One-hit wonders in the United States

A one-hit wonder is a Top-40 phenomenon, the combination of artist and song that scores big in the music industry with one smash hit, but is unable to repeat the achievement with another hit. The term can refer to the artist, the song, or both together. The following were one-hit wonders in the United States.

Contents

1 Criteria for inclusion 2 Songs by decade 3 Bands and musicians with only one hit who are not one-hit wonders 4 See also 5 External links

Criteria for inclusion

Artists on this list have exactly 1 song that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 with a rank of 1 to 40 inclusive. Artists with three or more albums with a rank of 1 to 40 inclusive on the Billboard 200 are not included in this chart.

Note that this is a much less heuristic aproach to determining a list than the method used by other sources, such as VH1. In VH1's 100 Greatest: One Hit Wonders series, they identified several artists that actually had more than one Top 40 Hit, but one of those hits was much more significant than the other; and the general public only remembers the artist for their one contribution, including:

• Vanilla Ice ("Ice Ice Baby" was a #1 Hit, but he also had a #4 hit with his cover of "Play That Funky Music")
• Rockwell ("Somebody's Watching Me" hit #2, but he had prior chart success with "Obscene Phone Caller" which hit #34)
• a-ha ("Take On Me" hit #1 but "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." hit #20).
• Kris Kross ("Jump" hit #1 but "Warm It Up" hit #13 and "Alright" hit #21).
• ABBA ("Dancing Queen" hit #1, but the quartet had several other #1's on other Billboard charts, and had three more Top Ten hits: "Take A Chance On Me" (#3), "Waterloo" (#6), "The Winner Takes It All" (#8)).

Also, some artists who are known for a popular song or more did not chart on the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Such as:

• The Caesars ("Jerk It Out" peaked at 70)
• Las Ketchup ("The Ketchup Song" peaked at 53, but the song charted high on other charts)
• The La's ("There She Goes" only reached 49 in the U.S., but reached the Top 20 in the U.K.)
• Modern English ("I Melt With You" peaked at 78, but charted high on other charts)
• Bow Wow Wow ("I Want Candy" did not chart, but charted high on other charts)
• Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew ("The Super Bowl Shuffle" peaked at 41)

Songs by decade

Each decade of one-hit wonders has a corresponding entry:

• 1950s One-hit wonders in the United States
• 1960s One-hit wonders in the United States
• 1970s One-hit wonders in the United States
• 1980s One-hit wonders in the United States
• 1990s One-hit wonders in the United States
• 2000s One-hit wonders in the United States

Bands and musicians with only one hit who are not one-hit wonders

Some bands have had only one song become a top 40 song on Billboard's hot 100, yet are not one-hit wonders.

• Ella Fitzgerald had one top-40 hit: "Mack The Knife"
• Jimi Hendrix, legendary 1960s guitar player whose life was tragically cut short in 1970, only had one top-40 single: "All Along the Watchtower".
• Janis Joplin, another famous rock star whose life was cut short, and subsequently became a legend, also only had one hit single: "Me and Bobby McGee"
• Iron Butterfly, while remembered by many for their one hit single, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", had a number of successful albums. While some believe that Iron Butterfly also played "Smoke on the Water", this was actually played by Deep Purple
• Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, a progressive rock band famous for Keith Emerson's legendary keyboard playing and stage antics, only had one top-40 single: "From The Beginning"
• Ted Nugent, famous for having a very aggressive macho image and who played music at concerts so loudly that he is now all-but-deaf, only had one top-40 single: "Cat Scratch Fever"
• Rush, who has had 16 RIAA platinum certifications, eight more gold album cetifications, 10 world tours, and music career spanning over three decades, has, strangely enough, only had one top-40 single: "New World Man".
• Grateful Dead, a band whose concerts were a phenomenon that created an entire sub-culture, and who has had 17 gold and platinum records (including albums becoming certified gold years after the band broke up), only had one top-40 single: "Touch of Grey".
• Faith No More, a 1980s and 1990s alternative funk band, had only one top 40 hit ("Epic"), but had a large enough following to get three albums to chart.
• Frank Zappa, a well-known eccentric rock artist, only had one top-40 hit: "Valley Girl"
• Sinéad O'Connor, a famous Irish singer, had a good deal of college and alterative airplay in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and got extensive mainstream radio airplay with her one top-40 hit: Her cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U"
• Radiohead had one top-40 hit: "Creep"
• Cypress Hill had one top-40 hit: "Insane In The Brain"
• Beck had one top-40 hit: "Loser"
• Weezer had one top-40 hit: "Buddy Holly"

The reason for this seeming anomaly is because fans of music in the rock genere are more inclined to buy albums instead of singles. This genere is even referred to as album-oriented rock. Most of the above bands have had more song airplay than single sales. In fact, if the Billboard Hot 100 had been based on airplay instead of single sales (as is now done), few, if any, of these bands would have had only one hit.

Zappa's "Valley Girl" is an interesting case because this song, like many one-hit wonders, was marketed as a single, and capitalized on something popular in pop culture. The song can also be considered Moon Unit Zappa's only hit song.

See also

• One-hit wonder
• One-hit wonders in Canada
• One-hit wonders in the UK

External links

• VH1's one hit wonder tv special (http://www.vh1.com/shows/series/the_greatest/one_hit_wonders/)