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Rock Music
(aka: One Hit Wonder Rock Music)

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Note: For "Pop Rock" and "Soft Rock", see the "Pop" page.

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    Alternative Rock 
  • Adorable reached #29 on the Billboard alternative chart in 1992 with their song "Sunshine Smile". Like other bands in the Shoegazing subgenre, Adorable disbanded only a few years later, and never charted again after their only hit.
  • AFI have had numerous hits on alternative radio and are hardly considered one-hit wonders. However, their sole Top 40 hit was 2006's "Miss Murder", which peaked at #24. Their only other charting single was its direct follow-up "Love Like Winter", which fizzled out at #68.
    • Blaqk Audio, a darkwave/synthpop side-project of AFI singer Davey Havok and guitarist Jade Puget, scored a #20 alternative hit in 2007 with their debut single "Stiff Kittens". Although Blaqk Audio released two more albums after that, none of their singles came anywhere close to a Billboard chart.
  • Alabama 3 are known almost exclusively for "Woke up this Morning", the theme to The Sopranos. The song reached #11 on the Billboard adult alternative chart and #34 on the Adult Top 40 chart in 2000. It was the band's only chart entry in the United States. They only made the Top 40 once in their native UK, but it wasn't with "Woke Up This Morning" (which only reached #78); Their one hit there was "Ain't Goin' to Goa", a #40 entry in 1998.
  • The Ataris had a major hit in 2003 with a cover of Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer". While they had a couple of other songs reach the alternative rock charts, nothing else has come close to the success of their cover.
  • AWOLNATION had a huge hit with "Sail" in 2013. The song's mix of alternative, synthpop, noise rock and industrial became a completely unexpected crossover hit in an era where pop, EDM, and hip-hop ruled the airwaves. The song took several years to become a hit, first being released in 2010, not charting on the Hot 100 until the next year, and finally reaching a peak of #17 in October 2013. It actually held the record for the longest time spent on the Billboard Hot 100, with a total of 79 weeks spent on the chart, until it was broken by the 87-week run of Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive" (which was also an unexpected crossover hit, albeit less Genre-Busting). It's also their only song to enter the Hot 100. Their song "Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)" actually outpeaked "Sail" on the alternative charts, going all the way to #1 in 2015, but it's barely remembered compared to the cross-genre smash that "Sail" was. Another song, "Run," was never released as a single but inspired a popular meme on Vine.
  • Banks has garnered a large following but her only success on the radio was 2014's "Beggin for Thread", a #11 hit on alternative. She has yet to even touch the bottom of the chart again.
  • Beck is another "one-hit wonder by technicality" case. "Loser", his Breakthrough Hit, became an unexpected runaway success in 1994 and made it all the way to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, while he was able to have a long, prolific career of critical and commercial success, none of his songs ever cracked the Top 40 again. Six other songs of his have at least made it onto the hot 100, with his second highest charting, "Where It's At", peaking at #61.
  • Belly, (not to be confused with the Canadian rapper, who is listed on the rap page), who were fronted by former Throwing Muses guitarist Tanya Donnelly, topped the alternative chart in 1993 with their single "Feed the Tree", which also cracked the Hot 100 at #95 and made it into rotation on some Top 40 stations. Despite a couple other alternative hits, "Feed the Tree" was the only time the band crossed over into the mainstream.
  • Billy Talent are one of the most popular and best-selling rock bands in their native Canada, with a string of platinum records and hit singles. Across the border in the United States, they are nowhere near as popular, and their only chart entry in that country was with their debut single "Try Honesty", which reached #24 on the alternative chart in 2003. Even there, "Try Honestly" is nowhere near as well known as their later song "Red Flag" due to its use in various video games.
  • blink-182 was one of the biggest bands in the world in the late '90s/early '00s, but technically they only had one crossover hit: "All the Small Things", which peaked at #6 in 2000. A later single, "I Miss You", fell just short of the Top 40 at #42. While "Things" is still their best known song overall, they've had numerous hits on alternative radio and many would be surprised to learn that they're, technically, one-hit wonders. Additionally, several of their side projects proved to be one-hit wonders in their own right, even though they never had a crossover hit with them:
    • Box Car Racer, an emo-oriented side-project of Blink members Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker, scored a #8 alternative hit in 2002 with their debut single "I Feel So". Their follow-up "There Is" only made it to #32 and didn't have the saying power "I Feel So" did. The band never released another album.
    • +44, which Barker and Mark Hoppus formed after Blink split in 2005, scored a #89 Hot 100 and #14 alternative hit in 2006 with their debut single "When Your Heart Stops Beating". +44 also only released one album, and "Heart" was their only charting single.
