The Honest Truth About One Hit Wonders (it's just sad) 

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I never thought of One Hit Wonders as failures. If you’re an artist that produced one hit, that’s one more than 99 percent of musicians will ever get.

This is so much better than a generic low effort Vh1 style “one hit wonder top 10 list” With random comedians chiming in for no reason. Your commentary is actually thoughtful.

The tragedy of Milli-Vanilli is hard to get through. It was an abhorrent case of the industry taking full advantage of two people who genuinely wanted to earn their way.

Insulting musicians that only have one hit is like insulting an athlete for "only" winning one olympic gold medal.

Calling Jimmy Eat World a one hit wonder is very close to fighting words. Their discography is incredible. I would venture to say that The Middle is overshadowed by other songs of theirs.

I never thought of Jimmy Eat World as a one hit wonder. I think they've got a great discography and plenty of hits.

I didn't know James Blunt was considered a one hit wonder. Here in Brazil a number of his songs made it big on the radio: You're Beatiful, Carry You Home, Wisemen, Same Mistake and a few others. Wisemen is an amazing song, by the way. I love the acoustic guitar solo, the overall melody and the lyrics.

The Ataris are one of the most underrated pop-punk artists of all time. The music is solid and the message hits so hard to someone who grew up in the late 80's, early 90's.

It depends on how you define a one hit wonder. Bowling For Soup and Jimmy Eat World are if you consider it in terms of massively popular mainstream singles but they were both stalwarts of the mainstream rock scene and had lots of popular singles between them. Either band could go on a tour of mid-size venues in a number of places around the world and still do.

There are a lot of factors that create a One Hit Wonder. Dust For Life is a great example. They had a big hit with "Step Into The Light" in the early 2000's. I have known several of the guys that were in the band at different times over the years. Their situation was completely out of their control. They had someone stealing money from them and lost a band member as a result of that situation, and had a resulting lack of support from the record company. Despite their debut album going gold and reaching as high as #28 on the charts, they never released a second album. It had nothing to do with them or the quality of their music. It was completely out of their control. There have been a ton of bands put in similar situations over the years.

Milli Vanilli is the story of a dubious producer that gets people to sing a song and uses pretty people to act to them songs on stage.

Outside of the US James Blunt is not only NOT a one-hit wonder, but has a solid five top ten hits (not that this video went in depth, but the imagery suggests as much). 'Goodbye My Lover', '1973', 'Stay The Night', and 'Bonfire Heart' are right up there with 'You're Beautiful' internationally.

When Crazy Town’s Butterfly hit the shores of Malaysia (where I’m from), I was so excited to see and hear more of them. They came out at the height of the nu metal takeover. We had bands like Linkin Park, Korn, Incubus, Limp Bizkit, POD, Static X and more so when Crazy Town came out with Butterfly I was so rooting for them…On,y to never hear of them ever again. Hope the frontman will be okay from now on. Really admire those who struggle with drug addiction or any kind of addiction. Lost 2 uncles who did drugs…

I saw Trapt and Alien Ant Farm in SoCal a few years ago and there was like 30 people there 😂 as a former musician though I am glad to see them still performing, hats off to them and there 1 hit wonders! Also great video as always! 🙌

Based on Todd in the Shadows' videos, one hit wonders tend to fall into one of a few major buckets: the sheer flukes who aren't particularly great but manage to get lucky once before returning to their expected level of popularity (e.g. Trapt), niche artists who never really expected to find mainstream popularity but somehow wind up with a crossover hit before going back to their steady career within their niche (e.g. Bobby McFerrin or Loreena McKennit), and talented musicians who ultimately found that other areas of the music industry were better suited to their talents than touring and performing (e.g. New Radicals).

I think its validating for people to watch musicians fail because it validates why they personally didn't choose to "go for it" and stuck to the "easy path". As vicious as it is, insecurity gets people messed up like that sometimes.

Being a "one hit wonder" is actually not that bad to be honest. You make one kick ass song. Decades later people are listening to it. You're getting paid the whole time and you dont have to deal with all the fame and paparatzi. Millions of bands come and go and are never discovered. Your song will live forever in the "remember that one song?"

