Talk:One-hit wonder

Definition
By definition on all published books (also by Billboard and Official UK Chart company) a One-Hit Wonder is an artist that have had just 1 TOP 40 Hit in their chart (and no more than 3 International Hits in multiple countries out of the artist home country). There are many songs on this page from artists that ARE NOT OFFICIALLY CONSIDERED ONE HIT WONDERS and should be remove. Please review it! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.94.23.209 (talk) 12:32, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

Wait
Why does the top 50 section only got 49 songs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.21.109.215 (talk) 02:32, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
 * It doesn't? If you mean the Channel 4 enumeration, there are 50 songs in the list. --Thallium81 (talk) 15:59, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Etymology
Does anyone know when the phrase one hit "One Hit Wonder" was first coined and by whom?

"Pac Man Fever"
It seems impossible that Pac Man fever could be a hit of the 1970s. Didn't Pac Man first appear around 1982? Dominus 21:28 Nov 23, 2002 (UTC)

You're right, and I'm wrong. Gaffes like this make me feel more and more senile. :) -- Modemac

The Knack
And I take offense. The Knack had two hits! (My Sharona and That's What the Little Girls Do) -- I spent a hefty bit of my allowance on the 8-track. :-) Danny P.S. and Good Girls Dont makes three


 * You betcha. "Good girls dont, good girls don't, good girls don't--but I do!"  What classic lyrics!  The knack were the band everyone loved to hate.  soulpatch


 * Whether or not they were one-hit wonders (OHWs) depends on the criteria. Billboard put out a book of OHWs: their criterion was that said artist only chart once on the Billboard Top 40 Pop Chart. Note that this book also lists Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower" and Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee"; it's a quantitative measure of a particular song's performance on one single chart, not a qualitative judgement of any particular group.


 * And I liked "My Sharona" when it first came out. Then I got sick of it: oversaturation, the whole "Next Beatles!" hype &mdash; 25 years later, I love it again. --SigPig 06:42, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

Band too
The term one-hit wonder applies equally to the song itself, as well as to the band that records it. How can we phrase this in the opening paragraph? --Ed Poor


 * Tried to fix it for you, Ed. Took out Nick Lowe cause he had more than one hit and a long successful career.  As for the links on the Pipkins and Zager & Evans, well, who knows?  Ortolan88


 * Again, depends on your definition of a OHW. Jancik's book The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders lists Lowe, Z&E, and the Pipkins. The book's criteria is "an act that has won a position on Billboard's national, pop, Top 40 just once." Which is why the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin are rubbing shoulders with The Detergents, Tiny Tim, and Edd "Kookie" Byrnes. Also, the key word here is act, which is why people like Roger Daltrey of the Who and Graham Nash of CSNY appear, as well as why Tony Burrows and Jim Henson make multiple appearances. --SigPig 17:09, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Paper Lace
I don't know why you took 'em off. Maybe Paper Lace had some hits in Mondonesia or somewhere, but they were a one-hit wonder so far as I know. Or were they like the Status Quo or Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mich and Tich, huge in England but one-hit wonders in the US? Ortolan88

''they had more than one hit in the UK- Billy Don't Be a Hero and The Night Chicago Died are two I can recall straight off the top of my head- Im sure they had others as well but buggered if I can remember (or care) what they were.... quercus robur''


 * The criteria for this subject could be a little vague. For example, The Lemon Pipers (my favorite bubblegum band) had a number 1 hit with "Green Tambourine".  I don't think they ever hit the top 40 again, although "Rice is Nice" may have made it to around 50 or so on the Hot 100 survey.  So if top 40 is the cutoff, then a band that has a top 40 hit but all other attempts barely make the Hot 100, then is it a one hit wonder or not?  I would say yes, but it is really a matter of just picking 40 as the more or less arbitrary cutoff point.  And of course there is the matter of US charts versus UK charts or Australian charts.  The Easybeats had a big hit with "Friday On My Mind" int he US, but my guess is that they had more hits in Australia. soulpatch


 * Hmm there are probably loads of groups that only had one number one but got lower in the charts lots of other times, so if that was the criteria the list would be endless- top 40 or even top 20 sounds OK to me... quercus robur

Mike Oldfield
Mike Oldfield as one hit wonder? Not so sure about that- there was "On Horseback" and "In Dulce Jubilo" (spelling??) and others as well I'm sure- was "Tubular Bells" released as a single? If so I don't think it was ever a hit... Hey this is real pub chat stuff this isn't it??? quercus robur


 * "Tubular Bells" was definitely a single in the US. I remember hearing it all the time on the radio back in the 70s.  soulpatch

Yep I knew there was another one that had fallen down the back of my mental filing cabinet- 'Moonlight Shadow' was an eighties biggie here in the UK as well as the others mentioned above- and I think he did a single of the Blue peter theme but I'm not sure it it was a hit... best he comes out of the article... quercus robur

Yes, I was just thinking of "Moonlight Shadow". I hardly think any one could call any one as big in the world of popular music as Mike Oldfield a one-hit wonder. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 16:40, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Right Said Fred
also taken out right said fred, they had at least three hits, Too sexy, Deeply Dippy and Don't talk Just kiss.

Thompson twins had a number of UK 80's hits, including Hold Me now, Doctor doctor, take Me Up, Love On Your Side and others I'm sure. BTW my next door neighbour used to be in an early incarnation of the Thompson Twins... Cheers quercus robur

T'pau
T'pau also had at least one other UK hit with China In Your hand. Jeez they were a shite band ;-)
 * However in the United States they had a grand total of one hit. Hence they're a one hit wonder there Doc StrangeMailbox Logbook 19:47, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Six of Tpau's single releases made the UK top ten, so not a one hit wonder. The definition of a one hit wonder is one massive song and never seen again i would suggest you could include Babylon Zoo in here  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.173.16.185 (talk) 09:23, 21 October 2017 (UTC)

Dodgy
This is distinctly dodgy article. What is the definition for one-hit wonder on the list? Ifa band had a hit in a country other than the US are they still a one hit wonder? For example Kajagoogoo had 2 more hits in the UK("Ooh to Be Ah" and "Hang on Now"). Mintguy 23:41 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)


 * Urg. Thanks for reminding me of Kajagoogoo quercus robur

''Also Aha- loads of hits, can't remember titles. quercus robur''

The Verve??? What about The Drugs don't work???? Much bigger than B.S. Symphony IIRC quercus robur


 * This might be one of those US/UK things... was The Verve really big here in the US? --Dante Alighieri 23:52 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)

By country
Can I suggest that instead of this single list of one-hit wonders we have a link to One-hit wonders in the UK and One-hit wonders in the US etc.. otherwise this will be a source of constant argument. Mintguy 23:53 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)


 * What about One-hit wonders in Greenland? --Dante Alighieri 23:55 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)


 * I agree if you re-read the above paragraph you may have noticed etc...


