Oak

Oak has the distinction of being nationally known as a “one-hit wonder,” the term given to bands with only a single top-40 entry in the Billboard charts. The band was a phenomenon across New England, however, a local sensation that fought its way through fierce competition to attract the attention of Mercury Records, cutting two albums for the label (their 1979 debut and their second disc in 1980).

Although Boston might have been paying more attention to its own Cars at the time, Oak formed well north of the city, the members being from Maine and New Hampshire. The five-piece outfit first came together at the University of New Hampshire in the early ‘70s, becoming a popular mainstream bar band and going pro by ‘74. Five years later, they recorded the single “This is Love” b/w “Goin’ Nowhere Fast” on the local Sky’s the Limit label; the release raised a clamor around New England, attracting the national suits and resulting in the band’s eponymous debut disc.

A re-release of “This is Love“ made it to #58 in the Billboard Hot 100, but Oak’s greatest success came 10 months later when “King of the Hill” wen to #36. One other single, “Set the Night on Fire” (the title track of the group’s second album) reached #71. Those songs stand the test of time and are a testament to a little band from “up north” that came in from the cold, but the rapid rise of the new, flashier, MTV-driven world in 1981 left the band behind.

(by Carter Alan)

Carter Alan is a former WBCN deejay now heard on WZLX-FM in Boston. He’s the author of Radio Free Boston: The Rise and Fall of WBCN (University Press of New England, 2013).