Funny / Todd In The Shadows One Hit Wonderland 2022

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Specials

Edison Lighthouse - "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes" (1970)

• Todd includes among his reasons for not often looking at "old old oldies" on this show the fact that "none of [his] viewers know these songs." As he says these words, a stock photo of a preschool class is shown.
• Todd brings up a couple of ridiculously named bubblegum pop bands of the era, including the likes of The 1910 Fruitgum Company, Captain Groovy and His Bubblegum Army, and The Rock and Roll Dubble Bubble Trading Card Co. of Philadelphia - 19141.
  Todd: These are all real.
• One of the bands that Tony Burrows may or may not have been in "before the hit" was surreptitiously named "the Flower Pot Men".^note It's actually from the title of a British kids' TV show from the '50s, although the hippie reference was almost certainly intentional, and said TV show had a character named "Little Weed" anyway.
  Todd: Y'know, "flower" as in "flower power"; "pot" as in, ehe ehe ehe.
• One of the "failed followups" is titled "It's Up To You, Petula", which, coupled with the hit, sets up a pattern of "love songs to girls with archaic names":
  Todd: If this had been a hit, I expect they'd have done, like, "Hey You're Great, Constance" or "My Girl Marlene".
  • On another one of Tony Burrows' four 1970 hits, White Plains' "My Baby Loves Lovin'":
    Todd: Check out their follow-ups "Love Lovin' My Baby," "Loves My Baby Lovin'" and "Baby Lovin' Loves My Love Lovin' Baby".
    • And on the final of Burrows' 1970 hits, The Pipkins' "Gimme Dat Ding":
      Todd: I'm not sure how, but my gut tells me this is racist in some way. Man, fuck this.
• "I love it when the Brits talk about America. No Americans have ever said the words 'old L.A.'"
• The group's follow-up single (sans Tony Burrows) "She Works In A Woman's Way". Todd lays out what listeners are probably already thinking when they hear the lyrics.
  She's got a face just like a child
  But her heart's a woman
  Though she's acting so meek and so mild
  But she works in a woman's way
  Todd: This...is a pedophile song.
• Edison Lighthouse is a group that doesn't technically exist. Todd also highlights that their one album on Spotify also doesn't technically exist. It doesn't even have proper cover art and one song is a mis-labeled Tony Burrows solo song.

Bobby McFerrin - "Don't Worry, Be Happy" (1988)

• Todd brings up Bobby McFerrin doing the theme song for Season Four of The Cosby Show, pixelling out Bill Cosby's face in the intro as he crosses the frame.
• Todd's mind is blown when he finds out that George H. W. Bush used "Don't Worry, Be Happy" as a campaign slogan (without McFerrin's permission).
  Todd: Imagine any politician in the last twenty years using "Don't Worry, Be Happy" as a campaign slogan! They'd do worse than Kanye!
• The reason, Todd explains, that this song has such a rabid hatedom to this day, is that if you're in the wrong mood, this song is absolutely obnoxious. Todd demonstrates in Cluster F-Bomb form:
  Bobby: Don't worry... (doo doo, doo doo) ...be happy.
  Todd: The fuck did you just say to me? What the fuck did you just s- [grabs a baseball bat] Say that shit again, asshole! Say that shit to my FUCKING FACE, you- [proceeds to rampage around his apartment smashing things]
  • Becomes a Chekhov's Gag when Todd ends the video, having warmed up to the song, and gets up to leave while seemingly at peace... with the bat still in his hand.
  • Public Enemy were apparently among the song's haters, as their single "Fight the Power" included the lines "'Don't Worry, Be Happy' was a number one jam / Damn if I say it you can slap me right here!". Todd points out that the line doesn't rhyme with anything ^note technically there's an internal rhyme, "jam" and "damn", as though Chuck D was so disgusted by the song that he had to stop rapping for a moment.
• As Todd discusses McFerrin's present-day career, he notes that the guy eventually made peace with the song and brought it back into his live repertoire. Except, as the footage Todd brings up shows, McFerrin outright forgot the words to the song because of how long it's been.
  Bobby: ...I don't remember the verses to this song.
  [Audience laughs]
  I wrote it so long ago
  Don't worry, be happy.

