One-hit wonder

A one-hit wonder is a person or act known mainly for only a single success. The term is most often used to describe music performers with only one hit single.

Contents

Characteristics

Some one-hit wonders are the result of novelty songs during fads. Examples include Rick Dees’ "Disco Duck", related to the disco craze of the 1970s; C. W. McCall's "Convoy", related to the CB radio craze of the 1970s (though McCall has had at least one other top-40 hit); and Buckner & Garcia’s "Pac-Man Fever", related to the 1980s-era arcade game Pac-Man.

Some artists, such as the Big Bopper, had their careers cut short by death (in the Big Bopper's case, in a fatal plane crash that also killed two other musicians), while others, such as New Radicals and The La's, broke up immediately after their one hit. In the 1960s and early 1970s, session bands such as Edison Lighthouse or Alive N Kickin' producing just a single 45 record were common. More commonly, however, one-hit wonders are serious-minded musicians who struggled to continue their success after their popularity waned.

Because one-hit wonders are popular for only a brief time, their hits often have nostalgic value and are featured on era-centric compilations and soundtracks to period films. One-hit wonders are normal in any era of pop music, but are most common during reigns of entire genres that do not last for more than a few years, such as disco, new wave and grunge.

Though the term is sometimes used in a derogatory manner, some fans often have a great passion for these songs and the artists who created them. Some one-hit wonder artists have embraced this following openly, while others distance themselves from their hit in an attempt to craft successful songs with different sounds, or embark on new careers as songwriters (such as Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes and Gregg Alexander of New Radicals), or even game show hosts (such as Chuck Woolery of The Avant-Garde). One-hit artists who possess a significant legacy of music outside of the singles world (e.g. Buffy Sainte-Marie with Illuminations) may however distance themselves severely from their hit single ("Mister Can't You See") as they are likely to feel their hit in no way represents what they stand for.

Questions of definition

In the U.S., a "pure" one-hit wonder is an artist that manages only one song on the Billboard Hot 100, regardless of the song's peak position. However, most American music industry insiders consider a song in the top forty positions of the Billboard Hot 100 to be a hit. Thus, any performer who recorded only one song that reached the Top 40 is, technically, a one-hit wonder, regardless whether another song peaks in the "bottom 60." However, the term is more generally applied to musicians best known for only one song.

Wayne Jancik's book The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders (Billboard Books, 1998) defines a one-hit wonder rather strictly, as "an act that has won a position on Billboard's national, pop, Top 40 just once." He therefore includes such performers as Janis Joplin (for "Me and Bobby McGee") or Jimi Hendrix (for "All Along the Watchtower"), solely on the basis of their Top 40 performance. In his definition of an "act", Jancik distinguishes between a solo performer and any group he or she may have performed in; thus Roger Daltrey is distinguished from The Who. He restricts his reporting time to the period from the start of the "rock-and-roll era" (defined by the author as 1 January 1955 to 31 December 1992). The latter date was picked to allow a five-year "lag time" before publication for a listed one-hit wonder to produce a second hit; this does not allow for a longer hiatus between hits for a particular performer. For example, Lenny Kravitz is listed for "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over" (No. 2, August 1991);[1] the book therefore misses subsequent hits, such as "Fly Away", which peaked at #12 in 1999, and "Again", which peaked at #4 in 2001, on the Hot 100.

Below is a list of some criteria that also affect a performer's status as a one-hit wonder:

  1. A small number of artists have the distinction of being regarded as one-hit wonders in both the US and UK, but with different songs.
    1. American husband and wife duo Art and Dotty Todd scored a hit in the UK with "Broken Wings" in 1953, but did not make it to the top forty in their homeland until "Chanson D'Amour (Song of Love)" in 1958
    2. Rock band The Icicle Works' sole UK top 50 hit was 1983's "Love Is a Wonderful Colour"; however, in North America, their only top 40 entry was "Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly)" in 1984
    3. Another group, After the Fire, had their sole UK Top 40 hit with their debut single, 1979's "One Rule for You" and their sole US Top 40 hit with one of their final singles, 1983's "Der Kommissar" (an English-language cover of a German-language hit by Falco).
    4. The Wiseguys had a #2 hit in the UK with “Ooh La La” in 1998 but their only US hit was “Start the Commotion” at #31 in 2001.
      1. Ten Years After, not ordinarily classified as a one-hit wonder due to their album sales[2] (see below), had their only UK Top 40 hit with “Love like a Man” in 1970, but their only US Top 40 hit was “I’d Love to Change the World”, which peaked at #40 in 1971.
  2. Prominent members of popular groups who have only one solo hit typically are not seen as one-hit wonders. Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, The Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian, The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, The Who's Roger Daltrey, Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, and Michael Nesmith of The Monkees each achieved chart success only once as solo artists, but are all well-known for their contributions to music through their respective bands. Nesmith is also famous for creating Pop Clips, a concept that others would eventually turn into MTV.
  3. Conversely, groups led by popular solo artists are usually not called one-hit wonders. Derek and the Dominos' sole hit "Layla" is associated with group leader Eric Clapton, who had great success and fame before and after the Dominos. Another example is Fort Minor ("Where’d You Go"), which featured Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda.
  4. Many popular British artists like Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Right Said Fred, The Verve, BBMak, James Blunt, All Saints, Billie Piper, and Take That are considered one-hit wonders in the US, although they have many hits in their native UK or Canada. (Clearly, this is a matter of perspective, since while only one Frankie Goes To Hollywood track, "Relax," hit the U.S. top 40, "Two Tribes" did hit the Hot 100.) Similarly, American bands such as Lonestar, Styx, Blue Öyster Cult and Isaac Hayes (whose lone hit in the UK, "Chocolate Salty Balls," was in the "Chef" persona from South Park) are one-hit wonders in the UK but not in their respective native countries. Conversely, other British acts such as Wang Chung, Breathe and Murray Head, as well as the Anglo-Australian duo Air Supply, are one-hit wonders in the UK but not in the US, and the American group 3T, best known in their homeland as being the three sons of Tito Jackson of The Jackson 5, along with other bands such as Blind Melon and Deep Blue Something, are one-hit wonders in the US but not in the UK. Similarly, M was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. with the 1979 #1 pop hit "Pop Muzik," but in the UK, where the original "Pop Muzik" hit #2, the improbably titled "Moonlight & Muzak" made it to #33, a re-mix of "Pop Muzik" hit #15 in 1989 and two other singles ("That's the Way the Money Goes" and "Official Secrets") charted, albeit missing the UK top 40. (Sources for M reference: "British Hit Singles," 8th ed., by Paul Gambaccini, Jonathan Rice and Tim Rice; NY: Billboard Books; London: Guinness Publishing/GRR Publications, 1991; and the computer program "British Top 40 Hits.")
    1. Performers who have consistent success in one part of the world but who are known for only one song outside that region are usually considered one-hit wonders in the latter. Austria's Falco and Germany’s Nena were very successful in German-speaking countries, and Canada's Tom Cochrane and Default has had similar success in their homeland, but all are considered one-hit wonders in the US and UK (except for Default, who never had a hit in the UK).
  5. There are many acts who earned a single Billboard Top 40 hit, but who are not typically classified as one-hit wonders due to other successes. Jancik, however, includes many of these artists, as they fall within his strict definition as a single act with a single top-40 placement. For example:
    1. album or even concert ticket sales: e.g. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Rush, and Garth Brooks (whose only Billboard Top 40 hit was in his Chris Gaines persona)
    2. success on other, genre-specific charts: e.g. Snow Patrol, Incubus, The Lightning Seeds, KoRn, Queen Latifah, The Prodigy, Garth Brooks, Randy Travis, blink-182, Muse, Breaking Benjamin, and Shinedown
    3. critical acclaim: e.g. Spirit, Randy Newman, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The White Stripes, The Church, Amy Winehouse, Beck, and Marshall Crenshaw
    4. strong fan followings: e.g. Rush, Frank Zappa, Grateful Dead, Faith No More, Devo, and Queensrÿche
    5. influence on other musicians: e.g. Jimi Hendrix, Rush, Lou Reed, Janis Joplin, Devo, Iggy Pop, and Bo Diddley
    6. success as a songwriter or producer: e.g. Buffy Sainte-Marie, Mickey Newbury, J. J. Cale, Jim Steinman, Norman Smith, and McFadden & Whitehead
    7. how the song was released: Cyndi Grecco, Pratt & McClain, Joey Scarbury and MFSB, for instance, were all technically one-hit wonders, but their hits were solely popularized by their use as themes to television shows (Laverne & Shirley, Happy Days, The Greatest American Hero, and Soul Train respectively). As such, over time, they have almost been completely forgotten as if they had never had a hit at all.
