XTC?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
XTC has had many many hits. “Life Begins at the Hop” Respectable Street", The HUGE MTV hit “Dear God”…XTC is no OHW.
Someone mentioned Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit In The Sky”…That song also propelled Doctor and the Medics to ONW status in the 80s .
Jon
A true OHW had one hit single, and no career otherwise. Technically, the Grateful Dead had only one hit single (“Touch of Gray”), but calling them a OHW devalues the term.
The following came out of nowhere to have one hit and were never heard from again.
John Fred and His Playboy Band, “Judy in Disguise (with Glasses)”
Shocking Blue, “Venus”
Steam, “Na Na, Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)”
Jaggerz, “The Rapper”
Mungo Jerry, “In the Summertime” (one of the most memorable moments in Jeopardy was their audio daily double.)
The Box Tops, “The Letter.”
Star trekking across the Universe
On the starship enterprise
Under Captain Kirk!!
“Ahh, we come in peace,
Shoot to kill, shoot to kill, shoot to kill,
We come in peace,
Shoot to kill, shoot to kill, men!”
etc etc
Or how about:
I Ran, by Flock of Seagulls?
How bout Steam’s “Kiss Him Goodbye (Na Na Hey Hey)”?
Originally released as a B-side by embarassed band members, the A-side would flop, but the B-side would eventually hit #1 and become a ballpark standard.
Did Don McLean have any hits besides “American Pie”?
How 'bout “Lake Shore Drive” by … umm … something that sounds like Ayatollah, Haynes & Jeremiah?
Also, I could swear Dexy’s Midnight Runners did have another hit, as I’ve seen another song of theirs on a Hits of the 80s compilation, but it might have been a hit only in the UK.
Chumbawamba have been around since the mid-80s. They never intended to be a chart band, and the success of “Tubthumping” was basically accidental.
Space Age Love Song was also a hit in January '83.
“Melt With You” – Modern English (The first song I thought of.)
Oh, and Tubthumper has more than one good song. “Smalltown” is a very well done Outsider’s Paranoia track set to a tune that brings to mind a thousand empty, vacuous malls. (Nothing is quite so dead as an empty mall. It’s like the tomb of a plastic robot, or a broken calliope.) “The Big Issue” is simply stunning, musically, even if the lyrics fall a bit flat. And don’t insult “Drip Drip Drip,” either. “Tubthumping” (name of song, not album) is one of two hits (“Amnesia” also having been briefly popular), but it doesn’t monopolize the talent.
“All the Young Dudes,” by Mott the Hoople.
Oh, and “Hold Your Head Up” by Argent.
“Vincent (Starry Starry Night)” and “Dreidel” for two. He also had a top-ten hit with a cover of “Crying.”
Argent also had a minor hit with “God Gave Rock and Roll to You”
Mott had British hits with “All the Way from Memphis” and “Roll Away the Stone,” plus minor U.S. hits in “The Golden Age of Rock 'N Roll,” and “Foxy Foxy.” Also, their albums got serious airplay, with “Rock 'N Roll Queen” and “All the Way from Memphis” very popular.
Norman Greenbaum did write and perform another minor hit, “The Eggplant that Ate Chicago,” but it was credited to his group, Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band.
Better choices:
“Don’t Pull Your Love Out On Me, Baby,” Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds
“Brandy,” Looking Glass
“Ballad of the Green Berets,” SSgt. Barry Sadler
“Dominique,” The Singing Nun (the songwriter of this died about a week ago).
“Journey to the Center of the Mind,” The Amboy Dukes, though Ted Nugent of the group was very successful.
In my mind, the best one-hit wonder of all - 96 Tears by ? and the Mysterians
Also Psychotic Reaction by the Count Five and Little Girl by the Syndicate of Sound.
Mott the Hoople’s Super Hits. All the way to Memphis is a song just about everyone’s heard. A lot of folks just don’t know the title.
Dexy’s Midnight Runners: Nine Top 40 entries in the UK, including 2 number ones. Hardly OHW. They also went through a number of radical image changes. The gypsy look the US remember from “Come On Eileen” was just one of them.
Flock Of Seagulls: Also had a top ten hit with “Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)”
Thomas Dolby: “Hyperctive” and “She Blinded Me With Science” plus more session and production work than you could shake a stick at. Much underappreciated and not a OHW.
Big Country: 12 Top 40 hits in the UK.
Five: 7 million albums worldwide, 10 Top 10 singles and 3 No 1s. Not exactly OHWs.
Right said Fred: 2 Hits that I can think of. Recently did quite well with the awful “You’re My Mate”.
Now class, I think we can all do better than this, don’t you?
A few years later, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds had another #1 single, “Falling in Love.”
A few other contenders:
Zager & Evans, whose only hit was “In the Year 2525.”
Nick Gilder (“Hot Child in the City”)
Carl Douglas (“Kung Fu Fighting”)
Ocean (“Put Your Hand in the Hand”- I heard this piece of crud at folk Masses for years!)
Oddly enough, some successful bands belong in this category. Example: Status Quo has been very popular in Europe for decades, but only had ONE hit in America: “Pictures of Matchstick Men.”
Oh god! I had never heard “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead” until I bought the “Dumb & Dumber” soundtrack, but I LOVE that tune!
I think some of the great OHW’s are
“The Promise” by When In Rome. I’m not sure these guys even had a second album
“Oh Sheila” by Ready to Face the World. A lot of people think this was a Prince hit, because RtFtW’s lead singer looks so much like him. It’s actually a good tune with a funky bassline that yes, is reminiscent of Prince’s sound.
Looking Glass with "Brandy."The BEST one hit wonder.
Did Betty Buckley have anything besides “Memory”?
Julie Covington with “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.” A #1 one hit wonder.
The New Radicals - “Get What You Give” (or something like that)
Deep Blue Something - “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
Katrina & the Waves-Walking on Sunshine. That one was always fun
Men Without Hats-Safety Dance.
Aha-Take on Me
Save Ferris-Goodbye, (I think) and the album had a really good cover of Come on Eileen.
Wall of Voodoo.
bows
exits stage left
I don’t think any of these have been mentioned yet:
One-hit wonders:
Dream Academy- Life in a Northern Town
Thompson Twins- Hold Me Now
Til Tuesday- Voices Carry
Timbuk 3- My Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades
Strawberry Alarm Clock- Incense and Peppermint
Here are some two-hit wonders:
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Time After Time- Cindi Lauper
Twilight Zone, Radar Love- Golden Earring
A Whiter Shade of Pale, Conquistador- Procol Harem
Don’t Tell Me You Love Me, Sister Christian- Night Ranger
And three-hit wonders:
Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Head Over Heals, Shout- Tears for Fears
I even managed to think of a four-hit wonder:
Eye of the Tiger, The Search is Over, High on You, I Can’t Hold Back- Survivor
Actually, I think some of these get a little ambiguous as to whether or not any of their “hits” should count. A lot of the bands mentioned in this thread had a song or two that rode on the success of the one big hit that put them on the music map with brief popularity, but the subsequent hits did not have any holding power. To me a true one-hit wonder is a band whose legacy was short-lived and is most often only associated with one song.