i need a deep dive into 2-hit wonders
March 23, 2025 3:22 PM Subscribe
If one hit is a miracle, then two hits is a near impossibility. Two-hit artists sit in a weird space ... pop stars a remembered because they are very famous. One-hit wonders are remembered for the opposite. Their un-memorableness makes them great answers to bar trivia questions. Two-hit wonders are stuck in the middle. Some might be able to parlay those two hits into careers, but others are lost in a musical no man’s land, too many hits for trivia, not enough to be legends. Still, there’s got to be a greatest two-hit wonder. from The Greatest Two-Hit Wonders [Can't Get Much Higher]
Pink Floyd is an odd choice as they are one of the longest running, most successful bands of the past 50 years. Not a two hit wonder. They cast a very wide net.
posted by zardoz at 3:44 PM on March 23 [11 favorites]
posted by zardoz at 3:44 PM on March 23 [11 favorites]
I’m struck by how many of those artists a) had just two Billboard 100 hits despite having a vast discography. b)…and a large, devoted fan base c)who will point out that these weren’t their best songs.
posted by rongorongo at 3:45 PM on March 23 [10 favorites]
posted by rongorongo at 3:45 PM on March 23 [10 favorites]
most surprising to me... Zombie was not The Cranberries highest charting 3rd song
posted by kokaku at 3:46 PM on March 23 [11 favorites]
posted by kokaku at 3:46 PM on March 23 [11 favorites]
The results really say more about the methodology and the unreliability of the Billboard charts than the bands he comes up with. The Cure as a 2 hit wonder?
Also odd that the Cranberry's most famous song doesn't factor in.
posted by Horselover Fat at 3:51 PM on March 23 [10 favorites]
Also odd that the Cranberry's most famous song doesn't factor in.
posted by Horselover Fat at 3:51 PM on March 23 [10 favorites]
He mentioned Right Said Fred in the opening...guess Billboard listeners didn't care for Deeply Dippy!
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 4:04 PM on March 23 [4 favorites]
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 4:04 PM on March 23 [4 favorites]
I think that the word “wonder” is the thing that we’re stumbling over. By definition, many one hit wonders only had the one single, couldn’t duplicate that success and disappeared. A lot of these two hit wonders were simply wonders no matter how many hits they had and are vastly different than one hit number bands.
Okay, now that I’ve talked myself through that I’ve determined that this is a ridiculous article and I’m never going to read it again.
That said and on the other hand, in the context of the whole website, the articles reason for being is totally in line with the established goal of using numbers to understand music and the music industry.
I like this article quite a bit: The Beatles and their fellow invading Brits killed a lot of careers. Or did they? By looking at only a single year we could be biased. And we are.
Damn I’m indecisive today.
posted by ashbury at 4:09 PM on March 23 [5 favorites]
Okay, now that I’ve talked myself through that I’ve determined that this is a ridiculous article and I’m never going to read it again.
That said and on the other hand, in the context of the whole website, the articles reason for being is totally in line with the established goal of using numbers to understand music and the music industry.
I like this article quite a bit: The Beatles and their fellow invading Brits killed a lot of careers. Or did they? By looking at only a single year we could be biased. And we are.
Damn I’m indecisive today.
posted by ashbury at 4:09 PM on March 23 [5 favorites]
I was going to say something dismissive but then I actually read the article and ...
What I did was find every artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 that had exactly two top 30 hits, one of which had to be within the top 10.
which seems a fair metric, though I don't care much for the next part:
I then sorted those artists by their popularity score on Spotify.
seriously, who cares what the enemy of musicians has to offer?
posted by philip-random at 4:10 PM on March 23 [9 favorites]
What I did was find every artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 that had exactly two top 30 hits, one of which had to be within the top 10.
which seems a fair metric, though I don't care much for the next part:
I then sorted those artists by their popularity score on Spotify.
seriously, who cares what the enemy of musicians has to offer?
posted by philip-random at 4:10 PM on March 23 [9 favorites]
I'm not sure when Billboard started the Billboard Hot 100, but these songs all feel very "recent" (1980s forward) to me. I'd be curious to see where two-hit wonder Paper Lace (*Billy Don't Be a Hero; The Night Chicago Died) would fall. I know the latter song hit #1 in 1974.
*Yes, I know Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods sang it, but that was a cover.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 4:26 PM on March 23 [4 favorites]
*Yes, I know Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods sang it, but that was a cover.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 4:26 PM on March 23 [4 favorites]
This list does not include Mr. Mister and so is invalid.
Kyrie and Broken Wings, sweet lord that cassette tape meant everything at the time and less than nothing not 5 years later.. then your comment brings it all back, full disclosure I had to google to make sure it wasn't Take these Broken Wings
Damn you Lemkin
posted by ginger.beef at 4:42 PM on March 23 [8 favorites]
Kyrie and Broken Wings, sweet lord that cassette tape meant everything at the time and less than nothing not 5 years later.. then your comment brings it all back, full disclosure I had to google to make sure it wasn't Take these Broken Wings
Damn you Lemkin
posted by ginger.beef at 4:42 PM on March 23 [8 favorites]
Take!…these broken wings…..
And learn to fly again Learn to live so free
When we hear!…the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
Come on, admit it - those of us from a certain age can’t stop themselves from turning up the radio and singing full blast…in the car. Except those people who can’t stand the song, of course which is totally fair.
posted by ashbury at 4:49 PM on March 23 [13 favorites]
And learn to fly again Learn to live so free
When we hear!…the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
Come on, admit it - those of us from a certain age can’t stop themselves from turning up the radio and singing full blast…in the car. Except those people who can’t stand the song, of course which is totally fair.
posted by ashbury at 4:49 PM on March 23 [13 favorites]
I am just going to add, there is no entry to this list more perfect than Mr. Mister. Maybe as perfect, but not more. It's like they were destined to be the exemplar of this list
posted by ginger.beef at 4:49 PM on March 23 [8 favorites]
posted by ginger.beef at 4:49 PM on March 23 [8 favorites]
Take!…these broken wings…..
And learn to fly again Learn to live so free
When we hear!…the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
This song prematurely stunted my sexual development till I was redeemed by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
posted by ginger.beef at 4:52 PM on March 23 [10 favorites]
And learn to fly again Learn to live so free
When we hear!…the voices sing
The book of love will open up and let us in
This song prematurely stunted my sexual development till I was redeemed by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
posted by ginger.beef at 4:52 PM on March 23 [10 favorites]
I may have shared this here before, but in college (late '90s/early '00s for me), a guy who had a crush on me decided to try the "neg" thing (that wasn't even a thing then) by looking at my CDs (I was baby music journalist so I had a lot -- the ones I brought with me to school wasn't even all of them) and said, mockingly, "You have the Crowded House CD."
