Talk:One-hit wonder

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Contents 1 Etymology 2 "Pac Man Fever" 3 The Knack 4 Band too 5 Paper Lace 6 Mike Oldfield 7 Right Said Fred 8 T'pau 9 Dodgy 10 The Beatles 11 By country 12 Ton Loc 13 Soft Cell 14 By country 15 Hendrix? 16 VH1 chart 17 Merge from Two Hit Wonders 18 One Number One Hit Wonder 19 8/17/05 changes 20 Simple Minds 21 Restructuring of the Questions of Definition section 22 Removing classical music section 23 Duets 24 Uriah Heep 25 Lipps Inc. 26 Julie London

[edit] Etymology

Does anyone know when the phrase one hit "One Hit Wonder" was first coined and by whom?

[edit] "Pac Man Fever"

It seems impossible that Pac Man fever could be a hit of the 1970s. Didn't Pac Man first appear around 1982? Dominus 21:28 Nov 23, 2002 (UTC)

You're right, and I'm wrong. Gaffes like this make me feel more and more senile.  :) -- Modemac

[edit] The Knack

And I take offense. The Knack had two hits! (My Sharona and That's What the Little Girls Do) -- I spent a hefty bit of my allowance on the 8-track. :-) Danny P.S. and Good Girls Dont makes three

You betcha. "Good girls dont, good girls don't, good girls don't--but I do!" What classic lyrics! The knack were the band everyone loved to hate. soulpatch

Whether or not they were one-hit wonders (OHWs) depends on the criteria. Billboard put out a book of OHWs: their criterion was that said artist only chart once on the Billboard Top 40 Pop Chart. Note that this book also lists Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower" and Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee"; it's a quantitative measure of a particular song's performance on one single chart, not a qualitative judgement of any particular group.

And I liked "My Sharona" when it first came out. Then I got sick of it: oversaturation, the whole "Next Beatles!" hype — 25 years later, I love it again. --SigPig 06:42, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Band too

The term one-hit wonder applies equally to the song itself, as well as to the band that records it. How can we phrase this in the opening paragraph? --Ed Poor

Tried to fix it for you, Ed. Took out Nick Lowe cause he had more than one hit and a long successful career. As for the links on the Pipkins and Zager & Evans, well, who knows? Ortolan88

Again, depends on your definition of a OHW. Jancik's book The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders lists Lowe, Z&E, and the Pipkins. The book's criteria is "an act that has won a position on Billboard's national, pop, Top 40 just once." Which is why the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin are rubbing shoulders with The Detergents, Tiny Tim, and Edd "Kookie" Byrnes. Also, the key word here is act, which is why people like Roger Daltrey of the Who and Graham Nash of CSNY appear, as well as why Tony Burrows and Jim Henson make multiple appearances. --SigPig 17:09, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Paper Lace

I don't know why you took 'em off. Maybe Paper Lace had some hits in Mondonesia or somewhere, but they were a one-hit wonder so far as I know. Or were they like the Status Quo or Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mich and Tich, huge in England but one-hit wonders in the US? Ortolan88

they had more than one hit in the UK- Billy Don't Be a Hero and The Night Chicago Died are two I can recall straight off the top of my head- Im sure they had others as well but buggered if I can remember (or care) what they were.... quercus robur

The criteria for this subject could be a little vague. For example, The Lemon Pipers (my favorite bubblegum band) had a number 1 hit with "Green Tambourine". I don't think they ever hit the top 40 again, although "Rice is Nice" may have made it to around 50 or so on the Hot 100 survey. So if top 40 is the cutoff, then a band that has a top 40 hit but all other attempts barely make the Hot 100, then is it a one hit wonder or not? I would say yes, but it is really a matter of just picking 40 as the more or less arbitrary cutoff point. And of course there is the matter of US charts versus UK charts or Australian charts. The Easybeats had a big hit with "Friday On My Mind" int he US, but my guess is that they had more hits in Australia. soulpatch

