Tommy James

The Tommy James book, Me The Mob and the Music, got a lot of press for its depiction of Morris Levy's Gangsta ties, but an overlooked part of it was how much of a machine the whole process of making records, charting them and pressing them was back during AM radio's heyday of the 60's/70's.
As James points out, records moved up and down pretty fast back then, so you had to have followup singles ready.  Lucky for him he did, and he was able to amass a decent amount of Top 40 songs.  But the process chewed up many others.  So, if you've ever wondered why some people were one or two hit wonders from that era, then check out James' book.