ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "In a Big Country" by Big Country
Added 2025-07-17 22:09:33 +0000 UTCAnother one down! Please check my errors!
Also, please vote in the Song vs. Song poll where we are covering two more '80s alt-rock songs, The Waterboys' "The Whole of the Moon" vs. The Church's "Under the Milky Way." If you don't know them, we glance at one of them in the video above. Enjoy! https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-poll-under-134008433
Comments
I felt a little bad about both this request and mine having such tragic endings, but Todd really does have some of the most respectful handling of tragic endings of any creator on YouTube, so it’s good to see artist’s lives handled with such care.
Sarah Schumm
2025-07-22 21:20:08 +0000 UTCFields of Fire is one of my go-to drum practice songs.
Beau Dure
2025-07-21 20:18:46 +0000 UTCI'm American, but in history class, it was definitely pronounced 'Jack-o-bite', as you mentioned. I suspect that since it's an event of borderline or tangential significance from our perspective, many high-school history classes (like Todd's) may not have covered it at all.
Joel Thomas
2025-07-21 16:39:57 +0000 UTCBig Country was probably my favorite band of the early 1980's and their music still holds up pretty well to this day. Glad Todd covered them-and that his views align with mine.
Andrew Huntley
2025-07-21 03:17:01 +0000 UTCThis request rules.
Sarah Schumm
2025-07-19 23:59:53 +0000 UTCI’ve always thought that was because Americans can relate to living in a literal big country. I’m including Canadians as well since Canada is also in North America and also huge.
Sarah Schumm
2025-07-19 23:59:16 +0000 UTCSo, does that mean you can basically do all of the Home Nations as "Big Music" bands... U2 for Ireland, the Waterboys for England, Big Country for Scotland and the Alarm for Wales. And Midnight Oil for Australia as a bonus. Did the Kiwis have their own U2 or were they too busy with the Dunedin sound?
walterxbenjamin
2025-07-18 17:53:49 +0000 UTC7:30: "Jacobite" is pronounced "jack-uh-bite" with emphasis on "jack". It's not pronounced like "Jacob."
Will K.
2025-07-18 14:47:19 +0000 UTCThis is one of my favorite songs ever! Big Country deserved so much better, I was hoping you'd cover them ome day. I hope someone requested a Dog Police video, because that one is long overdue. 😂
Mia D
2025-07-18 12:30:01 +0000 UTCGreat as always! I was about to say "that sounded more like a guitar than a bagpipe" but then you had me in the second half, haha. Now I got another band to check out.
Andri from Pagefire
2025-07-18 11:36:37 +0000 UTCAt 2:30, a TV performance clip comes on and the music video is still visible playing underneath on either side of it
Russet Burbank
2025-07-18 09:05:21 +0000 UTCOne thing to add: they wrote the music for Restless Natives which is a bit of a cult classic film in the UK (particularly Scotland!) and is absolutely worth checking out. The music was written in 1984, and it’s to my mind some of their best.
Sam Corke
2025-07-18 06:28:36 +0000 UTCI was going to say "Didn't you already do this one?" but I was thinking of "Living in a Box".
Jonathan P
2025-07-18 04:20:38 +0000 UTCTodd, the video for "In a Big Country" isn't in the Scottish Highlands or Lowlands - It's filmed in Dorset in England. Also, I do find it funny how Americans consider "In a Big Country" to be Big Country's biggest hit, when we Limeys consider "Look Away" to be their biggest hit.
BlackCat1989
2025-07-18 04:06:43 +0000 UTCI’d never heard of this song so when I got the notification I thought it was about Big Sky Country by Chris Whitley for a couple seconds 🤦♀️
Miss Chriss
2025-07-18 03:45:44 +0000 UTCi mainly know Steve Lilywhite from XTC and fellow one hit wonder Marshall Crenshaw so it's cool to see he worked with the scots too
Nic Pruitt
2025-07-18 03:39:35 +0000 UTCI assume the map at 10:23 was chosen just because it shows all of the U.S. and how vast the area it covers actually is. But with the whole of North America being highlighted on the map while you're saying the line "it is a very big country", it kind of makes it look like you're claiming the country consists of that whole highlighted area. Which, obviously you're not trying to say that, but as a viewer, my brain took a couple of extra seconds to process that.
Citizen Calmar
2025-07-18 02:18:34 +0000 UTCknew about Stuart Adamson because of his appearance on Never Mind the Buzzcocks a year before his passing [across the set from Marianne Faithfull], and any sort of angst he was feeling at the time was nonexistent. Dude was having a great time. Very much in on the joke in the most sardonic way possible. Also, very wild that Big Country lasted long enough to sound like Teenage Fanclub for a second around the mid-90s. Kinda dig that.
Jordan Schmidt
2025-07-18 02:01:27 +0000 UTC15:35 I know Rush Limbaugh went on record saying that he used "My City Was Gone" as his theme song ironically... but is there any way he knew what he called its "unmistakable, totally recognizable bass line" was written by a Black man?
The Hand Of The People
2025-07-18 01:27:34 +0000 UTCThoroughly enjoying the Scottish stereotypes :D i always forget Scrooge McDuck is one of us
Johanna M
2025-07-18 01:13:55 +0000 UTCI presumed Todd was endorsing the 51st state drive😂
Chris Ferrall
2025-07-18 00:54:12 +0000 UTCThey're borderline. Three Top 40 hits in America.
