The whole concept of "one-hit wonder" has always seemed a little unfair to me, but there's little doubt that there have always been a lot of musicians who are remembered for one big tune. Tom Hanks even made a movie about the subject, That Thing You Do, which featured a band whose very name, The Oneders (One-ders...or O-needers) suggested their eventual fate.
There was probably even some wise guy in 18th century Vienna who dismissed Mozart as "that guy who wrote 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,'" or something to that effect (except of course in German). Okay, bad example, but it just always seemed to me as if it's a little too easy to dismiss a musical artist as someone who has only one bullet in their gun.
Ethel Smith, who was known as the "first lady of the Hammond organ," would be a likely candidate for such treatment. If ever an artist was attached to a song, it was her and "Tico-Tico," a previously obscure Argentine tune written by an unknown composer. Ethel had many other good songs and moderately successful recordings, but none approached the popularity of this song.
I can't claim that I actually remember hearing this song around our house when I was growing up — that would give too much credit to my porous memory — but it certainly could have been one of the old records my parents played all the time. I base that on several facts: first, it's one of those songs that seem so familiar that you can't remember a time when it wasn't around, and second, it was certainly the kind of music my parents liked - especially my Dad. But most of all because it was a huge hit when it came out during World War II — selling millions of copies — so you would have been hard pressed to find a house with a record player that didn't have it.
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