
In part two of our one-hit wonders show, we propose three rules to identify a one-hit wonder, which is not as easy as it sounds
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Chris Melanfi
Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One series. On our last episode, we talked about the much debated concept of the one Hit Wonder, and I laid out all of the factors that go into determining what makes certain artists qualify for and escape that ignominious turn. Now I'm going to present my three Rules for One Hit Wonderdom I first came up with my one Hit Wonder Rules eight years ago when I was the online chart columnist for New York newspaper the Village Voice. Back then, what prompted me to write about the concept was this song a top 10 hit in September of 2012?
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Time Good Morning, Good Night.
Chris Melanfi
That'S Good Time, a duet between Adam Young, a Minnesota artist who goes by the name Owl City, and the then new Canadian pop star Carly Rae Jepsen. This is not the most well remembered hit for either artist. Three years earlier, Owl City had his first and only major solo hit, the 2009 number one smash Fireflies.
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Cause I get a thousand hugs from 10,000 lightning bugs as they tried to teach me how to dance.
Chris Melanfi
And three months before Good Time, Carly Rae Jepsen had scored a number one blockbuster of her own, the 2012 song of the summer, Call Me maybe. These are both higher charting and much better remembered hits than Good Time. However, the forgettable 2012 duet was statistically important for both Carly Rae Jepsen and Owl City. In an installment of his Yahoo. Music column that week in September 2012, longtime chart columnist Paul Grein wrote, Good Time is an appropriately positive title for a song that guarantees that neither act can fairly be referred to as a one hit wonder.
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Good Morning and Good Night.
Chris Melanfi
What if Good Time had only been a top 40 or a top 20 hit? Why did crossing into the top 10 ensure that these two artists were no longer one hit wonders? This was when I decided that we needed actual parameters. I took it upon myself to come up with three One Hit Wonder rules, and eight years later, if I do say so myself, I think my rules hold up pretty well. They aren't perfect. No One Hit Wonder rules could possibly anticipate all of the quirks and exceptional cases like Los Del Rio's three versions of Macarena. But my rules, which are based around Billboard chart data, attempt to find a middle ground between hidebound parameters and public perception. I wanted to not only satisfy my fellow chart geeks, but Throw a bone to the more casual pop fan who thinks, well, I don't remember a Gerardo hit after Rico Suave, so Gerardo must be a one hit wonder casual pop follower. In this case, I agree with you. Before I get to the rules, I have some preliminary stipulations stipulated. My rules are for the American charts, not those of the uk, Australia, any country in Europe or Asia, Latin America or Africa. Hits in these places won't help you avoid one hit Wonder status here. Not to be xenophobic, but we have to draw the line somewhere. Look, your band may be, to use the old cliche, big in Japan for example. No kidding. San Francisco hard rock band Y and T scored multiple Japanese hits. But in America they they only hit the Hot 100 once with 1985's Summertime Girls. So as far as I'm concerned, Y and T are an American one hit wonder. Second stipulation, and this is important, My rules focus on The Billboard Hot 100, our flagship all encompassing pop chart. I do not try to tally an artist's hits that might have appeared on Billboard's many genre specific charts such as R and B, Hip Hop, Country Dance, Adult Contemporary, all flavors of rock or Latin pop to name just a few. And by the way, Billboard has literally dozens, possibly hundreds of charts and launches new ones all the time. There are good reasons for this Hot 100 focus. For one thing, there are so many ways to call yourself a hitmaker and we don't want to set the bar too low. For example, if I may invoke a chart topper I had to write about that I really can't stand, in the summer of 2014, this noxious reggae pop song Rude by Canadian band Magic spent six weeks at number one on the Hot 100. Seriously, America? Anyway, I am happy to report that Magic the band never returned to the Hot 100. Not even the chart's lowest drums. In fact, Magic has not returned to most of the charts where Rude made an appearance. Not rock airplay, club songs, Latin airplay. However, on adult top 40, a very specific radio format not to be confused with Adult Contemporary that Billboard tracks with its own chart. Magic have come back a few times after Rude, they got as far as number 35 on the adult top 40 chart with let yout Hair Down. Do Low ranking songs on this small chart mean that Magic are no longer a one hit wonder band. No. Just no. On the Hot 100 they charted once. That's enough for me to call them a one hit Wonder and hopefully this is the last time I will have to talk about magic more seriously. The other reason we must stipulate that these rules only concern the Hot 100 is it's important to be respectful to artists who may be big in another home format or R and B. And country fans in particular would be within their rights objecting to one hit wonder status for favorites in those genres. For example, on the Hot 100, the Texas born country singer Jeannie C. Reilly only cracked the top 40 once, but it was a huge pop hit. Her 1968 number one smash, Harper Valley PTA.
