A one-hit wonder is a musical artist who is successful with one hit song, but without a comparable subsequent hit. [1] The term may also be applied to an artist who is remembered for only one hit despite other successes (such as "Take On Me" by A-ha in the United States, [2] [3] [4] which topped a Rolling Stone magazine poll to find the top one-hit wonder). [5] [6] This article contains artists known primarily for one hit song in the United States, who are regarded as one-hit wonders by at least two sources in media even though the artist may have had multiple hits abroad.
Each artist listed here has been identified by at least two publications as being a one-hit wonder in the U.S. Numerous artists listed here have reached the Top 40 on the US Billboard Hot 100 more than once. The year indicates when the song charted or peaked.
Music reviewers and journalists sometimes describe a musical artist as a one-hit wonder, based on their professional assessment of chart success, sales figures, and fame.
For the purpose of his book The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, music journalist Wayne Jancik defines a one-hit wonder as "an act that has won a position on Billboard's national, pop, Top 40 just once." [7] In his definition of an "act", Jancik distinguishes between a solo performer and a group performance (thus, for example, Roger Daltrey's "Without Your Love" is counted despite Daltrey's numerous hits as frontman for the Who), and a number of musicians appear multiple times, either with multiple bands or as a member of a band and as a solo artist. (Eponymous bands are generally not separated; thus Charlie Daniels is not counted as a one-hit wonder for "Uneasy Rider" and the hits of the Charlie Daniels Band are credited to him.)
Fred Bronson, a journalist and former writer for Billboard magazine, in his book Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 Hits, uses the criterion that an artist is ineligible to be categorized as a "one-hit wonder" if they have a second song listed on the Billboard Hot 100. [8]
Disc jockey and music writer Brent Mann points out how some artists have been called a "one-hit wonder" despite having other charting singles; in these cases, one signature song so overshadows the rest of the artist's discography that only that song remains familiar to later audiences. As an example, English-born singer Albert Hammond enjoyed success with "It Never Rains in Southern California" (1972) rising to number 5 in the US, but his follow-up single, "I'm a Train" was dismissed by Mann as "totally forgotten" even though it charted at number 31 in 1974. [5] In another case, Scottish rockers Simple Minds followed their big hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)" (appearing in the opening and closing scenes of the film The Breakfast Club ) with "Alive and Kicking" which peaked at number 3 in the US, "Sanctify Yourself" which peaked at number 14 in the US, and "All the Things She Said" which peaked at number 28 in the US, yet the band is remembered primarily for the first song. [9]
On the other hand, some artists with long, successful careers have been identified as one-hit wonders by virtue of having reached the Top 40 of the Hot 100 only once. Consequence of Sound editor Matt Melis lists Beck ("Loser") and the Grateful Dead ("Touch of Grey") [10] as "technically" being one-hit wonders despite their large bodies of work. [6] Entertainment Weekly mentions prolific artist Frank Zappa as a one-hit wonder because his only Top 40 hit was "Valley Girl" in 1982. [11]
Chris Molanphy, a pop chart analyst and writer for Slate and The Village Voice , wrote that an artist can only be seen as a "one-hit wonder" if they have never had a second Billboard top 10 hit, if any subsequent top 40 singles were released within six months of their first big hit, and if the artist has not had three or more top 10 or Platinum albums. [12] [13]
English musician Tony Burrows sang the lead vocal on five one-hit wonders: Edison Lighthouse's "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" (February 1970); White Plains' "My Baby Loves Lovin'" (March 1970); the Pipkins' "Gimme Dat Ding" (April 1970); the First Class' "Beach Baby" (July 1974); and "United We Stand" (1970) by the first incarnation of the Brotherhood of Man. [14] [15]
Joey Levine, American session singer best known for his prolific work in the bubblegum pop and commercial jingle genera, who had recorded hits for the Ohio Express ("Yummy Yummy Yummy"), also sang hits for the Third Rail, the Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus ("Quick Joey Small") and Reunion ("Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)"). [16]
English singer Limahl sang lead vocal on two US one-hit wonder songs; the first, "Too Shy" in 1983, came during his tenure as the frontman for the group Kajagoogoo. The next year, he had another hit single as a solo artist with "The NeverEnding Story", the title track to the film The NeverEnding Story . [17] The latter song charted at number 17 in May 1985.
Stevland Hardaway Morris, known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include R&B, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and jazz. A virtual one-man band, Wonder's use of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of contemporary R&B. He also helped drive such genres into the album era, crafting his LPs as cohesive and consistent, in addition to socially conscious statements with complex compositions. Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was a child prodigy who signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder.
