It's a sitcom theme. What are we even doing?" If that's not an indictment of how hard they missed metal, I'm not sure what is.
If youre gonna talk about this genre being so well remembered it's worth noting that Max Martin started his career in a hair metal band, and a lot of his songwriting techniques he developed by writing hair metal songs.
What band was Martin in?
@@jacksonteller3973if you like that classic Butch Walker production definitely check out August is Falling
@@jacksonteller3973 never heard of them, but I'll have to look them up! Thanx!
There are definitely metal elements in Martin's pop songwriting. From the huge emphasis on bass and groove to those impactful keyboard parts used as instrumental hooks. DUH-DAH-DAH-DUH Oh baby baby, how was I supposed to know...
Is it well remembered? Pretty much all the discussion I've seen around it is people clowning on it and talking about how cool it was when metal became dangerous again in the 90s, but that might just the crowd I'm hanging around
so much of what was called metal in the 80s is so unrecognisable as metal now... i'm not even saying that in a snobby way, i just find it fascinating. most of this stuff sounds like something i'd have heard at a school disco as a kid.
One thing about Autograph is how obvious it is that these are former AOR guys doing hair metal cosplay.
Seeing this decently serious rock band shilling for mechanical pencils of all things is hilarious it’s like if Doja Cat’s next video was also an ad for mousepads.
Or the Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell...which she singlehandedly made them bring back.
Admit it, guys.
You all sang this back playing Vice City. Me included.
FUCK YEAH!! Get a fast car, crank the radio, drive like a mad man, the car explodes, get a new one, rinse and repeat. God, that game was awesome.
Yes
I always love how Todd always brings up Nirvana when he talks about 80s rock, especially hair metal. It's compulsory.
Its also kinda impossible not to.
Seriously, this may not have been his finest moment, but Neil Kernon is a LEGENDARY producer. In the 90s and beyond he produced death metal! Who else can say they worked with everyone from Queen, to Elton John, to Neil Diamond, to Queensryche, to Dokken, to Hall and Oates to Cannibal Corpse???
Also in that image features Brand X (a very fine Jazz fusion band that once had Phil Collins), Kayak (an underrated prog band from Netherlands) and Mick Ronson.
And he played guitar alongside Jeff Loomis on his solo debut. Not everyone gets to do that...
It's remarkable that I've been following Todd for ten years almost (this year!), I can *still* think of one-hit wonders I'd love for him to cover someday (Bitter Sweet Symphony, Crush, All the Young Dudes), and he STILL comes up with subjects I've never heard of and never would've thought of. I love it. Keep being awesome, Todd.
The Spin Doctors and "Two Princes" would be an interesting OHW. The song that made it into every 90s teen comedy and then fell off the face of the earth.
@@thirteenfury he did a Train Wreckords on the Spin Doctors' second album!
@@thirteenfury I saw the Spin Doctors play in a NYC bar in June 1989 before they got famous, and their setlist was basically their first album. Like with many other bands, a sign that "coming up with decent new material for the follow-up" would be a problem.
@@thirteenfury Not only has he done them on Trainwreckords, they're a two hit wonder. "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong?" And I actually still hear "Jimmy Olsen's Blues" on the radio sometimes.
The verve are ridiculously far from a one hit wonder.
Kernon has worked with Hall & Oates and Yes and Cannibal Corpse. That's some freaking range!
As someone whose parents were teens of the 80s, I have a soft spot for 70s and 80s rock bands. I will admit, it was only quite recently that I found out this song wasn't from Def Leppard
Barely Breathing by Duncan Sheik is interesting for me. I mean that guy went from a random no-name minivan rocker to a Tony Award-winning songwriter who had a hand in writing one of the most heart-wrenching musicals in Broadway history
Good choice
He wrote the music for American Psycho the Musical!
Which musical?
@@DestinyKillerSpring Awakening!
This song has such big movie soundtrack energy.
My teachers in high school used to make fun of me for liking this song. They're like out of all the 80s songs you like. This is the one you pick and I was like yeah 🤟🤟🤣
Its a great song, I agree. But i always have to do a corny dance move when i sing "day time,💁 night time,💁anytime"🤷 i kinda shrug and shake my head like I really mean it. Lol like im in kids bop.
