ONE HIT WONDERLAND: "Return of the Mack" by Mark Morrison

This is my official theme music when I enter a room.

OHW suggestion: Wooly Bully

See, whenever I heard this song on the radio I thought the chorus was "Return unto me," but I had an older car when I used to listen to the radio more (thanks, COVID), so I never saw what it was actually called :P Great and informative video as always!

Call Me Christina {PuellaDocta}

Todd, it's time. https://news.avclub.com/chris-gaines-is-back-baby-1846494650

Kristopher Bluth

Twenty years not being long enough to confirm an artist's OHW status is definitely an opportunity to pick a song older than 1962's "Monster Mash" (One Hit Wonderland's ninth entry, btw). d:

Phoenician

I definitely fall into the category of "corny white people that love Return of the Mack" LMAO but I'm not sorry, I was about 10 when this hit and it's been on my playlists since. You can't not love this song.

KBucky

love the ant and dec cameo they're still huge in England 20 years later

My local hip-hop R&B station plays this song quite a bit, had no idea who the artist was or what the song was called until now though(don't have a smartphone so Shazam wasn't an option and my car is an older model so no fancy radio display that tells you what song is playing).

RedBedroomRecords

Stormzy is pretty good, one of his songs was in that new Watch Dogs video game and he actually did some voice-acting for it as well. Also like Lady Sovereign, one of the first succesful white female rappers.

RedBedroomRecords

it's a bit too soon to call her a OHW, she could easily pop back up with another hit song.

RedBedroomRecords

I'd go for that or Turn up the Radio by Autograph, Steve Plunkett did some very interesting things after the band broke up that I won't spoil here.

RedBedroomRecords

I didn't recognize the song or the artist when I saw this pop up on Twitter but i immediately recognized the music, i've heard this song a bunch of times on 104.3 JAMS but had no clue who played it or what it was called until now, so thanks for solving that mystery.

RedBedroomRecords

Another fantastic episode. Are you ever going to do requests again?

Please do Black Velvet by Alannah Myles

Triple 9

Oh cool! I love this song. Glad to see it covered on One Hit Wonderland.

John Seiler

Please do a one hit wonderland on Kreayshawn's Gucci Gucci

BMJ614

Still praying for the day Todd covers some late 90s ska punk like Reel Big Fish or The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

waywardlaser

i have never heard this song until this episode

Well, TIL what "The Mack" referred to (no, I didn't seriously think it referred to a coat).

Paul McA

As Tom Breihan said, "I hope he runs, and I hope he wins. I want to hear “Return Of The Mayor.”"

And to think that if he had a slot on a Mickey Mouse album it would be called 'Return of The Quack'

Marc Halem

Speaking of Engelbart Humperdinck, someone must've liked him a whole lot, because the UK dragged his geriatric ass to Eurovision in like 2011 or 2012.

Angela

I’ve been hoping for this one for so long

Nick DeCicco

one fun tidbit for british r&b: loose ends was the first brit band to top the US R&B charts in the mid-80s (although they had no top 40 success), at least according to a quick wikipedia glance

really good vid. also, nice jamie vardy reference, i keep forgeting you somewhat follow football/soccer.

Daxxel

There is one great musician Leicester can claim-Queen bassist John Deacon!

Christina Lohr

Ouch. Enjoyed this review but pretty harsh on UK 1990s music (using Peter Andre as an example of our R&B feels like a low blow!) Like Todd says about latter UK rap, I think Black British music has its own genres and inspirations and it gets lost in translation when you try to understand it in terms of what was going on in the US. I strongly recommend 'Sounds Like London: 100 Years of Black Music in the Capital' by Lloyd Bradley as a great read. Also, I think there are great examples of late 80s/early 90s British Hip Hop such as Overlord X and Shut Up and Dance, but the country moved away from US influence towards the genre of Jungle.

TIL that it's acceptable to refer to Peter Andre as a British artist. I'm Australian and I grew up hearing that he was our fault.

Todd talking about British acts who didn't break America is always so surreal to me... nobody on the other side of the Atlantic should know who Peter Andre is.

Rich Kee

I don't know if Todd was the one who said this, but the 10 year mark kind of rings a bell. If so, Somebody That I Used to Know began charting on 14 Jan 2012 and left on 22 Feb 2013 (per Wikipedia). So maybe a nice early one next year?

Wow, I've been binging One Hit Wonderland all night, and then my phone buzzes and it's this. Amazing timing!

Universe 13

On another point, I recalled there was at least one country break-up song from the guy's perspective. The one I was thinking of was "How Am I Doin'" by Dierks Bentley, and while looking for that one, I was also reminded of Luke Bryan's "All My Friends Say."

Erik Robbins

Just before I saw the email for this one, I was pondering how long it takes to declare a one hit wonder, and if Goyte qualified now.

Erik Robbins

2:20, when you cut to you talking there's an accidental frame or two of Morrison again. Unexpected Return of the Mack

DL

HELL YES!!! WOOOOOO! HE DID IT!!

One of the big British R&B acts of the '90s you never touched upon in the video was Eternal. Like the other groups and singers of the genre in the UK, they had a pretty wholesome aesthetic compared to the edgier TLC and were less experimental than En Vogue, but they really swallowed up the charts and had the first Platinum album by a British girl group, predating the Spice Girls (even Bananarama never got any higher than Gold at home or in the US). They even had one American top 20 hit in 1994, although nobody remembers it and the album flopped horribly in the States. I'd argue that Eternal were big "swing-beat" stars before Mark Morrison, though a lot of people narrow the definition of new jack swing to just New Edition-alikes even if the beat and harmony style are basically the same.

Jacqueline Sailer

Awesome work, as always. I noticed a flicker cut back and forth at 2:22, so I made a list of minor, annoying issues, that if you fixed them would make it look more professional. Again, super minor issues, only providing them to give you a chance to fix them if you want to. 1:05 very quick cut 1:54 very quick cut 2:22 flash and flash back 2:37 very quick cut clip at 4:36 has weird audio/video sync cut away from Todd at about 8:39 has flicker 11:31 very quick cut 12:22 obvious visual cut between Todd/Todd I was oddly unfamiliar with this song. Mark Morrison has a voice a lot like Cee Lo Green, it's awesome.

Cassandra Gelvin

Did you get so mad at Chris Brown's sampling of this song that you just -had- to put out a OHW episode a week later? Nice.

Crow

As soon as you said he was from Britain, I immediately guessed that he was one of those "big in their home country" one hit wonders... I didn't guess the rest of that story but

Meluieth Box

what a great name for a wonderful one hit ;P

take5

weird edit around 12:21. This song still slaps my head clean off, so watching all these factors converge to do him in is really sad.

Wyatt

Takes me back to 10th grade.

GeddyLeeRoth

FUCK YEAH

Matthew Abbott