I was at my computer, doing whatever I was doing. I didn't even look in his direction and without missing a beat, I just said "I have all the Crowded House CDs."
posted by edencosmic at 5:11 PM on March 23 [34 favorites]
I was at my computer, doing whatever I was doing. I didn't even look in his direction and without missing a beat, I just said "I have all the Crowded House CDs."
posted by edencosmic at 5:11 PM on March 23 [34 favorites]
"And Split Endz, too, so stick that up yer pipehole and bugger off"
posted by ginger.beef at 5:17 PM on March 23 [9 favorites]
posted by ginger.beef at 5:17 PM on March 23 [9 favorites]
"In this case, I am equating greatness with a shitty-but-convenient metric of popularity"
FTFY
They'd be better off filtering by removing all the bands that DO have a third hit in the top N. That would eliminate the super problematic take of e.g. Pink Floyd and The Cure as 2hit-wonders, and may rectify missing Mr. Mister or 311 or whatever.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:34 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
FTFY
They'd be better off filtering by removing all the bands that DO have a third hit in the top N. That would eliminate the super problematic take of e.g. Pink Floyd and The Cure as 2hit-wonders, and may rectify missing Mr. Mister or 311 or whatever.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:34 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
I like The Electric Prunes as an example. They had only two Top 40 hits: "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" (#11) and "Get Me To The World on Time" (#27). But both hits were written by the all-female songwriting duo of Annette Tucker and Nancy Mantz.
posted by jonp72 at 5:36 PM on March 23 [5 favorites]
posted by jonp72 at 5:36 PM on March 23 [5 favorites]
So, all of these artists had at least three songs reach the Billboard Hot 100 chart? Except for Dido. But Dido had several top-ten hits in her home country (United Kingdom), so even she doesn’t seem like a true two-hit wonder.
Also, Dido did have a third Billboard Hot 100 single if you count her sample on Eminem’s “Stan.”
(I do like the idea of this list, though!)
posted by mbrubeck at 5:36 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]
Also, Dido did have a third Billboard Hot 100 single if you count her sample on Eminem’s “Stan.”
(I do like the idea of this list, though!)
posted by mbrubeck at 5:36 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]
“ Some might be able to parlay those two hits into careers, but others are lost in a musical no man’s land, too many hits for trivia, not enough to be legends.”
Not sure where Marc Anthony, top selling salsa artist of all time, fits into this metric
posted by toodleydoodley at 5:37 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
Not sure where Marc Anthony, top selling salsa artist of all time, fits into this metric
posted by toodleydoodley at 5:37 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
Todd in the Shadows's commentary on I Took A Pill In Ibiza feels relevant here.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:40 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:40 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
The results really say more about the methodology and the unreliability of the Billboard charts than the bands he comes up with.
Agreed - I get that the author had to do something to establish the definition of "hit", but this has skewed the results in some weird ways; I feel like Pink Floyd had way more "hits" if you define the term as "something a lot of people would have heard of" as opposed to "reached position X on Billboard" or whatever. Same with The Clash and Beastie Boys (where in the hell is "Sabotage" on this list, for instance?). Hell, even The Killers arguably had a third modest hit with "All These Things That I've Done".
It also doesn't take any non-US charts into account. The Youtuber Todd In The Shadows does consider that with his One Hit Wonderland series, and tries to avoid covering hits by bands where they had a second or third or more hits in the UK or the EU or elsewhere. Or, alternately, he'll highlight a song that did well in the UK but not the US - so arguably, he makes a case for both Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Yello being Two-Hit Wonders - FGTH for "Relax" and "Two Tribes", while Yello gets the obvious "Oh Yeah" and a later EU hit called "The Race".
This metric also rules out a band or two that more credibly were two-hit wonders, like Fastball - their song The Way made it to number 1 on one of Billboard's charts, and their song Outta My Head made it to #14. But they probably don't hit high on Spotify and got overlooked.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:41 PM on March 23 [4 favorites]
Agreed - I get that the author had to do something to establish the definition of "hit", but this has skewed the results in some weird ways; I feel like Pink Floyd had way more "hits" if you define the term as "something a lot of people would have heard of" as opposed to "reached position X on Billboard" or whatever. Same with The Clash and Beastie Boys (where in the hell is "Sabotage" on this list, for instance?). Hell, even The Killers arguably had a third modest hit with "All These Things That I've Done".
It also doesn't take any non-US charts into account. The Youtuber Todd In The Shadows does consider that with his One Hit Wonderland series, and tries to avoid covering hits by bands where they had a second or third or more hits in the UK or the EU or elsewhere. Or, alternately, he'll highlight a song that did well in the UK but not the US - so arguably, he makes a case for both Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Yello being Two-Hit Wonders - FGTH for "Relax" and "Two Tribes", while Yello gets the obvious "Oh Yeah" and a later EU hit called "The Race".
This metric also rules out a band or two that more credibly were two-hit wonders, like Fastball - their song The Way made it to number 1 on one of Billboard's charts, and their song Outta My Head made it to #14. But they probably don't hit high on Spotify and got overlooked.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:41 PM on March 23 [4 favorites]
The thresholds chosen are kinda weird, as not many people talk about "top 30" -- the most common next level after top 10 is top 40.
I think a more reasonable threshold would be "two top 10 (or top-40) hits and no other songs charted in the top 100."
posted by tclark at 5:49 PM on March 23 [10 favorites]
I think a more reasonable threshold would be "two top 10 (or top-40) hits and no other songs charted in the top 100."
posted by tclark at 5:49 PM on March 23 [10 favorites]
I'm confused, did the article get edited very recently or something? Because it discusses the weirdness of having Pink Floyd at the top of the list and then comes up with an additional criterion to remove bands that were very popular album-focused artists. There's a whole second list in the article!
The article also briefly touched on how the list isn't fantastic for international audiences because everything is pulled from US charts, though if you just want to call that lampshading because there's no attempt to explore this further I wouldn't stop you.
posted by chrominance at 5:52 PM on March 23 [5 favorites]
The article also briefly touched on how the list isn't fantastic for international audiences because everything is pulled from US charts, though if you just want to call that lampshading because there's no attempt to explore this further I wouldn't stop you.
posted by chrominance at 5:52 PM on March 23 [5 favorites]
I think a band should be excluded if any song besides the two "hits" charted at all. By that reckoning, Dido is the only artist on their list who counts.
posted by aubilenon at 5:56 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
posted by aubilenon at 5:56 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
Just being the devil’s advocate here… maybe there’s another perspective
posted by cybrcamper at 6:09 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
posted by cybrcamper at 6:09 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
Chrominance, nope, the article hasn’t been edited. I’m guessing that perhaps some (many?) didn’t read the full article or that this is just the way the conversation has gone.
posted by ashbury at 6:12 PM on March 23 [6 favorites]
posted by ashbury at 6:12 PM on March 23 [6 favorites]
Yeah, that first list is not meant to be the list of two hit wonders - it's the launch point of the discussion of what you'd actually class as such. Like I also recoiled at the idea of the Cure being a two hit wonder until I actually read the rest of the piece.
posted by Jilder at 6:16 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
posted by Jilder at 6:16 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
Call it idiosyncratic, but a list of 1 or 2 hit wonders should only be populated by artists that compel a person to say "I wonder whatever happened to.."
Some of the listed artists simply don't belong, as others have noted
edit to add: of course I didn't read the entire article, whoops
posted by ginger.beef at 6:16 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
Some of the listed artists simply don't belong, as others have noted
edit to add: of course I didn't read the entire article, whoops
posted by ginger.beef at 6:16 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
Honestly, Tracy Chapman is the true 2 hit wonder. Not to say she isn’t great, but her thing wasn’t really hit focused. Yet she had two massive hits so many years apart, two wonder hits, if you will.
posted by snofoam at 7:27 PM on March 23 [8 favorites]
posted by snofoam at 7:27 PM on March 23 [8 favorites]
The Box Tops had #1 The Letter and #2 Cry Like a Baby before disbanding (which I only know because of a recent Andrew Hickey bonus episode).
posted by brachiopod at 7:29 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
posted by brachiopod at 7:29 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
Hmm. In my mind, Tracy Chapman’s hits were separated by more than 10 years, which they were not, but still, a true 2-hit wonder is more like 2 top ten hits, no other top 40 hits and the two hits are not on the same album/separated by at least some years.
posted by snofoam at 7:36 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
posted by snofoam at 7:36 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
There’s a phenomenon that I’m not sure how you’d capture where an artist has a big hit that entered the pop culture canon, recognizable today even by people who didn’t follow pop music or weren’t yet alive when it came out, and a follow-up lesser hit that did not.
