The 4 Best One-Hit Wonders Of Bubblegum Pop Music

Of the many rock sub-genres that developed in the late 1960s, the one that produced an inordinate volume of one-hit wonders — acts that reached the Top 40 of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 exactly once — is bubblegum pop. Radio-friendly and harmless guitar rock, it dabbled in themes like crushes, first love, and other things its target audience of kids and tweens could enjoy until they could handle the darker, heavier mainstream rock of the time. 

Bubblegum was largely a producer-oriented medium. They'd acquire songs, hire session musicians to record them, and then often release them under the names of invented bands that didn't truly exist. Because the audience aged out of bubblegum so quickly, building long careers for bands was unnecessary, so if a studio concoction failed to generate many hits, producers would shutter the group. The result: lots of one-hit wonders.

Here then are the most irresistibly catchy and sunshine-laden bubblegum pop hits of the late 1960s and early 1970s, ranked, made by acts who never saw the Top 40 a second time — acts like the Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus, Robin McNamara, Crazy Elephant, and Edison Lighthouse.

Under the direction of producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz, Super K Productions became a name brand in bubblegum pop on the strength of multi-hit studio groups like the Ohio Express and the 1910 Fruitgum Company. Super K had so many bands in its roster that in 1968, the producers put together a supergroup with 46 official participants — along with those other two bands, the Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus involved the Music Explosion, Lt. Garcia's Magic Music Box, the J.C.W Rat Finks, the St. Louis Invisible Marching Band, the 1989 Musical Marching Zoo, and the Teri Nelson Group. The first album mixed studio recordings with simulated concert performances. A second album, credited to Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus, generated a consummate one-hit wonder rock song from the '60s, "Quick Joey Small (Run Joey Run)."

A No. 25 in 1968, "Quick Joey Small (Run, Joey Run)" pops with bubblegum flavor in every sense of the phrase. Not only does it feature so many bubblegum artists, with lead vocals by multi-band leader Joey Levine, but it's also supported by a chorus of female singers who are audibly chewing gum on the recording. The song itself delves into darker material than bubblegum usually approaches, although handled lightly, telling the story of Quick Joey Small, a prison escapee desperate to get to his love, Sweet Mary Jane.

Hippie-coded rock singer Robin McNamara moved to New York in the late '60s and landed the major role of Claude in the hippie-coded Broadway musical "Hair." The show generated numerous hit covers of its songs, like The 5th Dimension's "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" and Oliver's "Good Morning Starshine," a Top-10 hit that took over the summer of 1969. That set the stage for the launch of McNamara's solo career. He and collaborator Jimmy Cretecos took a song they wrote to bubblegum pop writer and producer Jeff Barry, who helped them bring "Lay a Little Lovin' On Me" to fruition.

Released in 1970, while McNamara was still starring in "Hair," "Lay a Little Lovin' On Me" mixes the positive and friendly vibes of the show that made McNamara briefly famous with bright and bouncy bubblegum production (including a huge chorus and hand-claps) and plenty of the youth slang of the era. If bubblegum pop was all about making more advanced rock styles accessible to kids and tweens, "Lay a Little Lovin' On Me" fit the bill, wearing the guises of folk rock and hippie culture. McNamara's only entry in the Top 40, the easy-going love song that sounds like a lost Monkees hit, peaked at No. 11.

Back in the mid-1950s, the R&B vocal group the Cadillacs had a Top 20 hit with "Speedo." Member Bob Spencer became a freelance songwriter and in 1969 linked up with Super K Productions, whose founders paired him with songwriters Ritchie Cordell and Joey Levine for their bubblegum rock-soul composition "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'." Recorded by studio musicians and with Spencer singing, the record was issued by Bell Records under the name Crazy Elephant. A five-piece band was then recruited to represent the act on tour and in publicity photos. None of them performed on the recording, a two-minute blast of simmering, persistent, organ-powered rock-soul.

A ploy can only work if a song is good, and fortunately for the parties involved, "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" is indicative of the optimistic, R&B-influenced sound hitting big on the charts in the late 1960s. Sounding like an introductory band for young listeners who might enjoy the Rascals or the Lovin' Spoonful, Crazy Elephant's "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" was a No. 12 pop hit in 1969.

Many bubblegum pop hits weren't recorded by the bands you thought, or the musicians pictured on the 45 sleeve, or who starred in the promotional videos. Versatile session singer Tony Burrows was the voice behind multiple bubblegum pop studio-only projects marketed as if they were real groups. He was the lead singer of White Plains, the Brotherhood of Man, and the Pipkins, as well as the true vocalist of Edison Lighthouse, the name given to the collective of producer-directed session players that made the pop-rock classic "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)."

A good pop song is a gem if it boasts even one uncanny hook; "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" is oozing with catchiness. An opening, ascending electric guitar riff gives way to Burrows' innocent, sing-songy praise of a young lady who is loveably off-kilter in many ways. It culminates in a chorus that hits the upper registers, along with the backing string section reaching frantic, euphoric heights and a fun, singalong "Hey!" Then it all pretty much starts all over again, supported by that wall of joyful noise. Temporary and ephemeral as if by design, Edison Lighthouse is a definitive '70s one-hit wonder, hitting No. 5 in 1970.