 * Damn you for ruining my joke!!! --Dante Alighieri 23:59 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)


 * I bet Nena (99 Red Balloons) had more hits in Germany as well... quercus robur


 * Apropos of nothing, it is interesting to not that sometimes you get interesting reverse results, where bands are less popular in their native country than elsewhere. I recall that the Fixx was more popular in the US than they were in the UK. soulpatch


 * You made them up!!!! :-) quercus robur


 * Never heard of 'em. Looking at my Guinness book of British Hit singles I see that they only charted twice in the UK ("Stand or Fall" reached 54 and "Red Skies" reached 57). Mintguy 00:02 Dec 4, 2002 (UTC)


 * Both of those songs got a lot more airplay in the US, I'm pretty sure (at least the stations I listened to played them a lot back in the mid-80s). By the way, the Fixx still tours, I just found out.  They have a web page and everything!  I had no idea.  Check out http://www.thefixx.com .  Anyway, as I recall, they were a UK band that had little success in their home country, but they were bigger in the US.


 * Umm. The Fixx are hardly a one hit wonder. They racked up 10 songs on the US hot 100 with 6 of them cracking the top 40 over a roughly ten year period from 1982 to 1991. Keep in mind Echo and the Bunnymen, The Jam, English Beat could never crack the hot 100 in America..not even once. User: Cinecromancer

Ton Loc
I don't think Ton Loc belongs; he did have "Funky Cold Medina" also. --KQ 00:07 Dec 4, 2002 (UTC)

Agreed; took care of it. Hephaestos 00:34 Dec 4, 2002 (UTC)

Soft Cell
Soft Cell- urm, Torch, Say Hello Wave Goodbye, What?, to name but three other hits in the UK quercus robur

By country
It's time to split this list as described above! Many of these "One-hit wonders" in the US were no-hit wonders in the UK and proably vice-versa.


 * I really don't think you've thought this split through. It would be much better to have only one list and label the ones that are British-only or American-only.  As it is, most of the songs are on both lists, but the two lists will be much harder to maintain.  One list will be much more interesting, as Brits marvel that the Status Quo are virtually unknown in the US and learn that "Billy Don't Be a Hero" mad Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods one-hit wonders in thee US while they think it made Paper Lace two-hit wonders in Blighty.  Ortolan88 03:34 Dec 4, 2002 (UTC)
 * No because when the Aussies and the South Africans and the Kiwis and everybody else gets on board a single list will be a mess. As for duplicates. I've edited the 50s and the 90s and the 2000s I haven't touched the others yet. Mintguy 03:49 Dec 4, 2002 (UTC)


 * Not to nitpick or anything, but Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods had another minor hit that I recall in the US, titled "Who Do You Think You Are". But of course that has nothing to do with the issue at hand.  I agree that maintaining a single list with labeling makes more sense.  soulpatch


 * Oh well, I see that the list has been split up, so it is a moot point. I don't really care that much one way or the other. soulpatch

Another case where the whole crisis is on the talk page and there is no problem in the article. If there are one-hit wonders in New Zealand and Oz and Mondonesia and Elbonia, let's see them. Another solution would be to list only the international one-hit wonders on the main page and have separate pages for the one-country-opne-hit wonders. I'm just worried about entropy. I think one-hit wonders are important. Be gentle with me. Ortolan88


 * Also showing that a particular band big on one side of the pond were a OHW means nothing. There are thousands more examples where bands were no-hit wonders. Tom Petty springs to mind. His highest UK chart position was 28..Mintguy

I have open in front of me The Guinness Book of British Hit singles, It's easy for me to add/remove to a UK only list with this tome. If I have to go thru every track listed on an international OHW list to confirm whether or not it was a hit in the UK and/or whether they had other hits it would be a nightmare. Mintguy 04:08 Dec 4, 2002 (UTC)


 * That's what I mean about entropy. It would be better to delete dubious cases than to have many lists.  Ortolan88

And then, what about regional one-hit wonders--ongs that got a lot of airplay in a single part of the United States (probably a local band) but never made it as national hits? I am sure there were examples of that, although I can't think of any off the top of my head. soulpatch

Hendrix?
I'm still puzzling over the mention of Jimi Hendrix as a one-hit wonder. I'm not even a Hendrix fan, and I immediately think of Purple Haze and Foxy Lady instead of Watchtower. Ventura 17:39, 2004 Sep 23 (UTC)


 * Yes, but were they successful singles? Tregoweth 23:05, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)


 * Someone like Hendrix has the kind of long term success that makes them anything except a one-hit wonder. This can even be given an objective criteria such as "You're not a one-hit wonder if you have had three or more top-40 albums" or some such.  Samboy 12:10, 4 May 2005 (UTC)


 * hendrix had THREE top 20 singles in the UK. Considering that Hendrix basically had to come to England to even get recognition as a musician - the whole section about "Billboard Top 40" is basically a cultural oddity and should be erased or severely pruned.


 * Changing tack a bit - one-hit wonders in my understanding are those artists that have a Top 10 hit (probable album and possible follow up) which then disappear below the radar forever as that persona (for example "Python Lee Jackson" or "Klark Kent" - Rod Stewart and Sting (or was it The Police) would be one hit wonders) as would Doe Dolce (Shutupayourface). However, would Plastic Bertrand be a one hit wonder - yes but only in the UK and US. In Belgium - well he's not!


