ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "Crazy for This Girl" by Evan and Jaron

was he surprised by the twist or are you married to Lil John

Nowhere Girl

I got to the third-act twist in this video and heard my husband yell "WHAT" from the kitchen.

Stormy K.

Bro you can’t skip 30 seconds?

The Fuzzy Legend

I don’t know if it’s better but Wherever You Will Go is way more memorable.

Sean Riley

Related to Minivan Rock: Scrubs Rock -- anything you can imagine Zach Braff pontificating over as the episode raps up. Roughly the same era and a slightly different genre -- less Sheryl Crow and more Dashboard Confessional.

Justin V

I don't like paying to see ads. Did your patreon video have to start with a baked-in ad?

Stephen Gillie

The joke used to be that when the parents starting liking the genre it's about to die. Now it seems like when it's used in a Target ad or when the kids in a C-level Disney show/cartoon start using it the genre is doomed. So basically when you start hearing 808 Triplet Hi Hats on a live-action kids show or selling you Tide it'll be dead.

Justin V

Not only did T-Bone Burnett produce Crazy for This Girl, Bob Rock produced She's so High. I can't decide if any of these facts are completely random or explain everything.

forestaysaIL

This song brings up memories. I don't know if I can call them good or bad memories, but they were definitely stupid memories of being a high school boy with crushes. And basically every single song that was playing in the background as you discussed minivan rock was My Jam back at that time. Except "Dirtbag". Never liked that one.

Jonathan P

My only response to that was "who fuck is Richard Cheese?", i've literally never heard of that guy before.

RedBedroomRecords

Maybe that's what led to her appearing on One Tree Hill as Brooke's mom Victoria?

RedBedroomRecords

I can’t imagine I’ll ever get a better opportunity to say this so here goes: Jason Mraz is cool

Nick Ostrem

So TRL for even younger kids

duke86fan

Richard Cheese didn't deserve that dig. ...But I laughed.

Attercap

HOLY SHIT. He filmed the Kevin Spacey Christmas Video?

Evan & Isabelle

Hilarious you said you are gonna do a "Teenage Dirtbag" video as Vice literally just released a mini doc on it today

Adam ODonnell

And gothier

Angela

I grew up with the early Now That's What I Call Music! albums, and they were dominated by minivan rock, including "Crazy For This Girl" and actually even "From My Head to My Heart". So I definitely still remember Evan and Jaron.

Jacqueline Sailer

And I haven't even done "Spirit in the Sky" yet

Todd in the Shadows

Evanescenes did a lot to kill this type of Mini Van rock. They had a lot of the same over polish but prettier and louder.

Juan Nunez

This has gotta be the wildest OHW twist ending since the Chamillionaire episode. Great vid, never heard of this song or band but that chorus was definitely lurking in the far recesses of my mind somewhere.

the purple shaman

Except Lisa Simpson in that one episode with Dustin Hoffman

the purple shaman

Okay, I know I already defended Wheatus up above, so I've got a pretty wide range of vocal stylings that I'm into (see Prince Daddy and the Hyena as well) but the vocals on that first failed follow up (I already forgot what it's called) are WAY worse than Teenage Dirtbag to me. Why are you straining for easy notes in the chorus of your song? You know that parts going to happen over and over, right?

Is that Daphne Zuniga in the music video? (checks) It is! I wonder what the story is there.

Georgina Storey

I would love to see an episode about Teenage Dirtbag.

Kuro_Neko

Yeah, I never thought I’d have a kind word to say about “She’s So High”, but then I listened to “Teenage Dirtbag” for the SvS poll.

Cameron Cook

Teenage Dirtbag is maybe one of the worst songs I've ever heard, mostly because I find the lead singer's voice absolutely unbearable. Way worse than Wherever You Will Go.

Gordon Stearns

I am really frustrated that this is the second Jewish act being showcased on One Hit Wonder that has a one hit about going to church. Yes that's not the hit being focused on in the video but still.

Nir revel

I am very much looking forward to that Teenage Dirtbag episode.

TheLoser

I read the title and was confused. Then I heard the first few notes and audibly yelled, “OHHHHHHHHHHH.”

Jeremy Hanna

Just and FYI "semitic" is not a term anyone ever uses to describe something jewish

William Kaye

probably not, Spectrum Pulse has said that a lot of songs that were hits in the USA never crossed over to the north, and with how niche of a hit this song was it's no surprise it wasn't a hit in Canada.

RedBedroomRecords

I'd say those other ones are worse, at least Spacey had actual talent.

RedBedroomRecords

An answer to the question "Who was this for?" ... Me. It was for teenage me. I even owned the CD single. I remember being the only one in my friend group who even remembered their names. Minivan rock runs deeeeeeeeep in my veins.

O god. The twitter screenshot is so low res

As far as I know, I'm exactly Todd's age, but I have absolutely no memory of this song. Weird, I should've been somewhere in the range of the target audience, or at least heard it on the radio. Maybe it didn't get airplay in Canada.