Fastball like a good example. Chumbawamba in the US, with Tubthumping and Amnesia, although they’re a bit of an asterisk since they’re better known in the UK and in anarchist circles. My sense is that a lot of 70s and 80s bands that millennials think of as one hit wonders are in this category.
posted by smelendez at 7:51 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]
Fastball like a good example. Chumbawamba in the US, with Tubthumping and Amnesia, although they’re a bit of an asterisk since they’re better known in the UK and in anarchist circles. My sense is that a lot of 70s and 80s bands that millennials think of as one hit wonders are in this category.
posted by smelendez at 7:51 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]
This list is especially stupid. One hit wonder means famous for one hit. Two hit wonder ergo ipso facto whatevero means famous for 2 hits, not whatever arbitrary nonsense typed out on that link.
I see all the Mr mister up there and I'll raise you flock of seagulls. You know only and exactly 2 songs by them and none more. Game set match.
What do I win?
posted by chasles at 8:04 PM on March 23 [5 favorites]
I see all the Mr mister up there and I'll raise you flock of seagulls. You know only and exactly 2 songs by them and none more. Game set match.
What do I win?
posted by chasles at 8:04 PM on March 23 [5 favorites]
Gary Wright (Dream Weaver/Love is Alive) is the classic (unmentioned above) two-hit wonder.
Along with Bonnie Tyler, mentioned in the thing. I guess I could add Gerry Rafferty solo recordings.
posted by ovvl at 8:07 PM on March 23 [7 favorites]
Along with Bonnie Tyler, mentioned in the thing. I guess I could add Gerry Rafferty solo recordings.
posted by ovvl at 8:07 PM on March 23 [7 favorites]
The Romantics: "What I Like About You" and "Talking in Your Sleep"
posted by ashbury at 8:12 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]
posted by ashbury at 8:12 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]
flock of seagulls. You know only and exactly 2 songs by them and none more. Game set match.
I Ran (#9)
Space Age Love Song (#30)
Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) (#26)
The More You Live, the More You Love (#56)
All of which were all over MTV back in the day. Which 2 don’t I know?
posted by otters walk among us at 8:38 PM on March 23 [5 favorites]
I Ran (#9)
Space Age Love Song (#30)
Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) (#26)
The More You Live, the More You Love (#56)
All of which were all over MTV back in the day. Which 2 don’t I know?
posted by otters walk among us at 8:38 PM on March 23 [5 favorites]
There’s a phenomenon that I’m not sure how you’d capture where an artist has a big hit that entered the pop culture canon, recognizable today even by people who didn’t follow pop music or weren’t yet alive when it came out, and a follow-up lesser hit that did not.
The A-ha and Men Without Hats Principle.
posted by otters walk among us at 8:44 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]
The A-ha and Men Without Hats Principle.
posted by otters walk among us at 8:44 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]
flock of seagulls. You know only and exactly 2 songs by them and none more. Game set match.
I Ran (#9)
Space Age Love Song (#30)
Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) (#26)
The More You Live, the More You Love (#56)
All of which were all over MTV back in the day. Which 2 don’t I know?
There's also "It's Not Me Talking", which was a minor hit in the UK and apparently didn't chart in the US, but is definitely a good, underrated tune. (Chances are if they didn't have such a daft name and image, folks would hold them in higher regard today).
Mister Mister
Not only do I change the station when they come the radio, I even change the station when that frigging Train song that namedrops them gets played. (Though said song is so annoying that I'd likely hate it even if they namedropped the Fall or My Bloody Valentine instead).
posted by gtrwolf at 8:50 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]
I Ran (#9)
Space Age Love Song (#30)
Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) (#26)
The More You Live, the More You Love (#56)
All of which were all over MTV back in the day. Which 2 don’t I know?
There's also "It's Not Me Talking", which was a minor hit in the UK and apparently didn't chart in the US, but is definitely a good, underrated tune. (Chances are if they didn't have such a daft name and image, folks would hold them in higher regard today).
Mister Mister
Not only do I change the station when they come the radio, I even change the station when that frigging Train song that namedrops them gets played. (Though said song is so annoying that I'd likely hate it even if they namedropped the Fall or My Bloody Valentine instead).
posted by gtrwolf at 8:50 PM on March 23 [3 favorites]
A variant on the [discussed] geographical problem with this is used in the Dave Dobbyn Rule, useful for establishing two specific nationalities.
Q. How many hit Dave Dobbyn songs do you know?
'Who?' You are from neither Australia or New Zealand
'1' You are an Australian.
'>1' You are a New Zealander.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 10:00 PM on March 23 [10 favorites]
Q. How many hit Dave Dobbyn songs do you know?
'Who?' You are from neither Australia or New Zealand
'1' You are an Australian.
'>1' You are a New Zealander.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 10:00 PM on March 23 [10 favorites]
gtrwolf, I trust you've seen What Makes This Song Stink Ep. 4 - "Hey Soul Sister: The Movie" featuring Dr. Dog? Somehow I'd missed that YouTube channel until this post last month. It's a treat.
posted by dreamyshade at 10:21 PM on March 23 [4 favorites]
posted by dreamyshade at 10:21 PM on March 23 [4 favorites]
Bonnie Tyler is a three hit wonder. Remember her song Lost in France.
posted by little eiffel at 11:01 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
posted by little eiffel at 11:01 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
To me, the most two-hit-wonders of two-hit-wonders are the people with a big comeback. I was thinking Mike Posner for "Cooler Than Me" (no 6 in 2010), and then "I Took a Pill in Ibiza" (no 4 in 2015), but he had other (small) hits off his first album.
Then you have the interpolations... Is Snow a two-hit wonder for his feature on "Con Calma" (2019) by Daddy Yankee? Does "Anxiety" by Doechii make Gotye a two-hit wonder?
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:15 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
Then you have the interpolations... Is Snow a two-hit wonder for his feature on "Con Calma" (2019) by Daddy Yankee? Does "Anxiety" by Doechii make Gotye a two-hit wonder?
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:15 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
If Pink Floyd is part of the preliminary scan, then the Grateful Dead should be in the same category. The only billboard top 10 hit they ever had was Touch of Grey. I think they had 4 or 5 others that made the top 100. Trucking, the highest of those. From the standpoint of a non Deadhead, the average person would likely only know those two. So many of their songs were covers that they made their own.