 * Candy 07:43, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

VH1 chart
Seems we're back with an Americanised version of this article- see above discussion, Soft Cell had a number of UK hits, so did Dexys Midnight Runners, A-ha and Right Said Fred - that's nearly half of the contributors to the provided VH1 Chart, and I don't think Gerardo (who he??) had any hits at all in the UK. Isn't because of this discrepancy between the countries why this article had two sub pages for US & UK one hit wonders? quercus robur

Merge from Two Hit Wonders
Why was only a sentence merged from the original Two Hit Wonders article? Was it a mistake or was only a sentence supposed to be merged without the rest of the article? Well anyways, I was able to finish the merge by merging the rest of the article. --; 02:42, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * Because it was the substantive content. The list was irrelevant and contained many dubious entries.   &mdash; Gwalla | Talk 05:14, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The article looks awkward now with that list in the middle of it. The merged sentence looks fine, but the list needs to be broken out for easier reading like in One-hit wonders in the United States. That way any dubious entries can be easily checked like the list for one-hit wonders. Morrid 06:47, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

One Number One Hit Wonder
How about a page on artistes with only ONE number one hit?

This would include artistes like the Eurythemics,Sting etc.
 * Go ahead and make one. However, List of musical artists with exactly one number-one song might be a better title?  --Locarno 16:53, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Frankly, I don't see the point of such an article. -R. fiend 17:05, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
 * A far more interesting (and a lot shorter) list would be of those artists and songs whose ONLY Billboard Hot 100 hit (or the UK equivalent chart) was a #1 song. I actually put together such a list once, and I think there were only six or seven songs on it. Cheemo 21:35, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

8/17/05 changes

 * Tragically, sometimes these artists only had one chart success due to untimely death or injury (such as Minnie Riperton and Blind Melon).

I shorted this to only mention death. If someone can name a one-hit wonder who was slowed down because of a career-ending injury, please speak up.


 * Blind Melon was considered "washed up" by the time of the lead singer's death, so I don't think blaming the sole hit on the death is justified. (Blaming the death on the sole hit, however, may be another matter....)


 * Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Lou Reed, Buffalo Springfield, Funkadelic, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Roxy Music, Iggy Pop, Sinéad O'Connor, Beck, Randy Newman, Patti Smith, and Radiohead have each had only one song in Billboard Magazine’s Top 40, yet none is considered a one-hit wonder.


 * Under a strict application of the given definition - "an artist who is generally known for only one hit" - Sinead O’Connor could be considered a one-hit; she did make the VH1 list. Besides, there are plenty of better examples to make the point already
 * Funkadelic may have had only a single hit but its sister band Parliament had several. Both bands are usually seen within the context of George Clinton’s career (just as Derick and the Dominos are seen in Eric Clapton’s) so I think it’s somewhat misleading to label them as an artists with only one hit
 * According to all music.com, Patti Smith never made the Billboard top 40
 * Another all music error (so what else is new?). She made the top 20 with "Because the Night" in 1978, a song she "co-wrote" with Bruce Springsteen. Cheemo 21:36, 23 May 2007 (UTC)


 * One-hit wonderdom is also a function of trendiness, and growing (or fading consensus) among both fans and the music business. Influential performers such as Bob Marley, Nick Drake, the Ramones, the Smiths and the Velvet Underground never had a U.S. Top 40 hit, but are played more frequently on radio and television today than during their actual careers.


 * Note that most people would consider Randy Newman to have multiple "hits" due to his musical prominence in popular movie soundtracks. More people are currently familiar with his versions of "The Natural," "I Love L.A.," "I Love to See You Smile," and "You've Got a Friend in Me" (not to mention the many, many hit and semi-hit songs he wrote but did not perform the hit versions of) than they are with his "one hit."

I’m not sure what this passage ads. Does it really say anything about one-hit wonders in specific to state that bands that never had a hit can become more influential than commercially successful bands? Isn’t that more commentary on popular music in general?


 * Conversely, acts that enjoyed several hits in their heyday have been judged as foolish, passe, or forgettable, and have been shunted aside by U.S. radio. The oldies format can be historically ruthless in discarding a given performer's "lesser" songs and playing only their best-known single, which can create the false impression that they were a one-hit wonder.

I’m also a bit confused by this. Can anyone name an artist who was retrospectively turned into a one-hit wonder by radio? I know formatted radio has a tendency to consider some hits "kosher" so to speak but I can’t think of an artist who’s been put in the same class as a-ha and Soft Cell because of this. If anyone can name and defend a few examples, maybe this section should return.

Also, because lists of popular one-hit wonders were moved to another article, I thought classical music ones should be as well.

- Rorschach567


 * I personally think that Sinead O'Connor is a One Hit Wonder, but that's just me. Also, can we have a blanket statement to remove artists who only had one song, period?  USA for Africa, ESPN Presents the Jock Jam, etc. --DropDeadGorgias (talk) 17:06, August 24, 2005 (UTC)

Has the band SKYLARK been discussed? Featured David Foster and they had one huge hit. It made BILLBOARD Top 10 in 1972.

George

I’m also a bit confused by this. Can anyone name an artist who was retrospectively turned into a one-hit wonder by radio? I know formatted radio has a tendency to consider some hits "kosher" so to speak but I can’t think of an artist who’s been put in the same class as a-ha and Soft Cell because of this. If anyone can name and defend a few examples, maybe this section should return. Just to play devil's advocate here are a couple:

? and the Mysterians, best known for "96 Tears", reached #22 in 1966 with "I Need Somebody".

Formatics also come into play since oldies radio covers a certain time period. So they play the Irish Rovers 1968 #7 "The Unicorn" but not their 1981 #37 comeback (as "The Rovers") with "Wasn't that a Party?".

Donnie Iris really only gets airplay for "Love is a Rock" but he had two other top 40 hits with "Ah! Leah!" and "My Girl."

Digital Underground charted not only "Humpty Dance" but also "Kiss You Back".

In general, if a song doesn't hit #15 or above, oldies radio tends to forget about it but that doesn't necessarily tell you how popular said act was in their heyday. GBrady (talk) 17:46, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Simple Minds
Simple Minds was not a one-hit wonder. Their other hits included "Alive and Kicking" and "Sanctify Yourself"

--Syd

Restructuring of the Questions of Definition section
I was reading the questions section in edit mode, and decided I would make some grammatical corrections. As it turned out, I wound up doing a major restructuring of the section. I was not happy with the grammar and the flow. Opening sentences now convey main ideas of each paragraph, and are similarly structured. Two paragraphs were combined for similarity of subject matter, while another was broken into two for clarity. Paragraphs were shuffled into an order to try to make better the transitions from each idea to the next. Short opening and closing paragraphs were added to try to tie everything together.

