Let’s have a look at one hit wonders today. The most commonly used meaning of a “one hit wonder” is someone who has come to be known for just the one song, although they may have had some chart success with other releases. We all know loads of these and some of them made truly classic pop songs: The Knack’s “My Sharona”, The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star”, Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”, Dee-Lite’s “Groove Is In The Heart”, and (as we learned last week) Digable Planets’ “Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)”.

Other definitions of the term exclude artists who ended up having a full, healthy career, despite having only one single in the charts. I want to look at this the other way around. I’m curious about artists who have come to be recognized as great or influential – or whose songs are now so well known, you’d swear they had a hit every week – but still only ever had one chart hit. This does get a little tricky, because there are a good number of artists who had only one popular song in the US but were much more popular in the UK, and vice versa. Plus, some of these artists may have hits in the more specific genre-based charts, but only one in the mainstream pop singles chart (based on Top 40 hits). But this being a short exercise in curiosity and not an in-depth research article, we’ll just have to work around those things. Here’s just a handful I picked out:

#20, 1968: The Jimi Hendrix Experience – All Along The Watchtower

The Jimi Hendrix Experience had a good number of hits in the UK, and did pretty well in the US albums chart, but only this one lonely singles hit in the US which only made it to a measly #20. Pretty surprising, since Hendrix was pretty much considered a visionary guitar god even in his own time.

#1, 1971: Janis Joplin – Me And Bobby McGee

A couple of her albums did pretty well in the US, but she never did have a charting release in the UK.

#10, 1973: T. Rex – Bang A Gong (Get It On)

Marc Bolan and his fellow bandmates only reached #10 once in the States, but had 15 Top 20 hits in the UK, four of which were #1 hits. I guess the Americans just didn’t get on board with the whole glam thing like the British did.

#16, 1973: Lou Reed – Walk On The Wild Side

Lou Reed, despite being godfather to all sorts of genres today, has done rather dismally, chart-wise, on both sides of the pond. “Walk On The Wild Side” made it to #10 in the UK and a slightly lower #16 in the States.

#14, 1980: Devo – Whip It

Devo had a slighter better presence in the lower depths of the UK charts than the US, but “Whip It” didn’t even chart over here. Luckily, Americans liked at least that one single and gave Devo their only hit.

#33, 1999: Ol’ Dirty Bastard ft Kelis – Got Your Money

Of course this wasn’t Kelis’ only or even biggest hit, but it was the ODB’s one solo success before his death in 2004.

Obviously, there are more recent examples — Cornershop – “Brimful Of Asha (Norman Cook Remix)” (1998), Eels – “Novocaine For The Soul” (1996), The Cardigans – “Lovefool” (1997) — but it’s a little too soon to really call any of these bands true one hit wonders. By the very nature of those fickle pop charts, you just never know when they might hit it big again.