One Hit Wonder
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Stories
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.(vv. 9-12)
“One hit wonder” is a term used for singers or bands that burst into our pop consciousness with one really big, memorable hit.
And then, that’s it.
For the most part, we never hear from them again. Usually that’s not for lack of trying. It’s true, sometimes a group is brought together with no prior history, and their first or second effort hits it big. But just as often the singer has a long backstory of working hard to become famous. Fame strikes, and then despite every effort to repeat the magic, that’s pretty much it. The decades go by and their song gets played on various platforms, and occasionally a feature appears headlined: “Whatever Happened To….”
When the idea of writing a movie about a fictional one hit wonder’s rise to fame occurred to actor Tom Hanks, he had already proven he himself was no flash in the pan. Having attracted attention acting in films like Splash, Big, and A League of their Own, he then won back-to-back Academy Awards for his roles in Philadelphia, and Forrest Gump. By this time, he’d started toying with the idea of writing and directing a film of his own, and the result was That Thing You Do, which was released in 1996.
Set in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1964, the film follows the exploits of the fictional group called first the Oneders, pronounced Wonders but it looked like Oh-need-ers, which was changed during their rise to fame as, spelled correctly, The Wonders. In this way their name reflected both the one and the wonder of one hit wonder.
When the band’s drummer breaks his arm the day of a talent show, the group’s leader Jimmy Mattingly turns to Guy Patterson, a guileless innocent who dreams of becoming a jazz drummer, to take his place. They practice the song written by Mattingly, “That Thing You Do,” as a slow ballad, but the night of the performance Guy plays the drums up tempo without their permission, forcing them to play more like a rock band. Though this infuriates Mattingly, The Wonders win the show, get a local gig, record a record, gain the attention of a talent scout – played by Tom Hanks – who sends them on a whirlwind tour joining other popular acts playing the rounds of Midwestern county fairs. Their record rises in the charts but the tensions of fame and a little bit of fortune begins to fracture the group.
Part of the problem is that Mattingly is sick of their one hit, so when the band is flown out to Los Angeles to record an album he quits, but not before another band member has disappeared. The night before, however, Guy Patterson met his hero, jazz musician Del Paxton, and suddenly he’s ready to begin a career as a session musician. And oh, right, he ends up with the girl, as well.
During the credits we learn that life goes on, each of the band members went on (fictionally) to achieve other things, but of course what they’re remembered for is “That Thing You Do.” Such is the life of a one hit wonder.
Which leads us to a biblical one hit wonder who deserves to be better known for more than just his best known verses. Zechariah, one of the twelve minor prophets, is major league when it comes to depth and breadth of his material. We first meet him teamed up with Haggai, encouraging the Judeans who had returned from the exile with a mandate from the emperor Cyrus to rebuild their temple, which had been destroyed a couple generations earlier by the Babylonians. Zechariah encourages everyone to slough off sixteen years of procrastination and rebuild that temple. Zechariah’s book also includes a wealth of striking apocalyptic scenes that are unforgettable for those who’ve taken the time to delve into his book.
But Zechariah, who is the most quoted Old Testament author in those gospel passages concerned with the week between the triumphant entry and the crucifixion, is really remembered for one verse, his one hit wonder, which is interpreted by Christians to refer to the triumphant entry, goes like this:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Well, let’s see if we can dig a little deeper into Zechariah this morning, and learn about what he said and what he’s saying!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.(vv. 9-12)
“One hit wonder” is a term used for singers or bands that burst into our pop consciousness with one really big, memorable hit.
And then, that’s it.
For the most part, we never hear from them again. Usually that’s not for lack of trying. It’s true, sometimes a group is brought together with no prior history, and their first or second effort hits it big. But just as often the singer has a long backstory of working hard to become famous. Fame strikes, and then despite every effort to repeat the magic, that’s pretty much it. The decades go by and their song gets played on various platforms, and occasionally a feature appears headlined: “Whatever Happened To….”
When the idea of writing a movie about a fictional one hit wonder’s rise to fame occurred to actor Tom Hanks, he had already proven he himself was no flash in the pan. Having attracted attention acting in films like Splash, Big, and A League of their Own, he then won back-to-back Academy Awards for his roles in Philadelphia, and Forrest Gump. By this time, he’d started toying with the idea of writing and directing a film of his own, and the result was That Thing You Do, which was released in 1996.
Set in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1964, the film follows the exploits of the fictional group called first the Oneders, pronounced Wonders but it looked like Oh-need-ers, which was changed during their rise to fame as, spelled correctly, The Wonders. In this way their name reflected both the one and the wonder of one hit wonder.
When the band’s drummer breaks his arm the day of a talent show, the group’s leader Jimmy Mattingly turns to Guy Patterson, a guileless innocent who dreams of becoming a jazz drummer, to take his place. They practice the song written by Mattingly, “That Thing You Do,” as a slow ballad, but the night of the performance Guy plays the drums up tempo without their permission, forcing them to play more like a rock band. Though this infuriates Mattingly, The Wonders win the show, get a local gig, record a record, gain the attention of a talent scout – played by Tom Hanks – who sends them on a whirlwind tour joining other popular acts playing the rounds of Midwestern county fairs. Their record rises in the charts but the tensions of fame and a little bit of fortune begins to fracture the group.
Part of the problem is that Mattingly is sick of their one hit, so when the band is flown out to Los Angeles to record an album he quits, but not before another band member has disappeared. The night before, however, Guy Patterson met his hero, jazz musician Del Paxton, and suddenly he’s ready to begin a career as a session musician. And oh, right, he ends up with the girl, as well.
During the credits we learn that life goes on, each of the band members went on (fictionally) to achieve other things, but of course what they’re remembered for is “That Thing You Do.” Such is the life of a one hit wonder.
Which leads us to a biblical one hit wonder who deserves to be better known for more than just his best known verses. Zechariah, one of the twelve minor prophets, is major league when it comes to depth and breadth of his material. We first meet him teamed up with Haggai, encouraging the Judeans who had returned from the exile with a mandate from the emperor Cyrus to rebuild their temple, which had been destroyed a couple generations earlier by the Babylonians. Zechariah encourages everyone to slough off sixteen years of procrastination and rebuild that temple. Zechariah’s book also includes a wealth of striking apocalyptic scenes that are unforgettable for those who’ve taken the time to delve into his book.
But Zechariah, who is the most quoted Old Testament author in those gospel passages concerned with the week between the triumphant entry and the crucifixion, is really remembered for one verse, his one hit wonder, which is interpreted by Christians to refer to the triumphant entry, goes like this:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Well, let’s see if we can dig a little deeper into Zechariah this morning, and learn about what he said and what he’s saying!