Hmm there are probably loads of groups that only had one number one but got lower in the charts lots of other times, so if that was the criteria the list would be endless- top 40 or even top 20 sounds OK to me... quercus robur

[edit] Mike Oldfield

Mike Oldfield as one hit wonder? Not so sure about that- there was "On Horseback" and "In Dulce Jubilo" (spelling??) and others as well I'm sure- was "Tubular Bells" released as a single? If so I don't think it was ever a hit... Hey this is real pub chat stuff this isn't it??? quercus robur

"Tubular Bells" was definitely a single in the US. I remember hearing it all the time on the radio back in the 70s. soulpatch

Yep I knew there was another one that had fallen down the back of my mental filing cabinet- 'Moonlight Shadow' was an eighties biggie here in the UK as well as the others mentioned above- and I think he did a single of the Blue peter theme but I'm not sure it it was a hit... best he comes out of the article... quercus robur

[edit] Right Said Fred

also taken out right said fred, they had at least three hits, Too sexy, Deeply Dippy and Don't talk Just kiss.

Thompson twins had a number of UK 80's hits, including Hold Me now, Doctor doctor, take Me Up, Love On Your Side and others I'm sure. BTW my next door neighbour used to be in an early incarnation of the Thompson Twins... Cheers quercus robur

[edit] T'pau

T'pau also had at least one other UK hit with China In Your hand. Jeez they were a shite band ;-)

[edit] Dodgy

This is distinctly dodgy article. What is the definition for one-hit wonder on the list? Ifa band had a hit in a country other than the US are they still a one hit wonder? For example Kajagoogoo had 2 more hits in the UK("Ooh to Be Ah" and "Hang on Now"). Mintguy 23:41 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)

Urg. Thanks for reminding me of Kajagoogoo quercus robur

Also Aha- loads of hits, can't remember titles. quercus robur

The Verve??? What about The Drugs don't work???? Much bigger than B.S. Symphony IIRC quercus robur

This might be one of those US/UK things... was The Verve really big here in the US? --Dante Alighieri 23:52 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)

[edit] The Beatles

Ridiculous? Name one song by The Beatles other than I Want to Hold Your Hand. Ha! You can't, can you? Cause they were a one-hit wonder! Admit it!!! ;) --Dante Alighieri 23:52 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)

How about Helter Skelter? That was in the news or something. ;) --SigPig 17:11, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] By country

Can I suggest that instead of this single list of one-hit wonders we have a link to One-hit wonders in the UK and One-hit wonders in the US etc.. otherwise this will be a source of constant argument. Mintguy 23:53 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)

What about One-hit wonders in Greenland? --Dante Alighieri 23:55 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)

I agree if you re-read the above paragraph you may have noticed etc...

Damn you for ruining my joke!!! --Dante Alighieri 23:59 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)

I bet Nena (99 Red Balloons) had more hits in Germany as well... quercus robur

Apropos of nothing, it is interesting to not that sometimes you get interesting reverse results, where bands are less popular in their native country than elsewhere. I recall that the Fixx was more popular in the US than they were in the UK. soulpatch

You made them up!!!! :-) quercus robur

Never heard of 'em. Looking at my Guinness book of British Hit singles I see that they only charted twice in the UK ("Stand or Fall" reached 54 and "Red Skies" reached 57). Mintguy 00:02 Dec 4, 2002 (UTC)

Both of those songs got a lot more airplay in the US, I'm pretty sure (at least the stations I listened to played them a lot back in the mid-80s). By the way, the Fixx still tours, I just found out. They have a web page and everything! I had no idea. Check out http://www.thefixx.com . Anyway, as I recall, they were a UK band that had little success in their home country, but they were bigger in the US.

