ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield
Added 2023-10-12 22:11:34 +0000 UTCDoes this count? I say it does... not. But I did it anyway. Happy Halloween!
As always, check my editing for me please. And as always, please vote in the Song vs. Song poll. We're doing The Foo Fighters' "My Hero" vs. The Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-poll-my-hero-90792456
Comments
This was a lovely pleasant surprise and it made me realise I’m 31 and no longer too cool for Tubular Bells. I even forgot I had a vinyl copy cos I used to unashamedly love it, and now thanks to this video I’ve been reminded of that. Thanks a lot. Also if you live in the UK, you will be hearing that sodding Christmas song everywhere soon. Last thing, on a tangent, that Britney Spears memoir has surely cleared a space for a Man Of The Woods Trainwreckords, right…?
Joe DL
2023-10-27 12:23:49 +0000 UTCYa know, if you feel like stretching the “Spooktacular Edition” to one more year, you could always look to “DOA” by Bloodrock.
Tanner McGuire
2023-10-16 10:42:44 +0000 UTCIts definitely been awhile since we got a good 90s rock one hit wonder like SpaceHog: in the meantime The Flys: got you where I want you Silverchair: Tomorrow Would all be awesome picks
AiRRoBBiE
2023-10-16 03:37:27 +0000 UTCWe were *this* close to finally getting a 1973 entry (album is 1973, but the unauthorized edited single is the one that made the charts in May 1974). I know it'll be a headache in research, but I'd still love an entry older than 1962's original Spooktacular "Monster Mash" featured in 2012 d:
Phoenician
2023-10-15 03:47:42 +0000 UTCMy dad is a huge Mike Oldfield fan and his music was played throughout my life so much that it's basically white noise to me now. I still don't really get a lot of his stuff though.
James Thomas
2023-10-14 09:48:39 +0000 UTCTubular Bells is now the 2nd hit song I know in 15/8, after Pretenders' Tattooed Love Boys. Those two songs have absolutely nothing in common besides the weird time
Specter Koen
2023-10-14 02:59:55 +0000 UTCThe first part was great for its horror feel, and then a great experimentation with all the instruments in the second half of the song. Pretty great listening experience
Robert Griffith
2023-10-14 01:28:37 +0000 UTCWhy, it’s the first time since the Iron Butterfly episode that the song is longer than the video!
Taia Hartman
2023-10-13 19:19:58 +0000 UTCThis is quite helpful!
Todd in the Shadows
2023-10-13 19:00:30 +0000 UTCI agree, I'm just happy for any excuse to make a video about this stuff.
Max Eliaser
2023-10-13 17:27:54 +0000 UTCThanks to DDR/AMVs I also found that Mike Oldfield had more than one song.
The Other Greg
2023-10-13 16:17:08 +0000 UTCIt reminds me of the 2000s DJ/producers (David Guetta, Calvin Harris, etc.) going pop with featured vocalists in the early-2010s, leading to the EDM boom.
Jon Heiman
2023-10-13 15:06:17 +0000 UTCSpeaking of odd alternating time signatures, “Possum Kingdom” by Toadies is my dream OHW…. Just food for thought.
Christian Reiswig
2023-10-13 15:01:40 +0000 UTCI learned of "Moonlight Shadow" some years ago after hearing this Euro-dance version. Looked into it, found the original, and went "Wait, the Tubular Bells guy?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gHGIY1Q-yU
Carl Orr
2023-10-13 12:38:03 +0000 UTCI'm very surprised you didn't talk about the other part of Tubular Bells, in which halfway Mike Oldfield performs as 'the Piltdown Man', a wolf-like neanderthal vocally ranting and raving, which he perfomed by getting drunker than a fish.
BlackCat1989
2023-10-13 12:33:36 +0000 UTCI don't get to say "I have this on vinyl" about most songs Todd covers...but I have this on vinyl!! Yeah Mike Oldfield, Vangelis, John Williams were pretty much my introduction to instrumental music and soundtracked much of my early life in the 80's. Glad you did this, even though I know a lot about Oldfield it was still a good journey.
Paul Woodcock
2023-10-13 10:42:56 +0000 UTCMy god, Shadow on the Wall! Nice one! Haven't heard or thought about that one since I was a kid. Thought it was a banger!