Mims - "This Is Why I'm Hot" (2007)

• Todd gets a lot of mileage out of the baseless tautology that is the chorus, calling it "Mims' tribute to circular logic".
  Todd: Why was he hot? This! [gesturing vaguely] You know, this; this is why! And here is why you ain't hot, incidentally:
  Mims: I'm hot 'cause I'm fly / You ain't 'cause you not
  Todd: [shrugs] Can't argue with that.
  [...]
  Todd: It's so simple — it's almost pure in its redundancy. 'This is why, this is why, this is why I'm hot'. And when he expands on this thought... it barely explains anything.
  [...]
  Todd: But believe it or not, I could be remembering this wrong, but I think I actually wound up liking this song. I mean, at first, I was absolutely like, "this is so stupid, he never actually explains why he's hot" — but eventually, I changed my mind to, "actually, this is brilliant! He never actually explains why he's hot!"
  • He soon declares it both the strength and weakness of "This is Why I'm Hot": the line is a ridiculously simple hook that sticks in your brain and distracts from the rest of the track's shortcomings in small doses (making it perfect for ringtones), but on the negative side, since there's almost nothing else to the song, it just has to keep repeating over and over. Cue every instance of the hook, layered, as Todd rubs the bridge of his nose and moans.
• Todd details how Mims started out making connections and distributing mixtapes that helped him become a regional success — not in his native New York, but in Canada, years before Drake appeared and ensured Toronto left its mark on rap.
  Todd: You have to understand, this is 2001. No one outside of the proud nation of Canada has heard a single Canadian rap song. One of their more successful rappers was Tom Green. So getting some play in Canada, you may as well say you're the hottest rapper in Boise, Idaho, and Mims was definitely not the hottest rapper in Idaho.
  • While Todd clarifies that he doesn't think Canadian hip-hop was by any means bad, his previous OHW illustrates just how tough it was to make it back then as a rapper in Canada, let alone cross over stateside: the closest thing to a massive breakthrough rap single was "Informer" by Snow, a white reggae artist.
  • During this period, Mims was known as "Mr. Mims", as seen on the collaboration between him and DJ / remixing group Baby Blue Soundcrew. Needless to say, Todd was glad that he later simplified it.
    Todd: The name "Mr. Mims" is either a cat or the owner of an enchanted magic shop.
• Todd's horror when he realizes Mims said Houston was in the Midwest, something to which both Houstonians and Midwesterners would strongly object.
  • The caption while Mims is green-screened in front of the Gateway Arch: "THIS ISN'T HOUSTON".
  • Oddly, the single edit censors this line, possibly because Mims calls Houston "the h", which can unintentionally sound like a heroin reference. Todd points out that this was ultimately a positive outcome, because it at least meant fewer listeners would notice the gaffe.
• After "To Be Continued" appears at the end of the music video, Todd openly scoffs at the idea that anyone was eagerly anticipating more.
  Todd: Left us on a real cliffhanger, Mims! "Gotta know what happens next..."
• When discussing Mims's follow-up, "Like This", Todd takes a second to clarify that, while it wasn't as successful or memorable as his previous song, Mims still achieved what was essentially a miracle for ringtone rap: he managed to get a second song on the Billboard Top 40, in a field where artists were regularly eaten alive after their first and only success with middle-schoolers that owned phones.
  "Like, Soulja Boy had a couple hits; Dem Franchise Boyz did, too... which made them practically Elvis and the Beatles for this disreputable genre. [...Y]ou're a better man than me if you know a second song by Unk, or Jibbs, or Young Dro, or Rich Boy, or the Shop Boyz, or Huey, or so, SO many others."^note To wit, the rappers behind "Walk It Out", "Chain Hang Low", "Shoulder Lean", "Throw Some D's", "Party Like a Rockstar", and "Pop, Lock & Drop It", respectively. Some of them actually have had some small success with other songs — Rich Boy's "Drop" gained a second life as a beat source for underground freestyles — but none even touched their past glory; many moved into producing, and Huey was starting a new career selling luxury clothing at the time of his death.
  • Todd asked his friends if they remembered anything else about Mims or this song, and one did: the fact that Mims used a verse of "Like This" to brag about his prior ringtone success.
    Mims: That's how it goes down, all night long / She whispered in my ear, says she loves my song / "This is Why I'm Hot", she got it on her phone / Top ten download, number one ringtone
    Todd: [audibly disgusted] There's no way to brag about having a hit ringtone, I'm sorry. It's like making a billion dollars selling portable toilets — I'm sure the money and success are great, but no one brags about being King of Port-a-Potties.
• As part of the "Did he ever do anything else?" segment, Todd talks about how Mims' RecordGram app hasn't yet taken off and can't be downloaded on Android, but still expresses optimism as he describes Mims' other projects, such as his recent promotion of... NFTs.