Umm. The Fixx are hardly a one hit wonder. They racked up 10 songs on the US hot 100 with 6 of them cracking the top 40 over a roughly ten year period from 1982 to 1991. Keep in mind Echo and the Bunnymen, The Jam, English Beat could never crack the hot 100 in America..not even once. User: Cinecromancer

[edit] Ton Loc

I don't think Ton Loc belongs; he did have "Funky Cold Medina" also. --KQ 00:07 Dec 4, 2002 (UTC)

Agreed; took care of it. Hephaestos 00:34 Dec 4, 2002 (UTC)

[edit] Soft Cell

Soft Cell- urm, Torch, Say Hello Wave Goodbye, What?, to name but three other hits in the UK quercus robur

[edit] By country

It's time to split this list as described above! Many of these "One-hit wonders" in the US were no-hit wonders in the UK and proably vice-versa.

I really don't think you've thought this split through. It would be much better to have only one list and label the ones that are British-only or American-only. As it is, most of the songs are on both lists, but the two lists will be much harder to maintain. One list will be much more interesting, as Brits marvel that the Status Quo are virtually unknown in the US and learn that "Billy Don't Be a Hero" mad Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods one-hit wonders in thee US while they think it made Paper Lace two-hit wonders in Blighty. Ortolan88 03:34 Dec 4, 2002 (UTC)

No because when the Aussies and the South Africans and the Kiwis and everybody else gets on board a single list will be a mess. As for duplicates. I've edited the 50s and the 90s and the 2000s I haven't touched the others yet. Mintguy 03:49 Dec 4, 2002 (UTC)

Not to nitpick or anything, but Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods had another minor hit that I recall in the US, titled "Who Do You Think You Are". But of course that has nothing to do with the issue at hand. I agree that maintaining a single list with labeling makes more sense. soulpatch

Oh well, I see that the list has been split up, so it is a moot point. I don't really care that much one way or the other. soulpatch

Another case where the whole crisis is on the talk page and there is no problem in the article. If there are one-hit wonders in New Zealand and Oz and Mondonesia and Elbonia, let's see them. Another solution would be to list only the international one-hit wonders on the main page and have separate pages for the one-country-opne-hit wonders. I'm just worried about entropy. I think one-hit wonders are important. Be gentle with me. Ortolan88

Also showing that a particular band big on one side of the pond were a OHW means nothing. There are thousands more examples where bands were no-hit wonders. Tom Petty springs to mind. His highest UK chart position was 28..Mintguy

I have open in front of me The Guinness Book of British Hit singles, It's easy for me to add/remove to a UK only list with this tome. If I have to go thru every track listed on an international OHW list to confirm whether or not it was a hit in the UK and/or whether they had other hits it would be a nightmare. Mintguy 04:08 Dec 4, 2002 (UTC)

That's what I mean about entropy. It would be better to delete dubious cases than to have many lists. Ortolan88

And then, what about regional one-hit wonders--ongs that got a lot of airplay in a single part of the United States (probably a local band) but never made it as national hits? I am sure there were examples of that, although I can't think of any off the top of my head. soulpatch

[edit] Hendrix?

I'm still puzzling over the mention of Jimi Hendrix as a one-hit wonder. I'm not even a Hendrix fan, and I immediately think of Purple Haze and Foxy Lady instead of Watchtower. Ventura 17:39, 2004 Sep 23 (UTC)

Yes, but were they successful singles? Tregoweth 23:05, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)

Someone like Hendrix has the kind of long term success that makes them anything except a one-hit wonder. This can even be given an objective criteria such as "You're not a one-hit wonder if you have had three or more top-40 albums" or some such. Samboy 12:10, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

hendrix had THREE top 20 singles in the UK. Considering that Hendrix basically had to come to England to even get recognition as a musician - the whole section about "Billboard Top 40" is basically a cultural oddity and should be erased or severely pruned.

Changing tack a bit - one-hit wonders in my understanding are those artists that have a Top 10 hit (probable album and possible follow up) which then disappear below the radar forever as that persona (for example "Python Lee Jackson" or "Klark Kent" - Rod Stewart and Sting (or was it The Police) would be one hit wonders) as would Doe Dolce (Shutupayourface). However, would Plastic Bertrand be a one hit wonder - yes but only in the UK and US. In Belgium - well he's not!

