One Hit Wonder???

[daniel]

I recently bought two CD compilations, one called "Miracle Hits" with the subtitle of "One Hit Wonders" and another called simply "One Hit Wonders". Looking at the track listings, I see artists that while they might not have had a major top-40 hit, they are NOT "One Hit Wonders" by my definition, which would be an artist that did not have another top-40 chart hit. What do you classify as a "One Hit Wonder"? Some artists don't chart on the top-40 again but go on to success on the rock or country chart, so would those still be "One Hit Wonders"?

Anyhow, here's the track listing for one of the sets. What are your opinions of these supposed "One Hit Wonders"?

Track listing
DISC 1:
1. You Get What You Give - New Radicals
2. Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go - Soft Cell
3. Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
4. Come on Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners
5. I Love You Always Forever - Donna Lewis
6. How Bizarre - OMC
7. Pop Musik - M
8. I've Been Thinking About You - Londonbeat
9. Harden My Heart - Quarterflash
10. Toy Soldiers - Martika
11. Video Killed the Radio Star - Buggles
12. Roll to Me - Del Amitri
13. Whoomp! (There It Is) - Tag Team

DISC 2:
1. My Sharona - The Knack
2. Here Comes the Hotstepper - Ini Kamoze (Heartical mix)
3. Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry
4. Kiss Me - Sixpence None The Richer
5. 867-5309 (Jenny) - Tommy Tutone
6. Unbelievable - EMF
7. Died in Your Arms, (I Just) - Cutting Crew
8. Hot Child in the City - Nick Gilder
9. Rock Me Amadeus - Falco
10. Boogie Fever - The Sylvers
11. Black Velvet - Alannah Myles
12. Magic - Pilot
13. Brother Louie - Stories

[Jughead]

I can tell you that some of these artists are NOT one-hit wonders in Canada.

Alannah Myles may have only scored with Black Velvet in the States, but she's had a ton of hits in Canada. There's also been other Canadian hits by Sixpence None The Richer and Chumbawamba.

[daniel]

Looking at my top 40 book Alannah Myles had a #36 hit "Love Is", so she wouldn't be a One Hit Wonder in the US, either. Same for Sixpence, that had a #32 hit with "There She Goes". Another that really glares out at me is The Sylvers. WHile Boogie Fever was their biggest hit, (#1) they had a #5 hit with "Hot Line" -- a group with TWO Top-Ten hits can't be a "One Hit Wonder" by anyone's imagination.

[H2IZCOOL]

The whole One Hit Wonder thing is so subjective that almost any argument can work or not work.

Can the artist have a second hit not in the top 10? ... not in the top 20? ... 40? 100?

How about their one hit? Does IT have to be top 10? etc.

How about where it's a hit. Like Juggie pointed out, does it count if they have multiple hits in Canada?

How about other charts? What if they only hit the Hot 100 once, but had 5 #1 country hits, for instance?

I guess it's pretty clear, as Daniel mentioned, that the Sylvers don't belong on the list as they had two Top 10 songs. Also, Martika had a second Top 10 hit called "Love - Thy Will Be Done" inn 1991. The Knack is pretty questionable also; "Good Girls Don't" peaked at #11.

One can also argue that Soft Cell had two hits; they just happened to be on the same record!

So ... tell me. Pink Floyd only had one song ("Money") to hit the Hot 100 top 10 list. Does that make them one hit wonders?

[Dawn]

As Ed mentioned, the definition of "One Hit Wonder" can be complicated. I usually go by the "one top 40 hit" rule as well.

Quarterflash definitely doesn't fit, as they had two other singles besides Harden My Heart, and both were top 20. They're not as well remembered today, but I recall both of them, especially Find Another Fool, getting quite a bit of radio play back in the day.

Cutting Crew's hit, I've Been in Love Before, peaked at #9, and is probably almost as well known as I Just Died in Your Arms.

Pilot only had one top 40 in the U.S., but they were very popular in Europe from what I understand.