  6. Some artists, including Livin' Joy, Wall of Voodoo, The Boomtown Rats, Crossfade, Head East, Yello, Modern English, and The Weather Girls, never had a top-40 pop hit, but did have a song that received considerable airplay, even long after its day of release.
  7. Performers who are successful in specific genres, but produce only one crossover hit, are generally considered one-hit wonders by the public at large, but not by fans of their respective genres. Celtic music singer Loreena McKennitt, hard rock group Saving Abel, Christian rock groups Jars of Clay, dc Talk and jazz artist Grover Washington, Jr. are popular within their respective genres, but known to the greater public for a single song each. Similar situations are common among crossover country artists and glam metal/mainstream metal groups.
  8. Performers who had more than one Top 40 hit are sometimes considered one-hit wonders, if one signature song greatly overshadows the rest of their repertoire, for example:
    1. a-ha’s "Take on Me" made the top 10 of VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders,[3] even though the group had two Billboard Top 20 singles: "Take on Me" and "The Sun Always Shines on TV". However, "Take On Me" is much more remembered today, at least in the US (note that "The Sun Always Shines on TV" was a #1 hit in the UK: higher than "Take on Me")
    2. Great White is sometimes called a one-hit wonder for "Once Bitten Twice Shy", but "The Angel Song" was also a Top 40 hit. Furthermore, the band had several songs that charted under the Top 40 but did well on genre-specific charts that were quite popular among fans of the glam metal and hard rock genres.
    3. Tommy Tutone were best known for their 1982 #4 hit "867-5309/Jenny" but their first top 40 hit was the number #38 "Angel Say No".
    4. Strawberry Alarm Clock's #1 "Incense and Peppermints" so overshadowed their #23 "Tomorrow" that they are often considered a one-hit wonder
    5. Similar are Question Mark and the Mysterians whose oft-covered 1966 #1 standard "96 Tears" caused their subsequent #22 "I Need Somebody" to be quickly forgotten.
    6. The same applies for Falco in the US; his #1 "Rock Me Amadeus" greatly overshadowed its #18 follow-up single "Vienna Calling" in that country.
    7. The same is true for German singer Peter Schilling whose international hit "Major Tom (Coming Home)" vastly overshadowed the album it was released on and the titular single from it, "Different Story (World of Lust and Crime)".
    8. Further examples in this vein include Hinder, Edwin McCain, Vertical Horizon, and Vanessa Carlton.
    9. Billy Ray Cyrus reached #1 with "Achy Breaky Heart" in 1992; although he had many other country hits, he did not return to the Top 40 until 2008 with "Ready, Set, Don't Go"; by that time, he had become better-known as an actor and the father of Miley Cyrus, with whom he stars in the series Hannah Montana. The Archies are usually regarded as one hit wonders for "Sugar Sugar", but had three further top 40 entries on the Billboard top 40 ("Who's Your Baby?" at U.S. #40, "Bang-Shang-A-Lang" at U.S. #22, and "Jingle Jangle" at U.S. #10). Ray Parker, Jr. is frequently referred to as a one-hit wonder for his theme from the movie Ghostbusters, but also had several hits as the frontman for the disco group Raydio.
    10. The Rembrandts also fall into this category, but differ in that the song for which they are best known was not their biggest hit, at least not on the Hot 100. They are best known for "I'll Be There for You", the theme from the long-running sitcom Friends. Although the song topped three separate Billboard charts, it only reached #17 on the Hot 100. The duo's earlier song "Just the Way It Is, Baby" topped out at #14 on the Hot 100.
    11. Other examples of this kind of one-hit wonder are General Public, Vixen, and Sisqó (although Sisqó is also known for being a member of Dru Hill).
  9. Some artists originally considered to be one-hit wonders would go on to have more success years after their initial hit. Examples of this include Janis Ian, Tracy Chapman, Rick Springfield, Lenny Kravitz, Sugar Ray, Lifehouse, Jason Mraz, Train, Joe Jackson, Tyrese, INXS, Finger Eleven, Billy Ocean, and Enya.
  10. Performers like Golden Earring, The Foundations, Keith, Daniel Bedingfield, The Left Banke, Maxine Nightingale, Donna Fargo, A Taste of Honey, Johnny Logan, Vanessa Paradis, The Fat Boys, and Ugly Kid Joe, who produced two major hits before fading into obscurity, are sometimes called "two-hit wonders," but this term is not as common.
  11. Deutsche Grammophon and Vox Records have both released albums of classical one-hit wonders. The de-facto criterion common to the albums is composers who have a single work that has become popular outside classical circles as several of the composers on both albums are known for multiple works inside classical circles. The works on these albums (or fragments and variations) are frequently heard in movies, television shows and commercials.
  12. Comedian Steve Martin is technically a one hit wonder for his novelty song King Tut, but was previously and subsequently far better known for his work as a comedy writer/stand-up comedian/actor.
  13. Sometimes for a theme song for a TV show the main character sings the theme song for the show and never sings again (such as Jamie Lynn Spears from the TV show Zoey 101). An earlier example of this is actor David Naughton; Naughton starred in and sang the theme to the TV series Makin' It in 1978, and ironically, though the show flopped, the song "Makin' It" became a top-5 hit several months after the show was canceled.
  14. Sometimes an artist is featured in a song by an artist who isn't a one-hit wonder and it becomes the featured artists only top 40 (such as City Spud featured on Nelly's hit "Ride wit Me")