Candy 07:43, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] VH1 chart

Seems we're back with an Americanised version of this article- see above discussion, Soft Cell had a number of UK hits, so did Dexys Midnight Runners, A-ha and Right Said Fred - that's nearly half of the contributors to the provided VH1 Chart, and I don't think Gerardo (who he??) had any hits at all in the UK . Isn't because of this discrepancy between the countries why this article had two sub pages for US & UK one hit wonders? quercus robur

[edit] Merge from Two Hit Wonders

Why was only a sentence merged from the original Two Hit Wonders article? Was it a mistake or was only a sentence supposed to be merged without the rest of the article? Well anyways, I was able to finish the merge by merging the rest of the article. --; 02:42, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Because it was the substantive content. The list was irrelevant and contained many dubious entries. — Gwalla | Talk 05:14, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The article looks awkward now with that list in the middle of it. The merged sentence looks fine, but the list needs to be broken out for easier reading like in One-hit wonders in the United States. That way any dubious entries can be easily checked like the list for one-hit wonders. Morrid 06:47, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] One Number One Hit Wonder

How about a page on artistes with only ONE number one hit?

This would include artistes like the Eurythemics,Sting etc.

Go ahead and make one. However, List of musical artists with exactly one number-one song might be a better title? --Locarno 16:53, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Frankly, I don't see the point of such an article. -R. fiend 17:05, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] 8/17/05 changes

Tragically, sometimes these artists only had one chart success due to untimely death or injury (such as Minnie Riperton and Blind Melon).

I shorted this to only mention death. If someone can name a one-hit wonder who was slowed down because of a career-ending injury, please speak up.

• Blind Melon was considered "washed up" by the time of the lead singer's death, so I don't think blaming the sole hit on the death is justified. (Blaming the death on the sole hit, however, may be another matter....)

Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Lou Reed, Buffalo Springfield, Funkadelic, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Roxy Music, Iggy Pop, Sinéad O'Connor, Beck, Randy Newman, Patti Smith, and Radiohead have each had only one song in Billboard Magazine’s Top 40, yet none is considered a one-hit wonder.

• Under a strict application of the given definition - "an artist who is generally known for only one hit" - Sinead O’Connor could be considered a one-hit; she did make the VH1 list. Besides, there are plenty of better examples to make the point already
• Funkadelic may have had only a single hit but its sister band Parliament had several. Both bands are usually seen within the context of George Clinton’s career (just as Derick and the Dominos are seen in Eric Clapton’s) so I think it’s somewhat misleading to label them as an artists with only one hit
• According to all music.com, Patti Smith never made the Billboard top 40

One-hit wonderdom is also a function of trendiness, and growing (or fading consensus) among both fans and the music business. Influential performers such as Bob Marley, Nick Drake, the Ramones, the Smiths and the Velvet Underground never had a U.S. Top 40 hit, but are played more frequently on radio and television today than during their actual careers.

Note that most people would consider Randy Newman to have multiple "hits" due to his musical prominence in popular movie soundtracks. More people are currently familiar with his versions of "The Natural," "I Love L.A.," "I Love to See You Smile," and "You've Got a Friend in Me" (not to mention the many, many hit and semi-hit songs he wrote but did not perform the hit versions of) than they are with his "one hit."

I’m not sure what this passage ads. Does it really say anything about one-hit wonders in specific to state that bands that never had a hit can become more influential than commercially successful bands? Isn’t that more commentary on popular music in general?

Conversely, acts that enjoyed several hits in their heyday have been judged as foolish, passe, or forgettable, and have been shunted aside by U.S. radio. The oldies format can be historically ruthless in discarding a given performer's "lesser" songs and playing only their best-known single, which can create the false impression that they were a one-hit wonder.

