# One hit wonders who made other good songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 7, 2018, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221 "2018-08-07T12:23:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wintertime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c68b51/32.png) [@wintertime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wintertime)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/21 "2018-08-07T16:20:41Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ecks](#): > > Thomas Dolby is known for She Blinded Me With Science. His followup album, Astronauts and Heretics, was unjustly ignored, but it remains one of my favorite albums. Don’t forget “[Hyperactive!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmGxh1FhtxE)” ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/22 "2018-08-07T16:54:44Z")
> [@Jack\_Burden](#): > > Golden Earring had another international hit _When the Lady Smiles_ that didn’t chart in the US because MTV banned the video. Well, I can see why. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/23 "2018-08-07T17:10:29Z")
Outside of _Stacy’s Mom_, Fountains of Wayne put out several albums worth of fine power pop with some beautiful ballads sprinkled in for good measure. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/24 "2018-08-07T17:17:41Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Outside of _Stacy’s Mom_, Fountains of Wayne put out several albums worth of fine power pop with some beautiful ballads sprinkled in for good measure. You also mentioned them as a “band that should have stayed around longer” in another thread. I fully agree, except that I don’t know whether they’re really one-hit wonders: I somehow knew of them and had their first two albums before “Stacy’s Mom” came out. But yes, it’s the one song that a lot of people know them by. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/25 "2018-08-07T18:16:00Z")
I’m going to include Joshua Kadison even though his first album had several hits (“Jessie”, “Beautiful in My Eyes”, “Picture Postcards From L.A.”). His follow-up album was a huge departure from the Top-40 love songs of his debut album; full of stories of prostitutes, drag queens, Mexican folklore, and lost love, _Delilah Blue_ did poorly enough for his label to drop him. But the songs are _fantastic_. And not only that, after his label dropped him he decided to keep making music and offer it for free on his website. He moved to a remote island and lives a pretty reclusive lifestyle now, supported by royalties from his hits. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/26 "2018-08-07T18:17:37Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Outside of _Stacy’s Mom_, Fountains of Wayne put out several albums worth of fine power pop with some beautiful ballads sprinkled in for good measure. …Groucho Marx paraphrase in one, two, three… ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/27 "2018-08-07T18:20:03Z")
> [@HowSoonIsThen](#): > > Grateful Dead may have had only one hit, but are they truly considered a one hit wonder? I tend to be on the side of a one hit wonder being a band known for one song (and for nothing else beyond that one song), not necessarily a band who only had one hit. Yeah, I guess we have to define exactly what “one hit wonder” means in this thread. I’d wager that if asked to name a Grateful Dead song, most non-Deadheads would say “Truckin” rather than “Touch of Grey”. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/28 "2018-08-07T18:37:52Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > I’ll submit The Tubes for “She’s A Beauty.” I believe it’s the only one of their songs that made it to a reasonable chart position (Billboard #10). They produced several albums of (comparable) music, including\*\*\* Remote Control\*\*\* (of which I’m pretty fond). I’m pretty sure that the only reason that “She’s A Beauty” even made it to #10 was because of the MTV-friendly video associated with it. > > Of course, their stage performances were truly something else. They also had a hit with _Talk To Ya Later_. And Fee Waybill was one of the big three people in the future, along with Clarence Clemons and Martha Davis in _Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure_. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/29 "2018-08-07T18:40:17Z")
I’m probably the only one who can say this: I own one song by Crash Test Dummies, and it’s not “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”. They were the musical guest on **Saturday Night Live** years ago and played two songs, the famous one, and another one called, [“Afternoons and Coffee Spoons.”](https://youtu.be/iZnT_s-n__g) I liked that one a lot, so much that I bought it from Amazon Music. Give a listen, very different from the one that got all the airplay. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/30 "2018-08-07T20:52:10Z")