I was 11-12 yrs old when Mili Vanilli came out. Now here me out. I wasn’t into rock yet. I grew up with a mom who loved Pop with a big stereo in the house. I did like MV. Especially with a big system. Every dam one of the studios uses that beat in EVERYTHING afterwards. All it showed me in the end was, the industry will chew you up and spit you out.

I wish we got more hits from Blind Melon and other bands like that. Where we lost an artist or they broke up before they could do another. I appreciated your take on this subject.

My favourite example is Q Lazarus, who gave us the beautiful Goodbye Horses, but it’s literally the only song she released. She’s an insanely talented singer so it’s sad but ultimately she got a taste of fame & decided it wasn’t for her. She just wanted the quieter life and I respect that

getting millions of people to love and care about even one of your songs, as an artist, is a huge accomplishment

I'm surprised Bowling for Soup is technically a "one hit wonder". They're one of the funnest bands I've seen live. Although fans like me enjoy multiple songs of theirs, I think a lot of song listeners would enjoy seeing them perform. They should definitely be held to a higher tier of "one hit wonder"

Notice how lots of One Hit Wonders come from the late 90s-early 2000s. That's a time where if you wanted to be mainstream, you had to play at Mtv's rules because there was no youtube, fast internet was rare, etc. So this forced lots of people to sell out in a way that didn't work, or made some bands just refusing to sell out after a hit. And the sad thing is that sometimes the bands were treated like disposable stuff, or epigones of somebody else more successful.

The funniest thing about the Milli Vanilli case is that after the whole scandal broke, the actual band with the real singer(s) tried to pursue a career and released music under the name "The Real Milli Vanilli".

I think The New Radicals would make a great addition to this list. Because eventho they had just 1 hit (and the fame caused mental health problems for the singer), he wrote a lot of songs/hits for other artists.

Depending on how you count it, Quiet Riot could be considered a one hit wonder that got famous (like, REALLY famous) off of a cover song of another one hit wonder. Their big hit 'Mama weer all crazee now' (they had another minor hit with 'Metal Health' but that only reached 37 in the US so you may or may not count it) was a cover of a Slade song. Slade, depsite being quite succesful in the UK could never find the same success accross the pond. Their only hit in the US was 'Run Runaway', which made it to no.20 on the hot 100. Also, Todd in the Shadows has a great series called One Hit Wonderland where he breaks down various one hit wonders and goes over their hit, why it got big and what they did after said hit. It's pretty good. Would recommend.

Milli Vanilli were far from the only band doing lipsyncing. The famous German disco band Boney M did exactly the same thing, there also was the French punkpop song "ça plane pour moi" of which it came out years later that the singer of the song wasn't Plastic Bertrand but the Belgian writer of the song Lou Deprijck who sang the vocals. Plastic Bertrand just looked the part. In the end music is just a business and you can go in different ways about it. You have tons of talent and become one the next memorable bands with a long career in the spotlight or you create what they call a one hit wonder and have a quick celebrity moment while cashing in as much as possible before you dissapear. There is nothing wrong with it.

Jimmy Eat World actually had a handful of hits on their first album to be fair they’re more like one album wonders…. I’m pretty sure that “the middle” and ” the sweetness” both went to number one…. Plus one or two more hits that didn’t quite hit as high as those two but I remember there being like four singles….

Something I find interesting is that Sugar Ray stated that it was their intention to become a One-Hit-Wonder... only to end up having actual lasting pop success. Which is why some of their later songs get kinda weird. They were more or less thinking "Well, now that we've done it, who cares what happens?"

Afromans new song "Will You Help Me Repair My Door", complete with the film clip showing the security footage of the police raid on his house for "kidnapping", is absolute gold

Why does Afroman only have one hit? Because he got high.

Dude, if I just had one hit song that was played and listened to repeatedly for decades, I'd die happy. Respect to all these artists.

Jimmy eat world isn’t a 1 hit wonder. They do several headlining tours and even still do well. They’ve had several hits! Sure The Middle is their biggest, but they have several other big singles.

Regarding Crazy Town, let's not forget the track it's a Pretty little ditty... by RHCP ! Check the original couse it rocks!

So with Wheatus and Trapt, I think they did the exact "punk rock" thing. They became the big band at the local venue. And those are the best shows to see always. There's less and less bands that operate organically like that but refusing the label, doing your own thing, and putting on killer shows at the local pub. That's punk.

