# Artists Most Known for That One Song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 16, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945 "2020-04-16T20:19:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![slates77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/779978/32.png) [@slates77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slates77)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/1 "2020-04-16T20:19:38Z")
Was surprised to find out A-ha actually had a lot of other popular songs. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/2 "2020-04-16T20:28:06Z")
_Fantastic Voyage_ is a far better song than _Gangsta’s Paradise._ ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/3 "2020-04-16T20:40:29Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > _Fantastic Voyage_ is a far better song than _Gangsta’s Paradise._ Yeah, and it hit #3 on the US pop charts and Coolio was an established MTV star with a platinum album prior to “Paradise,” but I guess the general public would most know him from that. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/4 "2020-04-16T20:53:38Z")
Norman Greenbaum, of course. Even he admits that he was a one-hit wonder. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/5 "2020-04-16T20:57:23Z")
**Jona Lewie**. Not sure how well known [Stop the Cavalry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HkJHApgKqw) is in the US (so that’s a complicating factor) but it was a huge hit internationally. It overshadows everything else he ever did, but he’s been plugging away in the industry for fifty-odd years with occasional successes. Indeed, I saw him live back in the 1970’s, long before his biggest hit. Also fondly remembered (by me, at least) for the anonymous (well, as Terry Dactyl And The Dinosaurs) forgettable pop classic, [Seaside Shuffle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p62dmF2Bdpw). Listening to those two side by side, as I just did, is … interesting. Still, he isn’t likely to sue himself. On a more heavyweight note, **Veronique Sanson** is a major figure in French music, but outside of the Francophone world she is known pretty much exclusively for one song - under it’s original title in most of the world (Amoureuse - [original](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26Pih5A0pdQ) and [Kiki Dee version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEcJMJK8_Us)) and as [Emotion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa0hnJNVhWA) by Patti Dahlstrom (also Helen Reddy) in the US. j ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/6 "2020-04-16T21:00:52Z")
Rupert Holmes- Escape (The Pina-Colada Song) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/7 "2020-04-16T22:07:19Z")
I doubt many people have heard any songs by Chumbawamba that aren’t called “Tubthumping”. Or, does _that_ make me look old? How about naming some Argent songs other than “Hold Your Head High”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/8 "2020-04-16T22:18:25Z")
Ross Bagdasarian. He played the piano player in Hitchock’s, “Rear Window”. But his most famous song was under his stage name, David Seville. When I think of oldies many artists have but one song that stands the test of time. They probably had other hits, but only one is remembered through the ages. Que Sera Sera Old Cape Cod Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime It’s not Unusual Goldfinger The Name Game (Everybody do “Chuck”) Sixteen Tons When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain The Lion Sleeps Tonight ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/9 "2020-04-16T22:42:13Z")
I thought A-ha was best known for that one time Cecil Adams said hi to him. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/10 "2020-04-16T23:01:20Z")
[quote=“slates77, post:1, topic:851945”] Was surprised to find out A-ha actually had a lot of other popular songs. [/QUOTE] Isn’t that true for most non-US/UK bands though? A-ha has scored three No.1 albums in Germany and 7 top tens in the UK, while in the US they only had three charting albums total. Just like Nena and Falco, they’re icons in their home countries but have only one recognizible song in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/11 "2020-04-16T23:02:52Z")
Mason Williams’s _Classical Gas_ ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/12 "2020-04-16T23:40:39Z")
> [@bizerta](#): > > Ross Bagdasarian. He played the piano player in Hitchock’s, “Rear Window”. But his most famous song was under his stage name, David Seville. I think Witch Doctor and The Chipmunk Song are both still pretty famous. And the Chipmunks (and their covers of pop songs) are still going on and on…so I don’t think his legacy is quite that restricted. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/13 "2020-04-17T00:08:57Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Or, does _that_ make me look old? How about naming some Argent songs other than “Hold Your Head High”? 😃 She’s Not There Time of the Season Tell Her No (When he was with the Zombies :D) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/14 "2020-04-17T00:33:44Z")
_Dueling Banjos_, as done by Weissberg and Mandell for the movie “Deliverance”. Trivia note: the original writer of the tune successfully sued the producers of the movie for using his tune without permission. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/15 "2020-04-17T00:41:19Z")
The Raspberries for "Go All The Way." Lead singer Eric Carmen went on to have other hits as a solo act in the mid 1970s. All By Myself Never Gonna Fall In Love Again She Did It and more. He also wrote “That’s Rock N Roll” and “Hey Deanie,” which Shaun Cassidy made it a hit. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/16 "2020-04-17T01:17:55Z")
_Tubular Bells_, by Mike Oldfield. **Professor Periwinkle** ’s reference to Classical Gas made me think of it. Also, Otis Redding, though he offered an enormous and important body of work, is (sadly) pretty much known for _Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay_. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/17 "2020-04-17T02:07:43Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > _Tubular Bells_, by Mike Oldfield. **Professor Periwinkle** ’s reference to Classical Gas made me think of it. > > Also, Otis Redding, though he offered an enormous and important body of work, is (sadly) pretty much known for _Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay_. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long is almost as well known as Dock of the Bay. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/18 "2020-04-17T02:14:08Z")
Otis on “Try a Little Tenderness”, too. And “Shake”. ---
**Author:** ![Crossbreed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@Crossbreed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crossbreed)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/19 "2020-04-17T09:40:26Z")
Boots Randolph, Yakety Sax. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945/20 "2020-04-17T10:45:44Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > **Jona Lewie**. Not sure how well known [Stop the Cavalry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HkJHApgKqw) is in the US (so that’s a complicating factor) but it was a huge hit internationally. It overshadows everything else he ever did, but he’s been plugging away in the industry for fifty-odd years with occasional successes. Indeed, I saw him live back in the 1970’s, long before his biggest hit. > > … > > j I’d call him a two hit wonder (in the UK) because I could immediately add **You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties.** TCMF-2L [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-most-known-for-that-one-song/851945.md?page=2)