Well, if nothing else, liking what you like despite what people say you should like is the cornerstone sentiment of Rock.🤟
teachers crush dreams and destroy childhoods.
Was 14 in 1984 and loved this song. Later I found out that Steve Lynch was my brother-in-law's cousin.
Def Leppard’s Pyromania is by far the most timeless hair metal album
Pyromania was my gateway drug into metal.
Id also add shout at the devil (mötley Crüe) and metal health (quiet riot)
I’d say it’s a toss up between pyromania and hysteria. Def leppard is a step above hair metal fs
@@tylerharaf5901
Its because they weren’t really all hair metal. Their first two albums are NWOBHM.
Its a great album,, but I wouldn't use the word "timeless".. it couldn't be any more of its time..
Even in the 80's, this is one of those songs that everybody heard, but nobody knew who sang. And even if they knew the name "Autograph", they had no clue who that was beyond this song.
Yea, I saw the thumbnail for this episode and I had no idea who "Autograph" was, or even the name of the song. But yea, I must have heard, and ignored, this song hundreds of times in the 80s. Not good enough to like, and not bad enough to hate. Just forgettable milquetoast rock. If anyone knew who Autograph were by the 1990s, it would have been their name on the poseur kid's T-shirt in Beavis & Butthead instead of Winger (another band I can't remember a single song from).
obviously you didn't live back then. Your friends must have been madonna fans
@@zaiusbaltar7091 I got 51 upvotes in less than a day. So obviously you didn't live back then. Nice try, kid. You probably listen to mumble rap.
i'm 53 but look 30. The video was on mtv day and night so there is no way metal fans of the day didn't know who the band were. It was a huge hit, blondes in black cars got some decent play on mtv too. Know your roots. Your 51 upvotes are from the 12 year old kids who think you know everything. Oh yeah sirius xm hair nation plays turn constantly and even classic rewind plays it occasionally. We're not talking D.A.D's sleeping my day away here. ( good song too )
@@zaiusbaltar7091 Nobody cares, weirdo.
Being European and born in 1980 this is the first time I legit never have heard of one of the one hit wonder songs.
That's hilarious. I'm a Brit born in 1980. Recognised pretty much all but this one.
Same here. I do know the name from hard rock magazines, but even then, it was very clear this wasn't going to be my bag.
Same here. It never charted or got any radio airplay in the UK or Ireland in the mid-80s. Very good song, though. It might have done better had it come out in the late 80s, when Def Leppard were at their commercial peak.
Also British but born in late 88, and I only know it because it was on the radio in GTA: Vice City which I played a tonne of in my teens.
@@Jeevesie1988 Also played that game a lot and don't even recognize it from there. Probably didn't use that station at all lol.
I do love the fact that they had Sorayama artwork on their 2nd album cover. Instantly recognizable. Also remember this song a lot from Vice City!
First of all, the greatest Kirk Cameron imitation of all time. I love you put your entire body and soul into it. You raised up your arms and asked for the life energy of all living things in order to form the spirit bomb to defeat the evil Vegeta, in the form of a Kirk Cameron imitation
It's 10 PM and I have the sudden urge to buy Paper-Mate™️ mechanical pencils.
The official pencil of rock ‘n’ roll
Look at this Autograph!
Every time I do it makes me laugh.
🤣🤣👽
I will always associate this song with my childhood in the 2000’s because of its inclusion on the soundtrack to Vice City. Loved rocking out to this one along with Madhouse, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Bark at the Moon and all the other classics on Vrock. There was another Autograph song on the Vice City Stories soundtrack but that one was considerably less memorable
The other one was All I got to take. A decent song, nut quite Turn up the radio but different.
I love how many songs exist about listening to the radio that are so dated now. Imagine if there were a bunch of 2010s songs about watching Vines to find new music or a bunch of 2020s songs about recording music in their room.
I have such a hard time thinking of what music from this decade or the previous one anyone will ever have nostalgia for.
