Looking at a number of these from around '70 makes me cringe. A lot of these guys had the chops but they were ( probably ) forced to play some real pop bilge ... for example, The Lemon Pipers. The lead looks like a dealer then you see him sing like that. Yowza. It's weird to see how some of these acts were trying to sell themselves as mainstream but looked nothing of the kind. "Looking Glass" had a monster out of the gate and if they'd gone slightly heavier they may have had a chance. I can see contemporaries watching them thinking, "Oh my God. WHAT are you doing to yourselves?"
Here it is at #33. Is this image clear enough to read? It was hard to get the hole page to show on my display!
"Jimmy Loves Marianne" also got a second life in 1984 when it was covered by new wave singer Josie Cotton. That version only hit #82 on the Hot 100, but it was all over college radio that year. I was surprised to learn it was a cover version since I associated the song so strongly with Josie Cotton.
That's because it wasn't a single in the US. Toni Basil's actual follow-up to "Mickey" was "Shoppin' from A to Z," which reached the lofty position of #77:
Chumbawamba's follow-up to "Tubthumping" in the US was called "Amnesia," but few remember it, even with the great opening riff that was inescapable at one time: It peaked at #101.
Infamously, Jimi Hendrix was a one-hit wonder on the US Hot 100 with only one Top 40 hit, "All Along the Watchtower" (#20 in 1968). The immediate follow-up single was "Crosstown Traffic," which peaked at #52:
Actually, his follow-up was "Monsters' Holiday," which peaked at #30 in late 1962, so he wasn't really a one-hit wonder.
Off the top of my head, the only ones that didn't release a follow-up were charity one-offs like USA For Africa. Also, the group M/A/R/R/S dissolved in acrimony before they could record a true follow-up to "Pump Up the Volume."
Hendrix was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. Top 40 with "Watchtower," but not the Hot 100. According to Joel Whitburn's "Top Pop Singles" book, Hendrix had seven Hot 100 hits, starting with "Purple Haze" (#65) and ending with "Dolly Dagger" (#74). His other entries on the singles chart besides "Watchtower" included "Foxey Lady," "Up From The Skies," "Crosstown Traffic" (which you mentioned), and "Freedom."
After the otherworldly and downright spooky "Sally Go 'Round the Roses," a run-of-the-mill teenage angst song was probably the last thing anyone expected from the Jaynetts. But that's what we got, and it bubbled under the Hot 100...
Remember the Sanford-Townsend Band and their top 10 hit "Smoke from a Distant Fire" in 1977? Well, they were a "true" one-hit wonder, because they never had another Hot 100 hit at all, even below #40. By the time they needed a follow-up to their slow-breaking hit in October 1977, they had changed their name to simply Sanford & Townsend and released "Does It Have to Be You," which failed to chart:
Not sure if they had another hit single in other territories, but Sniff 'n' the Tears will go down in history for just one great song. I don't think it was the actual follow up to Driver's seat, but within a year or two the band released a 45 that sounded suspiciously similar to their big hit: Great band BTW. Should have been better known than just for Driver's seat/
The Elegants were a true one-hit wonder: "Little Star" went to #1 and then they never made the chart again. One reason I've seen cited is that their other records sounded too much like "Little Star". Not true, if you ask me, although you can tell it's the same group:
I guess Right Said Fred was too sexy to have another big hit. Their attempted follow-up was "Don't Talk Just Kiss," which got to #76 in 1992:
In 1965, the British band Unit Four Plus Two had their only big US hit, "Concrete and Clay," and it wasn't all that big with a #28 peak. Their immediate follow-up was "You've Never Been in Love Like This Before," which only got to #95:
In 1973, the Canadian group Skylark had its only US hit with "Wildflower" ("Let her cry, for she's a lady/Let her dream, for she's a child," etc.). The follow-up was an edited version of "I'll Have to Go Away," which didn't chart. This album cut is more than five minutes long, and the 45 was chopped to 3:26.
Bruce Channel got all the way to #1 with "Hey! Baby" in 1962. His follow-up, "Number One Man," didn't come close to #1, peaking at #52, and three more charted singles fared even worse.
Randy Newman's follow-up to 'Short People' (Billboard #2) - a 3:35 edit of 'Baltimore' - apparently did not even reach the stage of "bubbling under" the Hot 100 Randy Newman - Baltimore (Edit) The LP version, which ran to 4:02
It's good to know this, of course; however, the working definition of "One-Hit Wonder" for those who study such things has traditionally been "artists who had only one song make the Billboard Top 40."
I liked this song a lot, and was happy when I found the single (with a picture sleeve) many years after the fact. The problem was that it featured Skylark's female vocalist (at the time married to soon-to-become famed producer David Foster) rather than the male vocalist who was heard on "Wildflower." So that probably confused Top 40 listeners of the day.
