I noticed we don't have one of these, what do you guys think? All the other existing lists are voted on by people who are too young or too stupid to remember more than 20 years back. So I say we do it the right way! The general basis for a one-hit wonder means an artists has only had one song to hit the top 20 on the Hot 100 (in the US, cause then we'd never get a good list off the ground). Of course, we can make some exceptions for the likes of say, Jimi Hendrix who only had one song make the top 20, but because his other songs have a lasting influence and popularity, we'll let it slide.

I don't even really know where to begin, so I'm just gonna go down the regular rock list and pick out a rough top 10, then we'll decide where to go from there. Not sure if infamy as a one-hit wonder trumps its impact on rock in general. Also, should exceptions be made for early rock songs that were major hits on the R&B charts like "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" and "In the Still of the Night".

1. Louie Louie - The Kingsmen *
2. American Pie - Don McLean
3. Earth Angel - The Penguins
4. Tainted Love - Soft Cell
5. Whip-It - Devo
6. I Only Have Eyes for You - The Flamingos
7. 96 Tears - ? and the Mysterians
8. My Sharona - The Knack
9. Kansas City - Wilbert Harrison
10. Last Kiss - J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers
11. I'm Your Puppet - James & Bobby Purify
12. Peppermint Twist - Joey Dee and the Starliters*
13. Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum

Oh hell, I don't feel like doing this anymore. Break time.

Define a one hit wonder.

Do they have to have only had one chart hit to qualify?

Well, usually it's defined as one song to chart on within the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 (in the US). That's how everyone else defines it.

There's a thread for this already:

http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1828

However, it has been neglected, and its author rarely posts, so it could be replaced. The thread makes at least as much sense in this forum as in the other one. You might want to look at the other thread for ideas. Not just the first post, because the author stopped revising the list the same day that he made the thread, and there are some big omissions, some of which I noted in the last post of the thread.

Don McLean, The Kingsmen and The Knack aren't one hit wonders.

Bah.

I've seen it defines as only one top 40 hit, or only one top 100 hit. Never say anybody define it as only one top 20 hit.

The Kingsmen had three top 20 hits. "The Jolly Green Giant" hit number 4!




Don McLean also had three top 20 hits (and two more that hit the top 25). "Vincent" hit number 5. Sorry for the snark, but it seems so far you're making a list of greatest artists with two top five hits and one other that peaked in the teens.



"Good Girls Don't" hit number 11.



Three top 20 hits, with their version of "Shout" hitting number 6.

Sorry, don't mean to be all pedantic on you. But a lot of the things we think of as one-hit wonders weren't.

The one that album 90% of books use is one Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. I have never seen one that only has the Top 20, especially considering that some often-cited one hit wonders ("Who Let the Dogs Out", Baha Men) make the Top 40, but don't break the Top 20.

UK books use the far narrower "1 #1 single and no other chart activity" definition, which I don't really like.

Wikipedia has a rather nicely cited list of One Hit Wonders in the United States.

Are you going to include popular artists on the list that technically do only have 1 Top 40 hit (Grateful Dead, Rush)? How about artists that had more than one Top 40 hit, but only one that everyone knows (Strawberry Alarm Clock, A Flock of Seagulls)? What about artists with a lone hit that didn't even make the Top 40 (Bow Wow Wow, Modern English)?

A one hit wonder list is a good idea, but its something that has to be tied to one country's chart hits. Something that's a one hit wonder in one country might not be in another.

I'd define it as one top forty hit and no other songs that are relatively big radio hits (so artists like Jimi Hendrix Experience, Grateful Dead and Rush wouldn't count).

Clash, that's pretty close to how I would define it. I would add that even a 2nd moderately big song should probably exclude an artist. For instance, I don't think Lou Reed should be considered as one hit wonder.