One Hit Wonders – Ultimate Guide (Everything You Ever Wanted to Know)

One-hit wonders are something we take very seriously here at Onehitwonderhalloffame.com. We all love those classic songs. Everyone knows them. They define our youth. They made us fans. Just ask what “the best one-hit wonder is at a party. Everyone has a favorite. People start smiling and maybe even singing the songs! It’s a perfect topic at a party!

A one-hit wonder is more than just a hit single. It’s a phenomenon. Who can forget “My Sharona” with it’s infectious drum beat and stammering mu-mu-mu-my Sharona? It was a huge hit, number 1 on the Billboard hot 100 for 6 weeks and earned a gold record single for the band The Knack – and the follow up single? Barely a blip on the radar. This is a bona-fide one hit wonder. 

And we’re going to do a deep dive on the subject.

What is and what isn’t a one-hit wonder

What is a one hit wonder?

This is a complicated question. There are many factors. Maybe we should start with what a one-hit wonder is not!

Any band that has more than one big hit is NOT a one-hit wonder. Even moderate commercial success after a first smash hit will disqualify the act as a one hit wonder.

Thus the Bangles are not a one-hit wonder. Their biggest hit is “Eternal Flame.” It was number 1 for 9 weeks on the Billboard hot 100 and number 1 in 9 countries. Peole still remember this song. But the band’s previous success with “Walk Like An Egyptian” disqualifies them as a one hit wonder. “Walk Like An Egyptian” was also a number one in America. People did the dance all the time! The video and singer Sussana Hoffs sold the song. 

So in this sense the song “Shallow” by Lady Gaga is both a one-hit wonder and not at the same time! Gaga is a huge multi-platinum selling artist with numerous top 10 hits, but Bradley Cooper? Shallow is it for him. HE is a one hit wonder.

What does it take to get in the one-hit wonder hall of fame?

Our hall of famers have to be true one-hit wonders AND people should still know the songs.

How many people remember “Green Tamborine” by Lemon Piper? On February 3rd, 1968 it was number one on the Billboard Hot 100. This song won’t make the hall of fame unless something happens to dust it off and breathe new life into it.

What is the Billboard Hot 100?

The Billboard Hot 100 is the American music industry standard chart for measuring a song’s success. In the past it measured success using radio airplay and record sales.

Today it’s compiled using a combination of physical and digital sales, radio play and streaming. A song must be released as a single to get on the hot 100. 

What is the origin of one-hit wonder?

Multiple sources place the origin of the term squarely in the 1950’s.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary it was actually first used to describe a one-hit baseball game thrown by San Francisco Giants’ pitcher Ramon Manzant in the Carrol Iowa Daily Times Herald on May 1st, 1956.

As many phrases do, it was borrowed by popular culture to describe other things – but music is where its most widely used.

What is the meaning of one hit wonder? 

Wikipedia says: A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. Ugh! Dry and boring!

This, while a perfect definition, is most certainly not  giving these great songs their due. This is partially because the term one hit wonder has crossed over from songs to other things like a product, a book or a movie.

Take J.D. Salinger, for example. The guy writes The Catcher In The Rye – pretty much every high school student has to read it – and… he never writes another full novel!! WTF? But that’s a one hit wonder for you. Awesomeness followed by nothingness. You see, it was his first novel. He couldn’t follow it up. His angst got in the way of his creativity. A freshman success followed by a sophomore no-show. And that perfectly defines one aspect of a one hit wonder.

What’s the definition of a one-hit wonder?

For our purposes we are defining a one-hit wonder as a song that achieved significant commercial success in the America on the American Top 40. Here’s the important part: The band or artist should have had no major follow-up success in the United States.

What genre has the most one-hit wonders?

A one hit wonder is a song that is in the American Top 40. This list is made up of pop songs with an occasional cross-over song that is pop enough to play on pop radio stations.

What constitutes a one-hit wonder?

The song is usually the original version, although occasionally a cover song slips in. Thus Blue Swede with their cover of “Hooked On A Feeling” is not initially disqualified. Even the Ooga-chaka intro was taken from an older cover of “Hooked On A Feeling” by the Brit Jonathan King. Their number 7 follow up cover of “Never My Love” is what disqualifies them. 

Why do people think some songs are one-hit wonders when they actually aren’t?

One of our favorite almosts is A-ha.  People think they had one and only one hit in America – “Take On Me”. But this isn’t true.

The Sun Always Shines on TV topped off at number 20 on the charts. People don’t remember this song. Number 20 is a commercial succes but doesn’t mean the song stays in the zeitgeist. This has to do with how radio program directers do their jobs.