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Well, it happened that the PTA was gonna meet that very afternoon.
Chris Melanfi
And they.
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Were sure surprised when Mrs. Johnson wore her miniskirt into the room.
Chris Melanfi
So it's tempting to call Jeannie c. Reilly a one hit wonder, and on the Hot 100, technically she was. But I'd be careful about using that term to describe one Riley because on Billboard's country chart, Riley scored nearly two dozen hits between 1968 and 1976. Harper Valley PTA was her only number one, but she scored several top 10 country hits, including the 1971 number four country hit O Singer.
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Sing about the Railroad.
Chris Melanfi
The same goes for Cheryl Lynn, an R and B and dance music vocalist who once sang with Toto, and I therefore mentioned her briefly in our Yacht Rock episode. To pop fans, Cheryl Lynn is Primarily known for one disco era number 12 hit, the Rafter Raising Pride anthem Got to Be Real.
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Know that your love is my love, My love is your love, My love is here to stay.
Chris Melanfi
While this was Lynn's only top 40 pop hit on Billboard's R&B chart, Lynn scored about a dozen hits. Got to Be Real went to number one on that chart. And it wasn't her only one. 1984's only encore, produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, also topped the R Nature. We could drive ourselves crazy adding asterisks to all of the artists who have scored hits on genre charts and small radio charts. So let's just resolve that the One Hit Wonder rules I am about to present apply only to hits on the Hot 100, with all of that stipulated. Here we go. One Hit Wonder Rule 1. A second hit that makes the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100 instantly removes an artist from One Hit Wonder stats. This is what Paul Grein meant when he said that good time prevented either Owl City or Carly Rae Jepsen from being called a one hit wonder. It's also what Billboard's editors meant when they affirmed that Lewis Capaldi's before youe Go ensured he was no longer a 1 hitter. If you can break into the pop top 10 just one more time, you deserve to be retired from the one hit list. So, for example, when Crowded House, one of my favorite bands of the 1980s, scored a number two hit in 1987 with Don't Dream it's over, and then immediately made it back to the top 10 with the number 7 hit something so Strong.
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Could Carry Us Away.
Chris Melanfi
That guaranteed they were out of contention for one hitter status. Note. After Something so strong, Crowded House never returned to the American top 40. But it didn't matter. That second top 10 hit meant they were done. You can't call Crowded House a one hit wonder. Of course, the real test of a rule like this is not with a band you love, but with an act that most people consider a punchline. So, yeah, let's talk about Robbie Van Winkle.
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Yo, VIP let's kick.
Chris Melanfi
Aka Vanilla Ice. VH1 ranks Ice Ice Baby, his blockbuster 1991 hit, among its 10 biggest one hit wonders. And look, I get it. Vanilla Ice was a flash in the pan. He positively reeks of one hit wonder funk. But I hate to break it to you, it's really unfair to call him that. He had another hit, a pretty big one. Uh, no, not Ninja Rap, his single From Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the Secret of the Ooze, and not his collaboration with supermodel Naomi Campbell, Cool as Ice from his cinematic masterwork of the same name.