I was happy with the content. I made very few content changes, leaving the good work of prior writers and editors almost entirely intact. I removed two short phrases that I thought were too far from the points of the paragraphs. One was the phrase about Great White having several smaller hits. The point of Great White having a smaller hit but still being considered a one-hit wonder was not enhanced by the inclusion of Great White lesser known hits. I thought it went too far aside and detracted from the point. (I lost track of the second cut, but it too was minor.)

A third, the one about the a-ha song being a number one hit in the UK, I left in. Although I did not think this was a necessary point and would have left it out, I thought that the person who had originally added it did so because it is an interesting example of how US and UK charts differ not only regarding number of hits, but also order of popularity.

Looking at the list of performers who had one top 40 hit but are not generally considered one hit wonders, I immediately noticed that they were all big album rock groups, and added that point to the list of possible reasons for the distinction between those one-time top 40 groups as compared to the other generally accepted one-hit performers which seemed to be popular in genres other than album rock. I would say popular album rock groups are not considered one-hit wonders because of the general popularity of the format. I thought about changing that paragraph much more than I actually did. I may yet revisit that paragraph.

If the feedback is positive, I will gradually edit the rest of the article. --the editor formerly known as GrammarGuy (aka this unpronouncable symbol §).

I SEE THAT there have been many changes to this section since I did my restructuring. I think the changes have been really excellent. I made a few minor technical changes and corrections. I am not happy with the slipping from present tense into past tense throughout the section. I made a few of the tenses match better, for example, now, both sentences read 'produce' rather than one saying 'produce' and the other saying 'produced.' Although I would not normally hyphenate the term one-hit wonder, I removed the quotes and hyphenated it in one place to match the rest of the form of the article. There was one grammatical error that seemed to proliferate:

PUNCTUATION GOES INSIDE THE QUOTES unless the punctuation applies to the whole thought but not to the quote. For example, a quote within a question would put the question mark outside the quote.

Did you say "I think a-ha should not be capitalized"?

You did say "I think a-ha should not be capitalized."

Did you say "where does the question mark go?"

You did say "where does the question mark go?"

--7-7-2004 the editor formerly known as GrammarGuy (aka this unpronouncable symbol §).

Removing classical music section
I deleted the whole section because it is completely unverified as a concept that exists outside of popular music. I wouldn't mind if someone brought back the section, but it needs sources and verification that the term is actively used for classical music outside of Wikipedia. The whole section sounds like original research, and stretching the concept outside of the confines of popular music/culture with its sales charts and hits sounds illogical. hateless 17:00, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Reviewing the sources a bit more closely, it seems like there is enough to say the term has been used for classical music. But the exploration into the term and what the subjective criteria for using the term still sounds OR, and I'm leaving that out of the article. hateless 17:46, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Determining a one-hit wonder in classical music is no more subjective than in popular music. There are a number of classical works that are heard over and over in commercials, movies and television shows where the composers are known for no other work outside classical circles. Some are known for no other work inside classical circles. Deutsche Grammophon has released an album of such. This is just as good as VH1's or anyone else's list. I have listed them in the article. The list is too long (26 entries) so I will edit it down to 10 later if nobody beats me to it. I also rewrote the paragraph on classical music in the definitions section. After realizing that what I wrote, as well as what was already there, seemed like opinion and OR I deleted the whole thing and rewrote it again with just the facts about the albums. Rsduhamel 03:33, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

(I think a Classical section would be appropriate for, say, Boccherini, Pachelbel, etc). You can avoid the "original research" pitfall by citing how often their "one-hit" is used today in popular media 69.228.240.61 02:07, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Revisited
When it comes to classical music, the so-called "one-hit wonders" seem to fall into 2 camps:
 * the ones that the general public know about - these include the Pachelbel Canon, Barber's Adagio, Massenet's Meditation, Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 5, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours, etc. As far as they're aware, these may as well be the only pieces those composers ever wrote
 * but those who know their classical music a little better would never put most of those pieces into "one-hit wonders". Maybe the Pachelbel Canon would remain.

However, there really are a lot of classical pieces, quite well known, that even classical buffs would consider one-hit wonders. I think of things like:
 * Litolff's Scherzo (not even a complete work)
 * Sinding's Rustle of Spring
 * Hamish MacCunn's The Land of the Mountain and the Flood overture
 * Arthur Benjamin's Jamaican Rhumba
 * Minkus's Don Quixote ballet
 * Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto
 * Vittorio Monti's Czardas
 * Toselli's Serenade
 * Lalo's Symphonie espagnole
 * Ethel Smythe's opera The Wreckers
 * Kalinnikov's Symphony No. 1
 * Parry's Jerusalem
 * Smetana's The Moldau
 * Holst's The Planets
 * Ronald Binge's Elizabethan Serenade
 * Tarrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra
 * Ippolitov-Ivanov's Caucasian Sketches,
 * and many more.

It's not that anyone who's ever done any reading on these people believes they wrote nothing else, but when someone says the name "Litolff", for example, who doesn't immediately think "Scherzo"? Sure, many other works by these people have been recorded and are performed, but the works I listed seem to be so way out in front in terms of being far-and-away their single best-known work, that they may as well be one-hit wonders. Is there a case for creating a separate list of such works? -- JackofOz (talk) 02:07, 15 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Maybe something like "Composers known primarily for one work". --  JackofOz (talk) 02:09, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Duets
I seem to recall from the Guiness book of Hit singles that they considered records by duets, such as Bowie/Jagger's "Dancing in the streets" as one hit wonders" as it is the only hit that that duo have had together. Is this worth entering - I am sure there are loads of others. --C Hawke 07:40, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

This part was removed without disscusion here - and I will put it back if no valid reason is posted - these were classified by the Guiness Book as one hit wonders so it is a valid category. --C Hawke 09:08, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Associating either David Bowie or Mick Jagger with a one hit wonder is completely false. It would clearly be debateable if one of the two artists was previously (and subsequently) unknown, but Bowie and Jagger are two of the most famous icons in modern musical history. As for the GBHS, I'm sure there are sources who treat duets differently. I'm not saying that duets and collaborations should not make the list, but at least in this case i do not think it warants inclusion. Random89 02:02, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

I disagree, the entry should cover all the main definitions of OHWs that have been used - this is a valid definition used by a major source (at one time anyway - has anyone got the current version of the book?)--C Hawke 07:18, 1 September 2006 (UTC)


 * I know this discussion is now old, but it now more pertinent than ever, given 12 years after this topic was raised we are now living in the era of 'Artist A feat. Rapper B'. Half of all top 10 songs at any given time are Someone feat. Someone Else, and most of these pairings are one-offs. All one-hit wonders? Rhianna feat. Kanye West? One-hit wonder? Surely not.Robbmonster (talk) 16:59, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

Uriah Heep
Removed the reference to them as one-hit wonders. They had at least 4 top 20 hits in the UK and in many countries around the world several hits in respective charts. They also had five gold and 2 platinum albums!!

