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
“Teenage Dirtbag” - 2000.
2
“Eye of the Tiger” - 1982.
3
“Jessie’s Girl” - 1980.
5
“Walking on Sunshine” - 1983.
6
“Return of the Mack” - 1996.
7
“Ice Ice Baby” - 1990 Better or worse than “Under Pressure?”
9
“Hey There Delilah” - 2005.
10
“Pumped Up Kicks” - 2011. The song hit over 1 billion streams on Spotify.
11
“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
“Video Killed the Radio Star” - 1980. Band member Trevor Horn saw success with other groups, like Yes.
13
“What Is Love” - 1993. Baby don’t hurt me.
14
“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.
16
“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
“How Bizarre” - 1996. This odd 1996 song was OMC’s biggest hit. How bizarre.
19
“Shut Up and Dance” - 2014
