Ha, I have the Space album, Spiders, and I love that song!
I also have the Aqua CD and love it as well.
My nomination goes to Right Said Fred and “I’m Too Sexy.” (Which I have the mp3 of. :))
Ha, I have the Space album, Spiders, and I love that song!
I also have the Aqua CD and love it as well.
My nomination goes to Right Said Fred and “I’m Too Sexy.” (Which I have the mp3 of. :))
Nix on the Verve. They were already washed up before Bittersweet Symphony. Their first album is brilliant and classic (time has shown us it’s because of Nick McCabe and John Leckie), which you can’t say about a one-hit wonder. A one-hit wonder can’t have any good albums.
White Town - “Your Woman”. Although Jyoti Mishra (the bloke who is White Town) continues to make music.
Superdrag–Sucked Out.
“I Touch Myself” by the Divinyls (1991)
The Breeders and Soundgarden DO NOT belong on this list!
Also, “Three Strange Days”, by School of Fish.
I can’t believe nobody’s yet mentioned the incredible, blazing, spastic fart of nothing that was Babylon Zoo’s “Spaceman”.
I can almost guarantee completely, without doing any research whatsoever, that this band never ever ever put out anything else even remotely worth listening to. But for a couple of months there, this one tune was absolutely everywhere. And no one’s ever heard from them since. Their CD, “The Boy With the X-Ray Eyes” from 1996, is currently going for $0.75 used on amazon.com.
They’ve got my nomination. They’ve also got my sympathy.
No, Babylon Zoo had two hits on the radio, Spaceman and To the Moon (and Back), I believe, which is from the same album.
Perhaps its a difference in how “one hit wonder” is defined, but the followups you mention weren’t really hits in their own right; they were the followups that benefitted from the success of the one hit. For instance, “Real, Real, Real” wasn’t a hit; it was “Right Here, Right Now” part 2 to the listening audience. One can argue that the fact that only the initial hit, and not the followup, is remembered by the vast majority of people indicates that the band was a one hit wonder.
Why are bands with underground followings disqualified? By the way, Aqua and the Macarena guys were successful for dance songs. The disco of the 70s yielded a ton of one-hit wonders. I’m guessing that many more one-hit wonder bands have lingering or pre-existing fans than one-hit wonder disco acts. Does that mean the one-hit wonder status is primarily a dance song phenomenon?
I do agree though that it seems strange to call a band like Soundgarden, who were nominated for a Grammy for the album “Louder than Love” and had some smaller hits like “Rusty Cage” and “Outshined”, a one hit wonder.
How about Madness? Their only US hit was “Our House” but their albums topped the charts in the UK for years.
I thought that the biggest one-hit wonder of the 1990s was Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” *dons flame-retardant suit and goggles *
Hum…my mistake about Babylon Zoo. I downloaded the song and realized I wasn’t thinking of them, I was thinking of Savage Garden.
The chicka-cherry-cola song…can’t remember the name of it now, but they had two hits – that song, then “To the Moon and back,” and they disappeared. I used to have the CD (stolen from my sister.)
You obviously missed the first single off that album, “What Do I Have To Do?” and the single from the next album, “Save Yourself”, both of which were moderate hits.
Also, the guitar riff made famous in “Hey Man Nice Shot” first appeared in Stabbing Wesward’s “Ungod”. Exactly the same riff.
i want you.
this is such a huge time warp. heh.
Based upon the criteria listed above…
It has all the requirements of:
– snappy band name
– uncontrollably infectious hook
– no more radio play of said artist
I have come up with a few nominees of my own.
1st choice
Dogs Eye View - Everything Falls apart
I haven’t heard this song on the radio since back in like 97 when it came out
New Radicals-You get what you give
Ok, it came out in like 98-99, but still it was extremely infectious, I have yet to hear it again, and well, talk about a snappy band name? One guy that gives himself a plural band name…need I say more.
Sixpence none the richer - Kiss me
I think after the year this song came out, someone would want to reach through the radio and strangle the DJ if they heard this chicks voice wailing “kiss me” one more time. But the year it came out everyone thought it was the greates thing since sliced bread ya know…
Lucas - Lucas with the lid off
If any of you remember this song, I’ll be shocked. Great song…fits all the requirements other than the band name…it’s kinda plain to me, but it’s the song that counts…
Inikmoze - Here comes the Hotstepper
Hell Yeah. Takes me back to 8th grade baby, 94. Perfectly fits all noted requirements. “Pret-a-porte” I remember calling the radio stations and begging to hear this song, when I already was hearing it played every hour anyways… does anyone even remember it now?
I’d also like to agree that
Marcy Playground - Sex and candy is well deserving of a nomination
And Of Course
New Age Girl is definatley the Bomb choice
Whatever bubbles, bubbles up…
Hell yeah. At least I’m not the only one…
I just thought of another
Marky mark & The Funky Bunch.
Good Vibrations
Extremely catchy…does anyone want to admit that they were rollerskating and breaking it down to this jam back in like 93?
I will!
How about “Hell” by Squirrel Nut Zippers, “There She Goes” by the La’s? Just a thought…
Does anyone remember “Back to Good” by Take That?
I haven’t heard a peep from those folks since. (It’s a good thing, too.)
Well, Take That did split up in 1996, so… Robbie Williams went on to a succesful solo career; two others (what were their names again?) had one or two solo hits and then nothing…
And it’s “Back for Good”. (God, I feel so embarrassed for remembering boy band music… my friend’s older sister was a huge Take That fan; she cried for three days when the group split up.)
The fact that Soundgarden was even mentioned is criminal.
Let’s see here:
Outshined
Spoonman
Black Hole Sun
Fell On Black Days
Blow Up The Outside World
Burden In My Hand
And about a gazillion others that could have been hits, like Big Dumb Sex and Head Injury, but the time just wasn’t right for that stuff yet, way back in 1987 and 1989 respectively (I do go back with them that far).
Incidentally, the most listened to one-hit wonder group of all time is Inner Circle, with “Bad Boys”, the theme from the TV show COPS, which we’ve all seen at one time or another.
Nah, they get a pass since “One Step Beyond” is used as kitschy background music for all kinds of stuff. Including TBS’ Dinner and a Movie, IIRC.
Nah, IIRC, he had “Wildside” which got a lot of radio play.
Nah, just about any band with a hit will have “underground” following. Even if it’s just their high school buddies.
From UBL, Harvey Danger has 13. Aqua has 20. Considering Aqua has apparently ceased to exist that’s even more cred in Aqua’s corner. Oh and you can sign up for Aqua’s mailing list at that last link. Don’t say I never do anything nice for ya.
I FEEEEEEEL…
Was this even a hit? The only time I heard this song was on The Box video call-in jukebox thing. It was all Lucas and Sir Mix-a-Lot’s second release “Put 'Em On The Glass”. Great video.