Former number one? The programers think people might like the follow up, so they play the new song a to see what happens. And all the radio stations in the country do this so that leads to a significant place in the charts for a moment. For it to be a real hit it has to STAY THERE long enough that people remember it. We all remember “Take On Me” and we’ve all forgotten “The Sun Always Shines.”

What does it take to make it into the One Hit Wonder Hall Of Fame?

People define a one-hit wonder as an artist that has one hit in the top 40 and never repeats that.

This isn’t enough for us here at the One Hit Wonder Hall Of Fame. The song has to be REMEMBERED TODAY by a lot of people, still played on the radio, used in TV shows, movies, commercials and other forms of media.

What a one-hit wonder isn’t?

Time to dig into some definitions! It’s important to understand what defines a one-hit wonder.

Let’s start by defining a hit. A hit is a song you get instantly. You hear it and it grabs you. It changes the way you feel. And most of all, you want to hear the song again and again.

But this isn’t enough. In order to truly be a hit it actually has to be in the top 40 of a recognized music chart. This means it’s in the top 40 most played songs on the radio at that time. The Billboard Hot 100 is the chart we use. 

A one-hit wonder isn’t an artist who gets a song on the radio in light rotation. In light rotation a song gets played twice a day.

A one-hit wonder isn’t an artist with other hits. This seems like a stupid statement, but many acts have one HUGE hit and lots of minor hits.

After enough time goes by the minor hits are forgotten and only the big one stays in our collective memory.

Here’s an example: Billy Idol’s big hit was Rebel Yell. That’s the one he’s remembered for. But he had other hits. “White Wedding” was a hit before “Rebel Yell.” “Dancing With Myself” was a hit after. As soon as the other hit songs are mentioned it’s like… Oh, yeah. I remember that one too… Therefore, not a one-hit wonder.

What is the first one-hit wonder?

The first one hit wonder according to many sources is “I Want You To Be My Baby” by Lillian Briggs in 1955, the year most music historians mark as the beginning of modern music.

But the first one hit wonder that belongs here in the One Hit Wonder Hall Of Fame is definitely “Tequila” by the Champs.

In the opinion of one of our staff members, Tracy Lipp, Tequila could be the greatest one-hit wonder of all time!

Here’s why. 1st of all, it was released in 1958. This puts its release after the phrase was coined. But most importantly, people STILL know the song even after all this time. They can sing the riff and then say: “Tequila!” That can’t be said about “I Want You To Be My Baby” No one remembers the song.

What is the best one-hit wonder of all time?

Does this mean the best song? That would mean one song is better than another. If that were the case each generation would have their own best one hit wonder.

For us here at Onehitwonderhalloffame it’s a tough call between “Tainted Love” by Softcell and “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice.

But still, people ask this question a lot, so let’s get into this. The best one-hit wonder has to be based on the charts.

The song that spent the most time in the American Top 40 has got to be it. Gotye feat. Kimbra with the smash “Someone I Used To Know” spent an incredible 44 weeks on the charts!

Which decade had the most one-hit wonders?

For some reason most people think it’s the 80’s. We were skeptical. After digging around a few resources came up. This article at towardsdatascience.com  had some interesting insights.

According to their research the 1960s is the decade with the most one-hit wonders.

The 1970s come in second, the 1990s are third, the 2000s are 4th and the 1980s are 5th! Who knew!? Really!

The 50s aren’t a full decade so that data is hard to compare to the others. But there’s simply no denying the numbers they found.

The 60s yielded 187. The 70s had 153. The 90s had 130. The 2000s had 96 and the 80s? Only 91! 

Why does everybody think the 80s have the most one-hit wonders?

What gives! How can folks be so far off? It’s about exposure to the music and the quality of those hits.

First off, those hits from the 80s still get a lot of airplay. People grow up listening to the music their parents listen to. And what do they listen to? Hits. Of COURSE their favorite one-hit wonders get included.

For those of us who made it through the 80s, we still listen. So many of those songs are iconic. None of the other decades have been able to match the brilliance of those great songs in the 80s.

But this is only part of the story.

Music Supervisors have had a huge impact on keeping a song relevant today. A Music Supervisor’s job is to decide what music goes into movies, tv shows, commercials and video games.

A lot of them are in their 50s now. What does that mean? They grew up in the 80s. They pick their jams for the music they need on their projects.

