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One-hit wonder

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For other uses, see One hit wonder (disambiguation).
UK 45 rpm single for "Mickey" (1982) by one-hit wonder Toni Basil
Image:Wholetthedogsout.jpg

In the music industry, a one-hit wonder is an artist generally known for only one hit single.

The hits of many one-hit wonders are novelty songs that are, to an extent, deliberately short-lived, recorded for humor or to cash in on a fad. Examples include Rick Dees’s "Disco Duck," related to the disco craze of the 1970s; C.W. McCall's "Convoy," related to the CB radio craze of the 1970s; and Buckner & Garcia’s "Pac Man Fever," related to the 1980s-era arcade game Pac Man. More commonly, however, one-hit wonders are serious-minded musicians who struggled to continue their success after their popularity waned. Some artists had only one chart success due to their untimely death such as Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon, and Minnie Riperton.

Because one-hit wonders are popular for only a brief time, their hits often have nostalgia 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 that 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), or recording industry executives (such as Gerardo).

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[edit] Questions of definition

Most American music industry insiders consider a song in the top forty positions of Billboard Magazine’s 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. However, the term is more generally applied to musicians best known for only one song, meaning that some artists who fit the above criteria are not considered one-hit wonders, while others who do not are considered such.

Wayne Jancik's book The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders (Billboard Books, 1998) defines a one-hit wonder rather conservatively, 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 and Jimi Hendrix solely on the basis of their Top 40 performance. In his definition of an "act", Janczik 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 unfortunately 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)<ref>Janczik 1998, p487</ref>; the book therefore misses subsequent hits, such as "Fly Away", which reached #12 on the Billboard chart in 1999.

In the United Kingdom, the term one-hit wonder is used to describe a singer or band who had only one hit reach the Top 20 in the UK Singles Chart, while all subsequent releases ranked no higher than No. 21; this description is therefore far more restrictive than that used in the United States, and elsewhere. The term was first used by the "Guinness Book of Hit Singles" from the 1970s, and originally referred strictly to those artists whose first chart action was: "a number one hit, and then nothing else, ever."

Here are some other criteria that also affect a performer’s status as a one-hit wonder:

  • Many popular British artists like Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Robbie Williams, The KLF, BBMak, All Saints, Billie Piper, Busted and Take That are considered one-hit wonders in the US, although the listed artist were very popular in Britain.
  • 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, 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.
  • Conversely, groups led by popular solo artists are usually not called one-hit wonders. Derek & the Dominoes' sole hit "Layla" is associated with group leader Eric Clapton, who had considerable success before and after the lifespan of Derek & the Dominoes.
  • 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. Germany’s Nena and Canada’s Crash Test Dummies each had considerable success in their homelands, but both are considered one-hit wonders in the US and UK.
  • 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, Christian rock group Jars of Clay, and country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus are each popular within their respective genres, but known to the greater public for a single song each.
  • Performers who had more than one Top 40 hit are sometimes considered one-hit wonders, if one song greatly overshadows the rest of their repertoire. a-ha’s "Take on Me" made the top 10 of VH1's 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders, even though the group had two Billboard Top 20 singles: "Take On Me" and "The Sun Always Shines On T.V." However, "Take On Me" is much more remembered today, at least in the USA (note that "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." was a #1 hit in the UK, higher than "Take On Me"). Similarly, Great White is sometimes called a one-hit wonder for "Once Bitten Twice Shy", but "The Angel Song" was also a Top 40 hit.
  • Performers like Golden Earring, Maxine Nightingale, and A Taste of Honey who produced two major hits before fading into obscurity, are sometimes called 'two-hit wonders," but this term is not as common.
  • While the term one-hit wonder generally refers to popular music, the term is sometimes used to describe composers of classical music such as Carl Orff who are well known mainly because of a single piece. Extending the term to classical composers is more subjective, because there are no comparable sales rankings for classical music; there is no commonly accepted way to determine what constitutes a 'hit' in classical music. This can be determined by recording sales records, classical concert programs, play lists of classical radio stations, the number of recordings of a piece by a variety of orchestras, and familiarity to the general public.

[edit] 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. For example, author Joseph Heller wrote several novels, but is still best known for Catch-22; while actress Natasha Henstridge has yet to match the success of the film Species.

In video games, the term 'one-hit wonder' is used to describe a video game character that dies after one hit. A good example is Billy Bob from Capcom's Gun.Smoke.

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 season which kept his club Carlisle United in the Football League, relegating Scarborough F.C. to the Football Conference instead. Glass wrote an autobiography, entitled One-Hit Wonder.

In the marijuana culture, the term 'one-hit wonder' is often applied to strains of marijuana that produce effects after taking only one "hit" (slang for inhalation of smoke).