Los Del Rio - "Macarena" (1993/1995)

• Todd's deep resignation at the beginning. He knows what he's getting himself into, and that both he and his entire audience are going to have the song stuck in their heads for the next week... and as soon as the beat kicks in, he starts doing the moves by heart, dreading every second of it.
  Todd: I've done a lot of episodes of this show — more than 100, I think, at this point^note (made even funnier since this is actually the one hundred and first episode of One Hit Wonderland, and this is therefore technically not hyperbole). But not a day goes by where I don't get asked: "Well, when are you gonna do the big one? The BIG one, you know, the biiiiiiiig one." Well... it's time.
• Todd, not inaccurately, describes the Macarena as "a mass psychosis" for the sheer hold it had over the world (especially as most Americans didn't even understand the lyrics), and that by September, "even those really ugly fishes at the bottom of the ocean" had learned the steps.
  Todd: There were dance crazes before, obviously, but those were for dance floors. This was different. In 1996, any event with three or more people was at risk of breaking out into the Macarena. Birthdays, weddings, funerals, public parks, shopping malls, sports arenas, school lunchrooms, daycares, corporate retreats, church socials, dinner with Grandma — THERE WAS NOWHERE SAFE.
  • "You didn't do the Macarena, The Macarena did you".
• Part of why Todd's put off covering this song for so long is that Los Del Rio were "suspiciously foreign and suspiciously old [by the 90's]", and he knew that any examination of them would involve a deep dive with a lot of research into musical genres he's not familiar with. Sure enough, they mostly played a regional variant of flamenco called "sevillanas", and had been doing so since they were teenagers (as he points out, Francisco Franco was still in power until 13 years into their careers). And even then, the language barrier doesn't make it easier on him:
  Todd: How successful were they? It's hard to say — I'm obviously no expert on Andalusian folk music, and info is scarce, even with liberal use of Google Translate. They were successful enough to do this for many decades, of course; according to their website, they were a big lounge act in the 70's and then hit-makers in the 80's, but, you know... citation needed.
• On Antonio and Rafael's 1991 musical tribute to their hometown, "Sevilla Tiene un Color Especial":
  Todd: "Yeah, one of the towns I lived in also had a special color... from the chemical plant."
• Todd introduces a very ominous timer, taken from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, to mark the countdown to when the world will achieve "Peak Macarena".
  • He later admitted on Twitter that he hasn't actually played Majora's Mask despite making the reference. One replier suggested that he should start with Macarena of Time.
• Todd relates, with some obvious bemusement, how the Spanish translator he hired to help him out described the original Macarena as the popular one in Los Del Rio's home country, and the more popular Fangoria remix as "watered-down, sell-out garbage shit".
  • On the subject of remixes, Todd briefly touches on the Bayside Boys version which took off stateside, which is "basically the same" as the one done by Spanish Electronic Music group Fangoria.^note So much so that the latter sued the former unsuccessfully, but what Todd doesn't mention is that it was the added English verses (with Spanish code-switching) that saved them from losing the case.
    Todd: [The Miami DJ that commissioned the remix's] bosses won't let him play a song that's all in Spanish, and Justin Bieber is not yet available to contribute a guest verse.
  • Speaking of the English verses, Todd points out how they mention Macarena hooking up with other men while her boyfriend, Vitorino, is away:
    "Macarena": (spoken) Come on, what was I supposed to do? He was out of town, and his two friends were sooo fine!
    Todd: Jesus Christ, Vitorino, sucks to be you. Not one but two of your boys running a train on your girlfriend? [beat] ...Christ, we were LITTLE KIDS listening to this!
• Due to the fallout from both the country line-dancing craze and the "Electric Slide" craze, Todd credits the Macarena's popularity as a dance phenomenon with the decade's well-established "stiff, flailing white people" demographic.
  Todd: The point being, in the early '90s, a lot of people who would not generally dance were dancing.
  [...]
  Todd: Was it a good dance? Well... put a little hips into it, get a little rhythm goin', you could look pretty damn good doin' the Macarena. But most people did NOT look good doing the Macarena. You ask me who did the Macarena, and the correct answer is "everyone." But in my memory? It was old people. It was your moms and dads who couldn't dance, who did this dance. And somehow this didn't kill the trend, it only made it stronger.
• On our way to "Peak Macarena," Todd tries to pin down the origins of the actual dance. He finds a September 1995 article about its popularity in clubs along the US-Mexico border, with one interviewee noting it had been going on for about six months — and he was already getting sick of it.
  Todd: Well, that's bad luck for him!
  • One of the earliest traces Todd can find of the dance is the Miami Herald running a photo of Hispanic children performing it - Befitting its nebulous origins, the Herald was apparently under the impression that it was a "traditional dance".
• Todd mentions several cover versions/variants of the song, including a bluegrass version by the Groovegrass Boyz, seemingly created just so they could cash in on the trend by appealing to country stations who otherwise couldn't play the Macarena.
  Todd: I swear to God it happened.
• Todd precludes discussing the "failed follow-up" portion by saying there's a special kind of OHW who goes all the way to #1, yet isn't able to spin their brief, massive fame into even some small repeat chart success, because they're just too weird a fluke to sustain their momentum (illustrated with a Wikipedia screenshot of Crazy Town hitting #1 with "Butterfly" followed by all their subsequent singles failing to chart). Los Del Rio... are not that, because they had a second song hit #57 on the Hot 100: a holiday "Macarena" remix mashed up with Christmas carols. And furthermore, it was their only #1 hit in their native Spain.^note Back in his "It's Raining Men" episode, Todd expresses a wish to have every OHW he's ever covered do a even-sillier holiday version of their one big hit. Los Del Rio was huge enough to actually do that and the result is perplexing.
  Todd: [sounding genuinely baffled] Ladies and gentlemen... "Macarena Christmas".
• In tribute to Los Del Rio's achievement of having arguably THE biggest one-hit wonder of all time, Todd ends the video with "a context-free string of insane mid-'90s 'Macarena' clips" that he couldn't otherwise fit into the video — including MC Rage's novelty anti-Macarena rap, "Fuck Macarena", which is just the Macarena with a guy yelling and cursing about how much he hates the song over it. It is all as mind-meltingly terrible as advertised.
• To top it all off, what Cover Version of the video's subject does Todd roll the credits over? The Miss Piggy version from Muppets Most Wanted.