    • Angels & Airwaves, a space rock band led by DeLonge, had a #55 Hot 100 and #20 UK entry with their 2006 debut single "The Adventure". The band went on to have five more entries on the alternative chart, but never made the Hot 100 or the Top 40 in the UK again.
  • Bowling for Soup are well-known in the Pop Punk scene, but their only Top 40 hit was a cover of SR-71's "1985", which is easily the most popular version. Some of their other songs, like "High School Never Ends", "Girl All the Bad Guys Want", and "Almost" are recognizable to mainstream audiences, if not to the extent of "1985". Of course, they’re also known for doing the theme song to Phineas and Ferb.
  • Blue October's only mainstream hit was the tear-jerking "Hate Me", a #31 Hot 100 hit in 2006. Although they never made the Top 40 of the pop charts again, they managed two more big hits on the adult contemporary chart ("Into the Ocean" and a remix of their earlier single "Calling You") and one more Top 10 on the alternative chart ("Dirt Room"). They would later Lampshade their one-hit wonder status on their 2011 song "Any Man In America."
  • Tracy Bonham had a #1 alternative hit in 1996 with "Mother Mother". Her follow-up single, "The One", only went to #23 and she never charted again. Incidentally, "Mother Mother" would be the last song by a female solo artist to top the alternative chart for 17 years, the next one being Lorde's "Royals" in 2013. In fact, Lorde wasn’t even born until about a few months after “Mother Mother” fell off the charts.
  • Care Bears on Fire had a cult following in the alt rock community in the mid-to-late-2000s, but they're mostly known for their song "Woke Up in the Morning", which is well-known for having been featured in a Nickelodeon sign-on bumper featuring several of their live-action shows' stars getting slimed. "Everybody Else" was a minor radio hit and was once selected as the "Coolest Song in the World This Week" on Steven Van Zandt's Underground Garage, but never really had the lasting legacy of "Woke Up in the Morning", which lives on due to nostalgia for the late-2000s/early-2010s period in which the bumper was used. Member Jena left in 2011, and the band broke up a year later.
  • Candlebox had their only Top 40 hit with 1994's "Far Behind", which made it to #18 on the Hot 100. While the Seattle band had several Top 20 rock hits, their only other Hot 100 entry was "You", "Far Behind"'s followup single, which only got as high as #78.
  • Swedish band The Cardigans had a massive hit stateside with their deceptive silly love song "Lovefool", which hit #2 on the Hot 100 airplay charts (it didn't touch the Hot 100 proper due to the lack of a physical single release) and #9 on the modern rock charts. That was also their only entry on any American pop chart. However, they had a modest #16 hit on modern rock with "My Favourite Game" (which also earns recognition through Gran Turismo and a controversial video), but that was exactly where their stateside success ended. That said, they've managed to maintain consistent success in their native Sweden.
  • Catherine Wheel scored their only UK Top 40 hit with "I Want to Touch You" in 1992. The shoegaze band were far more popular in the United States than their native UK, and two songs that missed the UK Top 40 ("Black Metallic" and "Crank") were top 10 hits on the Billboard alternative chart.
  • Caviar scored a #28 alternative hit with their 2000 single "Tangerine Speedo", which appeared on the soundtrack for that year's Charlie's Angels movie. Although their lounge music-influenced sound set them apart from other radio rock bands of the day, none of their other songs caught on and they wound up getting dropped from their label shortly thereafter.
  • Chris Cornell was a widely-beloved musician with a solidified legacy thanks to his work with both Soundgarden and Audioslave, but as a solo artist he only scored one solo pop hit: The Casino Royale theme song "You Know My Name", which reached #79 on the Hot 100, #7 in the UK, and was a hit all across Europe in 2006.
  • Chumbawamba: They had only one international hit, "Tubthumping," which sounds nothing like their other songs (they started out in The '80s with anarcho-punk and went poppier as time went on). The song itself is actually supposed to be totally meaningless to anyone who isn't British—it's about Old Labour post-Tony Blair. That's right.
    • The band even went as far as to lampshade the commercial success of "Tubthumping" when the lead singer wore a T-Shirt reading "ONE HIT WONDER" when the band were musical guests on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
  • Citizen King are only known for their 1999 hit, "Better Days (and the Bottom Drops Out)". Apparently, people assumed it was the new Sublime song (Brad Nowell was long dead at the time of its release). The song was a #25 Hot 100 hit, a #5 alternative hit, and reached the Top 20 in Canada. It was also their only chart entry anywhere. After the band split up, singer Mount Sims moved to Germany, became a DJ, and collaborated with The Knife on their 2010 album Tomorrow, In a Year. Bass guitarist Dave Cooley, meanwhile, went on to have a long career as a record producer and mastering engineer for artists like Silversun Pickups and M83.