Alina

I was a teenage girl recently over the boy band phase when this song came out & yup, can confirm: I constantly fantasized about my crush singing it about me. From My Head to My Heart was the song I actually related to, tho 😅 teenagers are psychotic

Morgan

This came on at my local dive bar. Everybody remembered the song but nobody knew who the hell sang it. I think it’s a nice sounding song though, you’d have to be a real party downer to say you actually hate it.

This is a severe case of "oh, THAT song" for me - though I'm pretty sure I've never actually listened to it all the way through, I only remember the chorus and that cello line from the intro. Side note: A distant bell started ringing in my mind when you showed that Jaron and the Long Road to Love album cover, and a bit of digging revealed that "Pray for You" was released as DLC for Rock Band in 2012 - more precisely, it came out on the Rock Band Network, the platform for smaller, more independent musicians they had back in the Xbox 360 days. I'd honestly completely forgotten that that happened, and I only learned today that the guy had any other hits.

Timur Hahn

The only bit of the video that was confusing was the Big Lebowski clip because I don't know the movie very well and I can't understand what he's saying :P But that's probably just me. Man, this was a blast from the past. When I saw the video title I got really excited: I really liked this song and I LOVED minivan rock, and listened to it throughout the early 2000s in high school. It was good music for a sheltered me to start my foray into my musical self-education. Thanks so much for this! High school me really enjoyed the time travel. I also freaked when I saw the Michelle Branch clip!

Call Me Christina {PuellaDocta}

It’s not UB-40. I say, presenting the lowest bar.

Chris Crottogini

Not kidding, when the third single popped up I thought it was an ad, not the actual song.

SPBurke

I think Matchbox 20 fits under the post-grunge category, though closer to adult alternative than any other post-grunge band. Rob Thomas' singing style, especially on their early stuff, sounds grunge-inspired (though not to the same level as like Scott Stapp). I agree that the Goo Goo Dolls aren't post-grunge at all.

James

Where does the Post Modern Jukebox arrangement of the Fountains of Wayne song Stacy’s Mom fall into this?I am not a Pmj Stan, but talented people perform novel versions of pop songs.

Chris Crottogini

Man, Evan being Kevin "The Creep" Spacey's agent for the last few years he was relevant before everyone wished he was never a thing. What's worse for these One-Hit Wonderland artists who associate themselves with nutty people, Rick Derringer being friends with Alex Jones, Meredith Brooks being a Trump supporter, or this?

Tom Carter

Caught In The Sun by Course of Nature is my guilty pleasure among this genre.

Aaron Larson

Seriously dude, Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto

yeah it was their only top 40 hit.

RedBedroomRecords

someone suited these two kids up to look like the brothers from supernatural? or is that just me? also holy shit, I never would have guessed the Post Modern Jukebox tie in - or the Kevin Spacy connection!

matt

Also a yacht rock Song vs. Song episode. "Peg" vs. "What a Fool Believes" perhaps?

James

"To my eternal frustration, things that sound like Fountains Of Wayne do not tend to become hits." Speaking of Fountains of Wayne, where's THEIR One-Hit Wonderland? Wasn't Stacy's Mom their only real hit?

Tom Carter

I remembered From My Head to My Heart. I remember Nickelodeon used to do this kid's choice thing for the best song each weekday during slime time, and they would usually put them against two other songs. I remember really liking the song but took me like 6 more years to find it online because nobody posted it anywhere.

iBolt07

Yes i'm watching Everwood right now and it's introduced me to some interesting artists like Jonny Lang. Meanwhile One Tree Hill introduced me to Michelle Featherstone and Pilot to Gunner(as you can tell by my username which is the name of the record label that Peyton Sawyer started up). Songs off TV soundtracks becoming chart hits wasn't new either, the original Beverly Hills 90210 had multiple chart topping hits. Another trend i'd like to see Todd explore is theatrical dubbed anime movies like Pokemon and Digimon having 90s pop/alternative soundtracks. I so want him to do a OHW on M2M's "Don't Say You Love Me" which became like the official song for Pokemon the First Movie(as the music video takes place at a drive-in showing the movie) even though it's only heard at the very end of the credits for like a few seconds. What do you call music like that? Minivan pop?

RedBedroomRecords

"minivan rock"... so thats what early train was.. i just assumed they were part of the evergrowing karen-core subculture along with maroon V and all the other boring adult pop bands that are just there to be played on the radio

duke86fan

For me, minivan rock is the type of anonymous and polished rock music of the late ‘90s/early ‘00s that easily pops up or you can imagine popping up in teen movies and TV shows of the era with “Crazy for this Girl” being a prime example of this.