Here’s an example: The game Grand Theft Auto played a big role in keeping the 80s fresh. It used 80s music in the game. Steal a car – the radio turns on. Choose your station. The 80s music there was great! The Music Supervisor chose “Too Shy” by Kajagoogoo as one of the 80s songs. Guess what? One-hit wonder! Number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and their only big hit.

Why are there so many one-hit wonders?

Every one-hit wonder has it’s own story.

Sometimes the band breaks up. Often the rest of the music just isn’t good enough. Sometimes the person who signed the act leaves the record company and thats the end for the act.

In the end it’s math. There are 521 weeks in a decade. I know, 52 x 10 is 520. But the earth doesn’t orbit the sun EXACTLY 365 days and a day isn’t EXACTLY 24 hours. Anyway, that’s a lot of opportunity for a song to become a hit. 

How does someone become a one-hit wonder?

Writing a hit is hard. Personalities in the music business can be complex. Egos and money clash constantly.

The bubble-gum pop song “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies has an interesting story. The song, written for the made-for-tv band The Monkeys, was dubbed unacceptable by Monkey Michael Nesmith.

In the ensuing fight with producer Don Kirsher the song was dropped and Kirshner left. Kirshner knew a hit when he heard one. He re-tasked the song for another made up TV group, The Archies, and the rest is history! Kirshner proved he was right when the song went to number one. But Nesmith was also proven right.

The album the Monkeys made without Kirshner and his bubble-gum pop also went to number one, knocking the iconic Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band out of the number 1 spot into 2nd.

Do one-hit wonders still exist?

Of course they do! Viral videos on YouTube can drive a song onto the radio. Streaming hits works the same way.

If a song gets popular enough and is released as a single it will reach the top 40. Then all one-hit wonder rules will aply. We won’t know if the song will be a one-hit wonder until the artists career is really over.

One hit-wonders and money

How lucrative is a one-hit wonder?

A true hit is a great revenue generator. One hit song usually isn’t worth millions, but over time it can end up hitting that mark if it’s iconic enough.

The rights holders are the winners in this case. That means the song writers, the record company and the music publisher. This is where the lions share of the money goes.

There are lots of other ways for a hit song to earn money. Having it used on a TV show, move or commercial is another way a one-hit wonder can bring home the bacon. 

In the past the hit would drive up record sales. Many an album went gold on the strength of a top 10 single. The artist can also sell lots of tickets for live shows on the strength of their one big hit. Depending on the band, this can be as high as $10,000 a show. They can usually keep most of that money.

Can you live off a one hit wonder?

No one is getting rich off of a one-hit wonder by itself.

However, a one-hit wonder can provide an artist with a steady income for the rest of their music career.

If they play their cards right it may even set them up for life. With the new streaming music platforms like Spotify and YouTube a true one-hit wonder can provide a nice bonus income. 

How much money can you make off a one-hit wonder?

Streaming is the latest way to make money off a one-hit wonder.

YouTube pays very poorly, but millions of views still = $. A million views on YouTube generates about $1,000.00 to $2,000.00. Of course that gets split up amongst all of the rights holders after that.

Apple Music pays $0.01 per stream. Spotify is a lot less. The laws are changing though. In the future these payments will be slightly higher thanks to new laws coming into force to increase the amount of money earned by songs on streaming sites. 

Mechanical royalties are another way to make money from a hit. This is a music publishing term is over 100 years old. Today it’s just a way of saying selling records.

In America a typical 3 minute song earns the songwriter 9.1 ¢. Of course records don’t sell like they used to, but a gold single is 500,000 copies so that’s worth $45,500. On top of this, the band or artist will earn a percentage of every sale from their record company as a royalty.

Playing live shows is a great way for one-hit wonders to continue making a check from their big hit. County fairs pay a lot of money for a headliner everybody knows. 

If you want to make money from a one-hit wonder the best way is to write the song yourself.

The people who write the songs typically live pretty all right off the songwriting royalties.

While not technically a one-hit wonder, Dewey Terry, from the 50s R&B group Don and Dewey, got a check for $70,000 every year for writing the jingle for the song sung by S&G Foods The Jolly Green Giant. Ho, ho, ho Green Giant.

Now, if you’re a one-hit wonder and you manage to get your song attached to a brand like this…. Thomas Dolby did this whne his only hit “Blinded Me By Science” was used in a Pantene commercial. And if the artist is willing to change a word or two to customize the song? Even better!

An often overlooked revenue stream for one-hit wonders is the re-recorded version.

The owner of the master recording makes most of the money. This is even more true today with streaming. Streaming costs a record company almost nothing. It’s almost all profit when an old song streams.