Other uses

The term one-hit wonder is occasionally used to refer to an artist, other than a musical performer, who is best known for a single work. Examples in literature include Harper Lee's only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, which sold 30 million copies; and author Joseph Heller, who wrote several novels, but is still best known for Catch-22. Margaret Mitchell never wrote another book after her first novel, Gone With the Wind, was a smash best-seller. The Eye of Argon, Jim Theiss' only work of fiction, is an unusual example: it is famous (or rather infamous) for its lack of quality. The term is also applied to the film industry: one such case lies in the career of actress Natasha Henstridge, who has yet to match the success of the 1995 film, Species. Classical composers such as Johann Pachelbel, despite being very popular in his time, known today almost solely for Pachelbel's Canon, are also sometimes described thus.[4]

In the sports world, there are several athletes known to casual sports fans for one event in their careers. Examples include Bill Mazeroski, who is the only player in Major League Baseball history to end a seventh game of the World Series with a walk-off home run;[5] Paul Henderson, a Canadian ice hockey player who scored the deciding goal in the 1972 Summit Series; Mike Jones, who tackled Kevin Dyson at the one yard line in Super Bowl XXXIV; and Jimmy Glass, an English football goalkeeper, who is remembered for scoring a goal in the last seconds of the final day of 1998-99 English Third Division that kept his club in The Football League. His subsequently released biography was titled One-Hit Wonder.

In drug culture, the term one-hit wonder is often applied to highly potent specific varieties of substances, such as certain strains of cannabis that require only one "hit" (a single inhalation of smoke), or a "hit" of LSD (a single dose), to achieve the desired psychoactive effects.