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Face the Music, Then I'm right behind with a posse of mic and a funky rhyme.
Chris Melanfi
Okay, I'll stop dunking on Vanilla Ice in a minute. The real reason Ice isn't a one hit wonder with Ice Ice Baby is the single he dropped immediately afterward, a cover of Wild Cherry's 1976 number one hit, Play that Funky Music. Ice was back with a brand new invention, and it reached number four in February 1991. What? You don't remember its classic chant? Go, white boy, go white boy. Go.
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White boy. Go, white boy, go. Go, white boy, go, white boy, go.
Chris Melanfi
Whatever you think of this recording, Play that Funky Music was a top 10 hit. Top five, actually. That means that by any reasonable standard, and Contrary to what VH1 says, Vanilla Ice is not a one hit wonder. By the way, neither is the equally dopey late 90s boy band LFO, who reached number three in 1999 with Summer Girls, their ode to women who wear Abercrombie and Fitch. And LFO followed it with the number 10 hit, Girl on TV, which takes them out of one hit wonder contention. Or Mark? Marky Mark Wahlberg. He can't be called a one hit Wonder either.
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Come on, Come on.
Chris Melanfi
His number one smash with the Funky Bunch Good Vibe Vibrations featuring Lola Holloway was followed immediately by the number 10 hit wild.
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One hit Tiffany instantly. She died innocently.
Chris Melanfi
By the way. Listen closely to the sample in that second Marky Mark hit, I'm going to point out a small irony in a few minutes. The bottom line of Rule 1 is that any artist who comes back to the top 10 is at the very least a two hit wonder. That includes acts as goofy as Vanilla Ice, LFO and Marky Mark, and artists as acclaimed as recent Grammy winner Lizzie.
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Lighting no man on the Minnesota Vikings. True, Parks needed something more exciting.
Chris Melanfi
It took Lizzo several years to break on the Hot 100. Her 2017 single Truth Hurts didn't top the chart until last year in September 2019, but right after it did. Her 2016 single Good As Hell quickly followed Truth Hurts into the top 10 where it peaked at number three. So whatever happens to Lizzo's career from here, she will never be called a one hit one wonder thanks to her pair of top 10 hits. Okay, but wasn't I saying a little while ago that a second top 40 hit should be good enough to eliminate one hit wonder status? Yes, sometimes that's where Rule 2 comes in. But listen closely because it's a little complicated. One Hit Wonder Rule 2 An act that scores a second hit that makes the top 40 on the Hot 100 shall not be considered a one hit wonder unless that second hit is scored within six months of the first hit and is never followed by another top 40 hit. Almost all hit acts, even fleeting ones, are given a honeymoon period where a second hit will be momentarily embraced by US Radio and the public. That doesn't really mean the act has escaped the shadow of its one hit. Let's go back to Young mc.
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I can't wait to find a girl to pass. Mine too.