  • Cobra Starship are not a one-hit wonder but rather a Two-Hit Wonder, but their two hits each feature an artist who is. "Good Girls Go Bad" features actress Leighton Meester and "You Make Me Feel" features Sabi.
  • Coin, a rock band made up of Belmont University alumni from Nashville, had a hit song in 2016 with "Talk Too Much". It reached #8 on the alternative charts, but that was it for them. They toured with 5 Seconds of Summer in 2021, after the coronavirus pandemic pushed back their original planned tour dates.
  • Crash Kings had a #1 rock hit in 2010 with "Mountain Man", a follow-up that stalled at #18, and soon afterwards, they used Kickstarter to fund their second album. You may have heard "Hot Fire" in a Mountain Dew ad, but that's about it.
  • The Downtown Fiction have only managed one well-known song, "I Just Wanna Run".
  • Deadeye Dick scored a #27 pop hit in 1994 with their novelty tune "New Age Girl" from the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack. It was their only entry on any chart; Despite being by an alt-rock band, the song never made the Billboard alternative chart and neither did any of their other singles.
  • Death from Above 1979 was a short lived Canadian rock duo who released one album before splitting in 2005. They reunited nearly a decade later, where they scored a rock hit below the border with "Trainwreck 1979", inspired by the November 1979 train disaster in Mississauga, Ontario. Unfortunately, that's where the success stopped. What's more, they're much better remembered for their 2004 song "Romantic Rights" — which didn't chart, but became well known through its use in popular culture — than for "Trainwreck 1979".
  • Deep Blue Something: Their 1995 song "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was their major hit, reaching #5 in their native United States and going all the way to #1 in the UK. They managed a second semi-hit in the UK with "Josey" (it made it to #27), but even there are mainly remembered only for the former.
  • Dishwalla made it to #1 on the Modern Rock Chart and #15 on the Hot 100 with "Counting Blue Cars" in 1995. The band scored two very minor rock chart entries thereafter, and largely disappeared aside from a 1999 episode of Charmed where they guest star and play a major role in the plot. Ted and Lily liking their one hit in college is also a plot element of one How I Met Your Mother episode.
  • Denver rap-rock group Flobots scored a #37 hit in the US and a #14 hit in the UK with their song "Handlebars" in 2008, driven partly by its huge success as a radio request, which was a somewhat rare way to have a hit by the late 2000s. The song was an even bigger hit on the Billboard alternative chart, reaching a peak of #3 there just five weeks after it debuted. However, the band never made good on that impressive start, chartwise; They had two more entries on the alternative chart, neither of which made it higher than #22, and those were their only other charting singles anywhere in the world.
  • The Flys, a post-grunge band from Hollywood, had a top 10 hit on both the modern and mainstream rock charts in 1998 with "Got You (Where I Want You)", which also appeared on the soundtrack to Disturbing Behavior (whose stars Katie Holmes and James Marsden appeared in the song's video). Nothing else they did ever made an impact on the charts.
  • For Squirrels is one of the few examples of this trope brought about by Died During Production. Around the time they released their album and the single "Mighty K.C.", the band was involved in a traffic accident that killed their lead singer, bass player, and manager.
  • 4 Non Blondes scored a worldwide hit with "What's Up?" in 1992. Despite releasing no less than five follow-up singles, none of them cracked the top 40 and the band broke up after just one album. Lead singer Linda Perry later became a successful songwriter, penning hits for Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, and P!nk.
  • Foxboro Hot Tubs, a garage rock influenced side-project of Green Day, reached #16 on the Billboard alternative chart in 2008 with their debut single "Mother Mary". The song actually began charting before it was officially confirmed that Foxboro Hot Tubs were Green Day, but after fans and journalists had correctly deduced their identity, and modern rock stations responded in kind by putting it in rotation. A full-length album followed, but that was also the band's last release. Green Day have occasionally revived Foxboro Hot Tubs for one-off shows, and their 2012 album ¡Dos! was intended as the project's Spiritual Successor.
  • Filter scored a #12 Hot 100 hit in 2000 with "Take A Picture". The dreamy, acoustic mid-tempo ballad was a major departure from the band's normally heavy industrial sound. While the band had no further Top 40 pop hits, they had several chart entries on both rock charts before and after "Take a Picture".