I don’t know about you, but we are well into 2023 and I am breathlessly anticipating the inevitable Trainwreckords on Man of the Woods
Quiet Riot giving us Randy Rhodes is enough to call them metal, even though we can’t access any of their music before 83’
Their first 2 Japan-only albums (Quiet Riot I and II) with Randy Rhoads are on youtube
@@niXity9000 Thank you so much I didn't know!
It's wild how much this sounds like a Journey song when you perform it on piano with no other instruments :D
Todd hit upon something toward the end: throughout the 80s you'd see a good number of corporate arena-rock types give themselves a hair-metal makeover to stay relevant. Autograph were only unique in that they did so *before* hair metal really became a huge trend. A lot of the other cases of this (e.g. Bad English) came about after Slippery When Wet.
EDIT: Even outside of arena rock in particular, you can point to Nelson as a band being marketed as hair metal even though they really weren't sonically. That kind of thing happened a lot too!
That last bit is what happened to Enuff Z'nuff. They were a very solid power pop band with some legit alternative rock cred, but when they released their first album (which was the only successful one) the record company overplayed their glam rock image and marketed them as a hair metal band. It basically killed any real momentum the band could have had.
Well, Bad English was a Supergroup; that's why they got popular. The band's members were singer John Waite (who had a huge hit in the '80's called "Missing You"), bassist Ricky Phillips (who was in the band The Babys and is currently playing with Styx), and three members of Journey (Jonathan Cain, Neal Schon, and Deen Castronovo).
@@brycedownpitchCan Bad English and John Waite create a double one hit wonders episode? You have a solo artist that joined a supergroup and both scored one massuve single
Hair and Glam metal holds a special place in my heart. If I'm having a bad day, it brings me back up. I think because its just dumb fun and lives without any care for what others think. I kinda dig that.
it's get a bad rap, i mean do we call grunge bands " slovenly dressed drug addict kill yourself metal " even though most of them died from self inflicted pity ? Hair metal is a derogatory term.
@@zaiusbaltar7091 As much as I like grunge musically, the attitude fucking sucked. It's the 90s, the economy's doing fine, the Cold War's over - just get over yourself and enjoy the good times.
Irony took over Western society in the 90s and we've never gotten over it. Shit, can we be sincere and just enjoy life again without making everything into a smug joke, please?
@@rdrrr YES! So glad to see others here saying that. (Basically what you guys are saying here is a better-worded version of my own earlier comment, about "It's cheesy, but I'm from the '80s, so BRING ON THE CHEESE!") I can listen to '90s music now and recognise that the MUSIC kicks ass, but at the time I didn't like it because it was depressing _and it still is_ .Not that there isn't a place in music for negative emotions, but maybe not an entire radioful of it at the same time?
In fact, Lindsay Ellis (whom Todd even mentions here, at the end) had a video from way back, about...I wish I could remember what it was! but I do remember that what she was reviewing was made in the '90s, and at one point she mentions all the actually positive things about that decade...then for contrast, goes off on a RANT about all of the problems of (at the time) modern day, and ends it with "SHUT UP, '90S! THINGS ARE SO MUCH *WORSE* NOW!"
Damn. I FELT that. I felt that in my soul. Not well enough to remember the name of the video since I suck at names, but enough to remember that moment. :P
Sometimes, although parody, irony, deconstruction, etc. can definitely be entertaining, smart and well made...there's just something to be said for stripping all that back and going back to the ORIGINAL version of a thing. For example, although I loves me some Terry Pratchett, sometimes I likes me some good old-fashioned cheesy D&D style fantasy. Person or party of colorful stereotypes on a quest, sword, dark forest, dragon, etc. Stuff like the movie "Willow" or the "Lone Wolf" gamebooks. It's like comfort-food entertainment.
And there's definitely something to be said about just letting yourself go ahead and LOOK stupid, but not CARE. The "not caring" part will draw some people to you anyway. A huge part of actually BEING cool, after all, is the confidence to not give a crap what others think.
Um, I didn't mean for this to come out as long as it did, so if you're still reading...thank you for coming to my Ted Talk? Heh.
Absolutely
First time a sponsor ad has brought a smile to my face.
Super sweet to see Todd supporting Lindsay's content, makes me think back to the old days when the whole gang would appear in each other's videos.
Best not revisit that timeline.
