My final one-hit wonder is a painful choice. I adore so much of Fountains of Wayne’s music that I hate to think of them being relegated to the dustbin of history, remembered for their only hit song, ‘Stacy’s Mom.’
And here’s the real kick in the pants: ‘Stacy’s Mom’ wasn’t even that big of a hit. It peaked at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached #3 on the Pop chart. Nothing else the band released ever came close to chart success.
Today’s pick for a future one-hit wonder is controversial for a couple of reasons.
First, you could argue that fun. has had two hits. ‘We Are Young‘ was their blockbuster, hitting number one in multiple countries and spending more than a month in the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100. But today’s SOTD, the title song of their album Some Nights, was a pretty big hit in its own right. It reached #3 on the Hot 100 and topped a few of the smaller charts.
A key ingredient of one-hit wonder status is how big that one hit is in relation to the rest of the artist’s output. By that standard, the Belgian-born Australian singer-songwriter Gotye is the one-hittiest of one-hit wonders.
Gotye’s marvelous ‘Somebody That I Used to Know‘ topped my own list of the best songs of 2012 and scores of critics’ lists as well. It reached #1 in 26 countries and remains one of the top-selling digital singles of all time. It was massive.
Hozier’s ‘Take Me To Church’ was one of the biggest hits of 2014, going five times Platinum and topping Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart for a then-record 23 straight weeks.
Powered by that single, the Irish rocker’s self-titled debut LP sold a million copies worldwide. I think I heard it a couple of times and enjoyed it well enough, but I couldn’t name another of its songs.
The other day, my daughters and I were talking about one-hit wonders, specifically the idea that some one-hit wonders must have started out with a lot of long-term potential.
When A-Ha had a huge hit with ‘Take On Me,’ their fans probably thought the band would enjoy international success for years to come. And in Europe, they did have a strong run of several Gold albums. But 33 years later, can anybody reading this blog name another A-Ha song without using Google?
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