I’m also a bit confused by this. Can anyone name an artist who was retrospectively turned into a one-hit wonder by radio? I know formatted radio has a tendency to consider some hits "kosher" so to speak but I can’t think of an artist who’s been put in the same class as a-ha and Soft Cell because of this. If anyone can name and defend a few examples, maybe this section should return.

Also, because lists of popular one-hit wonders were moved to another article, I thought classical music ones should be as well.

- Rorschach567

I personally think that Sinead O'Connor is a One Hit Wonder, but that's just me. Also, can we have a blanket statement to remove artists who only had one song, period? USA for Africa, ESPN Presents the Jock Jam, etc. --DropDeadGorgias (talk) 17:06, August 24, 2005 (UTC)

Has the band SKYLARK been discussed? Featured David Foster and they had one huge hit. It made BILLBOARD Top 10 in 1972.

George

[edit] Simple Minds

Simple Minds was not a one-hit wonder. Their other hits included "Alive and Kicking" and "Sanctify Yourself"

--Syd

[edit] Restructuring of the Questions of Definition section

I was reading the questions section in edit mode, and decided I would make some grammatical corrections. As it turned out, I wound up doing a major restructuring of the section. I was not happy with the grammar and the flow. Opening sentences now convey main ideas of each paragraph, and are similarly structured. Two paragraphs were combined for similarity of subject matter, while another was broken into two for clarity. Paragraphs were shuffled into an order to try to make better the transitions from each idea to the next. Short opening and closing paragraphs were added to try to tie everything together.

I was happy with the content. I made very few content changes, leaving the good work of prior writers and editors almost entirely intact. I removed two short phrases that I thought were too far from the points of the paragraphs. One was the phrase about Great White having several smaller hits. The point of Great White having a smaller hit but still being considered a one-hit wonder was not enhanced by the inclusion of Great White lesser known hits. I thought it went too far aside and detracted from the point. (I lost track of the second cut, but it too was minor.)

A third, the one about the a-ha song being a number one hit in the UK, I left in. Although I did not think this was a necessary point and would have left it out, I thought that the person who had originally added it did so because it is an interesting example of how US and UK charts differ not only regarding number of hits, but also order of popularity.

Looking at the list of performers who had one top 40 hit but are not generally considered one hit wonders, I immediately noticed that they were all big album rock groups, and added that point to the list of possible reasons for the distinction between those one-time top 40 groups as compared to the other generally accepted one-hit performers which seemed to be popular in genres other than album rock. I would say popular album rock groups are not considered one-hit wonders because of the general popularity of the format. I thought about changing that paragraph much more than I actually did. I may yet revisit that paragraph.

If the feedback is positive, I will gradually edit the rest of the article. --the editor formerly known as GrammarGuy (aka this unpronouncable symbol §).

I SEE THAT there have been many changes to this section since I did my restructuring. I think the changes have been really excellent. I made a few minor technical changes and corrections. I am not happy with the slipping from present tense into past tense throughout the section. I made a few of the tenses match better, for example, now, both sentences read 'produce' rather than one saying 'produce' and the other saying 'produced.' Although I would not normally hyphenate the term one-hit wonder, I removed the quotes and hyphenated it in one place to match the rest of the form of the article. There was one grammatical error that seemed to proliferate:

PUNCTUATION GOES INSIDE THE QUOTES unless the punctuation applies to the whole thought but not to the quote. For example, a quote within a question would put the question mark outside the quote.

Did you say "I think a-ha should not be capitalized"?

You did say "I think a-ha should not be capitalized."

Did you say "where does the question mark go?"

You did say "where does the question mark go?"

--7-7-2004 the editor formerly known as GrammarGuy (aka this unpronouncable symbol §).