@@SGresponse The stuff worth remembering is safe in memory. The rest should be left in the past.
This song has a place in my heart. Remember listening to this song and others countless times driving around in GTA Vice city. That soundtrack is really one of the best ever.
Cool vid, but just wanted to note how much Steve Plunkett has achieved since the band: 7 years as chief staff writer/producer with All Nations Music, produced many albums and had over 200 songs released by artists including The Go-Gos, Kenny Rogers, Vixen and Edgar Winter, producer of Graham Nash, Jon Secada, En Vogue, Marc Anthony, Cyndi Lauper and Loretta Lynn, produced music for over 40 movies, General Manager of Meteor 17, a West Hollywood based media convergence company, designing and executing music and strategies for artists and companies, etc, etc.
In a "poser band"? Maybe, but holy crap what a resume. Amazing guy and one of the nicest people in the business.
Steve we all know you wrote this.
@@Nico-xf2rb Hehehe, nope it be me, not Steve. Wish he would respond, that would be cool!
Watching old Todd episodes when a new one pops up in my recommendations. That's magic, baby.
I’m 51…nearly 52.
My very first concert was Mötley Crüe on their ‘Theater of Pain’ tour in Atlanta, GA at the now defunct Omni arena. The opening act was Autograph. TUTR was the only song I ever knew by them, while I’ve memorized nearly everything I’ve ever heard from the Crüe! 🤘🏼😎🤘🏼
I had a co-worker who saw that same tour. He said it was so funny when Autograph was playing. It was when this song was topping the rock radio charts, but when they were on stage the place was half empty with an indifferent audience. This song came on and suddenly the arena was packed with everybody singing along and pumping fists. After the song ended it was back to a half empty arena with an indifferent audience.
Be honest though, would you even remember their name if not for it being listed in every hair or metal collection commercial during the life of music MTV/VH1?
T-shirt band is right
Yes, Todd, you nailed it. It was their look that made nobody take them seriously. From the singer's red poodle hair-do and stupid looking grin, to the keyboard player's Tommy Shaw hair cut, and the bass player that looks like Michael Berryman with a wig, they definitely came across as posers.
7:57 this reciting of the phrase “turn it uuuuup”, by itself, makes this song the most unintentionally funny song I’ve ever heard. Just thinking about how cool he probably thought he sounded when he talked that way. It’s just EXACTLY the type of forced vocal intonation I’d expect out of any hair metal band if they were talking and wanted to sound cool in 1984. And that’s hysterical.
11:32 I was half expecting that pencil to impale an audience member in the face like a shuriken.
Even as a self-described hair metal junkie, Autograph was never a band I really sought to dive deeper into than this song. Steve Lynch is quite exceptional, but that was the main thing the band had going for them. I'm glad I'm not the only one that compares them to Pyromania era Def Leppard.
Another thing of note about them is that after they broke up, the drummer Keni Richards played in a short lived "supergroup" called Dirty White Boy with David Bowie guitarist Earl Slick and David Glen Eisley who would go on to sing "Sweet Victory" on Spongebob. On an unfortunate note though, he, bassist Randy Rand and keyboardist Steven Isham have all passed away in 2017, 2022 and 2008 respectively.
Todd saying "check out this rock-ass shit!" then cutting to Daryl Hall quizzically rising into frame is one of the best pieces of editing I've ever seen
I saw them open for Van Halen's 1984 tour. They played this song to both open and close their set.
How about doing a one hit video on The Tubes "she's a beauty"
Technically, by the traditional definition The Tubes are a two-hit wonder. Before "She's A Beauty" hit the Top 10, they hit #35 with "Don't Want to Wait Anymore". OTOH, nobody remembers the latter, so maybe Todd will make an exception.
Neil was also the recording engineer on Peter Gabriel Plays Live and Judas Priest, Unleashed in the East. Both fantastic records
Most of those Brand X albums are worth hearing as well, but I know Todd doesn't get jazz very much.
He also helmed Queensryche's brilliant Rage For Order album.
I know the name from Macabre's "Dahmer" album. Let's say that Hall and Oates thing caught me off guard there, hehe ...
both are known for being "fake" live albums with a good amount of studio overdubs
At least Priest makes some sense, I guess... the booth can only do so much in 1984.
