# All Time Worst One Hit Wonders
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 14, 2007, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971 "2007-01-14T20:01:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2007, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/1 "2007-01-14T20:01:04Z")
What are your choices for the worst “one hit wonders”? What artists and their “hits” do you think should have stayed unknown?
Here are a few of my nominees:
Kung Fu Fighting (Carl Douglas '74)
Harper Valley PTA (Jeannie C. Riley '68)
Don’t Give Up On Us Baby (David Soul '77)
Its Raining Men (Weather Girls '82)
Afternoon Delight (Starland Vocal Band '76)
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### Author:  [@Southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southpaw)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/2 "2007-01-14T20:25:44Z")
**Mambo #5** - Lou Bega
**The Macarena** - Los del Rio
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### Author:  [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/3 "2007-01-14T20:38:26Z")
[QUOTE=Southpaw]
**Mambo #5** - Lou Bega
**The Macarena** - Los del Rio
[/QUOTE]
If I were a moderator, I’d close this thread right now, simply because its purpose has been fulfilled.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/4 "2007-01-14T21:47:49Z")
**In the Year 2525** by Zager & Evans, 1969.
_Now_ you may close this thread! 😉
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### Author:  [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/5 "2007-01-14T22:01:37Z")
I have Harper Valley PTA, It’s Raining Men, and Afternoon Delight on my mp3 player. 🙂
I nominate Eddie Murphy “Party All The Time”. I loathed that song. Richard Harris, “MacArthur Park”?
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2007, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/6 "2007-01-14T22:09:36Z")
[QUOTE=Mangosteen]
Kung Fu Fighting (Carl Douglas '74)
Don’t Give Up On Us Baby (David Soul '77)
[/QUOTE]
ah, but these had a purpose, Penelope Cruz does a hot dance number to KFF in Don’t Temp Me, and Owen Wilson mines comedic gold in Starsky and Hutch with DGUOUB.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/7 "2007-01-14T22:17:16Z")
It’s Raining Men is a fantastic number!
I nominate Shaddap You Face by Joe Dolce in my number two slot (madam!).
But “Crazy Frog” doing Axel F is without a doubt the worst song ever recorded.
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2007, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/8 "2007-01-14T22:31:01Z")
[QUOTE=Mangosteen]
Its Raining Men (Weather Girls '82)
[/QUOTE]
Written by Paul Schaffer!
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### Author:  [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2007, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/9 "2007-01-14T23:11:15Z")
Aw come on, _Kung Fu Fighting_ wasn’t _that_ bad. I’d replace it on your list with _Reach Out of the Darkness_, a cringe-inducing piece of hippy-dippy pap by Friend and Lover.
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### Author:  [@Stillwell\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stillwell_Angel)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/10 "2007-01-14T23:17:08Z")
Too Shy by Kaja GooGoo (sp?)
Take on Me by Ah Ha
Either one of those is like sandpaper to the teeth.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2007, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/11 "2007-01-14T23:28:35Z")
[QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan]
**In the Year 2525** by Zager & Evans, 1969.
_Now_ you may close this thread! 😉
[/QUOTE]
You betcha. “In the Year 2525” is the worst song ever, by any band, one hit wonder or no.
Hell, it’s not just the worst song ever, it’s the worst ANYTHING ever. Anyone who thinks any other song is worse surely hasn’t heard “In The Year 2525.” Oh, don’t go out and TRY to hear it. You don’t want to.
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### Author:  [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2007, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/12 "2007-01-14T23:57:00Z")
One Tin Soldier.
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### Author:  [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2007, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/13 "2007-01-15T00:02:45Z")
Tiny Tim and his tulips?
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2007, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/14 "2007-01-15T00:03:10Z")
**Backfield in Motion** by Mel and Tim. Stupid on all levels.
**Gallant Men** by Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen. Yes, he was a real senator – the Senate majority leader, in fact. This was a single off his spoken word record in 1967.
**Kung Fu Fighting** is up there, but the revised version at the end of **Shaolin Soccer** was actually fairly good.
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/15 "2007-01-15T00:20:36Z")
Muskrat Love
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2007, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/16 "2007-01-15T00:35:38Z")
[QUOTE=Frank]
Muskrat Love
[/QUOTE]
Insipid song but the Captain and Tennille were not one-hit wonders.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/17 "2007-01-15T00:38:17Z")
Re: **In the Year 2525**. The writing process:
Zager: What rhymes with “give”?
Evans: Nothing.
Zager: Perfect!
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### Author:  [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2007, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/18 "2007-01-15T01:07:33Z")
[Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandy_%28You%27re_a_Fine_Girl%29) by Looking Glass.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2007, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/19 "2007-01-15T01:15:15Z")
[QUOTE=Operation Ripper]
[Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandy_%28You%27re_a_Fine_Girl%29) by Looking Glass.
[/QUOTE]
I believe they cracked the charts again with **Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne**. It went to # 33 in the US in September 1973.
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### Author:  [@Mikemike2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikemike2)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2007, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-worst-one-hit-wonders/387971/20 "2007-01-15T01:22:46Z")
Hey, you guys are naming most of my favourite songs. Should I make a mixed tape? Many of these songs are excellent to work out to, because they have a great beat, especially the dance mix versions. What’s wrong with Kung Fu fighting? Sure the lyrics are trivial and fun, but it has an infectious melody. I liked in the year 2525 when I heard it. It had kind of a sci-fi theme going, which was not heard in a lot of other songs.
I would nominate Terry Jack’s **Seasons in the Sun.** There was a slow maudlin song. I listened to the top 100 countdown on the radio in the 70’s. It took about 8 boring hours to count down to # 1, and this is the piece of crap they chose.
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