In the world of web analytics, one-hit wonder is used to describe a user who comes to a site from a search engine, views the piece of content he was searching for, and then leaves, never clicking an ad or engaging in any way with the site. The phenomenon is particularly germane with respect to publishers putting "paywalls" around content, and the recent struggles of news and newspaper publishers in the face of changes brought about by the Internet. The term was first used in this respect by web programmer Tim Burden on his blog,[6] and has also been used by news business pundit Jeff Jarvis.[7]

Lists of greatest one-hit wonders

VH1's list of "100 greatest one-hit wonders"

In 2002, the American cable network VH1 aired a countdown of the VH1's 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders,[3] It listed musicians with only one American hit, regardless of international success, which has been substantial and long-lived for musicians like a-ha and Nena (see below). In fact, if the "only one American hit" criterion had been strictly applied, a-ha and Falco would not be eligible for the list, as they each actually had two top-20 US hits—although as noted above their second hits were greatly overshadowed in the US by the prior hit. The same goes for Vanilla Ice: his follow up to his #1 hit was a #4 hit titled, "Play That Funky Music". Gerardo also had another Top 15 hit. Los del Río likewise had two top 40 hits, though both were versions of "Macarena."

The countdown also omitted acts such as Jimi Hendrix and Grateful Dead who, while technically charting with only one single, became too well-known for their entire bodies of work to merit inclusion on the list. They did get mentioned, though, in a short segment of one-hit wonders that had popular followings. The top ten consisted of:

  1. Los del Río — "Macarena" (1996)
  2. Soft Cell — "Tainted Love" (1982)
  3. Dexys Midnight Runners – "Come On Eileen" (1983)
  4. Right Said Fred — "I'm Too Sexy" (1992)
  5. Toni Basil — "Mickey" (1982)
  6. Baha Men — "Who Let the Dogs Out?" (2000)
  7. Vanilla Ice — "Ice Ice Baby" (1990)
  8. a-ha — "Take On Me" (1985)
  9. Gerardo — "Rico Suave" (1990)
  10. Nena — "99 Luftballons" (1984)

Soft Cell, Dexys Midnight Runners, Right Said Fred, Baha Men, a-ha, and Vanilla Ice have had multiple hits in the UK and would therefore not qualify as one-hit wonders. Gerardo has never had any hits in the UK at all, but he is still a highly honored performer in his homeland of Ecuador, as well as in other Latin American countries. This leaves only Toni Basil, Nena and Los del Río from this list as one-hit wonders on both English-speaking sides of the Atlantic, though Nena has continued her success in Germanic countries.

Channel 4's "50 Greatest One Hit Wonders"

A 2006 television poll, conducted by Channel 4 in the UK, asked viewers to select their favourite one hit wonder from a shortlist of 60. Respondents could also vote by e-mail to select a song that was not on the original list, if they so wished. The top 10 were:

  1. "Kung Fu Fighting" — Carl Douglas
  2. "99 Red Balloons" — Nena
  3. "Because I Got High" — Afroman
  4. "Sugar, Sugar" — The Archies
  5. "Can You Dig It?" — The Mock Turtles
  6. "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" — Monty Python
  7. "Spirit in the Sky" — Norman Greenbaum
  8. "Who Let the Dogs Out" — Baha Men
  9. "The Safety Dance" — Men Without Hats
  10. "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps Please" — Splodgenessabounds

Even this list is riddled with inaccuracies, since at least fifteen of the fifty acts ranked in the Top 50 by the poll had multiple Top 40 hits in the UK singles chart, thus disqualifying them from the appellation 'one-hit wonder', although the success of the other hits was (with one very notable exception) of a lesser measure than those included in the poll:

"20 to 1: One Hit Wonders"

In 2005, the Australian series 20 to 1 aired their episode 20 to 1: One Hit Wonders, a list of songs that had been the only one by that artist to have success in Australia.