White Town - "Your Woman" (1997)

• Why did Jyoti Mishra name his project White Town? Well, he's Indian, and was raised in Derby, England, and to illustrate how predominately white that town is, Todd takes a screenshot from the Derby website promoting a stage musical - specifically, a Pantomime in the form of the most painfully white version of Aladdin you could possibly imagine.
• Calling the title of White Town's first independent record, Socialism, Sexism & Sexuality "extremely academic," yet clarifying that "it's neither as dry nor erotic as that title sounds."
• Todd shows a clip from the BBC miniseries Pennies from Heaven, where Bob Hoskins lips syncs to Al Bowlly & Lew Stone Monseigneur Band's version of "My Woman" (the song that "Your Woman" got its sample from).
  Todd: Bet you didn't know he sang, right? [beat] You know he doesn't.
  Eddie Valiant: This singing ain't my line! It's tough to make a rhyme!
• Apparently it's a common misconception that the "Your Woman" sample is a sped up "Imperial March", which does sound a little similar. Todd notes that The Empire Strikes Back (where the March debuted) was released a few years after Pennies From Heaven, and jokingly wonders whether John Williams was ever into British television musical dramas.
• While discussing Jyoti's decision to song-write from a female rather than male perspective, Todd quotes an interview where Jyoti declares he hates male songwriting because it always seems to involve either jubilant, gleeful rambling about how a girl is a perfect, twee creature prancing through flowery fields or hateful, misogynist ranting about how "She done me wrong, she's a bitch-whore." Todd audibly cracks up while reading the quote, then gets a kick when he realizes that "My Woman" from the sample itself kind of falls into the latter category.
  Todd: (imitating the song over footage of Bob Hoskins) "My woman, she's a bitch-whore!"
• Todd acknowledges that Jyoti has an online presence to this day and may very well watch this video, in which case he praises him for his awesome song. But Todd still wishes that he had chosen to go on Top of the Pops. Cut to the disappointed finish line man from the end of the video as the sample slows to a crawl.
  • And sure enough, Jyoti replied to several comments on the video a few hours after Todd posted it, mostly poking fun at his Reclusive Artist persona.
    ghost mall: Yeah. It sounds like he’s just a chill, quiet nerdy dude who wasn’t seeking fame and didn’t necessarily care for it when he had it
    Jyoti Mishra: @ghost mall Oh god no - I'm an enormous extrovert and very, very annoying. I'm out every Saturday, clubbing shaking my old bones to SOAD and MCR :P

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