Favorite One Hit Wonder Songs

Reality's Fringe;2877535 said:
Electric 6- Danger! High Voltage - Again, just catchy. No real depth. Just fun to listen to in the car from time to time.
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Seconded. Plus the video was fucking hilarious. Fahr in tha disco! Fahr in tha... tahco bayll!

I nominate Call Me by Go West.
 
Man. People have pretty much said what I was going to say.

Blind Melon - No Rain

Literally one of my favorite songs ever. I can listen to this song over and over and over and never get tired of it.

Proclaimers - 500 Miles

Incredibly catchy. You know you love it. I think they had more success in the UK.

Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta

Paranoia paranoia everybody's comin' to get me....

The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony

Damn this song for being stuck in my head now. :p

Fastball - The Way

I really like this song also. There's some decent songs on the CD as well. "Fire Escape" comes to mind, and it was on the radio for a while. I think they had another one about an ocean or something...but they never got past this song. I remember the summer it came out - it was on all the time, and I loved every minute of it.

I liked "Popular" by Nada Surf. They were at Austin City Limits last summer - I went and watched them for a while. Can't remember if they played this while I was there or not. So they are still around, but not nearly at the level they were at. Can't tell if that qualifies them as OHW status.

Lit was more like a 2-3 hit wonder. But Lit sucks so there's nothing else that really needs to be said about them.

Aha was a OHW? Shame. You know you love that song.

Cardigans - I don't know their band history (you'd have to go to Brak for that one, he's obsessed with the female lead), but their sound now is nothing like that annoying Lovefool song. Just listen to "You're the Storm." It's hauntingly beautiful. I think they are still kinda big over in Europe.

The Toadies were big here in Texas (since they were from here) and played lots of shows, with plenty of songs on the radio. I never cared for 'em though. I guess "one hit album" works for them if we consider all of that.

The problem with OHW designation is that it's normally reserved for American audiences. A lot of these bands do well with multiple hits overseas. Chumbawumba comes to mind - they were thrown out of the spotlight after an appearance on (I think) Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, where they encouraged fans to go steal their CD. Most store owners took it off the shelves from fear this would actually happen.

I gotta look through my mp3s when I get home. There's bound to be some I can mention from there.
 
Bitter Sweet Symphony
flag pole sitta(i forgot about this one)
I wish-skee lo
Sex and Candy-marcy playground
i got five on it
 
There are a few mentioned in this thread that are not true OHWs.

But then, what is the definition of a true OHW? I see it as a performer/band that charted once (hence the term OHW), and then never charted again (at least never charted a "hit").

Also, to qualify as a "hit", I'd say top 40 on whatever chart that the song registered.
 
The 90's were good for One Hit Wonders!

Spin Doctors - Two Princes
Tonic - If You Could Only See
Eagle Eye Cherry - Save Tonight
Marcy Playground - Sex & Candy
Shawn Mullins - Lullaby
 
[quote name='Strell']
Fastball - The Way

[/quote]
Fastball actually had a few other somewhat minor hits (when compared to the way) with Out of My Head and You're an Ocean. Either way, they had some rather catchy songs.
 
[quote name='Strell']Cardigans - I don't know their band history (you'd have to go to Brak for that one, he's obsessed with the female lead), but their sound now is nothing like that annoying Lovefool song. Just listen to "You're the Storm." It's hauntingly beautiful. I think they are still kinda big over in Europe.[/QUOTE]

If I'm not mistaken, even when Lovefool came out the band was saying that song wasn't typical of their sound. I really like them, but I never have cared for that song. Some of my favorites by them include Erase/Rewind, Hanging Around, Don't Blame Your Daughter and I Need Some Fine Wine & You Need To Be Nicer.
 
To this day I still consider the Toadies to be one of the greatest bands Ive ever heard. One of the best shows I ever went to was when they played in Tyler, TX. The Burden Brothers are not too shabby though.
 
DJ Sammy - Heaven
Cascada - "Everytime we touch"
Sarina Paris - "Look At Us"

I realize Sarina Paris, DJ Sammy, and Cascada all have albums..in fact I own Sarina Paris and it's been one of my favorite domestic CD's for the past half decade..but as for DJ Sammy and Cascada...there's no point to listening to the albums, they're all crap except for the single release.

Oh..and

Robyn - Do You Really Want Me
Amber - One More Night
Veronicas - 4Ever

Same reason, their albums suck and only those singles are worth listening to.
 
[quote name='camoor']Apollo440 aren't a one-hit wonder - Stop the Rock isn't even their top hit.[/QUOTE]
I cannot think of any other songs of theirs that have made it over here. I have a Top of the Pops CD with Lost in Space on it, but I've never even heard that over here in America.
 
Jimmy Ray - Are You Jimmy Ray
X-Ecutioners - It's Goin' Down
Len - Steal My Sunshine
Shawn Mullins - Lullaby
Johnny Hates Jazz - Shattered Dreams (Might as well be...)
Afroman - Because I Got High
Marcy Playground - Sex And Candy

There are more I like that are one hit wonders, but I like more than their original song, so I didn't put them in.
 
[quote name='argyle']If I'm not mistaken, even when Lovefool came out the band was saying that song wasn't typical of their sound. I really like them, but I never have cared for that song. Some of my favorites by them include Erase/Rewind, Hanging Around, Don't Blame Your Daughter and I Need Some Fine Wine & You Need To Be Nicer.[/QUOTE]

dam straight, Love Fool isn't very representative of their sound. I got their album Gran Turismo at Target on clearance for 2.20, best 2.20 I ever spent. I was listening to it in my car on a long drive for the first time and nearly creamed my pants when Erase/Rewind came on. When she moans/hums to start that song, I just melt. Her voice is something else.