Candy 18:04, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but how many hits did they have in the U.S.? Only one with "Easy Livin'". Here in the US, bands as famous as Phish("Heavy Things", 2000), Grateful Dead ("Touch Of Grey", 1987), Rush ("New World Man", 1986?) The KLF ("3 a.m. Eternal", 1993) Take That ("Back For Good", 1996), Jars of Clay ("Flood", 1996) and The Flaming Lips ("She Don't Use Jelly, 1996) all only have one hit. That's why the Heep are considered one hit wonders.

Doc Strange 20:14, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
 * As one of the primary authors of The KLF I don't mind them being listed here, on the contrary in fact - I'm quite surprised they're deemed worthy of an entry. That said, were they actually one hit wonders in the US? 3 a.m. Eternal says that song charted at #5. #11 is claimed for Justified and Ancient with Tammy Wynette. Hardly meteoric success but unless you're discounting the Tammy collab, that's 2 top 40 hits. --kingboyk 18:58, 21 October 2006 (UTC)


 * @Candy: Heep didn't have any top 40 hit in the official UK single charts (but several albums). see everyhit.com --Yeahx3 (talk) 21:09, 3 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Indeed there is two top 40 hits listed for The KLF. So then they're a two-hit wonder in the US. Doc StrangeMailbox Logbook 13:18, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Lipps Inc.
FUNKY TOWN !!

Julie London
I think including Julie London in a section about one hit wonders from other media is a little problematic. She certainly was well known as a singer before she was seen on Emergency!. I don't object to categorizing her as a one hit wonder, but saying that she "crossed over" from TV in the 1970s to pop music in the 1950s is a little problematic chronologicallly. Any thoughts?

APWebber 16:43, 19 September 2006 (UTC)


 * The article does not say she "crossed over" one way or the other, only that she would be more well-known as an actress than as a singer. Her article states "...She was named one of Billboard's most popular female vocalists for 1955, 1956, and 1957...Other hit singles include "No Moon at All"; "My Heart Belongs to Daddy"; and "Two Sleepy People". " (emphasis mine), yet my Billboard book of One-Hit Wonders gives her one top-40 hit, "Cry Me A River" in 1955. Seems odd that one hit peaking at #9 would make someone the most popular vocalist for three years.
 * Imagine if that actor who plays Denny Crane on "Boston Legal" cut a hit back in the sixties...he'd be listed here too, not as a crossover, but as being better known for other things than singing. --SigPig 16:57, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Now that I've thought about it a little more, I guess I really didn't make my point too well. What I was really trying to say is that I doubt anyone who is old enough to remember London's singing career woiuld identify her primarily as a nurse on Emergency! I guess I am not really sure.

APWebber 17:08, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Stone Temple Pilots
This topic has STP on the list of One-hit wonder band. It says that STP had only one top forty hit. The band had fifteen top ten singles on the Billboard rock charts, including six # 1's, and one # 1 album on the pop charts (1994's Purple). I don't think that would make it a One-hit wonder band. I am going to remove STP from the list so that people don't actually believe that STP was a One-hit wonder band. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 209.142.172.150 (talk) 04:30, 10 December 2006 (UTC).

One hit wonder status is based on the POP chart. So it is perfectly true that STP can be a huge rock act while being only a "one hit wonder" in pop chart terms. Led Zeppelin is a "one hit wonder" too...for "Fool in the Rain". GBrady (talk) 17:58, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Amerocentricity
This article is très Amero-centric...relying on Billboard charts that aren't applicable to other countries. This article should deal with one-hit wonders in general, as a concept. I'm going to move the US-specific info (much of which I put in myself, I admit) over to One-hit wonders in the United States. -- Sig Pig  |SEND - OVER 15:58, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

American Pie?
I've always been told that "American Pie" is the canonical "one-hit wonder" song for Don McLean. I know he also did a few other songs, but to not mention him here seems a bit... empty. --Randal L. Schwartz 22:49, 15 June 2007 (UTC)


 * One, it's McLean, and two, I think "Vincent" was a pretty big hit in a lot of countries - it actually got to number one in the UK, which American Pie didn't (it got stuck behind Nilsson's "Without You"). -88.111.39.33 22:23, 15 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Agreed. McLean barely missed being a One Hit Wonder; his career was a Two Hit Bit. Unschool 22:32, 15 September 2007 (UTC)


 * He had two number ones in the UK - neither of which were "American Pie". So what's that - a three hit wonder?--82.0.207.86 (talk) 22:40, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

Baltimora "Tarzan Boy"
Baltimora (with its one and only hit, the 1985 single "Tarzan Boy") is surely the "canonical" one hit wonder. I don't see how this article can be complete with a reference to it!Bdell555 08:19, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

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Jimi and Janis were NEVER one hit wonders
Janis was never a one hit wonder. Both "Piece of My Heart" and "Me and Bobby McGee" made it into the top twenty with "McGee" going all the way to number one (It was after her death though which might be why). Not to mention she produced two number one hit albums that both stayed there for weeks. And although Jimi only had one top twenty hit in America, all four of his albums made it into the top five with Electric Ladyland peeking at number one for two weeks. Plus both of them were incredibally popular in the late sixties and into the seventies. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elwood17 (talk • contribs) 05:11, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
 * "Piece of My Heart" is credited to Big Brother and the Holding Company, not Janis Joplin Doc StrangeMailbox Logbook 13:21, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Eric Carmen? Men without hats?
Eric Carmen had two other hits beside "All by myself" : "Make me lose control" and "Hungry eyes". As for Men without Hats, not only "The Safety Dance", but also "Pop goes the world". Andres65 (talk) 21:02, 23 November 2007 (UTC) Men Without Hats actually also had "Moonbeam" on the same album than Pop goes the world... defo not a OHW. Spotnick (talk) 19:14, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Mountain
Would Mountain be considered a one-hit wonder? I'm sure they've had success with album sales and such, but as far as I know, "Mississippi Queen" was their only Top 40 hit, which would put them under Wayne Jancik's definition. - Cubs Fan (talk) 15:39, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Nena (and others)
It is grossly false to call Nena a one-hit wonder without some qualification saying she's a one-hit wonder in English-speaking countries, or the like, and I'm told the same is true of some other artists listed here. Nena has had huge numbers of hits in German-speaking countries and her many concerts are still selling out weeks in advance today.