Chumbawumba will forever be a favorite for how they did everything. And Afroman is definitely far from a failure.

Having ONE hit means you are lucky. Most musicians don't ever have one hit.

Jimmy Eat world had 3 songs from their debut album on radio and followed it with Pain. They even covered Last Christmas which is played at every mall every year. 7 million monthly Spotify listeners.

Milli Vanilli had more than one hit. In fact they had like three or four hit singles

I don't care what anyone says, Steal my sunshine by Len is still a BOP! I still bust it out almost every summer. I looked up the brother-sister duo and they kinda live normal lives now. Marc owns a music publishing company and Sharon works in IT. In the music video, there's a pregnant woman exposing her almost due date belly, and I sometimes wonder how she and her adult child are now. I love 90s nostalgia.

James Blunt is definitely not a one hit wonder, he's had other big hits, 1973 being my favorite example, he even toured with Ed Sheeran a few years back

Dynamite Hack is a case study for not using a cover as your lead single. That debut record was solid and was completely missed by most.

Jimmy Eat World has had an entirely different career trajectory than the others you listed. Not sure they quite deserve that title.

Crazy Town had some cool songs on that record but butterfly just swung the band in a very different direction so that's what everyone suddenly expected.

Fun fact about 1985: When the video would play on MTV, the closed captions would read "there was U2 and Blondie, HER music's still on MTV" instead of "and music still on MTV."

10:31 don’t forget their amazing collabo with Oakenfold “Starry-Eyed Surprise” track was lit af

little remark: James Blunt has multiple no.1 albums and singles, a 20 year career, 188x platinum certifications and is popular all over the world. I would not call him a one hit wonder

Afroman’s debut record is actually really cool. If you like stoner culture music, and stuff like Sublime, Everlast, and G Love is your bag, it’s worth a listen. It’s a really short home grown (har har) record that he mostly made in his bedroom- and it’s laugh out loud funny in places. The guy can really rap and he’s a good guitarist, too. The only problem is it’s one of those “Oh, shit, guys, you gotta hear this!” records that you play for all your friends to laugh with…and then get so sick of the jokes, that you put it away forever. Think those “Jerky Boys” crank call albums from the 90’s, or “Tenacious D”, stuff like that. The drummer from my old reggae-punk band saw a free Afroman show back in like 2002, and came to practice completely impressed…he said the guy played a few instruments, and laid down his own beats and some turntables here and there. On top of that, he was one of those guys that hangs out at the bar and drinks with his fans after the show, just a cool cat to hang with. On a side note, Bunjie Jambo, a completely epic punk rock with a horn player from here in Pittsburgh -as opposed to a ska band- inexplicably opened for Kid Rock in early 1999 on the very small club tour he did for “Devil Without a Cause” waaay before it went platinum. At the time, that “Bull God” thing was the only thing getting modest air play- and Nooobody could foresee the coming rise of ock rock-nu metal, and Kid Rock’s ridiculously huge career jump. Anyway, I guess Uncle Scarfo, the drummer for Bunjie Jambo, had listened to all the old indie Kid Rock records for years and was a fan, and so he somehow got his band an opening spot when Kid Rock played Grafitti (RIP) here in Pittsburgh, PA. My friends and I were all great friends of Bunjie, so we went to the show. I hate to admit it now, but Kid Rock out on a really good show then. I think there were maybe 200 people there. Club Grafitti was the second largest “small club” here- like, Pennywise and NOFX would play there and sell it out, but Wesley Willis couldn’t sell enough tickets to play there, so he got stuck in Laga, the small small punk club (Again, RIP Laga). Kid Rock went straight to the bar, promptly ordered a whole bottle of Jim Beam, and sat there chain smoking and doing shots. If you approached him, he would invite you to pull up a chair and have a few shots with him- or alternately tell the bar tender to give you whatever you were drinking on him. He had absolutely no security of any type- he did have the full sized major label tour bus clogging up Bigelow Blvd., which was bizarre and funny. Anyway, yeah, just like Afroman, he was a good showman, played every instrument at least once, and then just hung out with the crowd as another drinker. It worked…I was a musically confused 19 year old, a little sick of punk rock for a moment, but having a hard time expanding my catalogue- so I bought Kid Rock’s cd right from him there at the bar…he had a little stack of them. $8…$7 I’d you couldn’t afford $8, $5 if you didn’t have that…free if you were broke, actually. He didn’t give a shit. I didn’t like that record for very long- it soon grew into an embarrassing reminder of a time where angry beard guys rapped, and everyone played metal cds through their subwoofered up cars, producing huge sonic farts heard for miles. But even in his later mookdom, I always remembered the cool, tired, and slightly sad drunk guy from Detroit at the bar. There are people behind all these bands- most have charisma, some have talent, most have neither. It’s kind of a shame that someone’s sacrifice, hopes, and dreams can rise and fall so fast, their story lost, their glimpse at hope labeled a “one hit wonder”, and thrown away. Check out an Afroman show, if you ever see he’s playing your local community day, but I doubt you’ll get anywhere near Kid Rock after his set at the State Fair is over. By the way, the fact that Bunjie Jambo didn’t break big is not only depressing, it’s mind boggling. They were every bit as good as Antiflag, Pittsburgh’s only band to get signed to Fat, Epitaph, and I think maybe Epic. They opened for NOFX, the Pilfers, and probably Reel Big Fish, and Kid Rock, like I said. I think they didn’t make it because they didn’t send their damn record out for anybody to hear. They were also a high humor band, almost like dead milkmen level…and they had a lot of local jokes in there, that might’ve stifled them. They have been gone for decades, but search Bunjie Jambo on RU-vid and see for yourself. Slainte!

