So did you know that today was One Hit Wonder Day? No? Neither did I. But listener Firefox knew it. And I believe him. So how about a show made up of ten of VH1’s top 11 One Hit Wonders of All Time! Maybe if more people covered Kajagoogoo, I would have been able to do 11. (48 minutes)
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The definition of a one-hit wonder I’ve read is one song in the Top 10, and nothing else in the Top 40. Eileen went to #1 on the US charts, Celtic Soul Brothers went to #86.
That Scorps cover was a new one on me and took me totally by surprise. Loved it!
I wonder why Relax by Frankie goes to Hollywood would be considered a One Hit Wonder. At least two more hits spring to mind: Two tribes and The power of love. At least over here in Europe.
I presume these are one-hit wonders in the USA. Here in Blighty, each of Dexy’s, Frankie and Gary Numan had a few successes.
Too right Yossell. There is a world outside of America I hear 🙂 Frankie’s first 3 singles went to number 1 in the UK. the 4th went to number 2. First band since…Gerry & The Pacemakers to do this. And surely Aha had some success, even off that first album? Actually just checked. They had great success everywhere BUT the USA after this single. What did they do to upset you USA?!
Seriously, great show. I love one-hit wonders. How many shows could we do of the novelty one hit wonders just in the UK, which we specialise in. I must have about 5 CD’s worth!
Listened to the show today and I agree with everything from my fellow UK listeners. It was weird to hear songs from Frankie, Dexys, Soft Cell and a-Ha being called one hit wonders – shame on you USA!
Great show though as I’m yet another lover of one hit wonders.
Well, let’s blame VH1 for this one. I think “The Sun Always Shines On TV”, “Wishing (Photograph)” and “Two Tribes” are excellent examples of how these bands aren’t one-hit wonders, and that the term may be applied a little bit too unfairly.
Hi, I’m DJ One Hit Wonder of The Cape Radio, and this is kind of my area of expertise. 🙂
The industry standard definition of a one hit wonder is any artist who had only one song in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This is a United States-based chart, so charts in other countries might have other definitions, and artists that had more success in other countries can still be considered one hit wonders in the United States.
Unfortunately, many who put together one hit wonder lists and CDs don’t really do their research, they add songs based on “well that’s the only song I remember” and remove artists that were popular in other respects (for example, The Grateful Dead only had one hit). VH-1 is particularly bad about this. I found 47 songs on their “100 Greatest 80’s One Hit Wonders” list that did not meet the definition. Details here: http://www.thecaperadio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=10446
As far as your ten here goes, The Strangeloves and A Flock of Seagulls each had 3 hits, Tommy Tutone and a-ha each had two hits, and Modern English never made it to the Top 40. Looks like VH-1 is keeping their tradition of being only half right. 🙂