So the article should say somewhere very conspicuously that the data apply only to the USA or to English-speaking countries. Where would be the best place to put that in this article, where the reader would find it hard to avoid seeing it? Michael Hardy (talk) 02:09, 2 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I think the central problem with this type of article is that the actual meaning of the term varies and the artists listed may not be, strictly-speaking, "one-hit wonders" since they've had more than one hit somewhere in the world. It's not just an issue of English-speaking countries vs. the rest of the world. As others have pointed out, there are artists who have had one hit in the US, but more hits in the UK. Men Without Hats (mentioned above), had one US hit, but three in Canada. Likewise, non-English speaking acts, such as Nena, have had hits in their home country. There is a tag that can be placed on the article indicating that the term or use of the term in this context is not understood world-wide, but I think this is only a temporary measure and indicates the need to rewrite the intro to explain that many artists are perceived as one-hit wonders in a major market such as the US, but have in fact had more than one hit elsewhere. I'll place some tags on the article indicating that more work needs to be done, but this is just a stop-gap. One solution would be to include only acts who have had one hit world-wide, but really, how many of them are there? Starland Vocal Band comes to mind. But this may not work (the research involved would be difficult). I think an intro that outlines the difficulties of establishing criteria for categories such as this will be necessary, and perhaps subsections on one-hit wonders in major markets such as the US and the UK (plus the published lists that have come form media outlets in those markets).  freshacconci  speak to me  15:16, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Whitesnake?
I'm a little curious as to how Whitesnake can be considered a two-hit wonder. If you look at their discography, you will see they've had several singles hit the charts. BucsWeb (talk) 16:58, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

They've had three U.S. Billboard Top 40 hits. So they're a "three hit wonder". Rock charts don't typically count when you're talking about the "one hit wonder" concept which is why TECHNICALLY Led Zeppelin is a one hit wonder in the U.S. Only "Fool in the Rain" ever hit the Top 40 chart. GBrady (talk) 17:55, 4 June 2009 (UTC)


 * No, that's incorrect. "Whole Lotta Love", "Immigrant Song", "Black Dog" and "D'yer Mak'er" were all Top 40 hits in the U.S.A. (But categorizing a band that sold a hundred-million albums as a "one-hit wonder" is ludicrous, anyways. It's antithetical to the spirit of the term.) Vonbontee (talk) 15:25, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

Radiohead now has 2 hits
I removed Radiohead from the list of artists that have only one top 40 hit but are known for something else, etc, etc because their song "Nude" reached #37 on the Hot 100 [here]. 67.177.184.125 (talk) 22:06, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Another point regarding another supposed 2 hit wonder - Crowded House. 5 hit albums (and another album which hasn't done so well), and 13 hit singles doesn't classify as a 2 hit wonder[]. As such I have removed it from this list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.13.128.102 (talk) 23:19, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

a-ha
It is wrong to have a-ha on the list.

They have had 3 songs in top 40 in the USA ( Take On Me, The Sun Always Shines On TV, Crying in the Rain ). There are several charts in the USA. a-ha has reached nr 1 in several countries around the world, and has several top 10 and top 20 hits around the world, including the UK. Most notably a top 10 in 2005 in the UK. They have also had top 50 and top 100 in the USA. And why are only USA and UK charts included here ? Japan is the seconf largest record market in the world. Germany is also large. This page is highly questinable and should be deleted.Mortyman (talk) 00:17, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

I agree a-ha had plenty of top ten hits in the uk so cannot be classed as one hit wonder. There second uk single went to No 1 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.173.16.185 (talk) 09:18, 21 October 2017 (UTC)

Two hit wonder
What is the point of this section? There are thousands of groups/singers who've had 2 hits, but how is this notable? And why does this list contain such a selection? I could probably name 100 off the top of my head.--Tuzapicabit (talk) 14:00, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Agreed. I don't see the point in a "two hit wonders" designation other than as a meek copout to satisfy those who only "remember" the one "big hit". Either they had 1 hit or they had more. GBrady (talk) 17:56, 4 June 2009 (UTC)


 * You're right. Some extremely popular bands, such as Nirvana and Pink Floyd, were only two-hit wonders. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.142.60.34 (talk) 23:18, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

Simple Plan is also not a two-hit wonder. "Perfect, Addicted, Untitled, and Crazy" have all hit #1 in the U.S.   Just look at their discography:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Plan_discography ~Ryan —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.253.4.122 (talk) 04:43, 10 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Of the four songs you listed, only one even surpassed #40, according to that very discography, and none of them hit #1. Bearcat (talk) 08:01, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Gnarls Barkley
Shouldn't this be on the list somewhere? --24.21.148.212 (talk) 04:47, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

One Hit pensions?
Which artists went on to live off the royalties of, or made a career based on, the one hit? That would be interesting. EdX20 (talk) 21:01, 19 June 2009 (UTC)


 * When Don McLean was once asked what "American Pie" meant he replied that it meant he never had to work again :-) Mr Larrington (talk) 15:30, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Jefferson Airplane?
Noticed Jefferson Airplane being listed under the 2-hit wonders section. While that's true under the Airplane moniker, I seem to recall that the group had other hits in the late 70s/early 80s as Jefferson Starship as well; does that still qualify them for this section? 76.103.148.132 (talk) 07:01, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Misguided listings
The authors of the article are obviously aware that there are many problems with the typical rankings. However, I would go further yet, and consider the current article grossly misleading by giving the country specific perceptions too much place. It is quite natural for e.g. a US listener to measure the "hittiness" of a group/artist by their success in the US; however, this is a naive misestimate. Any encyclopedic definition and treatment should take care to focus on groups who are one-hit wonders in a more global perspective (or a national for those who only ever made a national impact).