[edit] Removing classical music section

I deleted the whole section because it is completely unverified as a concept that exists outside of popular music. I wouldn't mind if someone brought back the section, but it needs sources and verification that the term is actively used for classical music outside of Wikipedia. The whole section sounds like original research, and stretching the concept outside of the confines of popular music/culture with its sales charts and hits sounds illogical. hateless 17:00, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

• Reviewing the sources a bit more closely, it seems like there is enough to say the term has been used for classical music. But the exploration into the term and what the subjective criteria for using the term still sounds OR, and I'm leaving that out of the article. hateless 17:46, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Duets

I seem to recall from the Guiness book of Hit singles that they considered records by duets, such as Bowie/Jagger's "Dancing in the streets" as one hit wonders" as it is the only hit that that duo have had together. Is this worth entering - I am sure there are loads of others. --C Hawke 07:40, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

This part was removed without disscusion here - and I will put it back if no valid reason is posted - these were classified by the Guiness Book as one hit wonders so it is a valid category. --C Hawke 09:08, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Associating either David Bowie or Mick Jagger with a one hit wonder is completely false. It would clearly be debateable if one of the two artists was previously (and subsequently) unknown, but Bowie and Jagger are two of the most famous icons in modern musical history. As for the GBHS, I'm sure there are sources who treat duets differently. I'm not saying that duets and collaborations should not make the list, but at least in this case i do not think it warants inclusion. Random89 02:02, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

I disagree, the entry should cover all the main definitions of OHWs that have been used - this is a valid definition used by a major source (at one time anyway - has anyone got the current version of the book?)--C Hawke 07:18, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Uriah Heep

Removed the reference to them as one-hot wonders. They had at least 4 top 20 hits in the UK and in many countries around the world several hits in respective charts. They also had five gold and 2 platinum albums!!

Candy 18:04, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but how many hits did they have in the U.S.? Only one with "Easy Livin'". Here in the US, bands as famous as Phish("Heavy Things", 2000), Grateful Dead ("Touch Of Grey", 1987), Rush ("New World Man", 1986?) The KLF ("3 a.m. Eternal", 1993) Take That ("Back For Good", 1996), Jars Of Clay ("Flood", 1996) and Flaming Lips ("She Don't Use Jelly, 1996) all only have one hit. That's why the Heep are considered one hit wonders.

Doc Strange 20:14, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

As one of the primary authors of The KLF I don't mind them being listed here, on the contrary in fact - I'm quite surprised they're deemed worthy of an entry. That said, were they actually one hit wonders in the US? 3 a.m. Eternal says that song charted at #5. #11 is claimed for Justified and Ancient with Tammy Wynette. Hardly meteoric success but unless you're discounting the Tammy collab, that's 2 top 40 hits. --kingboyk 18:58, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lipps Inc.

FUNKY TOWN !!

[edit] Julie London

I think including Julie London in a section about one hit wonders from other media is a little problematic. She certainly was well known as a singer before she was seen on Emergency!. I don't object to categorizing her as a one hit wonder, but saying that she "crossed over" from TV in the 1970s to pop music in the 1950s is a little problematic chronologicallly. Any thoughts?

APWebber 16:43, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

The article does not say she "crossed over" one way or the other, only that she would be more well-known as an actress than as a singer. Her article states "...She was named one of Billboard's most popular female vocalists for 1955, 1956, and 1957...Other hit singles include "No Moon at All"; "My Heart Belongs to Daddy"; and "Two Sleepy People". " (emphasis mine), yet my Billboard book of One-Hit Wonders gives her one top-40 hit, "Cry Me A River" in 1955. Seems odd that one hit peaking at #9 would make someone the most popular vocalist for three years.

Imagine if that actor who plays Denny Crane on "Boston Legal" cut a hit back in the sixties...he'd be listed here too, not as a crossover, but as being better known for other things than singing. --SigPig 16:57, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Now that I've thought about it a little more, I guess I really didn't make my point too well. What I was really trying to say is that I doubt anyone who is old enough to remember London's singing career woiuld identify her primarily as a nurse on Emergency! I guess I am not really sure.

APWebber 17:08, 19 September 2006 (UTC)