The article is an interesting starting point for discussion or rather bar discussion.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 11:31 PM on March 23 [6 favorites]
The article is an interesting starting point for discussion or rather bar discussion.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 11:31 PM on March 23 [6 favorites]
Also, I’m surprised none of my fellow pop history obsessives remembers Is It Love, Mr. Mister’s third hit.
posted by Kattullus at 11:40 PM on March 23 [4 favorites]
posted by Kattullus at 11:40 PM on March 23 [4 favorites]
Asking our Canadian contingent, where does a band like Sloan fit in here? I assume their lasting Canadian hit-making legacy amounts to "Underwhelmed" and "Money City Maniacs," though I dunno, please correct me if I'm wrong, because they're a zero hit wonder in the US. (Zero hits but still a wonder because they're in the top 25 album oriented rock artists of the last 30 years, easy.)
posted by kensington314 at 11:53 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
posted by kensington314 at 11:53 PM on March 23 [2 favorites]
Not only will almost everybody not be aware of any Janis Ian songs other than At Seventeen and Fly Too High, I'd put money on most never having realized that both of those are from the same artist.
posted by flabdablet at 1:28 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
posted by flabdablet at 1:28 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
In the US, Men at Work were a two hit wonder with “Down Under”and “Who Can It Be Now.”
posted by snofoam at 2:53 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
posted by snofoam at 2:53 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Can I just point out that in the table of two hit wonders in the article, the two hits are listed not in chronological order and not in order of chart ranking, but ALPHABETICALLY, for Christ’s sake! I think that tells us all we need to know about the quality of the author’s thought process.
posted by snofoam at 2:57 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
posted by snofoam at 2:57 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
Any metric-based analysis of these categories is going to have odd results, but I do think that the specific decisions made here fail to capture what a "one-hit wonder" feels like to me.
To my mind, "one-hit wonder" is a term for an artist who had a single that made it to the top ten or so, but the rest of their catalogue languished in obscurity. I don't think of it as "only had one #1, and the rest were all like #3 and #6" the way this article defines the two-hit wonders. That's how you end up with Big Names like Pink Floyd at the top of their list. If I hear more than one song from the artist played in shops or on the radio, then I really don't think of that as one-hit wonder. If they sold significant numbers of more than one record, I don't consider that a one-hit wonder. To me the OHW has to feel like a fluke. It has to be a "Did they ever do more? I never heard anything else by them." situation.
I also tend to think of OHWs as largely (though not entirely) falling afoul of what I call "The How Soon Is Now Problem": the public hears an amazing single, but investigates the band to find that it's a complete outlier in their catalogue. Just to pull an example out that I remember from my 20s, Primitive Radio Gods hit #1 with a really atmospheric and moody single made of layered samples and lo-fi grooves, but the rest of that album was nothing like it.
The Smiths already had a loyal fan base who already liked listening to Kermit the Frog croon about how lonely it is to like reading Middlemarch or whatever, but someone like me just wanted HSIN's texture-bed of layered vibrato with the moody reverb-heavy stings on top. So they weren't a one-hit wonder, because I still have to listen to Girlfriend In A Coma vocal noodling on the tannoy while picking up milk at Sainsbury's.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 3:21 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
To my mind, "one-hit wonder" is a term for an artist who had a single that made it to the top ten or so, but the rest of their catalogue languished in obscurity. I don't think of it as "only had one #1, and the rest were all like #3 and #6" the way this article defines the two-hit wonders. That's how you end up with Big Names like Pink Floyd at the top of their list. If I hear more than one song from the artist played in shops or on the radio, then I really don't think of that as one-hit wonder. If they sold significant numbers of more than one record, I don't consider that a one-hit wonder. To me the OHW has to feel like a fluke. It has to be a "Did they ever do more? I never heard anything else by them." situation.
I also tend to think of OHWs as largely (though not entirely) falling afoul of what I call "The How Soon Is Now Problem": the public hears an amazing single, but investigates the band to find that it's a complete outlier in their catalogue. Just to pull an example out that I remember from my 20s, Primitive Radio Gods hit #1 with a really atmospheric and moody single made of layered samples and lo-fi grooves, but the rest of that album was nothing like it.
The Smiths already had a loyal fan base who already liked listening to Kermit the Frog croon about how lonely it is to like reading Middlemarch or whatever, but someone like me just wanted HSIN's texture-bed of layered vibrato with the moody reverb-heavy stings on top. So they weren't a one-hit wonder, because I still have to listen to Girlfriend In A Coma vocal noodling on the tannoy while picking up milk at Sainsbury's.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 3:21 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
I still have to listen to Girlfriend In A Coma vocal noodling on the tannoy while picking up milk
If it was just noodling it wouldn't be so bad. What gives me the shits about that particular song is that ever since listening to Bigmouth Strikes Again, I have trouble hearing it as anything but the self-pitying warbling of a domestic abuser and it gives me the shits.
posted by flabdablet at 4:44 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
If it was just noodling it wouldn't be so bad. What gives me the shits about that particular song is that ever since listening to Bigmouth Strikes Again, I have trouble hearing it as anything but the self-pitying warbling of a domestic abuser and it gives me the shits.
posted by flabdablet at 4:44 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
In the US, Men at Work were a two hit wonder with “Down Under”and “Who Can It Be Now.”
Spoken like someone who wasn't alive to hear the Men at Work US number 3 hit "Overkill" over and over and over and over and over and over. Overkill, indeed. I often think about these songs that I modestly liked when I was young, without understanding that I would have to listen to them again and again throughout my entire life. Like someone in 1893 hearing "Happy Birthday" and going "haw haw, how novel this birthday song" and then, in the 1950s, going "please for the love of god don't ever sing that to me again".
posted by eschatfische at 5:14 AM on March 24 [7 favorites]
Spoken like someone who wasn't alive to hear the Men at Work US number 3 hit "Overkill" over and over and over and over and over and over. Overkill, indeed. I often think about these songs that I modestly liked when I was young, without understanding that I would have to listen to them again and again throughout my entire life. Like someone in 1893 hearing "Happy Birthday" and going "haw haw, how novel this birthday song" and then, in the 1950s, going "please for the love of god don't ever sing that to me again".
posted by eschatfische at 5:14 AM on March 24 [7 favorites]
Ignoring the first list, because leaving out albums when trying to consider overall popularity doesn't work at all for artists recording from the late 1960s until the streaming age... I still can't take the second list seriously when it includes Crowded House and a-ha. Crowded House were and are huge in Australia and NZ and were also big in the UK and Canada with different songs and albums, which is a sign of artists with breadth and depth.
As for a-ha, "Take on Me" only reached number two in the UK—their number one single here was "The Sun Always Shines on TV", which to me is the right one (and I didn't live here at the time); they've had nine top ten singles in the UK. Their first two albums are stone-cold pop classics, and their last few are some of their best; five of their eleven studio albums have reached the UK top ten, the first three all reaching number two. All of that, plus they wrote the theme tune to a Bond movie that had the biggest opening for a Bond film ever at the time, meaning that many, many people—even in the US—will have known the song well.
I find it hard to take seriously any discussion of one- or two-hit wonders that doesn't acknowledge an artist's global standing rather than just what happened in the US. Maybe it doesn't make as much sense to include non-English-speaking markets (unless you're talking about someone like Shakira, perhaps), but when you add together the populations of the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand you get a figure equivalent to 40-45% of the US population. Posting US-based verdicts to the English-speaking internet as if they're the last word means that you're going to annoy up to a third of your audience.
posted by rory at 6:13 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
As for a-ha, "Take on Me" only reached number two in the UK—their number one single here was "The Sun Always Shines on TV", which to me is the right one (and I didn't live here at the time); they've had nine top ten singles in the UK. Their first two albums are stone-cold pop classics, and their last few are some of their best; five of their eleven studio albums have reached the UK top ten, the first three all reaching number two. All of that, plus they wrote the theme tune to a Bond movie that had the biggest opening for a Bond film ever at the time, meaning that many, many people—even in the US—will have known the song well.