To illustrate this, consider the repeatedly mentioned Nena and her "Luftballons": Looking at the German WP page, she had a nr 17 hit (in Germany) as late as last year and a nr 1 in 2005. In the first phase of her career, she had six top-3 hits (including 99 Luftballons), and I suspect that it is another one of them ("Irgendwo, irgendwie, irgendwann") for which she is best known in Germany... Here in Germany, she is just a few notches short of being a living legend.

(I am not clear on whether the many apparent non-entries in the listing are true non-entries or whether they reflect missing data; however, the apparent lack of success coincides with her moving from an act named "Nena" to a solo career using the same name, with a considerable drop in quality.)

Another striking example is "20 to 1: One Hit Wonders" and Billy Ray Cyrus, who (whether deservedly or not) is one of the most successful US artists of the last few decades. 94.220.241.228 (talk) 23:15, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Two Hit Wonders
The section is awful and makes no distinction between bands with two hits that simply faded away and those who were highly influential on those who followed follow (Allman Brothers Band), genre defining bands (The Clash, Nirvana), and others that would have been excluded based on the one hit wonder criterion (Ozzy Osbourne). The section needs to be cleaned up or better yet removed as it constitutes originial research. Soxwon (talk) 16:34, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Also, IMO, if they made it to the rock and roll hall of fame, they're not two hit wonders. That would exclude Elvis Costello as well as Allman Bros. and The Clash. This list is a joke. Soxwon (talk) 22:26, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * The list is US-centric, original research at its best and fails to provide a definition of what counts as a "hit". Two top thirty-something singles don't seem to be enough to be listed, especially if they only held this position for some weeks. It also fails to list some singles which disqualify an artist from being a two-hit wonder, e.g. De La Soul's The Magic Number (which charted higher than Me Myself and I). Don Cuan (talk) 20:03, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

2525
Shouldn't Zager & Evans "In the year 2525" appear under these circumstances?

Steve Martin
There is a comment regarding Steve Martin...claiming that he was a singer before he became an actor. This is not necessarily a true statement. Before he was anything, he was a magician/comedian/salesman...getting his start while still a teenager working in walkway kiosks at Disneyland. His music was merely another method to his comedic style. His love of the banjo has been evident, not only on the majority of his early stand-up albums, but also in his performances in movies and television, dating back to his guest appearances on "The Tonight Show" with Johny Carson and in the formative years of Saturday Night Live, where he became wildly popular...not only with the audience, but with the network and the cast as well. With regards to his "one hit wonder" with "King Tut," THAT was a musical release of the actual performance from Saturday Night Live. In 'A backstage History of Saturday Night Live," it is stated that during one of the weeks where he was the guest host, he presented producer Lorne Michaels with an idea he had been toying with his his mind. At that time, the treasures of King Tut's tomb were on tour in the United States, And Mr Martin was fascinated with the media circus surrounding its display. He presented Lorne with the idea of doing a small musical number about the touring artifacts and wondered if it could be worked into the show somehow. What he didn't know at the time was that Lorne and the other writers had decided it was such a great concept that they made it into the centerpiece of show...complete with lavish sets and costuming. The song "King Tut" was recorded live during the show, then used on his next comedy album "One Wild and Crazy Guy," and released as a single. Following the strictness definition of the term "one-hit wonder," you could say that, yes, "King Tut" was Steve martins only "hit." But since, with very few exceptions, (Cheech and Chong, George Carlin) comedy bits themselves were very rarely played on the radio, this song was a true "bonus" for both Steve martin AND his record company in that now he was a major comedy act getting tremendous airplay which he otherwise would not have gotten had it not been for a novelty song thrown together at the last minute for a (at the time) small, late night, low-rated, low-budgeted and relatively unknown television show. His acting career was an outgrowth of the popularity generated by his SNL appearances...especially AFTER the "King Tut" performance, starting with 1978's "The Jerk." To state that Steve martin was a singer BEFORE he was an actor is simply misleading in that he was ALWAYS a singer...as part of his comedy persona. His singing was coupled with a comedy bits or routines, "Rambling Guy" being a good early example. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Subego (talk • contribs) 08:32, 14 May 2011 (UTC)


 * An example of similar situation would be Hugh Laurie, who was technically a musician (in the sense that he learned to play the piano) before he became an actor, but was already well-established as a comedy actor who happened to be able to play music long before releasing his hit album Let Them Talk. Martin was a comedy writer and stand-up comedian long before "King Tut", so the statement that he was a singer "first" is misleading at best.72.34.128.250 (talk) 19:14, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Simon Dupre and the Big Sound
Shouldn't Simon_Dupree_and_the_Big_Sound be added here, as their fame rests upon their one big hit, Kites? ACEOREVIVED (talk) 16:41, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Gerardo
"Gerardo has never had any hits in the UK at all, but he is still a highly honored performer in his homeland of Ecuador, as well as in other Latin American countries" How does this disqualify him from the list? He has had no success in his musical career after "Rico Suave" so being an "honored performer" should not disqualify him. --76.237.181.73 (talk) 04:01, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Wrong Link for "Can You Dig It?" in Channel 4's "50 Greatest One Hit Wonders" section
In the section titled Channel 4's "50 Greatest One Hit Wonders", the link for "Can You Dig It?" goes to The Mock Turtles page when clicked rather than the actual page which is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_You_Dig_It_%28song%29.

"Technology" Section
"In the world of web analytics, one-hit wonder is used to describe a user who comes to a site from a search engine, views the piece of content he was searching for, and then leaves, never clicking an ad or engaging in any way with the site. The phenomenon is particularly germane with respect to publishers putting "paywalls" around content, and the recent struggles of news and newspaper publishers in the face of changes brought about by the Internet. The term was first used in this respect by web programmer Tim Burden on his blog,[3] and has also been used by news business pundit Jeff Jarvis.[4]"

No it isn't, this is called a bounce, as in the common web analytics term 'bounce rate'. Nowhere in web analytics is 'one-hit wonder' used.