Most record contracts preclude bands and artists from re-recording their materiel for a certain amount of time. After that time limit is up, why not do a new version of that great hit and try to pocket all the bread? New versions, live recordings even so called remixes can be a great way for a one-hit wonder to restart the revenue stream and keep that song alive.

Which one-hit wonder made the most money?

Based on record sales, it looks like it’s a tie between Gotye featuring Kimbra for their song “Somebody That I Used To Know” and that iconic fight song from Rocky II by Surviver “Eye Of The Tiger.”

Both songs went 8x Platinum. A platinum record is marked at 1,000,000 copies.

The two songs sold an impressive 16 million records collectively.

It’s safe to say that “Eye Of The Tiger” will have racked up more revenues due to the sync with the Rocky movie and all the other times it’s been used in TV shows, movies and commercials – not to mention the fact that it was released in 1981. Every time the movie is on TV, they get paid. Every DVD or stream on-line, they get paid. The song has simply had more time to earn.

How to avoid becoming a one hit wonder

It’s simple. Write another hit. Past that, watch out for the pitfalls of the music business.A hit song is an elusive beast. Anyone who says they know how to write a hit is delusional. True hit songwriters say it’s impossible to tell if a song is a hit or not. 

Why do some people just become one-hit wonders and others become really successful after just one big hit?

This is usually about the people around the hit song. Good management, good promotion and the artist themself are the key aspects here. If any of these three things aren’t working the artist usually can’t make it.

Bad contracts

Many of the early acts from the 50s and 60s were taken advantage of in their record contracts. This is especially true with artists of color.

Record companies would give them a very bad contract, which the artist would sign without understanding. Often the acts would be tricked into signing away all of their publishing rights too with what sounded like a good deal at the time, only to find out they’ve been cheated out of millions.

Bad contracts continue to be written and signed by people who are willing to do almost anything to make it.

One-Hit Wonders by the decades

After extensive research we’ve come up with our first group of inductees into the One Hit Wonder Hall Of Fame!

The 1950s – The one-hit wonders of the 1950s

The 50s mark the first documented use of the term One-Hit Wonder in 1956. This also marks the beginning of the Hollywood recording studio scene.

A small group of elite musicians known in the industry as “The Wrecking Crew” changed the way music was recorded. The same players played on almost all the big hits. Producers hired these musicians to come and and record the music, then the artist would just have to sing. The 10” single rotated at 45 times a minute and ruled the marketplace.

Elvis was filmed above the waste only for his performance on nation-wide TV when his hips were considered obscene. Jukeboxes full of 45s kept people dancing.

This allowed the creation of more than one one-hit wonder.

The 1960s – The one-hit wonders of the 1960s

The 1960s brought us the most one-hit wonders.

Recording techniques were improving. Records started to play in stereo! The LP (short for Long Play) rotated at a speed of 33 and 1/3 revolutions per minute. This became the popular way for artists to release music.

The 8 track tape brought music to people in cars in a way radio couldn’t. The Beatles changed music forever. Lots of musicians thought they could do it too.

The 1970s – The one-hit wonders of the 1970s

The 70s saw popular music mature. FM radio changed the way music was listened to by bringing stereo to the radio.

Disco brought DJs into nightclubs.

The single still was their favorite way to keep people dancing.  

The 1980s – The one-hit wonders of the 1980s

The 80s saw music move into the digital world with the advent of the Compact Disc which held 74 minutes of uncompressed music.

Disco died. The second British musical invasion came and went.

It was called New Wave and spawned a slew of one-hit wonders.

The major record companies became obsessed with the bottom line and brought about the birth of Corporate Rock. The movie Valley Girl had people dancing to punk and new wave by swinging their arms in an odd way.

The 1990s – The one-hit wonders of the 1990s

Corporate rock was stomped out by Grunge.

Digital recording started becoming the future of recording as computers started getting faster and cheaper.

AutoTune was launched in 1997 allowing singers to be tuned digitally. It became easier for someone that couldn’t sing to make records.

People danced in mosh pits at the iconic music festival Lollapalooza.

The 2000s – The one-hit wonders of the 2000s

This is as far back in time as we can reasonably go, since artists with only one hit might STILL come back and have another.

Mp3s and Napster kept college students dancing in their dorms.

Spotify launched in 2006 in Sweden.

Apple laptops and cheap Chinese knock-off mics made it easy for songs to be recorded in bedrooms. 

And there you have it!

On behalf of all of us here at the One Hit Wonder Hall Of Fame please give all of these hits a spin! Put them on a playlist!

Let’s keep these great one-hit wonders a part of our lives!