I find it hard to take seriously any discussion of one- or two-hit wonders that doesn't acknowledge an artist's global standing rather than just what happened in the US. Maybe it doesn't make as much sense to include non-English-speaking markets (unless you're talking about someone like Shakira, perhaps), but when you add together the populations of the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand you get a figure equivalent to 40-45% of the US population. Posting US-based verdicts to the English-speaking internet as if they're the last word means that you're going to annoy up to a third of your audience.
posted by rory at 6:13 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
The results really say more about the methodology and the unreliability of the Billboard charts than the bands he comes up with.
Right? For my age, someone like the Spin Doctors is quintessential for this topic, but not even a mention?!
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 6:26 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
Right? For my age, someone like the Spin Doctors is quintessential for this topic, but not even a mention?!
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 6:26 AM on March 24 [5 favorites]
The idea of looking at two-hit wonders is interesting, but seems like it would be very difficult to do, and take some serious defining of methodology before starting out. For one thing, you would have to define “hit” better than these guys did. Clearly they mean “hit in the United States”, which means that a lot of artists with hits in other countries will be potential 2 hit wonders. Also there are a lot of US charts other than the Billboard Hot 100. Not to mention artists like Led Zeppelin that didn’t release a lot of singles. And why limit hits to the top 30? Why not top 40 (like Casey Kasem!), top 50, or even the entire Hot 100? The choices they made certainly led to some odd inclusions in the list, like Pink Floyd and Jimmy Buffett (certainly one of the most financially successful musicians out there), among others.
posted by TedW at 6:30 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
posted by TedW at 6:30 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
The first band that comes to mind when I hear "two-hit wonder" is Katrina and the Waves. I don't know about the US, but in a UK context they make perfect sense: they were one-hit wonders for a decade, and then had another hit.
posted by rory at 6:35 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
posted by rory at 6:35 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
I dunno. A lot of these cites just really sound like one-hit wonders with another song tagging along that I've never heard of that wasn't really a hit, unless you stretch the point way too much.
posted by ovvl at 6:42 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 6:42 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Hmm. In my mind, Tracy Chapman’s hits were separated by more than 10 years, which they were not, but still, a true 2-hit wonder is more like 2 top ten hits, no other top 40 hits and the two hits are not on the same album/separated by at least some years.
"Gimme One Reason" even had a higher chart position & made more money than "Fast Car." That's why I would get so cheesed off by people crying "Appropriation!" after Luke Combs covered "Fast Car." Tracy Chapman wasn't some impoverished Delta bluesman that some white kids found in a rusty tin shack somewhere. Yeah, she might have grown up in Roxbury, but she also had a scholarship to prep school & went to Tufts. She had a career for so long that she was doing Lilith Fair before there was Lilith Fair. The hipster lesbian move in the 1990s was to brag that you saw Tracy Chapman at some no-name "womyn's music festival" back when they still spelled it with a Y. So, when people were yelling, "Appropriation!", I was like "Shut up! She still has her own publishing rights! Can't we just be happy that Tracy Chapman is getting that bag?" Appropriation does happen, but it was not happening in that case.
posted by jonp72 at 7:11 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
"Gimme One Reason" even had a higher chart position & made more money than "Fast Car." That's why I would get so cheesed off by people crying "Appropriation!" after Luke Combs covered "Fast Car." Tracy Chapman wasn't some impoverished Delta bluesman that some white kids found in a rusty tin shack somewhere. Yeah, she might have grown up in Roxbury, but she also had a scholarship to prep school & went to Tufts. She had a career for so long that she was doing Lilith Fair before there was Lilith Fair. The hipster lesbian move in the 1990s was to brag that you saw Tracy Chapman at some no-name "womyn's music festival" back when they still spelled it with a Y. So, when people were yelling, "Appropriation!", I was like "Shut up! She still has her own publishing rights! Can't we just be happy that Tracy Chapman is getting that bag?" Appropriation does happen, but it was not happening in that case.
posted by jonp72 at 7:11 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
Not only will almost everybody not be aware of any Janis Ian songs other than At Seventeen and Fly Too High, I'd put money on most never having realized that both of those are from the same artist.
Yes, Janis Ian is a two-hit oneder, but depending on where - her #1 break-out smash from the Summer Of Love was Society's Child. Seems she did better with 'Fly Too High' abroad, but that one was seldom heard, in the US.
posted by Rash at 7:19 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Yes, Janis Ian is a two-hit oneder, but depending on where - her #1 break-out smash from the Summer Of Love was Society's Child. Seems she did better with 'Fly Too High' abroad, but that one was seldom heard, in the US.
posted by Rash at 7:19 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
someone like the Spin Doctors is quintessential for this topic, but not even a mention?!
Little Miss Can't Be Wrong was an answer at Friday's trivia night! Universe, if you are still listening could we have simultaneous fatal heart attacks happen for [slides list across table]
Thankyew
posted by ginger.beef at 7:36 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Little Miss Can't Be Wrong was an answer at Friday's trivia night! Universe, if you are still listening could we have simultaneous fatal heart attacks happen for [slides list across table]
Thankyew
posted by ginger.beef at 7:36 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
The Box Tops had #1 The Letter and #2 Cry Like a Baby before disbanding
Fans of Alex Chilton rejoice, the chart performances of his first band are not forgotten. Here's the Box-Tops, live, in 1969, with their #28 Sweet Cream Ladies (Forward March) and re-united, in 2009, doing their best song, 'The Letter's follow-up, the psychedelic Neon Rainbow.
posted by Rash at 7:37 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
Fans of Alex Chilton rejoice, the chart performances of his first band are not forgotten. Here's the Box-Tops, live, in 1969, with their #28 Sweet Cream Ladies (Forward March) and re-united, in 2009, doing their best song, 'The Letter's follow-up, the psychedelic Neon Rainbow.
posted by Rash at 7:37 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
MetaFilter: I’m guessing that perhaps some (many?) didn’t read the full article or that this is just the way the conversation has gone.
posted by star gentle uterus at 8:14 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
posted by star gentle uterus at 8:14 AM on March 24 [6 favorites]
Also:
Just to pull an example out that I remember from my 20s, Primitive Radio Gods hit #1
This one has to win an award for being an obscure song from an obscure band first released on the soundtrack of a cult movie that somehow hit the top of the charts. I wonder how many of those there are.
posted by star gentle uterus at 8:19 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
Just to pull an example out that I remember from my 20s, Primitive Radio Gods hit #1
This one has to win an award for being an obscure song from an obscure band first released on the soundtrack of a cult movie that somehow hit the top of the charts. I wonder how many of those there are.
posted by star gentle uterus at 8:19 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
Yeah, the methodology is a bit off.
I was A Flock of Seagulls-stan so I know more of them than that.
(Went to a college hosted show back in the day, wearing my then GF's light blue corduroy overalls, with the proper pointy hair thing. Drunk meathead thought I was a woman and hit on me, LOL).
Men without Hats - One hit wonder
Men at Work - Yes their two hits, but then Overkill and Underground.
Grateful Dead - two "hits" but that totally misses the point of the Dead.
I didn't know Katrina and the Waves had a second hit, good for them.
I'd toss the Bangles in there for Walk Like an Egyptian and Manic Monday.