A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with only one hit single that overshadows their other work. Some artists dubbed "one-hit wonders" in a particular country have had great success in other countries. Music artists with subsequent popular albums and hit listings are not properly considered a one-hit wonder, although artists with multiple hits have sometimes been erroneously labelled as "one-hit wonders" if one particular hit has become much more well-remembered years or decades later than their other hits. One-hit wonders usually see their popularity decreasing after their hit listing, and most often do not ever return to hit listings with other songs or albums.
Yvette Marie Stevens, better known by her stage name Chaka Khan, is an American singer. Known as the "Queen of Funk", her career has spanned more than five decades beginning in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. With the band she recorded the notable hits "Tell Me Something Good", "Sweet Thing", "Do You Love What You Feel" and the platinum-certified "Ain't Nobody". Her debut solo album featured the number-one R&B hit "I'm Every Woman". Khan scored another R&B charts hit with "What Cha' Gonna Do for Me" before becoming the first R&B artist to have a crossover hit featuring a rapper, with her 1984 cover of Prince's "I Feel for You". More of Khan's hits include "Through the Fire" and a 1986 collaboration with Steve Winwood that produced a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, "Higher Love".
The Rembrandts are an American alternative rock duo, formed by Danny Wilde and Phil Solem in 1989. They had previously worked together as members of Great Buildings in 1981. The Rembrandts are best known for the song "I'll Be There for You", which was used as the main theme song for the NBC sitcom Friends.
Anthony Burrows is an English pop singer and recording artist. As a prolific session musician, Burrows was involved in several transatlantic hit singles throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, most of which were one-hit wonders, including "Love Grows " by Edison Lighthouse, "United We Stand" by Brotherhood of Man, "My Baby Loves Lovin'" by White Plains, "Gimme Dat Ding" by The Pipkins and "Beach Baby" by The First Class. During 1970, four singles by four different acts with whom he performed all charted at or near the top of the UK Singles Chart and additionally reached the top 20 in the United States.
"Sex and Candy" is a song by American alternative rock group Marcy Playground, a single from their 1997 self-titled debut album. It is a post-grunge song with psychedelic elements. Lead singer John Wozniak was inspired to write the song after a woman told him that a room smelled like "sex and candy." The song's abstract lyrics refer to the disco era and include hippie lingo. In 1997, Wozniak said that "Sex and Candy" is an unorthodox love song; later, he said he does not know what the song means. It was released to radio on the week of September 15, 1997.
"Heartbreaker" is a song by American singer Pat Benatar from her debut studio album In the Heat of the Night (1979). Written and composed by Geoff Gill and Cliff Wade, the song had first been recorded by English singer Jenny Darren on her 1978 album Queen of Fools, and Benatar adjusted the original lyrics, as such references as "A to Zed" and "moonraker" would have likely confused American listeners.
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Foulden Maar is a fossil site near Middlemarch in Otago, New Zealand. The fossils were deposited in the small deep crater lake of a maar formed around 23 million years ago by a volcano in the Miocene era. The crater lake existed for a period of around 130,000 years, and during this time it gradually filled up with diatomite, composed of annual layers of silica-shelled algae (diatoms). These layers of diatomite have preserved exceptional fossils of fish from the crater lake, and plants, spiders and insects from the sub-tropical forest that developed around the crater. The site is the only known maar of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and is one of New Zealand's pre-eminent fossil sites. A 2018 proposal to mine Foulden Maar for livestock-food additive attracted significant public opposition. The mining company went into receivership in 2019, and in 2023, the Dunedin City Council reached an agreement with the receivers to purchase the land, including the surrender of the mining permits.
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...an easy explanation as to why the group ended up with one-hit wonder status
The Easybeats were an international one-hit wonder with 'Friday on My Mind'...
...scored their lone hit, the 1973 chart-topper "Brother Louie,"
Silver Condor was a short-lived rock band formed in New York that was able to wrangle one Top 40 Hit with You Could Take My Heart Away that reached No. 32 in 1981.
...they call me a one hit wonder at times...
One of the silliest one-hit wonders of the new wave era
"I Eat Cannibals" must be one of the weirdest one hit wonders of all time.
The oddly named new wave duo EBN-OZN had one novelty hit, "AEIOU Sometimes Y" in 1983, and then lapsed into obscurity.
The British band Fiction Factory are forgotten one-hit wonders
He had other minor hits following 'C'est La Vie', but is still often regarded as [ sic ] One Hit Wonder
Pop and dance-rock singer whose massive hit "The Power of Love" made her a European superstar in the '80s and '90s.
Few stars prove the meaninglessness of the label "one-hit wonder" better than Michael Damian
Norwegian trio One 2 Many is probably a prime candidate to the twofold title of least remembered one-hit wonder ever
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