[edit] One-hit wonders from other media

The list of Billboard's one-hit wonders is also peppered with artists better known for talents other than pop vocals:


Muppetteer Jim Henson hit the Billboard Top 40 twice: as Ernie with "Rubber Duckie" (No 16, September 1970),<ref>Janczik 1998, p288</ref> and Kermit the Frog with "The Rainbow Connection" (No 25, November 1979)<ref>Janczik 1998, p503</ref>

[edit] Solo one-hit wonders

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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into One-hit wonders in the United States. (Discuss)

A number of members of successful bands became one-hit wonders when they went solo:

[edit] Trivia

  • The phenomenon of one-hit wonders was celebrated in Tom Hanks' 1996 film That Thing You Do!, which featured a fictional 1960s band called The Wonders that broke up shortly after their only hit single. The name 'Wonders' was originally spelled 'One-ders', a deliberate play on the term. Ironically, while the movie was in theaters, the soundtrack got only as high as #26 on the charts. 'The Wonders' never made it to the charts again, so they were, in a sense, both a real and fictitious one-hit wonder band.
  • In a stand-up routine on the Dr. Demento basement tapes, comedian Rob Paravonian humorously noted that Johann Pachelbel was the original one-hit wonder. See Pachelbel's canon.
  • Norman Greenbaum is a double one-hit wonder. In 1968, under the name 'Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band', he had a semi-hit with the novelty song "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago" and in 1971, scored a hit under his own name with "Spirit In The Sky". Ironically, another group, Doctor and the Medics, became a one-hit wonder of sorts with their version of "Spirit In The Sky" in 1986 (they had a minor hit with the follow-up "Burn", and a hit album "Laughing At The Pieces"), and British television stars The Kumars also became one-hit wonders in the UK, when they reached No. 1 with Gareth Gates with the same song in 2003.
  • Benny Mardones has had only one hit, "Into the Night", making him a 'one-hit wonder'; however, his song hit the Top 20 twice - in 1980 and again in 1990.
  • 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. 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. Rock band Semisonic scored a US hit with "Closing Time" in 1998, but are better known in the UK for "Secret Smile", from their album Feeling Strangely Fine.
  • In his book One Hit Wonderland (Ebury Press, 2003), British writer and comedian Tony Hawks describes his attempts to shake off his one-hit wonder status by having another hit somewhere in the world. The book describes several aborted attempts, before he achieves a Top 20 hit in Albania with veteran comic actor Norman Wisdom.
  • Vocalist Tony Burrows may be the most prolific "one-hit wonder" — he sang lead vocals on no less than four singular hits for four groups:
  • A number of artists have also been double one-hit wonders, having a hit both with a group and solo.
  • During an MTV Special in the 1990s, "Weird Al" Yankovic did a tribute to one hit wonder bands in a spoof of Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" video. The original video for "Runaway Train" showed pictures of missing children, but in the spoof video, the Soul Asylum music is accompanied by a series of photos of one hit wonder artists, with each photo captioned to show when the artist's "15 minutes of fame" expired--for instance, a photo of the Fairbrass brothers of Right Said Fred, with the caption "Right Said Fred, Missing Since 1991"

[edit] Lists of greatest one-hit wonders

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

In 2002, the American cable network VH1 aired a countdown of the 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders. It listed musicians with only one American hit - regardless of international success, which has been substantial and long-lived for bands like a-ha and Nena (see below). It 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. The top ten consisted of:

  1. Los Del Rio - "Macarena" (1996)
  2. Soft Cell - "Tainted Love" (1982)
  3. Dexys Midnight Runners - "Come On Eileen" (1982)
  4. Right Said Fred - "I'm Too Sexy" (1991)
  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" (1991)
  10. Nena - "99 Luftballons" (1984)

[edit] Brent Mann’s 100 "all-time great one-hit wonders"

In 2003, music journalist Brent Mann released the book 99 Red Balloons and 100 Other All-Time Great One-Hit Wonders. The list was based on Mann’s professional opinion, and did not include many hits from the VH1 list. Instead, Mann reaches back as early as the 1950s, and includes some songs that are perhaps unfamiliar to modern audiences. He also included artists who had many hits in the United Kingdom or other markets, but not in the United States. His number one choice was "Walking In Memphis" by Marc Cohn.

[edit] 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 [1]. Respondents could also vote by e-mail to select a song that was not on the original list, if they so wished. The top ten were:

  1. Carl Douglas - "Kung Fu Fighting" (1974)
  2. Nena - "99 Red Balloons" (1983)
  3. Afroman - "Because I Got High" (2001)
  4. The Archies - "Sugar, Sugar" (1969)
  5. The Mock Turtles - "Can U Dig It?" (1990)
  6. Monty Python - "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" (1979)
  7. Norman Greenbaum/Doctor and the Medics - "Spirit in the Sky (1970/1986)
  8. Baha Men - "Who Let the Dogs Out?" (2000)
  9. Men Without Hats - "The Safety Dance" (1983)
  10. Splodgenessabounds - "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps" (1980)

Carl Douglas, Doctor and the Medics and Splodgenessabounds ought not to have been present on the list at all: all had minor hits within the Top 40 after their above successes - Douglas with "Summer Nights" & "Dance The Kung Fu", Splodgenessabounds with "Two Little Boys/Horse/The Butterfly Song" (like the previous single, a Triple A-Side) and Dr & The Medics with "Burn". The Monty Python comedy troupe is generally known for film and T.V., but this in fact was their only entry into the UK Top 40.

[edit] 20 to 1: One Hit Wonders

Main article: 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. Number one was The Knack's "My Sharona".

[edit] 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. There were some surprising candidates who made it to the chart, such as former boy-band, Hanson who were clearly not one-hit wonders, even in NZ. Moreover, Meredith Brooks's hit single "Bitch" was mentioned on the candidates list but failed to make the Top 40.

The top ten ranking are as follows:

  1. The Final Countdown - Europe
  2. Teenage Dirtbag - Wheatus
  3. How Bizarre - O.M.C
  4. Because I Got High - Afroman
  5. Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice
  6. Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
  7. Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
  8. My Sharona - The Knack
  9. Video Killed the Radio Star - The Buggles
  10. Who Let The Dogs Out? - Baha Men

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

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[edit] References

[edit] External links

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