Every artist dreams of making it big. But what if your moment in the spotlight is nothing more than a single song?
Plenty of artists have been hit with the "one hit wonder" curse, even if that one song defined a generation.
Here are 20 massive one hit wonders lost to time.
1
Wheatus
“Teenage Dirtbag” - 2000.
2
Survivor
“Eye of the Tiger” - 1982.
3
Rick Springfield
“Jessie’s Girl” - 1980.
4
A-ha
“Take On Me” - 1985.
5
Katrina And The Waves
“Walking on Sunshine” - 1983.
6
Mark Morrison
“Return of the Mack” - 1996.
7
Vanilla Ice
“Ice Ice Baby” - 1990 Better or worse than “Under Pressure?”
8
Far East Movement
“Like A G6” - 2010.
9
Plain White T's
“Hey There Delilah” - 2005.
10
Foster The People
“Pumped Up Kicks” - 2011. The song hit over 1 billion streams on Spotify.
11
Chumbawamba
“Tubthumping” - 1997. The anarchist punk was successful in their own niche, but likely made this pop song as a parody of the pop industry.
12
The Buggles
“Video Killed the Radio Star” - 1980. Band member Trevor Horn saw success with other groups, like Yes.
13
Haddaway
“What Is Love” - 1993. Baby don’t hurt me.
14
Toploader
“Dancing in the Moonlight” - 2000. Already a hit via Sherman Kelly’s band Boffalongo and King Harvest, this third iteration of the song went multi-platinum in England.
15
The Knack
“My Sharona” - 1989.
16
Icona Pop (feat. Charlie XCX)
“I Love It” - 2012. In 2025 you’d be hard pressed to know this isn’t Charlie’s song on her own, such is the difference between the “Brat” artist and Icona Pop.
17
OMC
“How Bizarre” - 1996. This odd 1996 song was OMC’s biggest hit. How bizarre.
18
House of Pain
“Jump Around” - 1992.
19
WALK THE MOON
“Shut Up and Dance” - 2014
20
Darude
“Sandstorm” - 2000
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