# What musical genres are mainly known by only one song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [April 4, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248 "2022-04-04T17:02:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**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:** [April 5, 2022, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/121 "2022-04-05T14:16:50Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > And don’t think for a second that those [Gap commercials](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ735krOiPo) didn’t make an impact. For ska (I know you’re offering up a swing anecdote), my entry point was the Converse commercial with them c. 1992/1993. I found a Youtube link, but it’s dead, unfortunately. I personally couldn’t get into swing revival, although I’ve seen shows with The Specials and The Cherry Popping Daddies (what an awful name) on the same bill. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/122 "2022-04-05T14:23:25Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > I can’t think of any other semi-famous band that would qualify as Romani Punk like Gogol Bordello. I’ll take that. Wunderlust King specifically, its the only song of theirs I know at least. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/K3SUPPeuRdU/maxresdefault.jpg "Gogol Bordello - Wonderlust King (Official Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3SUPPeuRdU) ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/123 "2022-04-05T14:25:45Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > I’ll take that. Wunderlust King specifically, its the only song of theirs I know at least. Though having just listened for the first time in a while, it does have a verse in a foreign language, so may be disqualified! ---
**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:** [April 5, 2022, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/124 "2022-04-05T14:55:58Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Our House…ya know, I never, ever ever would have considered that ska. I’m not saying it isn’t, but for some reason I just never would have put it into that group. In my head, it was just a pop songs that happened to have horns. Madness was/is definitely a ska band, and very popular in the UK. “Our House,” their biggest US hit, admittedly isn’t their ska-iest sounding song. Other two-tone bands were, if I understand it, even more obscure in the US even though they were big in the UK. ---
**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:** [April 5, 2022, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/125 "2022-04-05T16:22:49Z")
It does look like “It Must Be Love” cracked the Top 40 here, at #33. (“Our House” made it to #7). It doesn’t look like any of the third-wave ska bands made the Hot 100, but it can sometimes be weird comparing charts from one era to another. (And sometimes a song’s popularity is not properly reflected in its chart success like with, say, “Melt with You,” which only hit #76 on the Hot 100 and is, at least to me, one of the defining songs of the 80s.) Like I said above, there were a number high on the alternative charts at the time. “Baggy Trousers,” the ska-iest of the Madness songs I mentioned, did not chart in the US. The (English) Beat singles similarly did not chart on the Hot 100, either (though they have an album at #39 , and Mirror in the Bathroom got to 22 on the dance charts). ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/126 "2022-04-05T16:46:56Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Have we done industrial yet? > I’d nominate Closer by NIN with Beautiful People by Marilyn Manson in a close second place. I think most people know Head Like a Hole by NIN as well. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/127 "2022-04-05T17:47:21Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#): > > I think most people know Head Like a Hole by NIN as well. Probably. I went with Closer because I remember it getting a lot of airplay (as did Head Like A Hole) and I’m guessing a lot of people remember that song specifically because it was burned into their memory when they actually heard more of the song than just the “You get me closer to god” line. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/128 "2022-04-05T19:11:43Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I still remember the shock when the Bee Gees, Abba, Foreigner all went to the oldies. Wanna feel really old?? KRTH-FM, a Los Angeles oldies station that we jokingly called “the Beach Boys station” when I was in high school in the early 80s, and my kids called “the Michael Jackson station” about a decade ago, has just added _Britney Spears_ to their playlist. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/129 "2022-04-06T08:55:40Z")
lol ninja’d > [@Joey\_P](#): > > I hate hearing ‘my’ music on classic rock stations. Hearing Whole Lotta Love, on the classic rock station I’ve been listening to since then 90’s (and with a lot of the same DJs), followed up by Bullet With Butterfly Wings, still feels weird to me. > > If I heard Informer on the oldies station (which I’ve always considered 50’s and 60’s), I may vomit. yeah supposedly “world-famous” k-earth 101 in LA has been a 50s 60s and 70s station since the 80s … and it was one of these stations that had a song list that you could set a watch too if you listened all day every day … until some time in the past few years it became an 80s station … and I heard the cure Aerosmith and ozzy on it … i felt sad … ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/130 "2022-04-06T08:57:54Z")