To the guy who put Tonic - If you can only see, I think their song Open Up Your Eyes charted higher. I didn't look it up, just going on my memory (translation: probably wrong).
 
I was a freshman in College at Pitt when Rusted Root hit big with their one hit , just a few months prior they were the hip local band so everyone thought they were going to put the Pittsburgh music scene on the map. You know that big Pittsburgh music scene from the late 90's...
 
Another one I just remembered, not even sure it was a hit but...

Trik Turner - Friends & Family

That was such a chill song, ans I enjoyed it so much at that time.
 
Not even close to my favorite "one-hit wonder" song, but for those Rush/Dream Theater/X-Files fans out there, "Who's Behind the Door" by Zebra (!!!) might be worth checking out...however it is you 'check out' music these days.

It's always amusing to see how people unfamiliar with a given decade will categorize so many bands with one major hit as a OHW. Like Devo. Believe it or not, kids, there was a point where a bunch of sickly-looking nerds with inverted flower pots (for all intents and purposes) from Akron were MTV staples.

I wonder about the alternate timeline where Nirvana through some sort of pop culture "Butterfly Effect" becomes a one-hit wonder and Queensryche is the dominant 'new' band of the first half of the '90s. You laugh, but it could have happened.
 
Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly) by Icicle Works
The Roof Is On Fire by Rockmaster Scott And The Dynamic Three
The Humpty Dance by Digital Underground (although they were really more of a two hit wonder)

There are loads of one hit wonders from the 80s that I could name. The problem is, most of them didn't have only one hit - people just remember them for one particular song. Groups like Big Country (In A Big Country), The Alarm (Sixty-Eight Guns), and The Tom Tom Club (The Man With The 4 Way Hips), actually had other minor hits as well.
 
And on the early-'80s tip, what would this thread on this site be without Buckner & Garcia's "Pac-Man Fever"??

"I've got all the patterns down, up until the ninth key."

Pop music has never been nerdier, and will never again be so.
 
Newfound respect for this community for recognizing the greatness that IS Skee-Lo. This is cancelled out by the disturbing lack of references to Jordy, the singing French infant who had a hit with "Dur Dur D'etre Bebe." Limewire it or something. You will probably hate me forever but it's worth it.

[quote name='crystalklear64']Thats not a one-hit wonder, they made other songs. :roll:[/QUOTE]

Do you not know what a "hit" is? I'm sure La Tour had other songs out, but no one remembers a goddamn single one of them except for "People Are Still Having Sex."

[quote name='Machine']The Humpty Dance by Digital Underground (although they were really more of a two hit wonder)[/QUOTE]

Digital Underground wasn't a one OR two hit wonder and probably shouldn't even be mentioned. They had at least four or five releases (Doowutchalike, Humpty Dance, Same Song, No Nose Job, Kiss You Back) that were played fairly frequently, although obviously none of them quite matched the Humpty Dance peak.

[quote name='thater']I was listening to it in my car on a long drive for the first time and nearly creamed my pants when Erase/Rewind came on. When she moans/hums to start that song, I just melt.[/QUOTE]

Wussy.

Seriously though, I would have figured everyone would have remembered the Cardigans from the intro movie in Gran Tursimo 2, but I guess not.
 
[quote name='KaneRobot']
Seriously though, I would have figured everyone would have remembered the Cardigans from the intro movie in Gran Tursimo 2, but I guess not.[/QUOTE]

I figured here that most would have heard the song "My favorite game" from that intro too. The only thing I hated about that, was the song wasn't available when you were playing, it was only in the intro.
 
[quote name='Strell']

Proclaimers - 500 Miles

Incredibly catchy. You know you love it. I think they had more success in the UK.
[/quote]
The video of that song was very win. :applause:

[quote name='Hex']

I nominate Call Me by Go West.

[/quote]
What about The King of Wishful Thinking?!?!?!
 
Go West also had a song in the Rocky IV that is so bad I will not mention it by name. It would have single-handedly ruined a fucking amazing soundtrack, if it were not for the equally terrible Kenny Loggins/Gladys Knight duet on the same album.
 
[quote name='Sc4rfac3']aight i'm taking it back
Christopher Cross - Sailing[/QUOTE]

Christopher Cross isn't a one hit wonder.

[media]http://youtube.com/watch?v=tvmVeYgMpLM[/media]
 
[quote name='Eviltude']...What?

You realize The Beatles are the most celebrated music group ever, right?[/quote]


NO
 
[quote name='Awcrap']Great topic.

Although the lack of "Mmmbop" by the Hansons disturbs me. :p[/quote]

That's because it's Favorite One Hit Wonders.
 
Survivor "Eye Of The Tiger" - this was the number one song somewhere the week I was born (9/24/82), but I can't remember where.
Whitesnake "Here I Go Again"
Living Colour "Cult Of Personality"
Toadies "Possum Kingdom"
Dust For Life "Step Into The Light"
Wheatus "Teenage Dirtbag"
Meat Puppets "Backwater"
Cracker "Low"
U.P.O. "Godless"
Smile Empty Soul "Bottom Of A Bottle"
Loudmouth "Fly"
Marvelous 3 "Freak Of The Week"
Sneakerpimps "6 Underground"
Folk Implosion "Natural One"
Semisonic "Closing Time"
Blind Melon "No Rain"
Harvey Danger "Flagpole Sitta"
Loverboy "Working For The Weekend"
 
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