I actually like a handful of traps songs. I saw them at a Rock On The Range(2nd stage), the crowd was MASSIVE. Somehow during the show I was pushed to the front gate, ADTR was the next act so it was EPIC to be up front for that!

I have THE definitive Afroman story. Around 10 years ago, he booked a gig at my hometown's local dive bar (which was a 300 max capacity hole-in-the-wall spot in Augusta Fucking Maine of all places). Obviously, it sold out, and I think they actually doubled max capacity. Anyways, the contract was that the artist and the bar split the door 50/50 and drinks/concessions 25/75. So, end of the night, Afroman himself asked to count out the money and, unsurprisingly, took all the cash and bounced with 100% of everything. To add insult to injury, he left the bar owner holding the bag, with a couple thousand dollars worth of damages and fines for safety violations, fire code violations, etc. Guess it was cause he got high...

Milli Vanilli were actual performers, but were basically hired for their marketability. They did originally sing on a few recordings, but their producer decided it wasn't good enough and hired some singers to come in and record the album instead. By that point, they had already signed on the dotted line and didn't have much choice but to go along with it. Then, when the secret came out, they took the brunt of the backlash, rather than the label or the producers. They really got a raw deal on that one.

afroman sayed it best in a documentory: "they call me one hit wonder... how many hits do you need?" i also think "because i got high" is a pretty genius song and his new release "would you help me repair my door" is a great example on how art can criticize authority and society. in general its great to had real success on one point to have the resources to continue making music.

Great topic, I've often thought about this. As an amateur musician (with a separate career unrelated to music as my main focus) I am very happy to play covers and add bits of musical improvisation. Songwriting is a completely different skill that has little bearing on how well you play your instrument. There are great instrumentalists who are mediocre songwriters and mediocre instrumentalists who are great songwriters. With that in mind, I agree with you that one hit wonders are far more of a success than any kind of failure. To write a song that connects with a large amount of people at a particular moment in time is impressive; it does take talent (and a bit of luck) that rises above the countless other bands out there. Essentially, I apply these rules: If you write one song that connects with people, you are a success If you write an album that connects with people, you are truly great, a respectable artist If you write multiple albums that connect, you are a legend

A lot of "one hit wonders" had one song that was a huge breakout hit and never repeated that but continued their career with a smaller cadre of fans. A "true" one hit wonder would be something like Harvey Danger with "Flagpole Sitta". "That Thing You Do" was a movie about a one hit wonder from the early days of commerical rock, where when single EPs with one song and a b side song were a real thing.

Len's "You Can't Stop The Bum Rush" is indeed a FANTASTIC album. When I picked it up, several of my friends made fun of me. Then when I played it for them, almost all of them decided it wasn't bad at all!