[Ken]

A few of these I agree with as far as being "one hit wonders" - Donna Lewis, Buggles, EMF, M, Falco, Pilot etc.

I also agree with what Juggie, Dawn and Ed have said. Alannah Myles had more hits in Canada. Nick Gilder charted in Canada with "Here Comes The Night" it reached #21 in January of '79.


As far as The Knack - "Good Girls Don't" reached #11 in billboard and "Baby Talks Dirty" was a top 40 hit squeezing in at #39 in 1980.


What about "Mammy Blue" by Stories? what position did it reach? does anyone know? Wasn't it top 50? I ask, simply because I don't have the info


One more - Del Amitri had three songs in the billboard charts. Yes "Roll To Me" was the biggest (#10) but "Kiss This Thing Goodbye" reached #35 and "Always The Last To Know" reached #30.

[m c dornan]

I'd think "one hit wonders" refers to artists whose careers were based on singles. So Pink Floyd couldn't be a 1HW.

I wouldn't counf Cutting Crew either, cuz of "Been in Love Before" (don't know how it did on the charts, but both songs were big on VH1. When they had music videos...)

[H2IZCOOL]

Dec 18, 2009 17:24:11 GMT -5 m c dornan said:

I'd think "one hit wonders" refers to artists whose careers were based on singles. So Pink Floyd couldn't be a 1HW.

I wouldn't counf Cutting Crew either, cuz of "Been in Love Before" (don't know how it did on the charts, but both songs were big on VH1. When they had music videos...)

Pink Floyd's career was certainly not based on singles, but they still had a bunch of them. 26 of them according to Wiki.

[H2IZCOOL]

Dec 18, 2009 17:23:16 GMT -5 Ken said:

What about "Mammy Blue" by Stories? what position did it reach? does anyone know? Wasn't it top 50? I ask, simply because I don't have the info

Mammy Blue peaked exactly at #50, Ken. They also had "I'm Coming Home at #42 and If It Feels Good, Do It at #88.

[H2IZCOOL]

I think I posted before -- like maybe 5 years ago (!) about the "One Hit Wonder web site

www.onehitwondercentral.com/index.cfm

An interesting page is the "removed" page

www.onehitwondercentral.com/removed.cfm

where they list artists that others identified as one hit wonders (they use the one top 40 hit criterion), and then with research they realize that the artists were not one hit wonders.

On the first page alone, the list included The Animals and Nancy Sinatra! Let's not invite these guys to join The Click!!

[Jughead]

If I remember correctly, Donna Lewis isn't a one-hit-wonder either...didn't she have a duet with Richard Marx a few years back?

[Ken]

Dec 18, 2009 20:28:00 GMT -5 H2IZCOOL said:

Dec 18, 2009 17:23:16 GMT -5 Ken said:

What about "Mammy Blue" by Stories? what position did it reach? does anyone know? Wasn't it top 50? I ask, simply because I don't have the info

Mammy Blue peaked exactly at #50, Ken. They also had "I'm Coming Home at #42 and If It Feels Good, Do It at #88.

Hi Ed,

Thanks!

[daniel]

Dec 18, 2009 23:52:13 GMT -5 Jughead said:

If I remember correctly, Donna Lewis isn't a one-hit-wonder either...didn't she have a duet with Richard Marx a few years back?

I had forgotten about that one... "At The Beginning". I think it was from some Disney soundtrack. But that brings up another question... Do duets count? There can be soooo many qualifiers to this one hit wonder thing!

Another group that comes to mind is Grateful Dead. They only had one top-40 hit with "Touch Of Grey", but they've got 4 gold albums, and 4 platinum albums and they're in that Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame thing so obviously a couple of people were interested in thier music...

[Jughead]

See, when I think one-hit wonder, I think of bands like "Nu Shooz", "Kajagoogoo", and "Information Society", as well as solo artists like Duncan Sheik, Shannon, and Jennifer Paige. They had one song that played on the radio over and over, and that was it. Even 10, 20 years later, the only song played by them was the one that made them famous. I think radio airplay has a lot to do with the criteria myself.