Love "How Soon is Now", at least the start of it, all I need to hear, never have heard any other The Smiths. See also: Blues From a Gun, by the Jesus and Mary Chain.
Third Eye Blind came to mind, but they had three hits it seems.
And bands have songs that we all know a couple of, and are known for, but where they charted is not something we track. If Yaz didn't have two songs that charted highly, that would be a shame.
Such fun to think about all this though
posted by Windopaene at 8:28 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
I was A Flock of Seagulls-stan so I know more of them than that.
(Went to a college hosted show back in the day, wearing my then GF's light blue corduroy overalls, with the proper pointy hair thing. Drunk meathead thought I was a woman and hit on me, LOL).
Men without Hats - One hit wonder
Men at Work - Yes their two hits, but then Overkill and Underground.
Grateful Dead - two "hits" but that totally misses the point of the Dead.
I didn't know Katrina and the Waves had a second hit, good for them.
I'd toss the Bangles in there for Walk Like an Egyptian and Manic Monday.
Love "How Soon is Now", at least the start of it, all I need to hear, never have heard any other The Smiths. See also: Blues From a Gun, by the Jesus and Mary Chain.
Third Eye Blind came to mind, but they had three hits it seems.
And bands have songs that we all know a couple of, and are known for, but where they charted is not something we track. If Yaz didn't have two songs that charted highly, that would be a shame.
Such fun to think about all this though
posted by Windopaene at 8:28 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
Rory - I find it hard to take seriously any discussion of one- or two-hit wonders that doesn't acknowledge an artist's global standing
The author totally acknowledges that this is very much a US-centric list and would look very different by country or if using the international charts.
For those readers here that are not Canadian and therefore might not know the amazing rock and roll of Sloan, I urge you to investigate. Aw dang it, now I have to do a fpp.
posted by ashbury at 8:45 AM on March 24 [8 favorites]
The author totally acknowledges that this is very much a US-centric list and would look very different by country or if using the international charts.
For those readers here that are not Canadian and therefore might not know the amazing rock and roll of Sloan, I urge you to investigate. Aw dang it, now I have to do a fpp.
posted by ashbury at 8:45 AM on March 24 [8 favorites]
Men without Hats - One hit wonder
not if you include Pop Goes The World
#20 on Billboard, #2 in Canada, a few more chart placings elsewhere
posted by philip-random at 8:47 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
not if you include Pop Goes The World
#20 on Billboard, #2 in Canada, a few more chart placings elsewhere
posted by philip-random at 8:47 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
Windopaene: I'd toss the Bangles in there for Walk Like an Egyptian and Manic Monday.
Apparently, The Bangles had 8 top-30 hits, but I could only recall "In Your Room" Hot 100 #5 and "A Hazy Shade of Winter" Hot 100 #2.
posted by indexy at 8:51 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Apparently, The Bangles had 8 top-30 hits, but I could only recall "In Your Room" Hot 100 #5 and "A Hazy Shade of Winter" Hot 100 #2.
posted by indexy at 8:51 AM on March 24 [2 favorites]
How about one-hit wonders whose only hit was a cover?
Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal
Big Pig - Breakaway (although "Hungry Town" hit the top 50)
Cum On Feel The Noize - Quiet Riot (they technically had other charting hits, but let's be serious)
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 8:55 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal
Big Pig - Breakaway (although "Hungry Town" hit the top 50)
Cum On Feel The Noize - Quiet Riot (they technically had other charting hits, but let's be serious)
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 8:55 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
Huh. I'm sure this marks me as an ignorant cretin but TIL "Cum On Feel The Noize" is a cover.
posted by star gentle uterus at 9:04 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
posted by star gentle uterus at 9:04 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
Damned unsearchable, but in the 90s The Onion (possibly only in the paper edition) had a 'personality quiz': "Which A Flock Of Seagull Are You?" It's the only reason that I still remember that the indefinite article is part of the band's name.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 9:12 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 9:12 AM on March 24 [4 favorites]
"A Flock of Seagulls"
Guitar guy was really good.
Telecommunication...
posted by Windopaene at 10:42 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
Guitar guy was really good.
Telecommunication...
posted by Windopaene at 10:42 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
Pseudo Echo had their only US hit with a cover of "Funky Town" by Lipps Inc., itself a one-hit-wonder.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:25 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:25 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
(which would make the song "Funky Town" a kind of two-hit-wonder)
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:29 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:29 AM on March 24 [3 favorites]
"A Flock of Seagulls"
my friends always called this band "A Flock of Haircuts"
posted by chavenet at 12:16 PM on March 24
my friends always called this band "A Flock of Haircuts"
posted by chavenet at 12:16 PM on March 24
This list does not include Mr. Mister and so is invalid.
Too bad they ended up in this category. Their follow-up album was actually really good but almost completely ignored. Everyone was expecting a rehash of those 2 songs I guess.
Side note: they recorded another album, Pull, which was completely rejected by their label for being 'too introspective'. Page ended up having to release it on his own label 20 years later.
posted by thoughtful_jester at 1:06 PM on March 24 [3 favorites]
Too bad they ended up in this category. Their follow-up album was actually really good but almost completely ignored. Everyone was expecting a rehash of those 2 songs I guess.
Side note: they recorded another album, Pull, which was completely rejected by their label for being 'too introspective'. Page ended up having to release it on his own label 20 years later.
posted by thoughtful_jester at 1:06 PM on March 24 [3 favorites]
If Flock of Seagulls are too '80s, their haircuts too silly, or too bro-ey,
Marsheaux - Dream of Disco
is basically Space Age Love song by ladies with perfectly normal haircuts released in like 2010.
Huh. I'm sure this marks me as an ignorant cretin but TIL "Cum On Feel The Noize" is a cover.
So many '80s hard rock hits were straight covers of '70s UK music, including Once Bitten Twice Shy (how did Great White not write this? - Shark - 'bitten' - I mean come on.), Smoking in the Boys Room by Motley Crue, Your Momma Don't Dance by Poison, and the ones that weren't were mostly written by Desmond Child.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:34 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
Marsheaux - Dream of Disco
is basically Space Age Love song by ladies with perfectly normal haircuts released in like 2010.
Huh. I'm sure this marks me as an ignorant cretin but TIL "Cum On Feel The Noize" is a cover.
So many '80s hard rock hits were straight covers of '70s UK music, including Once Bitten Twice Shy (how did Great White not write this? - Shark - 'bitten' - I mean come on.), Smoking in the Boys Room by Motley Crue, Your Momma Don't Dance by Poison, and the ones that weren't were mostly written by Desmond Child.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:34 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
The Bangles had 8 top-30 hits, but I could only recall "In Your Room" Hot 100 #5 and "A Hazy Shade of Winter" Hot 100 #2.
Eternal Flame, no.1 around the world, has obviously vanished into the memory hole. Thankfully, stereogum can reveal all, and not just because it was allegedly sung naked.
posted by Sparx at 2:02 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Eternal Flame, no.1 around the world, has obviously vanished into the memory hole. Thankfully, stereogum can reveal all, and not just because it was allegedly sung naked.
posted by Sparx at 2:02 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Ahhh, Tom’s #1’s series at Stereogum is absolutely remarkable. I’d reached the most recent article a few years ago and then forgot about it. I guess I’m heading back there to catch up.
posted by ashbury at 3:16 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
posted by ashbury at 3:16 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
So I have been building a list of songs to sing with acoustic guitar in the past few months, which is mostly Dylan songs (in ignorance of the looming Timothy Chalamet vehicle, natch). JUST THIS WEEKEND I have added and been singing Overkill and Manic Monday. How weird is that?