You can see evidence for 'Bounce' being the accepted and only standard here (compare and contrast with what happens when you search for ["one hit wonder" analytics]): https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009409?hl=en-GB — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.92.82.142 (talk) 16:30, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Chumbawumba
19 albums over 3 decades, several of them making the charts. Cult following. At least 3 top 40 hits in the UK. It's true that Tubthumper was far more popular than anything else they released, but labelling them as a 1 hit wonder is very misleadingPignut (talk) 12:59, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Kalin Twins
The Kalin Twins are best known for their 1958 #5 hit "When." The song stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for 15 weeks. But they followed up quickly the same year with "Forget Me Not." This song also stayed on the Hot 100 for 15 weeks, and peaked at #12. There is no doubt that "When" is the far bigger hit, but calling the Kalin Twins "archetypal one-hit wonders" as the Kalin Twins Wikipedia page does, is out of line. "Archetypal", according to dictionary.com means "perfect or typical as a specimen of something. being an original model or pattern or a prototype." This would mean that "Forget Me Not" was not a hit. Calling a #12 song a non-hit is erroneous. I'll agree it's not a huge hit, but a hit nonetheless. If you want to call the Kalin Twins one-hit wonders - maybe -- it fits by some definitions (such as only one top 10 song), but archetypal?? Not even close! H2izcool (talk) 22:18, 20 March 2017 (UTC)

One-hit wonder inclusion criteria
If you're interested in the topic, your comments would be appreciated at Talk:List of 2010s one-hit wonders in the United States where there is a discussion with sweeping ramifications about whether the "one-hit wonder" articles will be based on charting songs or on artists described in sources. Binksternet (talk) 15:26, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

less about Jancik
The opening section Music industry is a paean to the (apparently) pioneering journalistic work of the (apparently) unnotable Wayne Jancik. Therefore I have trimmed it back in a manner more suitable for a Wikipedia article. Weeb Dingle (talk) 08:57, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

Carly Rae Jepsen should be included in the main page, not a-ha.
A-ha's 1st, 2nd, 3rd albums succeeded to hit in the Europe. On the other hand, when it comes to Carly Rae jepsen, her representive song "Call Me Maybe" made a great hit worldwide, however, her all other songs and albums failed to hit. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.173.152.253 (talk) 13:42, 21 July 2018 (UTC)

Half this article is a copyright violation
You can't print the top ten entries off a list compiled by someone else. Compiling the list is their intellectual list and it is copyrighted, and you can't do that. This isn't a matter of opinion but of fact, and that lots of other articles do it doesn't make it acceptable. I don't have the heart to keep fixing these. I just don't care enough to get into it, and it's not my job. But the lists should be destroyed.

Anyway the article is about the phenomena of one-hit wonders. These examples, while interesting, are not that instructive. So its lose-lose. Herostratus (talk) 04:18, 3 December 2018 (UTC)


 * A simple list cannot be copyright violation. Binksternet (talk) 04:47, 3 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Of course a simple list can be a copyright violation, if you are copying someone else's list. XYZ Publication made the organizational and intellectual effort to create the lists. They published it in their own for-profit publication (which is why they made the list in the first place and had the resources to do so). You can't just paste other people's work into your article. (There are exceptions for fair use, but using the entire most important section of the list goes very far beyond that).


 * I mean, look, I'm not going to debate you or anyone on this, because "A simple list cannot be copyright violation" is just prima facie incorrect, period.


 * If we took this to the copyvio board this article'd be severely redacted. This has happened many times. Herostratus (talk) 07:02, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

the "Sports" section
This is interesting stuff to be sure, but (opinion) if the phrase "one-hit wonder" does not appear in the sources (and several of the items have no sources at all) than I don't think they qualify for inclusion in this article. I am inclined to remove the entire section but prudence dictated that I mention it here first. Carptrash (talk) 18:05, 23 February 2019 (UTC)
 * For example, in the "Darts" section we read, "was sometimes called a one-hit-wonder by the media" but the reference given does not use the term "one-hit wonder" so that is going to be the first section gone. Carptrash (talk) 16:37, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

The place of sport trivia
Seeing as "one-hit wonder" refers very specifically to individuals and groups that create musical recordings, there's no latitude to tack on non-musical usage of the term because that would be coatracking.

If sports fans have seen fit to address the term's misappropriation in the Wikipedia, and it's not merely a dictionary entry (WINAD), then there should be a See Instead link or a Disambig page; if they have not, then the trivia really does not belong here at all.

I hid the comment singling out Kirk Shepherd. This edges into BLP vio territory, substantiated only by a single throwaway comment from 2008, and not mentioned at all in Kirk Shepherd. Maybe there is a better source such as an actual published book.

The "cup of coffee" term is used to refer to players who made the "big league trip" repeatedly. So, very much a stretch to claim that such a trip is in any way "a hit" let alone that any of them is "the one." Using a popular misappropriation to shoehorn more sport in here is synthesis, correct?

There is already List of players who played only one game in the NHL (larger than List of one-hit wonders in the United States) which only in its References mentions "one-hit wonders" which is equated to "one-game wonders." Nkofa (talk) 17:01, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

Uncited addition
@ADHDGinger As I've stated on your talk page, content on Wikipedia needs citations to reliable sources. In particular, for articles on "one-hit wonders", there needs to be multiple reliable sources, with two sources cited for each entry. : 3 F4U (they/it) 02:46, 13 July 2023 (UTC)

One-hit wonder vs Viral hit
Currently the article lists "viral hit" as alternative term, and while viral hits are often one-hit wonders, the terms are by no means interchangable.

For one, the vast majority of one-hit wonders had perfectly normal marketing, and simply failed to follow up their successful song. Arguably, most of them predate the concept of viral hits entirely

Also, some viral hits have been turned into long-term careers. Most successfully Old Town Road, but other examples include Gangnam Style (followed up by Gentleman (#5) & Hangover (#26)) & Crank That (Soulja Boy) (followed up by Kiss Me Thru The Phone (#3) & Turn My Swag On (#19))

I'll leave it there for now, but in my opinion these 2 terms are only vaguely related, is there any real reason to keep them? 82.5.237.207 (talk) 18:19, 14 August 2023 (UTC)