I was trying to think of this case. I didn’t read the Wiki entry, but does it mention when Burrows performed as lead singer for all four of those songs on one episode of Top Of The Pops? It really freaked out the producers of that show (which was broadcast live, IIRC), and confused the hell out of the audience.
The kid next door was maybe 19 when I was going through some CDs to give to him and said, Do you have this Zevon? and he said he didn’t know who he was. This is a kid with a dad who prides himself on knowing rock and quirky alternative artists. It was unfathomable that he hadn’t heard of him. I forced the CD upon him!
Off topic, I love the parody version by Bob Rivers called “What If God Smoked Cannabis?”
“Avenging Annie” by Andy Pratt. I believe he was around for a while, but this was his only big hit.
Yes, but wasn’t that song kind of a throwaway bit that ironically became the biggest hit of his career? I also seem to remember Zevon saying the success of “Werewolves” was like having a hit with “The One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater” in that it made people incorrectly assume he was just a novelty song performer.
I take it “Walk on Gilded Splinters” didn’t chart?
I can think of one, but the title escapes me, hmmmm, something from the early 80’s, about a phone number and Jenny. The worst part is I cannot think of the artist. Any help?
Nope.
This would have been funnier if not for post #142.
It was mentioned in the OP too, but not by that poster.
Did Renaissance ever have another hit besides “Northern Lights” (~1978)? If not, they qualify.
I heard it a number of times on WRNR, the indie-rock station I listen to.
Forgot about “She Don’t Use Jelly” which IMHO totally reeks. Never heard it until after I’d heard “Yoshimi” a number of times, and it instantly took my opinion of the Flaming Lips way down.
I beg to differ, but I think it helps that I didn’t get obsessed with it. Getting obsessed with a good-but-not-great song just wears it out faster in the confines of your head, IME. Kinda the way nobody wanted to hear the Macarena for years after everyone went nuts over it during the summer of 1996.
OK, a tough one: Clarence Clemons and Jackson Browne duet “You’re a friend of mine”.
Browne had a few other hits, and while Clemons’ music playing is on perhaps hundreds of hits this is the only one I am aware of that he was singing anything besides accompanying stuff.
So…one hit wonder?
My Sharona by The Knack
My Baby Grand by Billy Joel and Ray Charles
“Life in a Northern Town” - Dream Academy
What about 'Til Tuesday - Voices Carry
That reminds me… Faster Pussycat - House of Pain
Those gentleman, in case you were not aware, did have a small degree of success as solo artists.
It doesn’t count if two multi-hit artists only collaborate once.
Come on, we all know what a “one hit wonder” is. A one hit wonder is someone about whom you say “Whatever happened to that guy who did the song about Jenny and the phone number? It ws a guy, right? Or was that what they called the band?”
Interesting (and brief) story: OMC was a joke - Otara being the very poor town where Pauly Fuemana grew up. But then the song charted in dozens of countries, turning Pauly into, ironically (or is it just a coincidence?) the one and only actual millionaire in Otara.
Back to the original post, does the band a-ha count? Apparently they charted in America with 2 songs (the second one being “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.”), but is there anyone in America who remembers them for anything other than “Take on Me?”
Emerge - FischerSpooner
Electronic, but very good in my opinion. Havn’t heard a damn good song other than this by them, though.
Says you. 
That’s the thing that depresses me a little. A-ha has 7 albums or so, all excellent, they just didn’t hop the pond, as it were.
A lot of the bands mentioned here had music that was pretty damned good, they just didn’t chart. (Right Said Fred had a ‘cute little album’ that was better than you’d expect it to have been, based on I’m too sexy.)
Then there are others (Honeymoon Suite I’m lookin’ at you) that were just crap. The cassette card didn’t even have print on the back side. Although looking at the wiki page for 'em, I guess they’re like a-ha, SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE like’s 'em, as they have 11 albums, most recently in 2007.
Think of how the Robbie Williams fans feel.