I liked the second list in the article where they weeded out the Floyd and others by adding “zero top 10 albums” to the criteria, but I think what most of us are really wanting is the related category Flash In The Pan, which would be a couple of hits off one album then nothing. Also, the exec who signed the Spin Doctors tried to sign my band but other band members didn’t want to “sell out” and thus I am now a corporate drone. Also also, Hunting High and Low by a-ha is all killer, no filler.
posted by caviar2d2 at 3:32 PM on March 24 [4 favorites]
I liked the second list in the article where they weeded out the Floyd and others by adding “zero top 10 albums” to the criteria, but I think what most of us are really wanting is the related category Flash In The Pan, which would be a couple of hits off one album then nothing. Also, the exec who signed the Spin Doctors tried to sign my band but other band members didn’t want to “sell out” and thus I am now a corporate drone. Also also, Hunting High and Low by a-ha is all killer, no filler.
posted by caviar2d2 at 3:32 PM on March 24 [4 favorites]
I think Semisonic, with Closing Time, has to be an archetype of a one-hit wonder band?
Also in that category is Len, with Steal My Sunshine. (I don't think that hit #1 but was inescapable the summer it came out. That's a brother-sister band, which itself is a fairly rare thing, I think.)
I do think to qualify as a ____ Hit Wonder band the song(s) have to be big hits (or otherwise inescapable), at odds with the rest of the band's catalog (if they even have one), and of a much higher quality than anything else they've ever done.
posted by maxwelton at 3:40 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
Also in that category is Len, with Steal My Sunshine. (I don't think that hit #1 but was inescapable the summer it came out. That's a brother-sister band, which itself is a fairly rare thing, I think.)
I do think to qualify as a ____ Hit Wonder band the song(s) have to be big hits (or otherwise inescapable), at odds with the rest of the band's catalog (if they even have one), and of a much higher quality than anything else they've ever done.
posted by maxwelton at 3:40 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
You guys, you made me remember Ugly Kid Joe. That's not okay!
posted by team lowkey at 4:28 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
posted by team lowkey at 4:28 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
I think Semisonic, with Closing Time, has to be an archetype of a one-hit wonder band?
In the UK, Secret Smile was a bigger hit, but both made the Top 40. I would not describe them as one-hit wonders at all.
posted by plonkee at 4:32 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
In the UK, Secret Smile was a bigger hit, but both made the Top 40. I would not describe them as one-hit wonders at all.
posted by plonkee at 4:32 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
On the methodology, I think if they're from outside the US then it's unreasonable to use the US charts as a measure of their success. Crowded House, A-Ha and Craig David all had more than two hits in their primary markets. Craig David has had 16 UK Top 40 hits and featured on a further 5.
posted by plonkee at 4:37 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
posted by plonkee at 4:37 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
I think Semisonic, with Closing Time, has to be an archetype of a one-hit wonder band?
Dan Wilson, the lead singer and songwriter of Closing Time, is a classic example of a songwriter whose catalog fulfills the 80/20 rule, although it is more like the 99/1 rule. In addition to "Closing Time," two of his songs ("Not Ready to Make Nice" for the Chicks and "Someone Like You" for Adele) got awarded Song of the Year Grammys, but he's made 100s of songs, most of which are great but which few people know about.
For example, if you're an MST3K fan, you might remember a reference to "Toolmaster Jeff Maynard." That's another in-joke that refers to Trip Shakespeare's "Toolmaster of Brainerd," which Dan Wilson also wrote. It's a hilariously ponderous prog metal spoof that beats Tenacious D by several years.
So, anyway, the same guy wrote "Closing Time," "Not Ready to Make Nice," "Someone Like You," "Toolmaster of Brainerd," and 100s of songs you'll probably never hear ever.
posted by jonp72 at 4:38 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
Dan Wilson, the lead singer and songwriter of Closing Time, is a classic example of a songwriter whose catalog fulfills the 80/20 rule, although it is more like the 99/1 rule. In addition to "Closing Time," two of his songs ("Not Ready to Make Nice" for the Chicks and "Someone Like You" for Adele) got awarded Song of the Year Grammys, but he's made 100s of songs, most of which are great but which few people know about.
For example, if you're an MST3K fan, you might remember a reference to "Toolmaster Jeff Maynard." That's another in-joke that refers to Trip Shakespeare's "Toolmaster of Brainerd," which Dan Wilson also wrote. It's a hilariously ponderous prog metal spoof that beats Tenacious D by several years.
So, anyway, the same guy wrote "Closing Time," "Not Ready to Make Nice," "Someone Like You," "Toolmaster of Brainerd," and 100s of songs you'll probably never hear ever.
posted by jonp72 at 4:38 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
mondegreen'd "Kyrie Eleison" as "give me a lazer gun"... I was like 8ish?, and growing up on the mean streets of Philly, so it made some kind of sense: "give me a lazer gun/the road that I must travel. Give me a lazer gun, the darkness of the night." I didn't feel seen by a lyricist like that until my grandma ACTUALLY got ran over by a reindeer.
posted by adekllny at 4:56 PM on March 24 [4 favorites]
posted by adekllny at 4:56 PM on March 24 [4 favorites]
→
They also won Eurovision for the UK in 1997. Which is strange to consider that the same person who played the brain-melting guitar part on the Soft Boys' Old Pervert went on to win the contest that is the epitome of musical cheese.
posted by scruss at 7:07 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
I didn't know Katrina and the Waves had a second hit, good for them.
They also won Eurovision for the UK in 1997. Which is strange to consider that the same person who played the brain-melting guitar part on the Soft Boys' Old Pervert went on to win the contest that is the epitome of musical cheese.
posted by scruss at 7:07 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]
All of that, plus they wrote the theme tune to a Bond movie that had the biggest opening for a Bond film ever at the time, meaning that many, many people—even in the US—will have known the song well.
I’m not going to fault you for defense of a-ha, but… isn’t the A View to A Kill theme song by Duran Duran? Or is Wikipedia wrong?
posted by caution live frogs at 5:10 AM on March 25
I’m not going to fault you for defense of a-ha, but… isn’t the A View to A Kill theme song by Duran Duran? Or is Wikipedia wrong?
posted by caution live frogs at 5:10 AM on March 25
Men without Hats - One hit wonder
I didn't know Katrina and the Waves had a second hit, good for them.
These two are only "one hit wonders" in the United States, and had multiple hits elsewhere:
* Men Without Hats had a second hit in Canada - Pop Goes The World, which was the lead single off their third album.
* Katrina and the Waves actually had a follow-up hit that came after "Walking On Sunshine" - Do You Want Crying was their next single after, and hit #37 on the charts. Then their next album yielded Is That It (which I personally liked better), and after that they focused on the UK and EU for their career. They ultimately won Eurovision in 1997 with Love Shine A Light before breaking up.
isn’t the A View to A Kill theme song by Duran Duran? Or is Wikipedia wrong?
Wikipedia is right; A View To A Kill is indeed by Duran Duran. Simon Le Bon even does a corny Bond-related joke at the end of the video ("My name is Bon.....Simon Le Bon.")
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:52 AM on March 25
I didn't know Katrina and the Waves had a second hit, good for them.
These two are only "one hit wonders" in the United States, and had multiple hits elsewhere:
* Men Without Hats had a second hit in Canada - Pop Goes The World, which was the lead single off their third album.