Major Tom
2023-10-13 09:05:31 +0000 UTC☹️
Albert Farkas
2023-10-13 07:54:09 +0000 UTC😂
Albert Farkas
2023-10-13 07:52:00 +0000 UTCI worked at spirit halloween in like... maybe 2008? They had a three disk cd changer with one cd of actual Halloween "party" songs (ex monster mash), one of instrumental spooky music, and one that was just sfx shit like screaming. I cannot express how fast any novelty wore out of that. Worse than normal retail radio (on that note, the "night has a thousand eyes" song I endured at walgreens probably should have gone on the monster mash cd imo. Wow! creepy!) I feel like putting the full ridiculously long version of this on the instrument cd, which the short version WAS in fact on, would have helped me tolerate being asked when things went on sale 5x a day (NOV 1. AFTER HALLOWEEN. FFS PEOPLE)
Katastrophe
2023-10-13 04:27:19 +0000 UTCThere's a site I like to use that catalogues the charts that the WLS radio station in Chicago released that charted airplay from the 60s to the early 80s. So the answer to "Was this played on the radio" is a yes, at least in Chicago. #5 on airplay while the LP sat at #2 for weeks. http://www.oldiesloon.com/il/wls740420.htm
gaia
2023-10-13 03:59:37 +0000 UTCAwesome episode, learned a ton! click at 2:55 presumably an audio fade missing, flashframe 3:31, another subtler volume pop at 5:46. The audio cut at 8:14 is maybe a bit too jarring. Some of the other sound cuts like 11:05 might be a bit too much too, I know it plays into the aesthetic though of jumpscares and lack of fade here and there can be good, just trying to mention ones that are genuinely a bit distracting to me on first watch. Also: 12:43, 18:33, 19:49, 20:47, 21:52
Taylor Abrahamse
2023-10-13 03:45:17 +0000 UTCWhy, oh why, did I watch this before going to bed? Now I have a creepy 15/8 earworm and visions of Daryl Hall and Johnny Rotten in my head.
Beau Dure
2023-10-13 03:42:28 +0000 UTCThere's a third song some younger folks might recognise especially if they've been on TikTok too much: there's a song Oldfield did with Yes' John Anderson called "In High Places" later sampled by Kanye West in "Dark Fantasy", which has been used in many One Piece "CAN WE GET MUCH HIGHER" memes
Jasper Phua
2023-10-13 03:34:32 +0000 UTCAll video I was waiting for a mention of his work in 2014, when he released the album Man on the Rocks... Not because of the album itself, but because of by far its most famous track: "Nuclear," which was used in the E3 2014 trailer and soundtrack for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Dakota Naas
2023-10-13 03:25:22 +0000 UTCComing from mainland Europe, "Tubular Bells" is the one thing I have to remind myself of that it was also done by Oldfield. The immediate associations with him are "Shadow on the Wall" and then "Moonlight Shadow". ... And then how Hideo Kojima remembered his love for his early albums, looked up whether he had done anything recently and then outright slapped "Nuclear" all over Metal Gear Solid V.
TimeBombMan
2023-10-13 03:09:05 +0000 UTCOne VERY geeky trivia bit about this song: This was recorded close to a radio transmitter that used low-frequency Morse Code to communicate with submarines. On remastered CDs you can isolate a message -- it doesn't say much but it's there.
Justin V
2023-10-13 02:43:03 +0000 UTCI know I'm not the only person to mention this, but the way I learned about Mike Oldfield (as a complete coward who doesn't like horror media) was from his song for the Metal Gear Solid V trailer, "Nuclear". It featured Luke Spiller from The Struts as the vocalist, and as far as I can tell, it's been pretty well-remembered by the general public (or at least the gaming public). Still dope to see an art-rock guy get the spotlight! Might be an unpopular opinion, but I like the album artists getting their time on OHW even if they barely count - it's wild to see their career trajectories from their brief brush with the pop charts onward.
Colton Moore
2023-10-13 02:33:42 +0000 UTCOh, and I looked at Oldfield’s Wikipedia page to find that not only was he pro-Brexit, he said he would’ve played Trump’s inauguration if he had been asked. That’s a bummer.
Kristopher Bluth
2023-10-13 02:18:31 +0000 UTCManfred Mann’s Earth Band managed a couple more hits in the US and “Runner” almost made the Top Twenty. They’re borderline.
Kristopher Bluth
2023-10-13 02:08:39 +0000 UTCWhenever I read purity lectures on a message board, those British music nerds in that BBC doc is exactly who I picture typing them out (Oh, and welcome back, One Hit Wonderland. You’ve been missed).