# Title Performer
20 "Tainted Love" Soft Cell
19 "Mambo No.5" Lou Bega
18 "Venus" Shocking Blue
17 "Achy Breaky Heart" Billy Ray Cyrus
16 "Mickey" Toni Basil
15 "I'll Be Gone" Spectrum
14 "Tubthumping" Chumbawamba
13 "Counting the Beat" The Swingers
12 "Slice of Heaven" Dave Dobbyn & The Herbs
11 "Rockin' Robin" Bobby Day
10 "Pass the Dutchie" Musical Youth
9 "Don't Worry, Be Happy" Bobby McFerrin
8 "99 Luftballons" Nena
7 "Spirit in the Sky" Norman Greenbaum
6 "Come on Eileen" Dexys Midnight Runners
5 "Funkytown" Lipps Inc
4 "Turning Japanese" The Vapors
3 "Video Killed the Radio Star" The Buggles
2 "Born to Be Alive" Patrick Hernandez
1 "My Sharona" The Knack

C4's UChoose40: One Hit Wonders

In September 2006, New Zealand's terrestrial music channel, C4, aired an episode dedicated to "One Hit Wonders" on the weekly theme-based chart show, UChoose40, where the chart was ranked entirely by viewer's votes from the website.

The top ten ranking are as follows:

  1. "The Final Countdown" — Europe (1986)
  2. "Teenage Dirtbag" — Wheatus (2000)
  3. "How Bizarre" — OMC (1996)
  4. "Because I Got High" — Afroman (2001)
  5. "Ice Ice Baby" — Vanilla Ice (1990)
  6. "Eye of the Tiger" — Survivor (1982)
  7. "Tubthumping" — Chumbawamba (1997)
  8. "My Sharona" — The Knack (1979)
  9. "Video Killed the Radio Star" — The Buggles (1979)
  10. "Who Let the Dogs Out?" — Baha Men (2000)
  11. "I Touch Myself" — Divinyls (1991)

Classical music one-hit wonders

Deutsche Grammophon and Vox Records have both released albums of classical one-hit wonders. Many of the works on the CDs are from composers who have two or more works that are popular in classical music circles, but have a single work that has become popular outside these circles. The works will be familiar to most people because they have been used in commercials or in movies and television shows. The two CDs differ, but the works common to both are:

  1. Johann Pachelbel — Canon in D
  2. Samuel Barber — Adagio for Strings
  3. attrib. Tomaso Albinoni — Adagio in G minor (this was actually written by Remo Giazotto and contains no Albinoni material)
  4. Jean-Joseph Mouret — Rondeau from Symphonies and Fanfares for the King's Supper (theme to Masterpiece, formerly Masterpiece Theatre)
  5. Luigi Boccherini — minuet from String Quintet in E
  6. Jeremiah Clarke — "Trumpet Voluntary", more properly known as "Prince of Denmark's March"
  7. Jules Massenet — Meditation from his opera Thais
  8. Pietro Mascagni — "Cavalleria rusticana"
  9. Léo Delibes — "The Flower Duet" from the opera Lakmé
  10. Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov — "Caucasian Sketches"
  11. Amilcare Ponchielli — "Dance of the Hours" from the opera La Gioconda
  12. Charles-Marie Widor — Toccata from Symphony for Organ No. 5
  13. Aram Khachaturian — "Sabre Dance" from the ballet Gayane
  14. Marc-Antoine Charpentier — Te Deum
  15. Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska — Maiden's Prayer

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Jancik 1998, p.487
  2. ^ TEN YEARS AFTER - NOW
  3. ^ a b http://afrokayo.web.fc2.com/mdata_vh1_greatest_onehit_wonders.html
  4. ^ http://youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM
  5. ^ Mazeroski, however, is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, due primarily to his status as one of the greatest defensive infielders of all time.
  6. ^ Your content is your honeypot - Tim Burden
  7. ^ The cockeyed economics of metering reading - Jeff Jarvis

References

External links