* Katrina and the Waves actually had a follow-up hit that came after "Walking On Sunshine" - Do You Want Crying was their next single after, and hit #37 on the charts. Then their next album yielded Is That It (which I personally liked better), and after that they focused on the UK and EU for their career. They ultimately won Eurovision in 1997 with Love Shine A Light before breaking up.
isn’t the A View to A Kill theme song by Duran Duran? Or is Wikipedia wrong?
Wikipedia is right; A View To A Kill is indeed by Duran Duran. Simon Le Bon even does a corny Bond-related joke at the end of the video ("My name is Bon.....Simon Le Bon.")
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:52 AM on March 25
Sorry folks, don't know how I managed that (apart from going down an '80s Bond rabbit-hole and getting confused). I meant, of course, The Living Daylights, which set "a [US] record 3-day opening for a Bond film", though it didn't surpass the four-day record of A View to a Kill.
posted by rory at 7:50 AM on March 25
posted by rory at 7:50 AM on March 25
Their Eurovision winner was what I meant by Katrina and the Waves' second UK hit. I'm not messing around with #37 songs, or even "That's the Way" (#16 in the US, apparently, but I've never knowingly heard it): "Love Shine a Light" was an even bigger hit in the UK than "Walking on Sunshine".
They were an English band, even though their lead singer was American (she moved to England at 16 as a USAF kid).
posted by rory at 7:59 AM on March 25
They were an English band, even though their lead singer was American (she moved to England at 16 as a USAF kid).
posted by rory at 7:59 AM on March 25
Their Eurovision winner was what I meant by Katrina and the Waves' second UK hit. I'm not messing around with #37 songs, or even "That's the Way" (#16 in the US, apparently, but I've never knowingly heard it): "Love Shine a Light" was an even bigger hit in the UK than "Walking on Sunshine".
But that's just as restrictive as this original article, no? Most "chart" countdowns start at #40 or #50, so something that's #37 would comfortably fit into the "chart" there. A #16 definitely would.
I mean, I could say that James Brown only had one hit with "I Feel Good", based on an artificially high barrier ("I only count anything that hit above #3 on the chart"), but that wouldn't make me right ("Living in America" hit #4, for starters).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:10 AM on March 25
But that's just as restrictive as this original article, no? Most "chart" countdowns start at #40 or #50, so something that's #37 would comfortably fit into the "chart" there. A #16 definitely would.
I mean, I could say that James Brown only had one hit with "I Feel Good", based on an artificially high barrier ("I only count anything that hit above #3 on the chart"), but that wouldn't make me right ("Living in America" hit #4, for starters).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:10 AM on March 25
Katrina and the Waves - I actually remember their other song from their first album, "Do You Want Crying".
The Georgia Satellites had a big hit with "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" (it looks like it peaked at #2, but it was all over MTV). I'm one of the six people who bought their album and I remember one other decent song - Battleship Chains.
I don't know how to define one-hit wonder in a way that makes sense, but The Georgia Satellites definitely were (second minor hit notwithstanding) and The Grateful Dead clearly are not (even though they legitimately only had one hit). Modern English are, even though they barely had a hit "Melt With You" never cracked the top 40 in the US.
Michael Buble is not and neither is Norah Jones. Maybe "one hit" should be reserved for artists who legitimately look like they belong on the Top 40 list.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:24 AM on March 25
The Georgia Satellites had a big hit with "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" (it looks like it peaked at #2, but it was all over MTV). I'm one of the six people who bought their album and I remember one other decent song - Battleship Chains.
I don't know how to define one-hit wonder in a way that makes sense, but The Georgia Satellites definitely were (second minor hit notwithstanding) and The Grateful Dead clearly are not (even though they legitimately only had one hit). Modern English are, even though they barely had a hit "Melt With You" never cracked the top 40 in the US.
Michael Buble is not and neither is Norah Jones. Maybe "one hit" should be reserved for artists who legitimately look like they belong on the Top 40 list.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:24 AM on March 25
I was on the verge of suggesting Rick Astley as a two-hit wonder (Together Forever and....that OTHER song you probably know), but he had a third song later, Cry For Help, that was a modest hit.
I don't know how to define one-hit wonder in a way that makes sense
The aforementioned Todd In The Shadows has an interesting approach to this. He does a bit of contextualizing about the artists he covers, setting up their earlier history and the music scene at the time, before diving into The Big Hit - and then also discusses their subsequent releases. He always finishes with a bit of discussion on whether they deserved more than their one hit.
And that backstory and dissertation is where you get some really interesting commentary - for Yello, he makes the argument that it's hard to say whether or not they "deserved" a bigger hit, because they weren't intending to create a "pop hit" in the first place - Yello is a weirdo performance art project and so talking about "pop hits" with them is kind of missing the point in the first place. In the case of artists like Frankie Goes To Hollywood or Katrina and the Waves, he points out that they only had one hit in the US, but they had more elsewhere. (Happily, he also makes no bones about it if he's dealing with a true one-hit-wonder that just lucked out and trash-talks acts sometimes.)
All of which is to say that I don't think there is a way to define "one-hit-wonder" in a way that will be universally accepted.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:24 PM on March 25
I don't know how to define one-hit wonder in a way that makes sense
The aforementioned Todd In The Shadows has an interesting approach to this. He does a bit of contextualizing about the artists he covers, setting up their earlier history and the music scene at the time, before diving into The Big Hit - and then also discusses their subsequent releases. He always finishes with a bit of discussion on whether they deserved more than their one hit.
And that backstory and dissertation is where you get some really interesting commentary - for Yello, he makes the argument that it's hard to say whether or not they "deserved" a bigger hit, because they weren't intending to create a "pop hit" in the first place - Yello is a weirdo performance art project and so talking about "pop hits" with them is kind of missing the point in the first place. In the case of artists like Frankie Goes To Hollywood or Katrina and the Waves, he points out that they only had one hit in the US, but they had more elsewhere. (Happily, he also makes no bones about it if he's dealing with a true one-hit-wonder that just lucked out and trash-talks acts sometimes.)
All of which is to say that I don't think there is a way to define "one-hit-wonder" in a way that will be universally accepted.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:24 PM on March 25
But that's just as restrictive as this original article, no?
Well, sure, but in my comment about K&TW I did say "I don't know about the US, but in a UK context they make perfect sense". Part of the point was how contingent it all is on which countries you choose. But as it happens, K&TW were two-hit wonders in the US too, by the definition in the article; just different hits. (Personally, I'd draw the line at reaching the top twenty, so a #16 counts.)
I remember enjoying Todd in the Shadows' video about Frankie, but looking at more of the artists included in his One Hit Wonderland list just makes me feel sorry for Americans that so many great British and Australian songs/bands didn't land there.
posted by rory at 2:46 PM on March 25
Well, sure, but in my comment about K&TW I did say "I don't know about the US, but in a UK context they make perfect sense". Part of the point was how contingent it all is on which countries you choose. But as it happens, K&TW were two-hit wonders in the US too, by the definition in the article; just different hits. (Personally, I'd draw the line at reaching the top twenty, so a #16 counts.)
I remember enjoying Todd in the Shadows' video about Frankie, but looking at more of the artists included in his One Hit Wonderland list just makes me feel sorry for Americans that so many great British and Australian songs/bands didn't land there.
posted by rory at 2:46 PM on March 25
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