I think Jimmy Eat World is a really interesting case. When you look at their peers from when they were starting out like The Get Up Kids, or the Promise RIng, that one hit really set them up for what seems to have been a long sustainable career, allowed them to afford to build their own studio, and put some money in the bank for leaner years

There are other types of One Hit Wonders that you missed. --- An artist who is highly successful in a genre not covered by the charts, has one song that catches the public's fancy, and goes on to continued massive success in their genre. Example: Loreena McKennitt. She was selling out concert halls, The Mummers' Dance landed on the pop charts, and then she continued selling out concert halls without touching the pop charts again. --- An artist successful in a genre not covered by the charts, and experimented with another genre to great acclaim and success. Example: Scatman John, who did decently well as a Jazz musician, experimented with Eurodance with Scatman (ski-ba-bop-ba-dop-bop). It was a smash. --- An artist who is famous in their own country, but is a One Hit Wonder in another. Example: The Proclaimers have I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) go huge in the US, but are beloved and very successful in Scotland. Or "Take On Me" by A-ha, who were huge in their native Sweden. --- An artist who is a One-Hit Wonder in their own country, but huge in another (again, Scatman John, who was very popular in Japan). --- An artist known for only one song, but who had other hits. For example, the songs "Together Forever," "It Would Take A Strong, Strong Man", "She Wants To Dance With Me", and "Cry For Help" all charted in the Top 20 in the US. The artist? Rick Astley. Yep, the guy now known only for "Never Gonna Give You Up" had four other hits in the US; three of them in the Top 10, and one of them (Together Forever) hitting Number 1. --- An artist who is a One Hit Wonder because they didn't have all that long to live. But yes, I agree with you on this: One Hit Wonder does NOT mean you're a failure. As for a No-Hit Wonders, I present to you Judas Priest, Rage Against The Machine, Jimi Hendrix... none who had a top 40 hit.

Just for the hell of it, Alien Ant Farm’s cover of Smooth Criminal.

Thanks for mentioning SR-71. I absolutely loved them and obviously Mitch went on to a successful songwriting and producing career. the funny story is he got into that career by accident and it all started with 1985 Shawn Mullins "Lullaby" is a one hit wonder. I met him. He told me I wouldn't know about him without that hit. So he would agree with you it was a nice boost. and now he carries on as an independent artist with a big audience.

How can Afroman be just a One-Hit-Wonder? He's got 83 albums, hittin' like thunder!

Thank you so much for talking about LEN, You Can’t Stop The Bum Rush was such an awesome & underrated album that almost nobody has heard 🥲

Milli Vanilli weren't a one hit wonder. Hey had several hits. "Blame it on the rain", "Girl I'm gonna miss you", "Baby, don't forget my number", "Keep on running"...

Fountains of Wayne’s discography is phenomenal. Wheatus has some great songs as well!

One hit wonders shows the problem I've always seemed to have witnessed in music. It's like the hit is where all the attention goes where the artist may make such great albums or other songs

Funny that bowling for soup did the song for Phineas and Ferb because he looks like Doofenshmirtz.

1985 by Bowling For Soup was written by Mitch from SR-71, and SR-71’s biggest hit, Right Now, was written by Butch Walker, who also wrote Girl All The Bad Guys Want by Bowling for Soup. Weird circle of songwriting Butch’s old band Marvelous 3 is a one hit wonder too (Freak of the Week) Pop punk songwriters are fascinating

The Baha Men are a great example -- they formed in 1977 and had been touring for 23 years before their big hit. That just made it easier to tour, I'd suspect. I bought their early cds because I was really into world music back then, and their early stuff was much more rooted in traditional Bahaman dance music called Junkanoo. Then they did a KC cover "That's the Way I Get Down" that I absolutely love to this day. Apparently their fourth cd only sold 700 copies in the US -- and I guess I was one of them -- but they might have faded into obscurity after that. Instead, boom! Relevant forever, even if it's for a song that a lot of people hate or make fun of. I doubt they regret it.

I think Todd in the shadows one hit wonderland series handles this pretty well, he's always pretty respectful to people who deserve it and every review has a "did they deserve better" section talking about how they could have potentially had more success under different conditions.

