By Gavin Swanson Posted June 9, 2016
Welcome to ‘Whatever Happened To..?’, an article going back to the past to revisit a trend or topic that was a huge deal back in the day, but has about faded into obscurity or has been forgotten and is never talked about anymore. So set your sights back around five years for this nostalgic blast to the past as we ask… whatever happened to The Plain White T’s?
You know, that one band? They were a moderately big deal back in 2005 with their hit that’s still being played today on the radio, “Hey There Delilah”. Yes that innocently sappy guitar song about a boyfriend writing a song to his long-distance girlfriend Delilah, the one you’re thinking of.
Yes, it would seem that the band behind that song would be doomed to the infamous hall of one-hit wonders until the release of another single in 2009. For most of us, this single was released when we were in junior high and middle school, the song in question being, “1, 2, 3, 4”– you’d probably recognize it if you heard it, but it doesn’t have the most memorable song name. Now it might just be me, but I do remember this song being a moderately big hit. I mean it did reach 34 in the Billboard 100 back in 2009 and did get platinum. I don’t think it’s as remembered as “Hey There Delilah”, but I’m sure most of you remember this song from what seems like ages ago. They also had a song called “Rhythm of Love” which I don’t remember personally being that big at the time, but it was popular enough to get platinum as well.
Now we stand here seven years later asking, whatever happened to the band that birthed these two hits? Well, they’ve only released five albums and only three of those went big and worldwide. The third album, “Big Bad World”, had “Hey There Delilah”. The fourth album, “Wonders of the Younger” had “1, 2, 3, 4” and “Rhythm of Love”. Perhaps their fourth big hit is on their newest album, “American Nights” which was only released in 2015.
Unfortunately for the T’s, “American Nights” failed to make a splash last year in the music scene and was completely overshadowed by other albums like Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly”, Adele’s “25”, Taylor Swift’s “1989”, and others. Better luck next time Plain White T’s, you guys seem to have a knack for re-emerging from obscurity after a hiatus that would be suicide for other pop artists. We may hear from this band several years down the future with another hit that nobody could predict, but for now we can only look back and drown ourselves in the nostalgia of 2005 and 2010 when this band was a big deal and not some obscure band that we’ve long forgotten.