Chris Melanfi
When Principal's office reached number 33 in early 1990, about three months after his smash Bust A Move, it might have seemed that young MC had escaped one hit wonder status. But Principal's office was an obvious coattails hit like Michael Zambelo's automatic man, it never would have cracked the top 40 if bust a move hadn't come first. After Principal's office, Young MC never returned to the top 40. According to my rule 2. Even after that second hit, Young MC still qualifies as a one hit wonder. If Principal's office had gone top 10 Young MC would have escaped the curse, but it didn't, so he doesn't. This rule is my biggest concession to the culture camp, those who sense that certain acts just feel like one hit wonders, chart data be damned. It's hard for us pop geeks with our exacting recall of chart stats to let go of the idea that a hit is a hit and a second chart hit means you're no longer a one hit wonder. But an understanding of the deeper workings of the charts makes my second rule logical. Radio programmers and record buyers go on autopilot with an act after they have a big hit. A middling second hit doesn't mean they're permanently in love with, say, Falcon. So after the Austrian New wave singer and rapper reached number one on the Hot 100 in the spring of 1986 with Rockne Amadeus, Falco reached the top 20 just one more time with his immediate follow up Vienna Calling. It peaked at number 18 just three months after rock Me Amadeus. And then Falco never came back to the Hot 100. By any reasonable standard, Falco is a one hit wonder, and his one real American hit is Rock Me Amadeus. This is why the six months or less gap between hits in my Rule 2 is important. It's designed to distinguish follow ups that are coattails hits from those that hit the charts on their own power. For comparison with Falco and Young mc, let's consider Montreal band Men Without Hats. Clearly, this is the hit they are best known for, 1983's number three smash, the safety Dance. This lovable but gimmicky hit practically screams one hit wonder. And indeed, VH1 included men without Hats on their countdown. But that IGNORES the group's second American top 40 hit. Pop Goes the world reached number 20 on the Hot 100 in February 1988, about four and a half years after the Safety Dance peaked. The catchy Pop Goes the World, which incidentally doesn't sound much like the Safety Dance at all, rose on its own strength. It's not riding the coattails of their 1983 hit. Essentially, in 1987, Men Without Hats rebuilt their pop profile in America from scratch. Though they never came back to the top 40 after pop goes the World, they don't deserve to be tagged as one hit wonders. I sometimes informally call rule 2 the AHA rule, because it answers the conundrum that divides chart fanatics. Are the Norwegian pop gods behind Take On Me One Hit Wonders? Lets be clear, outside of the United States, AHA are decidedly not one hitters, and I don't just mean in their native Norway where Unsurprisingly, they've scored 19 top 10 hits, including nine number ones. No, I mean around the world. From Austria to Australia and virtually all points in between, AJA have sold out stadiums in Brazil and gone gold in Japan. As recently as A decade ago, AHA's single foot of the mountain went top 10 in both Germany and Norway and even made the lower rungs of the British chart. Speaking of Britain, the key to understanding the one Hit Wonder debate over AHA is this song which went to number one in the uk. The Sun Always Shines on tv. It's AHA's only British chart topper, but they scored eight other UK top 10 hits so there's no questioning their multi hitter status in that country. No, the issue is in America where the sun always shines on TV peaked at number 20 in February 1986. That's just four months after they hit number one on the Hot 100 with take on Me, which to this day remains the only AHA hit to receive appreciable American airplay. This makes the sun always shines on TV a coattails hit on the Hot 100. And by the way, a HA never broke the American top 40 again. And so I saith unto you, even though they scored two top 40 hits here and countless hits around the world in America, AHA are a one hit wonder. I can hear the AHA fans howling now. One of them tweeted at me before this episode even dropped after I announced that we'd be talking about One Hit Wonders, implying that I'd better not be giving AHA that tag. Listen, I like aha. I think they should have had multiple American hits. The sun always shines on TV should have made our top 10. And Cry Wolf, a number 50 hit on the Hot 100 in 1987, should have made the top 40. And their theme to the movie the Living Daylights, while not ranked highly by James Bond aficionados, probably should have done better on the charts. It didn't even crack the hot one hundreds. Facts are facts. The sun always shines on TV clearly only made our top 40 because of its world conquering predecessor. Nothing else by AJA came close and Take On Me is a pretty great hit to be remembered