This song will forever be stuck in my head as the Alpha Protocol song because I had to replay that boss fight so many times.
Hell. Pistol chainshot was the only way I managed this.
"Put on your red shoes, buddy. Let's dance."
@@Tyrathca pistol chainshot was the real mvp for the super attacks, especially with tranq rounds in a non lethal run
13:12 - Huh, I actually recognize one band on that list, Brand X. They were a jazz-fusion group from the late-70s, and looking them up now I see that Neil produced their last two albums to still feature the band's most famous member; that of course being drummer Phil Collins.
13:23 I love how Daryl Hall enters the frame in this music video
“My girlfriend’s boyfriend, isn’t me” is another great to know there’s
I was SO waiting for him to mention this one. Now I'm a sad panda.
For years I used to think this was a Def Leppard song. Could imagine my shock when I learned it was not, in fact, Def Leppard at all. It just sounded so much like them that I didn't think it could possibly be someone else. But it is a good song, so I didn't think much of it. Fascinating to learn more about it like this.
I thought it was KISS...
4:30 and you could make a case that Quiet Riot’s more well known for being founded by Randy Rhodes. Who left the group to become a guitar god on Ozzy’s first two (and best) solo albums before tragically dying in a plane crash in 1982
Not at all. People know them for metal health and cum on feel the noize. Those hits were huge and are still staples of 80’s metal.
Nah, that was mostly learned after the fact. Metal Health and Come on Feel the Noise were both major hits people heard and liked before realizing Ozzy’s guitarist that died used to be in the group.
Todd, thank you for introducing me to this song. As a teenager in the early 00s, Homestar Runner (and Strong Bad e-mails in particular) was hugely formative for me as far as internet humour goes. Autograph look, sound, and feel more like Limozeen than any other hair metal band I can think of
Big fan of your work, big love xx
I got the heart of a lion
And the wings of a bat
Because it's midniiiight!!
I’m glad I’m not the only one to go “this is just a live-action Limozeen that accidentally spelled their band name right.”
Fun fact: Sign In Please charted at #29, exactly the same spot as Turn Up The Radio.
The name Autograph feels like Mr. Big, in which it's terrible on its face but makes perfect sense when the band is full of guys who had experience being overlooked members of other bands. If I were one of those guys it feels like a name I'd find funny to name my own band.
Todd did a video about Mr. Big's "To Be With You", and their story is very similar to this one. A bunch of session musicians with an awful name, but one pretty good guitarist. Autograph signaled the beginning of hair metal's mainstream relevance; Mr. Big signaled its end.
The Kirk Cameron impression killed me
I... genuinely didn't know until watching this video that mechanical pencils existed in the '80s. Somehow they always struck me as a "1990s onward" type of thing.
In fact, this was the second to last song on the single disc version of "Monsters of Rock" that I had back in the day, and I've always thought this song sounded like a cross between Def Leppard and Van Halen, so it doesn't surprise me that Autograph opened up for the latter. Even the "Waaaaah!" scream at the end is very reminiscent of David Lee Roth's scream in the chorus of "Runnin' With the Devil".
Their drummer Keni Richards was murdered in 2017. Apparently, it's still unsolved
This... weirdly makes me feel worse about the pencil thing. Like, it's neither connected nor proportional, but _damn,_ poor dude's legacy includes a dumb joke about him not being able to read.
As a child of the 80s, I'm so into this episode.
when Todd said the song was called 'blondes in black cars' I assumed he was making fun of the music video, then immediately they said the title and I burst out laughing
BIG HUGE UPS for plugging Lindsey Ellis’ video essay. It’s good to finally see her coming back and doing what she’s still so good at doing. You guys both ROCK!!! lol 🤘🏽😂
7:30 to explain this as I heard on the radio of all places. When they were signed and are about to blow up with the song, the band spent so much money on instruments that they don't have any for the video. That is until Papermate came in and paid for the video in exchange, the band has to advertise the mechanical pencils. 10:03 eventually, Def Leppard would rip them off. In 1987 the song Gods of War for the recent album Hysteria would steal the rift for this song.
