I’ve started going through the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles from their inception in 1959. One of the first songs at the bottom of the list is “Bongo Rock” by Preston Epps. It’s a harmless little jam between a rock band with, you guessed it, Epps smacking the hell out of his bongos. It’s kind of fun but the bongos are mixed a little too loudly in comparison to the rest of the instruments. I know bongos and other hand drums have their place in rock & roll. But this song is really a novelty of its time.

Epps released other singles such as “Bongo Bongo Bongo”, “Bongo Shuffle”, “Blue Bongo”, “Bongo Hop”, “Bongo Boogie” and pretty much any other musical term you could attach to the word “Bongo”. But none of them charted nearly as well as “Bongo Rock”. I’m not here to rain on the late percussionist’s parade. If you love playing the bongos, then keep on drumming. It appears Epps found a niche and rode it out until his passing in 2019. 

This got me thinking about artists who had some success based around doing one specific thing and built a career around it. I know he had a couple of late-career hits and I’m not trying to diminish his legacy, but Scatman John also came to mind. The yodeling rocker Avalanche Bob who used to call into The Best Show with Tom Scharpling is a more obscure example. Though he never had any success on the pop charts. 

Are there any other examples of musicians who were sort of One Trick Wonders? 