by. I doubt lead singer Morton Harkett is losing sleep over his American chart status. Applying this rule on the charts of the last decade, I find it still useful. Two years ago, the British R and B singer Ella May broke on the American charts with Boot up, a number five pop hit in July 2018. Three months later, she peaked at number 11 with her follow up hit Trip. To date, it's her last top 40 hit on the Hot 100. So is Ella May a one Hit Wonder on the pop chart? The jury is still out. On the Billboard R B chart, May has scored three hits, but her follow up pop hit hit peaked one slot below the top 10. Until Ella Ma returns to the pop top 40 with a third hit, she remains arguably a hot 101 hit wonder, but we're all rooting for her. One other way Ella May could remove herself from the One Hit Wonder discussion would be to release more albums. What does that have to do with it, you ask? My first Two Rules cover most one Hit wonders on the pop chart. But what about acts like Jimi Hendrix or the Grateful dead who score one solitary top 40 hit but just don't read as one hit wonders? For that, we need one last rule. One hit wonder rule 3 Any act that scores at least three top 10 or platinum albums is removed from one hit wonder consideration entirely. There are some acts whose popularity is reflected on the album chart more than the Hot 100. For these acts, I offer an escape hatch. Jimi Hendrix, for example, died young in 1970 at age 27. But both before and after his passing, he scored a slew of hit albums, including three top five albums in the late 60s and more than a dozen gold or platinum albums after 1971. So it doesn't make much sense to call him a one Hit Wonder just because all along the Watchtower was his only top 40 hit. Not when he has so many hits on the pop album chart. The same goes for the Dead, even though their chart pattern is a bit different. They only have one top 10 album, 1987's in the Dark, which spawned their only top 40 hit, Touch of Grey. But they have a half dozen platinum albums, including the double platinum American Beauty, originally released in 1970, which gave us their aforementioned minor hits single Trucking. This rule might seem like shameless pandering to classic rock fans, but it not only makes sense commercially, it's also a harder rule to beat than you might think. For example, even with this rule in place, this two time Rock and Roll hall of Famer still counts as a one hit wonder.
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A hustle here and a hustle There New York City is the place where they said, hey babe, take a walk on the Wild side.
Chris Melanfi
Former Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed famously made the Hot 100 only once with Walk on the Wild side. His David Bowie and Mick Ronson produced story song about characters from Andy Warhol's Factory Scene, the improbably catchy song reached number 16 on the Hot 100 in the spring of 1973, just weeks after David Bowie himself scored his first American top 40 hit, Space Oddity. Unlike Bowie, though, Reed never touched the Hot 100 again.
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Huh?
Chris Melanfi
As legendary as Lou Reed was the so called godfather of punk and alternative rock, he was also only a moderate album seller. Only one of his LPs, 1974's Sally Can't Dance cracked the album chart top 10 and Reed's best selling LP, the Live Rock and Roll Animal only went gold.
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Hang in on the Corner.
Chris Melanfi
So even with my Rule 3 in place, Lou Reed remains a one hit wonder thanks to Walk on the Wild side, the song that Marky Mark Wahlberg sampled in 1991 for his top 10 hit Wild side. Yeah, you heard that right. Not only did Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch peak higher with that classic bass line than Lou Reed did, Wahlberg's version also helped him escape one hit wonder status, while Lou Reed only had the one hit as Lou sang A Hustle here and a Hustle There. Reed is not the only hall of Famer who qualifies as an American one hit wonder. T Rex, the 70s band led and embodied by glam rock icon Mark Bolan are being inducted into the hall this year and in their UK homeland they scored four number one singles from Hot Love to Telegram Sam. But in the states, mark bolan and t rex are largely known for just one song. Their only american top 40 hit, get it on bang a gone, It reached number 10 on the Hot 100 in 1972. With no top 10 or platinum albums by my rules, T Rex remain a one hit wonder. Other rockers who are not saved by Rule 3 and whom VH1 failed to include on on any of its One Hit Wonder lists include rockabilly and reverb revivalist Chris Isaac, who has only two platinum albums and one top five hit, 1991's Wicked Game. And alt rocker Liz Fair, who after her string of acclaimed 90s indie albums, signed to the majors in the 2000s and cracked the top 40 in 2003 with the number 32 hit why Can't I.
Guest or Music Clip
About you? Why Can't I Speak Whenever I talk about you?