Gotta love the ubiquitous product placement going on in music videos. That's a long running trend that needs to be explored, LOL!
Quiet Riot themselves almost count as a one hit wonder themselves, considering how fast they went from a 6x platinum album to not making the top 100
Trainwreckords perhaps?
They were a one album wonder. The Hootie And The Blowfish of hair metal.
Well, they actually had TWO hits from that album: 'Bang Your Head' and 'Cum On Feel the Noize' (actual spelling, it was originally a Slade song). It's just that the first song was a moderate hit, while the second was a MONSTER hit.
That all came down to Kevin Du Brow's ego being so out of control that he basically destroyed the band.
The albums that followed Metal Health before kevin was sacked had some really good songs on them it was just that the band couldn't stand being around him for any length of time which meant that touring for extended periods of time was basically out of the question.
Frankie Benalli said as much when he was interviewed by eddie trunk a few years ago.
Quiet Riot followed the same path as The Knack: huge selling debut with #1 hit, panned by critics. Similar sounding follow-up album that gave critics the finger in the title and then a huge backlash and crash.
I freakin' love this song.
Not one usually for hair metal or radio hits, but THIS one, yes.
I know how much you love covering obscure British acts and these are all considered one hit wonders in the states (not in the UK) and they all have really fascinating backstories to explore are:
Talk Talk - It’s My Life
Scritti Politti - Perfect Way
XTC - Dear God
The La’s - There She Goes
The Lightning Seeds - Pure
Mumm-Ra - She’s Got You High
All would make for great videos
I think the La's are considered a one hit wonder in the UK, pretty much.
So actually a good candidate all round.
Mumm-Ra....did that even do top 40 in the UK? I'd consider them a no hit nothing!
Talk Talk (who I love), that would be interesting as you're dead right, in the Us it's one and done, but absolutely not in the UK. They're considered pretty seminal here.
@@boomhaueruk yes you’re absolutely right about The La’s being a one bit wonder in the UK to, BUT the bands story is so fascinating that it would make for a great video & it’s a shock hardly anyone knows it more.
Mumm-Ra yes you are right about them also, but I’d argue they are a one hit wonder as that song has become so famous purely for it being used in the end credits of 500 Days of Summer plus they really own that fact (I’ve seen em live and they reference it a lot haha)
Plus yeah Talk Talk no argument there, also another band with a brilliant backstory
I don't think Talk Talk counts as a one-hit wonder in the US either, because they have a sizable enough cult following here as the fathers of post-rock.
How the fuck are Talk Talk obscure? "in the States" oh.
One Hit Wonderland episodes about songs and artists I know nothing about are my favorite genre.
Those episodes show how they ended up. Sometimes it's a happy ending. Other times, it's a complete WTF?!
This is the first OHW I have been able to watch when it came out. His video for "Your Woman" showed up on my feed about a week after Todd dropped it, because I absolutely adore that song and still play it in heavy rotation today. I have since watched every single OHW, most multiple times.
I absolutely love the series, and the channel as a whole. Keep up the great work, Todd. I'll be here for whatever you feel compelled to share with us.
Nothing gets me more than “celebrity doing mundane thing” meme. Jogging buddies with David Lee Roth nearly made me choke on my drink
Todd, thanks for this video, and great channel. I have a very specific memory about this song as my teenage years unfolded in the 1980s during the era of heavy metal. I would have been 13 or 14 years old in grade 8. Our “junior high” school hosted around 3 school dances per year, and back then often would get a cover band to come to our small Canadian logging town to play, but sometimes they would have a DJ (or a “rock video” VJ) instead. Well, this one dance had something slightly different: it was a couple of DJs - using cassette tapes believe it or not - but on the stage was a “robot” band. It was basically a giant prop consisting of a light show and “robot band members” each with a different instrument up on the gymnasium stage. The ”robot band members” where made out of what I recall to be ventilation ducting with some motors to make their heads and arms move. Lights for eyes, etc… The “robot band members” would move around a bit in a repeating fashion accompanied by a light show. That was it, but what I specifically remember was the first song the DJs played to kick it all off: Turn Up the Radio by Autograph.