  • Flickerstick, an unsigned band from Dallas, scored a major national breakthrough when they won the only season of the VH1 reality competition Bands on the Run in 2001. Their single "Beautiful" reached #27 on the alternative chart, but their major label debut suffered from low sales and poor promotion, and they were ultimately dropped in the aftermath of 9/11. Flickerstick never charted again, and went back to the Dallas indie scene for the remainder of their career.
  • Fuel, the American band best known for their hit "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" which peaked at #30. On the Rock charts, however, they are far from one hit wonders. Their song "Shimmer" went #2 on Alternative radio and nearly made the Hot 100's top 40. Likewise, "Falls On Me" was a bigger pop radio hit than "Hemorrhage" was, but because "Hemorrhage"'s pop radio run coincided with its rock peak, it was able to go higher on the overall charts. And their ballad "Leave The Memories Alone" found new life as a professional wrestling meme, after it was used in a Ric Flair video tribute upon his retirement, to ironically pay tribute to wrestlers with forgettable careers upon their releases from WWE. "Hemorrhage" is still, by far, their best known song.
  • fun. are not a one-hit wonder, but Janelle Monáe, their guest who appears as an Advertised Extra backing vocalist on "We Are Young", technically is. While Monáe is one of the most critically acclaimed artists of the 2010s, none of her own singles have made it any higher than #79. Also a one hit wonder is fun.'s frontman Nate Ruess, via his appearance on P!nk's "Just Give Me a Reason" (his own song "Nothing Without Love" initially garnered modest hype but ultimately failed to gain traction).
  • Geggy Tah, an alt-rock trio with funk and world music influences, scored a #16 hit on Billboard's alternative chart in 1996 with their song "Whoever You Are". While the band would have no other hits, "Whoever You Are" returned to radio playlists again in 2001 after it was featured in a Mercedes-Benz TV ad. The band is best known now as the first project of its keyboardist Greg Kurstin, who during the next two decades became a Grammy-winning superstar producer for artists like Adele, Kelly Clarkson, Foo Fighters and Sia.
  • While they never reached mainstream popularity, indie rock band Giants of Industry has only one song at least known to the public, "Here We Go", all because of its usage in the Roblox Anthem Video.
  • In the most objective sense of "only one hit on the Top 40", Gorillaz meet this trope in the United States, as their De La Soul collaboration "Feel Good Inc." was their only Top 40 hit. However, they had more hits in their native UK, and "Clint Eastwood" and "Dare" eventually went platinum in the US.
  • Boris Grebenshchikov is one of the most famous rock musicians in his native Russia, and as the frontman for the pioneering band Aquarium, he is considered to be highly influential on the country's entire rock music scene. Outside of Russia, however, he had just one hit: His Dave Stewart-produced English language single "Radio Silence", a #7 hit on the Billboard Alternative Chart in 1989. While he received considerable American press at the time as the first Russian artist to sign a recording contract with a Western label, Grebenshchikov didn't follow up that hit with any others.
  • Harvey Danger is known solely for "Flagpole Sitta", which was a Sleeper Hit for getting radio airplay in their native Seattle's alternative and rock stations, and then it spread across the country on rock and alternative radio. It helped that it was also featured in the first American Pie and later on as the theme to Peep Show. Their next single "Private Helicopter" was completely ignored — Unfortunate for the band, because their label demanded it be their next single instead of the song they had personally chosen. Harvey Danger had two more Top-30 alternative hits, and that was it. Their frontman Sean Nelson would later host a podcast interviewing fellow one hit wonders.
  • Hoobastank was fairly popular with rock fans in the early '00s, but the only time they crossed over to pop territory was with their massive hit "The Reason" which topped many charts and went #2 on the Hot 100. Their didn't have much success later, even on the rock charts, as it was their final ever top 10 on both mainstream and alternative rock. It was their only Top 40 hit, as their next highest charting single, "Running Away", peaked at #44. Even still, only the biggest rock fans today know them for that song along. This is also an example of how one's biggest hit is not representative of their normal material.
  • Incubus has had numerous hits on alternative and mainstream rock radio and aren't typically thought of as one-hit wonders in the same way that others are. Still, they technically only had one Top 40 hit, with "Drive" hitting #9 in 2000. Guitarist Mike Einziger later co-wrote two #1 hits in the UK: "Wake Me Up" by Avicii and "Lovers on the Sun" by David Guetta.