Chris Melanfi
Still, Rule three does rescue quite a few guitar rock acts from the one hit wonder tag, from Judas Priest to the White Stripes. Bands from the 2000s are especially well served by this rule, from Incubus, who have only one one top 40 hit number nine drive but multiple platinum albums. To Papa Roach, who broke into the top 40 only once with the number 5015 hit scars, but have racked up several top 10 albums. Or consider recent Rock and Roll hall of Famers Radiohead. For the first 15 years of their existence, they only cracked the US top 40 once with the instant classic creep. It reached number 34 in 1993. Radiohead then went on to be regular hit makers in the uk, but in the US they were avatars of the avant garde. Several of their top 10 hits in England, from High and Dry to Karma Police, were too prickly for the American airwaves. Yet by 2000, Radiohead began topping the US album chart with cutting edge albums like Kid A. In my estimation, this meant that Radiohead stopped factoring into the one Hit Wonder debate. They were too well known by too many music consumers to register only as the band that brought you Creep. In an unexpected twist in 2008, the band scored one more Top 40 hit thanks to a short lived special promotion at the iTunes Music Store. Nude spent a single week on the Hot 100 at number 37. Still, long before Nude's fluke success. Would anyone have considered Radiohead a one hit wonder in 1997 when their OK Computer album was released? Maybe in 2000 when Kid A debuted at number one on the album chart? Surely not. Moving into the most recent decade, my Rule 3 has been a bigger help for pop and hip hop acts looking to escape One Hit Wonder status. Australian pop star Troye Sivan has to date only one US top 40 hit to his name, his 2016 hit Youth, which reached number 16. However, in the last six years, as Sivan has emerged as a gay icon and pop idol to American audiences, he has cracked the top 10 on the Billboard album chart for four times. He doesn't really read as a one hit wonder anymore. In the Spotify era, where streams factor into Both the Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 album chart, certain rappers may do better on the album chart. This includes Lil Uzi Vert as a featured artist. He appeared on a number one hit by Migos, their early 2017 chart topper bad and Bougie. But through 2017 as a lead artist, Lil Uzi Vert only had one major hit to his name, the number seven hit XO Tour Life. Uzi has thrown dozens of songs at the charts, most of which have not been promoted to radio stations, but his albums are big sellers. He eventually returned to the top 10 with 2020's Baby Pluto, but not before scoring three platinum albums effectively. Lil Uzi Vert stopped being a one hit wonder a couple of years ago. So those are my one hit wonder rules. Maybe you have your own I admit the six month gap between top 40 hits the that I baked into rule two is a bit arbitrary. The album chart rule is certainly debatable, but my goal is to come up with parameters that are fair to the artists and the fans, providing a more fluid but more defensible definition of one hit wonder. My three rules do not grant VH1 the right to call men without hats a one hit wonder. Or for that matter, Spandau Ballet. Hey, VH1 producers, did you forget this? Spandau Ballet are known for more than the song. True, this song Only when youn leave was their third top 40 hit. Truthfully, the phrase flash in the pan should probably be used more often. Spandau Ballet weren't a one hit wonder, but in America at least they were a flash in the pan. As we enter the 2000s, nearly a decade into the streaming era on the charts, you might think few artists are really one hit wonders anymore. Thanks to Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music, rappers and pop stars can now score a dozen or more instant Hot 100 hits the week an album drops. But even today, it's still possible to score one massive, blazing, outsized hit like this song. Maybe earlier this year, before the COVID 19 pandemic took hold, when you were out and about in the world, maybe you heard this wafting through the airwaves. This is Dance Monkey, and it's by the quirky Australian singer and songwriter Tony Watson, who goes by the name Tones and I. This former street busker in Byron Bay, New South Wales, wrote Dance Monkey by herself. When it broke into the Hot 100's top five in February 2020, it became the first new hit written entirely by a solo woman in about a decade, since a pair of 2010 hits by Taylor Swift. Frankly, America was a little late on Tones and I. In late 2019, Dance Monkey was a true global hit. It went to number one in more than 30 countries, including the UK, where it spent a staggering 11 weeks at number one, and in Tony Watson's Australian homeland, where it spent a record 24 weeks on top on our Hot 100. Dance Monkey eventually peaked at number four, however, while Tony Watson was able to follow her hit with a top 10 or top 40 hit in several countries in the States. Seven months later, Tones and I has yet to appear on the Hot 100 again, but not from lack of trying. In the spring after the COVID 19 lockdown began, Tony Watson recorded this performance live from her bedroom of a single called Bad Child for the Tonight show with Jimmy Fallon. Bad Child hasn't made made our charts yet, but it's now been long enough since her one American hit that if this or any other Tones and I single reaches our top 40, she would cease to be a one hit wonder. Even during a pandemic, one hit wonders are still looking to change their fate.