Kristopher Bluth
2025-07-18 00:36:39 +0000 UTCYESSSSSSS!!!!! I've said this more than once, but I'm sure there's an alternate reality where Big Country became the biggest band in the world while U2 was the one hit wonder in America. (And I was going to college in Idaho in 1993 and for some reason “We’re Not In Kansas” got a ton of airplay on the local Top 40 station. For a non-zero number of people in Idaho Falls, that was probably their biggest hit).
Kristopher Bluth
2025-07-18 00:35:04 +0000 UTCI’m so happy you’re covering this! I’ve loved this song forever and I’m excited to learn more about it
Kellie Hedgers
2025-07-18 00:25:39 +0000 UTCI heard it too
Jack Darnell
2025-07-18 00:15:45 +0000 UTCOne Hit Wonderland is always a delightful 'do I know this artist or not' game for me, because I have older siblings and much older parents so occasionally I do know the artist. Especially since one of my siblings was big into 80s synth and new wave...and well we sure get a lot of that on this show! I knew Thomas Dolby before the episode, I knew Falco, and I did actually know Big Country beforehand. My brother had an All The Best of Big Country and I gleefully pilfered it from him and was very glad to hear a bunch of snippets of songs I loved in the vid. (Even if I did also love King of Emotion, but I never claimed to have good taste). A very sad end that I didn't know about prior (because I don't really look into artists) so that hurt to hear. I had a feeling just from how the episode started (and I appreciate the warning) but mega agree, very good band and I hope more people will check them out.
Deegcakes
2025-07-18 00:02:56 +0000 UTCDunno if this is a mistake, and even if it is, probably not worth the effort of correcting, but as a Brit, I've only ever heard 'Jacobite' pronounced 'Jack-o-bite', not 'Jacob-ite'. Honestly, I always get a kick out of American pronunciation anyway, so probably not a big deal!
Tim Bates
2025-07-17 23:45:01 +0000 UTCAudio error at 3:15-3:17?
Cole Cox
2025-07-17 23:43:20 +0000 UTCGod, imagine the buffoon who requested Creep
Connor Rankin
2025-07-17 23:42:53 +0000 UTCI’m fairly certain they got their name from the Talking Heads song of the same name, just like Radiohead
Connor Rankin
2025-07-17 23:36:14 +0000 UTCThis means we're one step closer to talking about Del Amitri
Cody Baird
2025-07-17 23:35:18 +0000 UTCPsyched for this one. Big Country are my favorite one-hit wonder, in the sense that they're a great band who deserved better in the US (as Todd notes). "The Crossing" is a frickin' awesome record.
Carl Orr
2025-07-17 23:34:48 +0000 UTCThis has very unusual chord progressions
Albert Farkas
2025-07-17 23:28:16 +0000 UTCeh, that‘s intentional, no?
Albert Farkas
2025-07-17 23:27:12 +0000 UTCRiverdance is Irish not Scottish
Christopher Usher
2025-07-17 23:17:43 +0000 UTCDefinitely one of the best songs of the 80s. The effect Stuart and Bruce both used to get the bagpipe tone was a MXR M-129 Pitch Transposer, an early rackmount pitch shifting effect. Basically, this was Tom Morello's Whammy pedal of the 80s that made guitarists everywhere go "how the fuck did he get that sound?!"
Kylie McInnes
2025-07-17 23:06:16 +0000 UTCThere's some weird jumbled audio at 3:15
Angela
2025-07-17 22:59:31 +0000 UTCThis is one that I actually didn't know (as opposed to all the ones where the title makes me go "I don't know this one", but then I hear it and immediately know it). Which means that it didn't penetrate into early 90s Russia and was no longer on the radio in late 90s Canada. So it was an interesting bit of music history that was completely new to me.
Alina
2025-07-17 22:48:53 +0000 UTCI'm in a bookstore right now, and was looking through records. What do I find, but "The Seer" by Big Country.
Will Bloodworth
2025-07-17 22:46:21 +0000 UTC!!!SAINTS ARE COMING MENTIONED!!!
Daniel
2025-07-17 22:36:26 +0000 UTCFirst rock concert I ever saw. Amazing show, and The Crossing is just a stone masterpiece.
Christopher Coake
2025-07-17 22:30:25 +0000 UTCThe riff sounds more like the fiddle or accordion of traditional Scottish dance/ceilidh music to me than anything you’d hear on bagpipes. As a Scot, this is up there with Loch Lomond and Caledonia as songs that just feel Scottish in a good way.
Laura Quin
2025-07-17 22:25:40 +0000 UTC10:23 picture highlights all of North America, not just the US
Daniel
2025-07-17 22:22:08 +0000 UTCTo pay in advance of future episodes!
Scott Sandler
2025-07-17 22:20:16 +0000 UTCSome sort of glitch at 3:16, sounds like a few seconds of the video got cut out.
Alina
2025-07-17 22:18:53 +0000 UTCAbout 3:15 there’s a weird edit cut
Kevin W.
2025-07-17 22:15:52 +0000 UTCSounds like you cut yourself off too early at 3:16
Al Varela
2025-07-17 22:15:47 +0000 UTC3:17 audio cut off
Daniel
2025-07-17 22:14:35 +0000 UTCI was just thinking, less than 10 minutes ago, been a minute since the last Todd. If only my powers worked for summoning money.
Jaszon Alexzander
2025-07-17 22:13:49 +0000 UTCThese guys are considered one-hit wonders? Literally own their debut on vinyl and had no idea
Epoic1200
2025-07-17 22:13:09 +0000 UTC…you hadn’t done this one already? Guess the dreams people have do stay with them
Scott Sandler
2025-07-17 22:11:27 +0000 UTCRemembered to charge for this one!
Todd in the Shadows
2025-07-17 22:09:47 +0000 UTC