80's is my decade for 1-hit wonders. So many bands were 1-hit wonders in America but were huge in Europe and other areas. Bands like Kajagoogoo (Too Shy), Dexy's Midnight Runners (Come on Eileen), Madness (Our House), Tommy Tutone (867-5309), A Flock of Seagulls (I Ran), A-Ha (Take On Me), Baltimora (Tarzan Boy), Soft Cell (Tainted Love), Lipps Inc. (Funkytown), Timbuk 3 (Future So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades), After The Fire (Der Kommisar), Murry Head (One Night In Bangkok), T'Pau (Heart and Soul), Mightnight Oil (Beds Are Burning), Modern English (I Melt With You), Animotion (Obsession), Bow Wow Wow (I Want Candy), Men Without Hats (Safety Dance), The Weather Girls (It's Raining Men), Talk Talk (It's My Life), etc. It's pretty insane how many 1-hit wonders in the 80s there were. Again, many of them like Madness, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Midnight Oil, Flock of Seagulls, and others were HUGE in England and Australia and other countries. However, in America we got the 1 hit and that was it.

Milli Vanilli actually had quite a few big hits in their day. Blame it on the Rain, Girl You Know it’s True, Baby Don’t Forget My Number, and so on

The Ataris originals couldn't live up to "boys of summer"? Never disagreed with anything more in my life. One of the best bands in the genre!

It's interesting that when the Milli Vanilli song started repeating it still sounded good, like a remix. Maybe they coulda owned that failure, released another version. Probly not tho

I found you when I was trying to get into morerock music. I pride myself in liking many songs from many genres of music, and I realized on day that rock music was a genre that is really broad in scope, and I didn't know where to start. I found you and didn't think you'd have anything good to say about anything outside of like one genre, but I love how diverse your tastes are. I like many different music genres including pop in all of it's forms, classical and childrens' music, so hearing someone that isn't just one of those rock fans who just listen to like one artist is refreshing.

There are 3 kinds of one hit wonders: the ones whose only hit was so good and iconic they were never able to top it, the ones whose only hit was so bad or mediocre that no one cared to hear what else they had to say, and the ones whose first hit was a cover

I've always kinda viewed one hit wonders as an incredible success because we all remember them. Like, they become legend. And if you're trying to leave your mark with art, I think that's pretty damn cool.

I actually miss the days of one hit wonders it’s better than sticking around for decades and churning out mediocre results instead of the fresh inspired songs that we used to get

Saw a great documentary on Afroman, such a nice dude. When asked about the "one hit wonder" thing, his reply was "Well how many hits do you need?" and then laughed and drank out of his custom chalice.

Thank you for not mentioning Faith No More. One of the most brilliant discography of all times and still most people call them OHW because of "Epic" success.

Afroman has a song called One Hit Wonder that basically outlines the thesis of what you said here. Sure, he only had one "hit" but now he regularly sells out small venues, performing the music he loves to make.

"How many people want to be the next Backstreet Boys?" Good question. In North America, perhaps not many - or as many as there used to be. But it feels like the entire K-Pop industry is built on record labels trying to create Backstreet Boys (or Spice Girls)-type groups. As for one hit wonders, what would be the biggest one hit wonder via cover song? I'd think it might be Natalie Imbruglia's Torn. And that's a case where the artist did pretty well despite having that one hit.

Definitely can relate to the artists who'd prefer to just have a sustainable career with a small but very loyal base of fans without being a huge, massive star. The idea of having millions of people constantly talking about you, scrutinizing every little thing you're doing and trying to be all up in your business the way a lot of people seem to be with the biggest stars in the industry does not sound appealing.

Dude, great call out to Len's first album. It's highly underrated.

Surprised you didn't mention Natalie Imbruglia and "Torn" as a one-hit wonder with a cover. Especially how shocked people are to learn that song is a cover.

Worth a look: Afroman's home got raided by the police and turned security footage of a chubby officer snooping through his kitchen eyeing his food into a song & video called "Lemon Pound Cake." Pretty funny.

A real fan of any of these artists knows all their songs real well.

Chumbawumba have spent their careers fucking over the music industry and I fucking love it

Chumbawumba are my favorite band! So many great albums. And frankly, using your fame and fortune to help others is pretty much what everyone SHOULD be doing!