We will eventually need a yacht rock OHW

apocalypsethen

I read the original Minivan Rock list and I was confused by it because some of it seemed to be straight post-grunge (Lifehouse, 3 Doors Down, The Calling) while most of it did not. I think there should probably be a distinction between what I think you're trying to capture here (watered down versions of proto-adult alternative like R.E.M./Replacements/Smithereens/Psychedelic Furs/etc... like Third Eye Blind/Goo Goo Dolls/Matchbox 20/Nine Days/this which seem to have no influence from grunge whatsoever) than the post-grunge acts who were heavier and usually trying to rip off Pearl Jam (Collective Soul/Creed/3 Doors Down/The Calling/Switchfoot/etc...) You're using them interchangeably but even though they shared the airwaves somewhat I kind of think they're different genres since those bands were all grunge derivatives and this clearly isn't. In fact, I'd say if the song charted higher on the pop charts than the modern rock charts it's probably minivan since it was more pop-oriented, but if it charted higher on the modern rock charts it's post-grunge. Sure, some bands like Lifehouse probably did straddle the line but I think they were mostly too heavy for this genre on their early hits. I guess I think the bands with more grunge influence than R.E.M. influence should be excluded since post-grunge is already a genre. If you're comparing this to yacht rock, I'd say the corresponding genre there is AOR. Both were watered down versions of '70s classic rock, but yacht rock was clearly derived from soft rock while AOR clearly derived from hard rock and prog rock, although you could say certain acts like Toto crossed the line in that generation also. But I do think yacht and AOR are separate genres even though certain bands played both, and the same probably should hold for minivan rock and post-grunge. I was always confused seeing people put Matchbox 20 and Goo Goo Dolls under post-grunge which I think they still do even though I don't think either of them have any grunge influence. This distinction might make the genres clearer. The religiosity is a connection, but this isn't the same genre as Switchfoot. Yeah, I thought about this harder than I should've.

Sean Wrona

how about now? it was down for a few minutes while i fixed an error, does it work now? if not try a different browser

Todd in the Shadows

No matter what genre gets big by being "real and rebellious" like punk-rock & metal in the 70s, thrash & rap in the 80s, or alt-rock & gangsta-rap in the 90s; it will eventually be morphed into something more commercially-acceptable before either dying or becoming unrecognizable

I honestly have really warm, nostalgic feelings for their pre-hit album "We've Never Heard Of You Anyway". Yeah, it severely lukewarm, but my music tastes back then were pretty lukewarm too. Besides... how many pseudo 90's Boy Bands do you know who did songs about Andy Warhol and James Dean?

Orellien

The reason why One Direction sounds like that is because they took inspiration from the most Minivan Rock of boy bands: McFly.

Jasper Phua

So, I like where this went with the direction of who was this for, because the moment that was asked, I pointed at myself. At the time, I was aging out of boybands and this felt like a mature alternative (lol oh 14 year old me). Seeing this now makes me realize how I ended up in the John Mayer camp not long after. And yeah I loved Minivan Rock.

KBucky

It was really for me that when you compared this song to she's so high, which was the song youtube recommended me once I listened to ''crazy for this girl''

Bruno Sauvagnat

In the second single, I thought they sounded like the band from That Thing You Do, and the Fountains of Wayne comparison makes a lot of sense, since Adam Schlesinger did the music for that movie.

Melissa Silvestri

Second time in a row it's telling me one of your videos doesn't exist. Gotta be an issue on my end. Either way, looking forward to it, even if I just end up waiting for it to hit youtube.

Jessica Asakevich

it's working for me, try again

Todd in the Shadows

"Believe it or not, that's as much as we're going to find out about this girl. We don't even know if she's funny, or pretty; all we know is that she can project over the sound of an open car window. Who couldn't fall in love?" "That's a little bit closer to being something, I guess. It just never gets there." "For shame, country music!" That's the entirety I can hear of the video, on a totally black background. Am I listening to the audio outtakes? I'm still having the same problem. 52 seconds of these three statements repeated multiple times.

Same experience here.

I now have the strange desire to hear a mashup of "Pray for You" vs "100 Little Curses" by Street Sweeper Social Club.

Josh Liller

I'm not sure I ever heard "Crazy For This Girl" when it originally came out. I think I only heard it years after the fact on the radio or a TV show soundtrack borrowed from the library. I really would love an OHW episode about "Teenage Dirtbag" because, as I've been fond of explaining for two decades, it got played so much on the radio I had to look up just who this 'Iron Maiden' was that I had never heard of before. I've been a big fan ever since (of Maiden, not Wheatus).

Josh Liller

"Pray For You" honestly sounds like the 2010s version of Gabby Barrett's "I Hope." Has the same themes of wishing harm/emotional pain on an ex partner but at least Gabby's song touched on something realistic (getting angry in the moment and wishing things that you want to have happen but probably won't) instead of just being bitter and mean spirited.

AnalogSkullerosis

Omg.. I got so excited for this lol

KBucky

Doesn't this type of music fall under power pop? At the very least, that's where I'd slide Absolutely (Story of a Girl).

bunni

I've always thought of it as Smallville Rock. Those early 2000's WB shows ate that shit up.

Kristopher Bluth

There's a black section of the video around 35 seconds in

Henry Kiley

Video goes black frrom about 0:34 till about 0:39. it could be a glitch but i went back to check and it happened again so who knows.

Shiny Skunk