Absolutely (Story of a Girl)

Todd plays "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" on the piano.

NINE DAYS - ABSOLUTELY (STORY OF A GIRL) A one-hit wonder retrospective

Todd: ''[singing] This is...


 * Video for "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)"

Todd (VO): ...the story of a band Whose career didn't go as they planned But though they never had a second hit

Todd: We absolutely love them For one song

Welcome back to One Hit Wonderland, where we cover bands and artists known for only one song. Usually when you say, "one-hit wonder," you'll think of...


 * Brief clip of Right Said Fred - "I'm Too Sexy"

Todd (VO): ...weird novelty one-offs that stand out sharply against the trends of the time. But sometimes a one-hit wonder...

Todd: ...is just an act with one hit, nothing weird about it. And it's hard to imagine a band more stupefyingly normal than this one.


 * Nine Days: This is the story of a girl
 * Who cried a river and drowned the whole world

Todd (VO): The song was "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" by the band Nine Days, which is about four days longer than they were famous.

Todd: Which is understandable because this is a boring band.

Todd (VO): A boring band made up of boring people who made boring music. And their only hit, "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" is a boring song with absolutely nothing worth discussing about it. Not the lyrics, not the music, not the singing. It's basically a terrible, unimpressive piece of garbage.

Todd: Matter of fact, just about the only interesting about it is that it may be the greatest song of all time.

Todd (VO); An absurdly perfect instant classic that more respectable power-pop acts like Fountains of Wayne or Teenage Fanclub would kill to say they wrote.

Todd: Yeah, I'm a little torn on this one, if you can't tell.

Todd (VO): It's trite, it's cheesy, it's lamer than lame.

Todd: And yet there's something about it, isn't there?


 * John Hampson: You never seem to run out of things to say
 * Nine Days: This is...

Todd (VO): And despite having basically no identifying features, it's also very much of its time—a song that could only have been big in 1998.

Todd: The fact that it's actually from the year 2000 is just something I'm going to ignore.

Todd (VO): And I can't say that I'm all that surprised that Nine Days never became a particularly successful band. "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)" is the epitome of a song that gets big, and yet completely fails to make anyone interested in the band. I don't even think their moms ever listened to another song by them.

Todd: Okay, so, you know, that's our song for the week. "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)". What a title. "Absolutely". This band isn't absolutely anything.


 * John: And your hair never falls in quite the same way
 * But you never seem to run out of things to say

Before the hit

Transcript in progress