Kristopher Bluth
2023-10-13 02:01:46 +0000 UTCMason Williams actually lives in my hometown and when Weird Al played “Classical Gas” on his first Ridiculously Self Indulgent Tour, he had Williams stand up and take a bow.
Kristopher Bluth
2023-10-13 01:58:41 +0000 UTC15/8 could easily transform into a five beat waltz. Try it!
Emanuel Alfredsson / Lemanic
2023-10-13 01:51:26 +0000 UTCYou sort of gloss over the fact that Mike Oldfield hated the "Tubular Bells" single that Atlantic made without his permission "for some reason", but the reason seems fairly obvious to me, at least from what I've read about it. "The excerpt [...] was made from bits and pieces of the first 8 minutes of the album, often resulting in abrupt transitions that did not occur in the original version. The abruptness of the edits is a combination of the choice of excerpts, and physical tape splice editing. This version also suffers from a loud hum, which is clearly audible in the quiet opening section, and is not heard on the album. It ends with a return to the opening, which fades out. On the album, there is no return to the opening." That...doesn't sound great. I think I'd be pissed, too!
J
2023-10-13 01:40:39 +0000 UTCWow, never would have expected Todd to cover Mike Oldfield! I thought this was a good, respectful take on it. And I had _never_ heard of that bullfighter song, ever! Well found! As for how I relate to the 80s stuff, I basically ignore it, I had actually forgotten it existed until this video reminded me.
Max Eliaser
2023-10-13 01:25:19 +0000 UTCThere's a certain humour to the Blue Peter version, but then that's '79 (and instrumental at that) so I guess that's true to the form without leaning _that_ hard to pop.
Paul McA
2023-10-13 01:01:39 +0000 UTCI personally like Oldfield's 80s stuff more.
RedBedroomRecords
2023-10-13 00:55:02 +0000 UTCMy absolute favorite bit about the making of Tubular Bells is that Branson kept pushing him to do a song with vocals. And so, one day, he got angry. And drunk. And did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M70A9yTGZl8
Lightspill
2023-10-13 00:50:17 +0000 UTCreally appreciate the mic the snare shoutout!
William Maranci
2023-10-13 00:49:48 +0000 UTCHell, Abandoned Luncheonette even closes out with a prog track
Garf H.
2023-10-13 00:47:15 +0000 UTCI personally found the original film more boring then disturbing(no horror film needs to be two and a half fucking hours long IMO), had no idea the theme was a hit though, interesting. i think Believer is actually a decent movie and i'm with Linkara on Exorcist 3 being the best film in the franchise.
RedBedroomRecords
2023-10-13 00:42:49 +0000 UTCSpeaking of prog rock, I know it's a genre that doesn't really fit the format of this show, there are two songs in the genre that could be considered actual true one-hit wonders: * "Hocus Pocus" by Focus (they're mostly know for the novelty of that single, I don't think they have much regard as "album" artists even in prog circles) * "Blinded By the Light" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band (if you consider them prog and not just plain old AOR, but it is a rather weird and proggy song by the standards of classic rock radio staples)
James
2023-10-13 00:31:46 +0000 UTCI'm glad you did this one. I only knew about Tubular Bells from the guy before a couple of years ago, when I stumbled upon Moonlight Shadow somewhere. I needed to know how the Tubular Bells guy got to that point after that.
General_Winter
2023-10-13 00:19:36 +0000 UTCThere is a surprising number of album artists who manage one or two hit singles at some point. Previous OHW alumna Loreena McKennitt springs to mind, as does Suzanne Vega.
Timur Hahn
2023-10-13 00:09:50 +0000 UTCHall and Oates doing a Prog isn't *that* strange. Hall worked a lot with Robert Fripp, after all.
Matt Stevens
2023-10-13 00:06:05 +0000 UTCSpeaking of "DND music", Blind Guardian does an awesome cover of "To France", which is where I first heard of that song.
James
2023-10-13 00:01:26 +0000 UTCJust a PSA that while the new Exorcist movie is dogshit, please checkout Exorcist III. It’s phenomenal and worth seeing, even independently of the original.
Aleina
2023-10-12 23:59:32 +0000 UTCBlind Guardian does a KILLER cover of To France.