I am actually a big fan of Tiny Tim. He was a genuine music scholar and had an encyclopedic knowledge of Tin Pan Alley era music. He was most famous for his falsetto Tiptoe Thru the Tulips, but he also possessed a deep, resonant baritone. Once you get past the gimmick, he’s actually quite entertaining on more than a kitsch level. All his albums are available on Youtube. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/31 "2018-08-07T21:06:03Z")
Cowboy Mouth. The greatest live band you’ve never seen. Hit #26 with ‘Jenny Says’ in 1998 or so and faded. But their entire body of work is astonishing to listen to. It’s all heart and passion. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/32 "2018-08-07T21:10:28Z")
Harry Chapin (Cat’s in the Cradle) had a successful career writing songs that were mostly too long to play on the radio. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/33 "2018-08-07T21:27:55Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ecks](#): > > Thomas Dolby is known for She Blinded Me With Science. His followup album, Astronauts and Heretics, was unjustly ignored, but it remains one of my favorite albums. The fact that he also started two pioneering silicon valley tech companies is just icing on the cake. Nitpick - his follow-up to Golden Age of Wireless was The Flat Earth (also an excellent album) but yeah, “Science!” is pretty much the only song that anyone remembers. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/34 "2018-08-07T21:33:51Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I’ll also go with Bobby McFerrin, who’s far better than his one hit would lead you to believe. That is always my first thought when it comes to threads like these. For the US market: Dexys Midnight Runners (their three 80s albums were all great) Breeders (“Cannonball” off their second album _Last Splash_ is what made them known, but their debut _Pod_ is the album everybody I knew listened to.) Madness. As far as I can tell, “Our House” is the only one of their songs to be a hit in the US, but they have so many great two-tone ska songs: “House of Fun,” “Baggy Trousers,” “It Must Be Love,” etc… ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/35 "2018-08-07T21:38:54Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Harry Chapin (Cat’s in the Cradle) had a successful career writing songs that were mostly too long to play on the radio. He had a wonderful song, _Taxi_, followed by an even more wonderful song, _Sequel_. [Taxi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qYU9b5OF8M&app=desktop) [Sequel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeVZjdftFXg&list=PLFy4SGwuxXlJf-q34_VECv2obe64zdAZ5&app=desktop). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/36 "2018-08-07T21:55:13Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Madness. As far as I can tell, “Our House” is the only one of their songs to be a hit in the US, but they have so many great two-tone ska songs: “House of Fun,” “Baggy Trousers,” “It Must Be Love,” etc… Yes, but they are/were big in their native England. I wondered whether bands like that count for the purposes of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/37 "2018-08-07T21:57:06Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Yes, but they are/were big in their native England. I wondered whether bands like that count for the purposes of this thread. I wonder, too, but that’s also why I specifically said “for the US market,” because many of these will be market-specific. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/38 "2018-08-07T22:47:54Z")
> [@Didactylos](#): > > Timbuk 3. It’s a crying shame they are only remembered for their hit, the mediocre novelty song “Future’s so bright”. . . . Wow, forgot all about them. I saw them live, at the Paradise in Boston, and chatted with the guy, whatever his name was. He was just a little feller. ---
**Author:** ![HowSoonIsThen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@HowSoonIsThen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HowSoonIsThen)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/39 "2018-08-07T22:55:36Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Yes, but they are/were big in their native England. I wondered whether bands like that count for the purposes of this thread. I guess if a band is a one hit wonder where you are, it’s fine. So if an American says Madness it counts, but it would be a cheat if you’re English. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2018, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221/40 "2018-08-07T23:32:49Z")
Lots of bands that were HUGE in the UK in the 70s and 80s only had 1 hit here in the US [The Boomtown Rats](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxRVMzkQ3hE) [Adam and the Ants](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B2a6l6wM2k) And worst of all [The Clash](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hHUdW1N3v8) only had one top ten hit here. . **.WTF?** mc (all songs cited never made the charts!) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hit-wonders-who-made-other-good-songs/819221.md?page=3)