CRF's Greatest One Hit Wonders Voting Thread ((Polls Are Open))

[Cosmic Harmony]

This is my rough draft.


1. No Rain- Blind Melon
2. What's Up- 4 Non Blondes
3. Come On Eileen- Dexy's Midnight Runners
4. Bittersweet Symphony- The Verve
5. Take On Me - A-Ha
6. Tip Toe Thru' The Tulips- Tiny Tim
7. Mississippi Queen- Mountain
8. 99 Luftballoons - Nena
9. Video Killed The Radio Star- The Buggles
10. I Melt With You- Modern English
11. Mad World- Gary Jules
12. A Whiter Shade of Pale- Procol Harum
13. Sell Out- Reel Big Fish
14. Bitch- Meredith Brooks
15. In A Big Country- Big Country


Most of my favorite one hit wonders are from the 80's and 90's.

 

[ILoveJimmyPage]

Holy moly. I'll have to think on this one. I love your list though Harmony. Bittersweet Symphony is one of my favorite songs of all time. Top 5 for sure.

 

[TrekkiELO]

Buckner & Garcia - Pac-Man Fever (1982)
Philip Bailey and Phil Collins - Easy Lover (1984)
Harold Faltermeyer - Axel F (1984)
Bruce Willis - Respect Yourself (1987)
The Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew - The Super Bowl Shuffle (1985)
Information Society - What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy) (1988)
Jump N' the Saddle Band - The Curly Shuffle (1983)
Taco - Puttin' on the Ritz (1983)
The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Tuff Enuff (1986)
Rodney Dangerfield - Rappin' Rodney (1983)
Joe Dolce - Shaddap You Face (1980)
Yello - Oh Yeah (1985)
T. Rex - Bang a Gong (Get It On) (1972)
Bill Cosby - Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright) (1967)
Zager & Evans - In the Year 2525 (1969)

 

[Nololob]

T. Rex - Bang a Gong (Get It On) (1972)

Are you sure on this one? T. Rex scored 4 number 1s and 14 top 20s.

 

[Tray73]

^^^ They probably only had one hit in the US Nolo, making them a one hit wonder the other side of The Pond. Same with a few of the bands on Harmony's list like Dexy's Midnight Runners, Aha and The Verve - over here they had many hits, but apparently weren't as successful in America.

 

[Big Ears]

Quite a few bands mentioned here were not one hit wonders outside the US: Pilot, Spandau Ballet, Stealers Wheel, Big Country, Procol Harum, Hurricane Smith. I suppose transatlantic hits can be seen as one hit wonders, when the band could be the opposite. Spandau Ballet had about twenty hit singles here (I'm not saying it's a good thing).

I'm just as guilty. I suggested Billy Thorpe and I think he had a lot of hits in Australia. I'm sure someone can put me right here.

I'm tempted to add Radar Love by Golden Earring, because their only other hit here was a live version of the same song. The excellent follow up, Instant Poetry failed here through lack of airplay. In the Netherlands, Earring had a number of hits before Radar Love.

 

[Tray73]

Yeah I was going to put quite a few down but because the bands/artists were sucessful in other countries didn't include them, Radar Love being one of them. What I may do is change my list later on after I've seen what other songs are posted on this thread (so are generally regarded in some countries to be one hit wonders, if not over here).

 

[Jake T]

Quite a few bands mentioned here were not one hit wonders outside the US: Pilot, Spandau Ballet, Stealers Wheel, Big Country, Procol Harum, Hurricane Smith. I suppose transatlantic hits can be seen as one hit wonders, when the band could be the opposite. Spandau Ballet had about twenty hit singles here (I'm not saying it's a good thing).

I'm just as guilty. I suggested Billy Thorpe and I think he had a lot of hits in Australia. I'm sure someone can put me right here.

I'm tempted to add Radar Love by Golden Earring, because their only other hit here was a live version of the same song. The excellent follow up, Instant Poetry failed here through lack of airplay. In the Netherlands, Earring had a number of hits before Radar Love.

Twilight Zone by Golden Earring was a pretty big hit in the US. Star by Stealers Wheel was a minor hit. Spandau Ballet had other US hits like Gold, but were definitely associated with the song True.

 

[Big Ears]

Twilight Zone by Golden Earring was a pretty big hit in the US. Star by Stealers Wheel was a minor hit. Spandau Ballet had other US hits like Gold, but were definitely associated with the song True.

Twilight Zone did nothing here in the UK.

If you take into account all the record-buying countries in the world, there can't be that many true one hit wonders.

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

Again, I'd like to repeat what I said in the OP which is that there is going to be varying degrees of subjectiveness to this thread since it is the world-wide-web.