Kylie McInnes
2023-10-12 23:58:10 +0000 UTCalright, having watched it, there's an interesting detail you left out. you set up the richard branson thing, how branson made him and he made branson/virgin big. well in the late 80s, a lot of the pop direction he was taking was spurned on by branson wanting albums that made money. oldfield, meanwhile, wanted to make the longform progressive opuses he built his career on. after another failure, branson wanted Oldfield to ensure a moneymaking release by calling the next album 'tubular bells 2' regardless of content. oldfield responded with amarok, an album-long composition that was completely incapable of producing a single, that even included a bit where an there's a morse code signal that translates as 'FUCK OFF R.B.' After one more knowingly uncommercial release under Virgin, including several songs where Oldfield himself supplies the vocals, Oldfield signed a new contract with Warner and immediately gave them Tubular Bells II, making them lots of money. just an interesting postscript to the whole branson thing, if anyone was interested.
Jordan Schmidt
2023-10-12 23:51:22 +0000 UTCThat's "Tubular Bells III"
Todd in the Shadows
2023-10-12 23:33:38 +0000 UTCMike Oldfield is extremely good dnd music for all you fucking nerds out there
Jess
2023-10-12 23:12:02 +0000 UTCAlso, it looks like “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” is NOT the only song featured on One Hit Wonderland that is longer than the video covering it 😉
Christian Reiswig
2023-10-12 23:10:22 +0000 UTCWow, great choice! Also, “Moonlight Shadow” by Mike Oldfield is soooo good too!
Christian Reiswig
2023-10-12 23:09:04 +0000 UTCcomment before watching the video: aw man this is an awesome treat, I love this album, and all its variants and rereleases. comment after watching the video: you know what, I think this is one where I pretty much know all the lore already. it really is crazy how far he swung from super out there avant garde polymath performances to REAL cheezy pop stuff, but hey, he's a talented artist and he's doing what he loves.
matt
2023-10-12 22:57:51 +0000 UTCOh god, Pure Moods. Ads for both that and '80s Wave got a lot of play on Cartoon Network in the '90s and were basically the basis for a lot of songs I'd hear later in life and realize "Oh, it's THAT song!" I can't say for sure, but I do think this did get play on the radio. My dad said he knew a kid who was so scared by The Exorcist that he couldn't even listen to the theme. Back then, unless a song was getting airplay, the only way to hear a charting song was to buy it (or hear it in the wild), and I doubt he was doing that. It also helps that the local top 40 station, KFRC, had a reputation of being one of the most eclectic top 40 stations in the country, so I'm inclined to say it probably did get played there, at least an excerpt of it. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but is the first time you've reviewed an instrumental song? To quote Lenny Leonard, "Now do 'Classical Gas.'" (Seriously, that would make for a pretty sweet review, like this one was.)
Nick Sestanovich
2023-10-12 22:54:39 +0000 UTCI liked how none-hit wonder Book of Love interpolated Tubular Bells for their sorta-hit Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls https://youtu.be/p8efAQ33fq0?si=kildg0SiwHjl4KO3
gaia
2023-10-12 22:49:17 +0000 UTCThat version playing at the end of the video sounds like it cold be the theme to a medical drama. Versatile.
Castleknackers
2023-10-12 22:48:49 +0000 UTCWhat
Listening to Deadlock at the furry convention
2023-10-12 22:45:06 +0000 UTCmy best friend growing up was a huge mike oldfield guy, his dad raised him on it. needless to say, i'm familiar with more of his other work than i am with the one everybody knows. interesting case, yet another autistic british rock-star who just did his own thing and hoped his audience would follow.
Jordan Schmidt
2023-10-12 22:40:17 +0000 UTCI love whenever the sally struthers ad read comes out. Someone needs to make a skillshare tv/vcr course to make it perfect
Graham Smith
2023-10-12 22:37:32 +0000 UTCThat was a hit???
StarCannonSupernova
2023-10-12 22:36:19 +0000 UTCI love you Todd, you're truly the best. (On the off chance it turns out you don't like Tubular Bells, I still love you, I'm just a little sad and disapointed is all)
Jared Walske
2023-10-12 22:30:56 +0000 UTCVery impressed that you managed to find another Halloween song for OHW
J Singh
2023-10-12 22:27:11 +0000 UTCno way i could have predicted this, i used to LOVE this album when i was a teenager. super excited to watch this
Stefan Ristic
2023-10-12 22:22:46 +0000 UTCMike Oldfield’s a one hit wonder? I thought he was an album artist. Also, I think Monster by Meg and Dia could’ve worked too
Connor Rankin
2023-10-12 22:20:15 +0000 UTCOh man I always loved this song. So. Spooky.
Jaszon Alexzander
2023-10-12 22:15:34 +0000 UTC