Guest or Music Clip
Feeling like I always do the wrong things, telling all their friends that I'm the packet.
Chris Melanfi
I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfy. That's me. My producer for this episode was Benjamin Frisch and we also had help from Rosemary Belson. June Thomas is the Senior Managing Producer and Gabriel Roth, the Editorial Director of Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanfi.
Guest or Music Clip
Cause they will never understand my weird mind My weird mind.
Chris Melanfi
And of course, to continue the conversation from this episode, we have our monthly episodes of Hip the Bridge, which are exclusive to Slate + members only. This month on the Bridge we have Billboard's Jason Lipschutz. He joins me to talk about the Chart Magazine's official rulings about One Hit Wonders. We also talk about his interview with Louis Capaldi, in which Capaldi discussed how it felt to no longer be a one hit wonder in America. To sign up for Slate plus to support our show, head over to slate.com hitparadeplus.
Host: Chris Molanphy (Slate)
Date: October 2, 2020
In this episode of Hit Parade, Chris Molanphy digs deep into the contentious, nostalgic, and sometimes arbitrary world of the “One Hit Wonder.” Building off the prior episode’s cultural explorations, Chris lays out his own analytical framework: the “Three Rules for One Hit Wonder-dom,” crafted to clarify who truly deserves the label. Using decades of chart history, memorable music trivia, and fun anecdotes, Chris explains how a combination of talent, timing, and (sometimes) luck determines which artists break free from the one-hit shadow and who remains forever frozen in that “flash in the pan” spotlight.
"My rules, which are based around Billboard chart data, attempt to find a middle ground between hidebound parameters and public perception." (03:04)
"The bottom line of Rule 1 is that any artist who comes back to the top 10 is at the very least a two hit wonder. That includes acts as goofy as Vanilla Ice, LFO and Marky Mark..." (16:50)
"The six months or less gap between hits in my Rule 2 is important. It’s designed to distinguish follow-ups that are coattails hits from those that hit the charts on their own power." (21:55)
"As recently as a decade ago, A-ha's single 'Foot of the Mountain' went Top 10 in both Germany and Norway... but in America, they are a one hit wonder." (25:36)
"This rule might seem like shameless pandering to classic rock fans, but it not only makes sense commercially, it’s also a harder rule to beat than you might think." (31:23)
"Even today, it’s still possible to score one massive, blazing, outsized hit... Even during a pandemic, one hit wonders are still looking to change their fate." (46:30)
"There are so many ways to call yourself a hitmaker, and we don’t want to set the bar too low." (04:41)
"Your band may be, to use the old cliché, 'big in Japan.'... In America they only hit the Hot 100 once.” (04:04)
"Frankly, America was a little late on Tones and I. In late 2019, 'Dance Monkey' was a true global hit... On our Hot 100, it peaked at number four." (45:53)
Recommended for:
Anyone who’s ever argued about what makes a one hit wonder, pop trivia buffs, Billboard chart geeks, and classic rock/streaming-era fans curious about how history will remember today's chart-toppers.