So what exactly constitutes a one-hit wonder anyway? I recall bands like Nine Days and Three Days Grace being listened as one hit wonders even though they had other songs I remember as getting airplay.
Probably tons of others but what qualifies as a "one hit wonder"? Is it when they had only one song that charted above a certain spot or maybe only one song that still gets played umpteen years later or...?
Also, why are there so many bands that had only one (or maybe two) big hits then just faded back to obscurity? If a band gets big enough to play on the radio, why wouldn't they have at least three or four biggish hits? If record companies decide who makes it and not, wouldn't it be cheaper to milk present bands for a few hits rather than signing a bunch of one hitters? If their first hit got big, obviously the album sold decently, yes?
I don’t think one-hit wonder means strict literal singularity. A band or artist with only two hits or three hits could also be classified as a one-hit wonder. It usually refers to collective memory. For example: Vanilla Ice had a couple hits, but Ice Ice Baby was his biggest and became the only thing he was known for. Hence, he’s a one-hit wonder. Can you name another Vanilla Ice song without looking one up? I doubt it
Robert Cooper
This example actually got me curious. Look at his most played songs on spotify One hit wonder
I'm fairly sure most of the time it refers to gimmick artists who had one novelty hit like Play That Funky Music or I'm Too Sexy and then quietly disappeared.
Oliver Lopez
It's a term that has some silly connotations. For example, Judas Priest had one song that made the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. Jimi Hendrix had one that made the top 40. By that logic they were one hit wonders despite having tons of great songs.
Samuel Wood
If they only really have one song they're remembered for.
Adam Anderson
Nine Days sure as fuck is a one hit wonder by any definition. They weren't around long and have literally no songs except the hit that anyone has heard of.
Carter Parker
When VH1 did their list (years ago), they mention that they specifically excluded exceptions like Hendrix.
Dance craze songs were another common one hit.
Grayson Brooks
It's no surprise the nerds of Yea Forums find something without a precise definition difficult to understand.
It is simply an artist who is only generally known for one thing but it is entirely situational. If the biggest star in Papua New Guinea, that everyone there listens to, suddenly has a novelty hit in the US before being forgotten there, then they will be a one hit wonder in one place and not another.
Tyler Ortiz
Technically, in the USA, Kate Bush is a "One Hit Wonder" with Running Up That Hill which says a whole lot more about the US and the charts than it does Kate.
Matthew Parker
There are a hundred reasons why a given album or song will fail to become a hit no matter how good it is. Sometimes it has to do with the amount of promotion the record label puts into it. One famous example was that Aerosmith's debut album was almost completely ignored because it came out around the same time as The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, and Columbia chose to put most of their promotional budget into Springsteen instead.
The opposite also happens where a label deploys all the heavy artillery like Interscope has done with Billie Eyelash, yet the album still doesn't make much impact perhaps because it wasn't very good or it just wasn't what public tastes at the time were into.
Ryder Davis
One hit wonder always seemed to me like a relict term from the 50s-early 60s when pop music was singles-based. It didn't really mean anything anymore after the transition to AOR where artists could live entirely off of album sales and get little or no radio play.
Ethan Davis
It should be defined as an artist who had one song that made the Top 40 and they had absolutely no other songs anyone else knows. That would exclude Jimi Hendrix or Roth-era Van Halen or Bruce Springsteen both of whom had a single top 40 hit but tons of other songs everyone knows.
Nine Days or Cutting Crew or Quiet Riot or Wild Cherry or Wheatus would definitely fit the term "one hit wonder" because they literally had no notable songs outside the hit and none of them were around more than an album or two.
Mason Carter
Bob Seger is a living legend in Michigan. His first single was in 1966 and Ramblin' Gamblin' Man made #18 in 68. The next time he appeared in the Top 40 was with Old Time Rock and Roll nine years later.
But around here people would be stunned to learn that the only songs of his most people outside the Upper Midwest know are RGM, OTRR, and Like A Rock. They'd be like "What? You mean nobody knows Heavy Music, Lucifer, and Turn Up The Page? Shit, they've been playing those on the local stations for half a century."
Christian Morris
Whip It was Devo's only top 40 US hit. In the UK their charting hits were mainly independent releases. In Australia though, they placed four songs in the top 40. Whip It didn't do especially well there but it was the song that drove the Dev-O Live EP to the top of the Australian charts once Molly Meldrum and Countdown began pushing the band.
Bizarrely, Theme From Dr. Detroit was the only Devo song to chart in all three countries. And Warner had actually released Girl U Want It as the lead single from Freedom of Choice and assumed it was a surefire hit, but it failed to chart at all, although it's remained a fan favorite and one of Devo's most well-known songs.
So like a lot of other AOR bands, Devo had lots of memorable songs but their presence as a hits/singles band will be forever reduced to Whip It.
Anthony Mitchell
Buffalo Springfield's only big hit was For What It's Worth.
Jeremiah Walker
Buffalo Springfield were not a one hit wonder. A one hit wonder was Wild Cherry.
>come out of nowhere, have one major hit that's inescapable for a couple months, and then quietly disappear
Having one hit song is not the same as being a one hit wonder.
Dylan Jackson
You forgot Night Moves, most people know that.
James Parker
The 70s had a lot of these bands.
>Wild Cherry >Player >Pilot >First Class >Jigsaw
Just to name some. They all managed one really big hit that's still played to death on classic hits radio and then were never seen or heard from again.
Zachary Nguyen
Player has 2-3 songs that still get regular airplay and their debut album was pretty critically acclaimed. This Time I’m in It For Love was a big hit too and some other songs get substantially less airplay than those 2 but still get airplay. I wouldn’t call them a 1 hit wonder
Ayden Hall
The 80s had some too, Men Without Hats being the poster boy for that era. There seem to be less now, probably because few groups sell enough to have a hit only once, it's usually none, or more than one. Last obvious one I can think of is New Radicals.
Easton Rodriguez
Player
Distinctions Not Cost-Effective [1970s]: Why didn't they just call themselves Pimp and get it over with?