That one hit can generate money in perpetuity for the songwriter. May not always be millions, but it can be some nice mailbox money

Favorite example of a One-Hit-wonder: Smile Empty Soul. 'Bottom Of A Bottle' goes up to #7 on the US Rock Charts in 2003. You never hear anything else from them played again... Aside from the fact they continue to tour for the last 20 years and put out 7 albums since. Not counting Sean Danielson's solo work. They put on a great live show in clubs and have some other good songs that never got radio airplay that you stumble upon on Spotify

Jimmy Eat World had multiple hits on the radio though... Bleed American, The Sweetness, The Middle, and there's probably others I'm forgetting.

Fountains of Wayne are a one hit wonder based on chart success, but in quality of all their albums and songs, they were a killer band and it's everyone else's loss in not digging further than their "one hit".

I hear Blind Melon being referred to as a one hit wonder, and it's crazy. They were so great. So many incredible songs.

Bowling for Soup is more of a cult. They also were featured in the movies "Cursed" and "Sky High"

To me there are one hit wonders who fit into 3 categories. 1. The soulless sellouts - These are the artists who have no real backstory, pretty much are industry creations and are copying a trend so it makes the label money, but they probably are getting screwed by that label for signing a shit contract. This is where the Milli Vanillie and Vanilla Ice and many of the late 80's glam metal bands ended up. These are artists who often played themselves out by not having any real talent other than 1 catchy song. Often making fools out of themselves in public, and turning any good will they had against them. 2. The I got screwed by the label crowd - This is where many of the Europop artists actually fall into. Like, Haddaway, Nikki French, Baltimora, Was (Not Was), Crystal Waters, Dexy's Midnight Runners (who have like 8 albums of music), Alanah Myles, Amber, etc, etc, etc. Most of them signed bad contracts not realizing they basically made an album for a US label for nearly free and the label basically dropped them and it led to ugliness and by the time there was an opportunity to come back with new music, people had forgotten about them. 3. The I had some talent...but the band/group I was in was so dysfunctional that it lead to a breakup before a second hit could happen. This is the unfortunate part of it...when egos clash among bandmates and they just can't get along even as they are getting bigger than ever. The Clash and The Knack both come to mind as 2 bands who had a ton of talent and they just couldn't get along with each other. Even though I believe neither fit the category of One Hit Wonders, these are 2 examples of bands having this kind of issue. The Beatles...Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, CCR, and many other bands have fallen victim to this. It happened with the New Radicals. Just as they got big...they basically were breaking up. Which sucked because they had so much potential to be huge for a long time. Len...should have been bigger for longer. Agreed. Good video. The second and 3rd types of one hit wonder, I usually am very sympathetic to their stories and want to give them a chance. Like...see what they have done. See if they deserved better or even deserve a shot if they are around today for a second hit. See what they have. The first category of them...these are the ones I usually don't have much sympathy for because they were just terrible to begin with as people. Now, it goes case by case. Like...I can sympathize with what happened to the kids from Kriss Kross or the guys from Millie Vanillie to a certain respect. But, like Vanilla Ice....that guy played himself with stealing a song and claiming it as his own. The worst part, his talent...he would have had an opportunity to blow up big in about 12-18 months had he stuck to what he was doing in Miami....instead of selling out and going all preppy and corporate and trying to copy MC Hammer's approach. Had he stayed what he was in Miami for another year or so...waited until after Dr. Dre and some of the others had dropped, waited until after the Beastie Boys had that new album out...he would have fit into that style perfectly. But he played himself as a punk in the bad way. So...the sympathy goes out the window. Especially when he has been an asshole ever since.

My band just opened for Wheatus! There still killin' it!

I remember "Sweetness" by Jimmy Eat World feeling just as big as "The Middle" although I don't know the numbers on either. They also had a few songs featured in various TV shows - I think The OC was one of them with "Hear You Me". I especially have a soft spot for "Bleed American". There was a show in the early-mid 2000s on Much Music in Canada called "One Hit Wonders" which was excellent. It felt like the message of the show was "Remember this great song? Wouldn't it be cool if this band was popular again?"

Unpopular opinion, but Trapt’s entire debut album is a bop front to back.

A group of comedians here in the Netherlands purposely became one hit wonders with the song "one day fly" about 25 years ago.

Anytime someone wants to bring up "You Can't Stop The Bum Rush" by Len, I'm all in. It's seriously an amazing album front to back.