Musical Acts You Thought Would Be One-Hit Wonders - And You Were Wrong

Not exactly on topic, but I remember thinking that with "Dr. Feelgood" we'd probably seen the last of Motley Crue (though I actually thought the song was pretty good).

BTW, Bananarama had had several huge UK hits before "Cruel Summer."

 

"West End Girls" Pet Shop Boys
"Take on Me" a-ha

For general radio audiences in the US, these bands WERE one-hit-wonders. However, outside the US, they remain huge (PSB is still going strong and a-ha called it quits just last year after releasing a lot of really great albums).

 

I thought Billy Idol was going to go away after "Hot In The City" hit the chart in the summer of 1982. I was wrong.

 

Cyndy Lauper is the first to spring to mind, but I was really underwhelmed by Radio Fee Europe. Thought REM was on the fast track to nowhere. Obviously I was wrong, and tuned into their frequency a couple years later.

 

"Uptight" was the first of his records I bought.

Fulfillingness' First Finale was the first of his albums I bought. Just fell in love with it when I heard it in a record store in Chevy Chase, MD.

 

I'll tell a story about a guy I used to work for in the music retail biz... a long time ago. We had a big convention every year - all the retail chains did, and the best part of it was always the music. We always saw tons of great music in very intimate venues, got to hang with the artists, etc. The conventions were viewed by the labels as a way to get their acts in front of the people that might make a diffence in breaking them at the street level, play their music in the stores, talk them up to customers, etc... get some early buy-in, so to speak, on developing acts. These slots were very sought after by the labels and the competition to secure a showcase for their priorities was fierce. The guy I worked for was a senior vp in purchasing who knew everybody in the biz, and his pet project was lining up the entertainment for the convention, he put a lt of time into it and fancied himself as a tastemaker who was in touch with what "the kids" would dig (and buy).

I was personally in the room when he was on a call to pass on booking the latest band from Geffen records on the basis of hearing a few cuts from their yet-to-be released LP, "Welcome To The Jungle", I believe the quote was something like "we got enough guitar bands this year, these guys will be working back at the car wash next year."

This same guy was legendary for also having passed on an appearance by Madonna because it was to be a track date (no band, just backing tracks on tape)...

Like I said, a long time ago

 

Exactly.

After not paying attention to music for a few years I was surprised that they were still around and that they made such a good album with "Check Your Head."

Looking back, "Licensed To Ill" is the only thing by them I can't listen to all the way through. It sounds very dated to me.

Their new album "Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2" is really great in my opinion.

 

But by that point, he'd already had some hits in Generation X.

 

He had had chart success in the UK, but I didn't know that when "Hot In The City" debuted. In fact, when it was explained he had been in a punk band on an episode of "American Top 40," I figured he was even more a one-hitter because "Hot In The City" was so unlike anything punk I ever heard. It sounded like Neil Diamond's "America" to me. (Now there's another one-hit wonder that wasn't, that "Cherry Cherry" guy.

 

Beck with "Loser". Weird Al Yankovic with "Eat It".

 

Tracy Chapman...immensely talented of course, but for "Fast Car" to get anywhere near the top ten in the late '80s was already a minor miracle, and I figured lightning could never strike twice. It did.

 

Pulp. Common People is the definition of a one hit wonder novelty song.

 

The Spice Girls with Wannabe. I thought they were a Toto Coelo (or Total Coelo if you're in the US) for the 1990s.

 

Adele. In the UK at least, it did look like Chasing Pavements would be her only hit, but then suddenly she put out that second album and almost every single was massive.

 

Gwen Stefani sure has had a longer shelf life than I thought she would.

I remember the day after "The Sweater Song" by Weezer debuted on 120 Minutes my friend and I laughed about what a bunch of phonies and grunge bandwagon riders they looked like. We thought the same about Beck. Look how they turned out.

 

wasn't "Robert De Niro's Waiting" a Top 40 hit?

edit: not in the US it seems (#95)

 

For a while, I was certain Lisa Loeb would be not only a one-hit wonder, but history's first one-song wonder -- her #1 hit "Stay," from the Reality Bites soundtrack, was her only released track at the time (the B side had a live version). But she foiled me by releasing Tails a year later.

 

Already mentioned but the top ones I thought of:
Weird Al
Sheryl Crow
Beck
Pink
Katy Perry

 

You know they had a string of hits in the UK, right?

 

See thread title (I was wrong).

 

The first time I heard Bryan Adams' 'Cut's Like a Knife', I thought that it was insipid pop music that would die out immediately.

I still don't like ANY of his music but he's still around.

 

I think this is a factor to consider when it comes to one-hit wonders: They might have only had a single hit in the U. S. or in the U. K. but they may have had more hits elsewhere. Someone mentioned Gilbert O'Sullivan (my favorite solo artist) but he had five Top 40 hits in the U. S. (including one Number One hit) in the early 1970s, but he also had (per Wikipedia) 14 Top 40 hits in the U. K. and in Ireland. Plus he's still releasing new records to this day.

Another question to ask is: If a group has a single hit, then breaks up and then reforms, could the original group be considered a one-hit wonder? What brought that question to mind is The Moody Blues, whose first hit, Go Now!, is unlike what they released after they reformed.

 

Miley Cyrus

Who would have thought that little girl of Billy Ray attempt to conquer Global teen Rebelion with shelling out albums and singles? (and in the most shocking ways she can think of)

to this>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

Golden Earring.
Do they hold the record for longest period of time between hits?

 

Bon Jovi,

The first release of Runaway was all over the radio, and had been out a few weeks. A buddy heard it come on and said "Listen, this guy has so much talent. He is going to be huge."
I said: "No way, this is the only thing we are ever going to hear out of him."