when did they move past the 70s? ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/131 "2022-04-06T17:53:53Z")
Does anyone but classical music buffs know a Toccata other than this one: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ho9rZjlsyYY/hqdefault.jpg "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (Best Version Ever)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho9rZjlsyYY) And certainly Pachelbel has the one Canon everybody knows. Maybe those doesn’t count as a genres though… ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/132 "2022-04-06T18:19:47Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > and it was one of these stations that had a song list that you could set a watch too if you listened all day every day … I haven’t listened to it in a while but my local classic rock station has (or had?) a rule that any song that gets played, doesn’t get played again for at least 24 hours (or maybe just within the same day). It was a nice break from the top 40 stations I have to listen to at work that play each of the top 10 songs a minimum of once every two hours (not an exaggeration, it’s actually what they do). ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/133 "2022-04-06T18:53:06Z")
Hawaiian pop consists of one song: Tiny Bubbles ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/134 "2022-04-06T18:55:15Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > when did they move past the 70s I noticed Madonna and Michael Jackson started popping up in the late 2000s. By the late 90s they ditched all 50s music and most 60s music other than the Beach Boys, the Beatles and the Stones. I believe they currently market themselves as 70s, 80s and 90s, but really, it’s mostly 80s. I defy you to tell the difference between the “totally 80s Friday night party” and their regular playlist. Basically it’s no “Bohemian Rhapsody” on Friday night. ---
**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:** [April 6, 2022, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/135 "2022-04-06T20:10:30Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > Hawaiian pop consists of … Tiny Bubbles Isn’t that true of most pop? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/136 "2022-04-06T20:21:05Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > Hawaiian pop consists of one song: Tiny Bubbles Decades ago, that was, likely, the one Hawaiian song that would come to a lot of people’s minds. Today, I suspect that Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” may be better known. That said, I’m not sure that they are the same genre, other than both being Hawaiian. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/U-Ooxpz0Eqk/maxresdefault.jpg "Somewhere Over The Rainbow\_What A Wonderful World") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Ooxpz0Eqk) ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/137 "2022-04-06T21:04:53Z")
Also: [Under the Sea](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC_mV1IpjWA) (Disney movie song) [The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68f6V-Wf1l8) (Belafonte and many others; don’t know who did it first) ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/138 "2022-04-06T21:23:17Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” would have sunk into obscurity except for it being featured in the movie “Beetlejuice”. In the Northwest, the department store The Bon Marche used it in their jingles for decades. 🎶_“Sale, one day Saaaaale, Saturday only at The Bon Marche.”_ Very cringe, but impossible to ever forget for the rest of your life. These ran constantly on every station. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/139 "2022-04-07T01:47:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > “Baggy Trousers,” the ska-iest of the Madness songs I mentioned, did not chart in the US. But “One Step Beyond” was in heavy rotation, partly due to a fun MTV video. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/SOJSM46nWwo/hqdefault.jpg "Madness - One Step Beyond (Official 4k Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOJSM46nWwo) Don’t give up during the first 30 seconds. Right after that comes the advice: _“Hey, you! Don’t watch that, watch THIS!”_ _(…"This_ is the heavy heavy monster sound, the nuttiest sound around. So if you’ve come in off the street, and you’re beginning to feel the heat, well, listen buster, you better start to move your feet… To the rockingest, rock steady beat of Madness: _One Step Beyond!")_ ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2022, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248/140 "2022-04-07T03:25:14Z")
Two, actually. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5FQQRYVhIVA/hqdefault.jpg "Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole ( I.Z. ) - Lyrics & Tradução .") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FQQRYVhIVA) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-musical-genres-are-mainly-known-by-only-one-song/962248.md?page=8)