One-hit wonder

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. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with only one hit single that overshadows their other work. Some artists dubbed "one-hit wonders" in a particular country have had great success in other countries. Music artists with subsequent popular albums and hit listings are not properly considered a one-hit wonder, although artists with multiple hits have sometimes been erroneously labelled as "one-hit wonders" if one particular hit has become much more well-remembered years or decades later than their other hits. One-hit wonders usually see their popularity decreasing after their hit listing, and most often do not ever return to hit listings with other songs or albums.

Music industry
In The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, music journalist Wayne Jancik defines a one-hit wonder as "an act that has won a position on [the] national, pop, Top 40 record chart just once." Billboard magazine defines a U.S. one-hit wonder as an "artist that cracks the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 and never makes it back to that position."

This formal definition can include acts with greater success outside their lone pop hit and who are not typically considered one-hit wonders, while at the same time excluding acts who have multiple hits which have been overshadowed by one signature song, or those performers who never hit the top 40, but had exactly one song achieve mainstream popularity in some other fashion (that is, a "turntable hit" or a song that was ineligible for the top-40 charts).

"20 to 1: One Hit Wonders"
In 2006, the Australian series 20 to 1 aired the episode "20 to 1: One Hit Wonders", a list of songs that had been the only one by that artist to have success in Australia.

C4's UChoose40: One Hit Wonders
In September 2006, New Zealand's terrestrial music channel, C4, aired an episode dedicated to "One Hit Wonders" on the weekly theme-based chart show, UChoose40, where the chart was ranked entirely by viewer's votes from the website.

The top ten songs were ranked as follows:

United Kingdom
Note: not to be confused with the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles list from 1979 to 2001 which lists acts with their only Top 75 charting record being a number one hit. Several of these artists including The Proclaimers, Shakespears Sister, Haddaway, Kajagoogoo and Hanson have in fact had more than two Top Ten hits.

The Nation's Favourite One Hit Wonders (2016)
A UK poll of 2,000 music fans compiled by marketing research company OnePoll. • # Video Killed the Radio Star – Buggles (1979)

• # It's Raining Men – The Weather Girls (1984)

• # Spirit in the Sky – Norman Greenbaum (1969)

• # I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) – The Proclaimers (1988)

• # Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of) – Lou Bega (1999)

• # Nothing Compares 2 U – Sinéad O'Connor (1990)

• # Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice (1990)

• # Don't Leave Me This Way – Thelma Houston (1976)

• # Cotton Eye Joe – Rednex (1995)

• # Macarena – Los del Rio (1996)

• # Sugar, Sugar – The Archies (1969)

• # Who Let the Dogs Out – Baha Men (2000)

• # Kung Fu Fighting – Carl Douglas (1974)

• # Seasons in the Sun – Terry Jacks (1973)

• # Saturday Night – Whigfield (1994)

• # There She Goes – The La's (1990)

• # Achy Breaky Heart – Billy Ray Cyrus (1992)

• # Tell Laura I Love Her – Ricky Valance (1960)

• # Me and Mrs Jones – Billy Paul (1972)

• # Mickey – Toni Basil (1982)

• # Don't Worry, Be Happy – Bobby McFerrin (1988)

• # Stay – Shakespears Sister (1992)

• # Play That Funky Music – Wild Cherry (1976)

• # What Is Love – Haddaway (1993)

• # 99 Red Balloons – Nena (1984)

• # Jump Around – House of Pain (1993)

• # My Sharona – The Knack (1979)

• # We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off – Jermaine Stewart (1986)

• # Turning Japanese – The Vapors (1980)

• # MMMBop – Hanson (1997)

• # In the Year 2525 – Zager & Evans (1969)

• # Funkytown – Lipps Inc. (1980)

• # A Girl Like You – Edwyn Collins (1995)

• # Pass the Dutchie – Musical Youth (1982)

• # Rock Me Amadeus – Falco (1986)

• # The Hustle – Van McCoy (1975)

• # Witch Doctor – Ross Bagdasarian (1958)

• # Tubthumping – Chumbawamba (1997)

• # The Ketchup Song (Aserejé) – Las Ketchup (2002)

• # Grandad – Clive Dunn (1971)

• # Spaceman – Babylon Zoo (1996)

• # Groove Is in the Heart – Deee-Lite (1990)

• # Don't Give Up On Us – David Soul (1976)

• # Barbados – Typically Tropical (1975)

• # Unbelievable – EMF (1990)

• # Too Shy – Kajagoogoo (1983)

• # Pop Muzik – M (1979)

• # You Get What You Give – New Radicals (1999)

• # The Safety Dance – Men Without Hats (1983)

• # Somebody's Watching Me – Rockwell (1984)

One-Hit Wonders from the 1980s
Classic Pop magazine's list only includes acts who made the UK's Top 40 (as compiled by Gallup) once only in their careers and does not include acts which feature members from other successful bands from the 1980s. The top ten is as follows:

• # "The First Picture of You" – The Lotus Eaters

• # "Big in Japan" – Alphaville

• # "Broken Land" – The Adventures

• # "Waiting for a Train" – Flash And The Pan

• # "Waiting for a Star to Fall" – Boy Meets Girl

• # "99 Red Balloons" – Nena

• # "Let My People Go-Go" – The Rainmakers

• # "The Captain of Her Heart" – Double

• # "Kissing with Confidence" – Will Powers

One-Hit Wonders from the 1990s
In 2020, Absolute Radio 90s compiled a list of 'the 20 greatest one-hit wonders of the 1990s' as part of their 10th birthday celebrations; the list was as follows (listed in alphabetical order by artist):
 * "Spaceman" – Babylon Zoo (1996)
 * "Wake Up Boo!" – The Boo Radleys (1995)
 * "Drinking in L.A." – Bran Van 3000 (1997)
 * "Bitch" – Meredith Brooks (1997)
 * "Would I Lie To You?" – Charles & Eddie (1992)
 * "Brimful of Asha" (Norman Cook Remix) – Cornershop (1997)
 * "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" – Crash Test Dummies (1993)
 * "What's Up?" – 4 Non Blondes (1993)
 * "There She Goes" – The La's (1990)
 * "Steal My Sunshine" – Len (1999)
 * "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" – Baz Luhrmann (1999)
 * "The Impression That I Get" – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (1997)
 * "Flat Beat" – Mr. Oizo (1999)
 * "You Get What You Give" – New Radicals (1998)
 * "You’re Not Alone" – Olive (1997)
 * "How Bizarre" – OMC (1995)
 * "In The Meantime" – Spacehog (1996)
 * "Two Princes" – Spin Doctors (1993)
 * "Inside" – Stiltskin (1994)
 * "Your Woman" – White Town (1997)

In addition to these one-hit wonders, the NME also recognised the following hits in their one-hit wonders feature from 2014:
 * "Sleeping Satellite" – Tasmin Archer (1992)
 * "No Rain" – Blind Melon (1993)
 * "Tubthumping" – Chumbawamba (1997)
 * "Save Tonight" – Eagle-Eye Cherry (1997)
 * "Groove Is in the Heart" – Deee-Lite (1990)
 * "Breakfast at Tiffany’s" – Deep Blue Something (1995)
 * "I Touch Myself" – Divinyls (1990)
 * "To Earth with Love" – Gay Dad (1999)
 * "Three Little Pigs" – Green Jellÿ (1992)
 * "Glorious" – Andreas Johnson (1999)
 * "Here Comes the Hotstepper" – Ini Kamoze (1994)
 * "Jump" – Kris Kross (1992)
 * "Stay" – Lisa Loeb (1994)
 * "Can You Dig It?" – The Mock Turtles (1991)
 * "One Of Us" – Joan Osborne (1995)
 * "I’ll Be There For You" – The Rembrandts (1995)
 * "Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)" – Rozalla (1991)
 * "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" – Scatman John (1994)
 * "Closing Time" – Semisonic (1998)
 * "Baby Got Back" – Sir Mix-a-Lot (1992)
 * "Runaway Train" – Soul Asylum (1993)
 * "Connected" – Stereo MC's (1992)
 * "Cotton Eye Joe" – Rednex (1994)
 * "One Headlight" – The Wallflowers (1997)

One-Hit Wonders from the 2000s
From the BBC in March 2017 (based on a combination of chart position and sales):
 * Afroman – "Because I Got High" (2001)
 * The Bravery – "An Honest Mistake" (2005)
 * DJ Pied Piper & The Masters of Ceremonies – "Do You Really Like It?" (2001)
 * Duffy – "Mercy" (2008)
 * Gnarls Barkley – "Crazy" (2006)
 * Junior Senior – "Move Your Feet" (2002)
 * Las Ketchup – "The Ketchup Song (Aserejé)" (2002)
 * Spiller (featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor) – "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (2000)

From the BBC Radio 2 show One Hit Wonders with OJ Borg which started on 2 November 2020... (in alphabetical order):
 * Bodyrockers – "I Like the Way"
 * Caesars – "Jerk It Out"
 * Kevin Lyttle (feat. Spraga Benz) – "Turn Me On"
 * Nizlopi – "The JCB Song"
 * Planet Funk – "Chase the Sun"
 * Sweet Female Attitude – "Flowers"
 * The Temper Trap – "Sweet Disposition"

One-Hit Wonders from the 2010s
The Official Charts Company's list of the biggest one-hit wonder releases of the 2010s, is based on sales and streams. Like the Classic Pop list it uses the UK singles Top 40 chart as the cut-off point. The top ten is as follows: • # "Let Her Go" – Passenger

• # "7 Years" – Lukas Graham

• # "Waves" – Mr. Probz

• # "Somebody That I Used to Know" – Gotye featuring Kimbra

• # "Shut Up and Dance" – Walk the Moon

• # "Dancing on My Own" – Calum Scott

• # "Riptide" – Vance Joy

• # "Feel It Still" – Portugal. The Man

• # "Ho Hey" – The Lumineers

• # "This Girl" – Kungs vs. Cookin' on 3 Burners