  • The Jesus Lizard were one of the most notable noise-rock bands of the 1990s, and were known for having a challenging and uncommercial musical style. That didn't stop the group from scoring a UK #12 hit in 1993 with their song "Puss", which was released in that country as a double A-side split single with Nirvana's "Oh, The Guilt". While many British fans likely bought the single for the exclusive Nirvana track unavailable anywhere else, Kurt Cobain's open adoration for The Jesus Lizard probably sold them on their song too. "Puss" wound up being The Jesus Lizard's only charting single anywhere.
  • The Josh Joplin Group had a #1 hit on the Adult Alternative Chart in 2001 with their song "Camera One". The song also reached #40 on the Modern Rock chart. However, their debut album was a sales disappointment, and so was their followup. The band ultimately split in 2003, just two years after their hit. Joplin has since recorded as a solo artist, but has had no further hits.
  • Welsh shoegaze/alternative rock band The Joy Formidable will likely only ever be known for 2011's "Whirring", which hit #7 on the US Alternative chart, especially after its placement in the 2023 video game Hi-Fi RUSH. While a few of their subsequent singles achieved some sort of radio play, none of them got close to the top 10, likely due to the band having a significantly heavier sound than the indie pop and folk songs that became dominant in the Alternative scene in the 2010s.
  • KALEO is an Icelandic rock band whose sole claim to fame is the surprise 2017 hit "Way Down We Go", which topped the Alternative charts and became a favorite for TV and movie usage. The song's success led to the band even performing it inside a volcano. While they also scored a #9 hit on mainstream rock with "No Good" ("Way Down We Go" having only reached #23 on that chart), it was quickly forgotten.
  • Kings of Leon are one of the most popular rock bands of the 21st century, but their only major crossover hit was 2009's Grammy-winning “Use Somebody”. Their only other top 40 hit was “Radioactive”, which only hit the top 40 due to first-week digital sales and quickly vanished from the chart. “Sex on Fire” topped the charts in Australia, Finland, Ireland and the UK, but it only peaked at #56 in the US (it has since gone platinum, though).
  • KONGOS, a band comprised of the sons of South African singer-songwriter John Kongos (himself a Two-Hit Wonder), had a #31 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014 with "Come with Me Now" after the song got a boost in popularity after being used as the theme for the 2014 edition of WWE's Extreme Rules pay-per-view. However, they did not gain any more Top 40 entries. They've done somewhat better on the alternative radio charts, but even there they've haven't been able to match the success of their big hit.
  • The La's reached #13 in the UK and #49 in the US with "There She Goes" in 1990. While the band were very influential and largely considered an Ur-Example of the Britpop scene, they were short lived, and only released one album before dissolving. Almost a decade later, Sixpence None the Richer would take a cover of "There She Goes" to #32 in the US — and yet, today, Americans are now more familiar with The La's original version (Sixpence are often thought of as a case of this trope themselves for their earlier hit "Kiss Me").
  • Lazlo Bane are known almost exclusively for "Superman", the theme song for Scrubs.
  • Canadian band Len had an international Top 10 hit (#8 UK, #9 US, #3 Australia) with "Steal My Sunshine" in 1999. Following single "Cyptik Souls Crew" was a minor hit in the UK, but that was the last time they ever charted anywhere. Shortly after their biggest hit, guitarist Brendan Canning quit the group to form a new band called Broken Social Scene, which became one of the most acclaimed indie rock bands of the 2000s.
  • Living Things are mostly known just for "Bombs Below" after its use in a number of commercials.
  • Local H had a top 10 hit on both Billboard rock charts, and a #46 pop airplay hit, with "Bound for the Floor" in 1996. While they followed that song up with a few more minor rock hits, they never had any further crossover success. However, players of Burnout 3: Takedown will recognize their later song "Everyone Alive".
  • Ludo reached #8 on the modern rock chart in 2008 with their song "Love Me Dead". While the band's quirky take on emo pop-punk earned them a cult following, they never returned to the single charts again.
  • Luscious Jackson, a band which featured Beastie Boys co-founder Kate Schellenbach, had a #35 US and #24 UK hit in 1996 with "Naked Eye". While they earned raves for their mix of electronica, hip hop and indie rock, that was their only trip to the Top 40 in either country, although they had two more hits on the Billboard alternative chart.
  • Lustra are only known for their 2004 song "Scotty Doesn't Know", famously lip synced by Matt Damon in the film EuroTrip.
  • Good Charlotte are hardly considered one-hit wonders, but the side project of frontmen Joel and Benji Madden, creatively called The Madden Brothers, are. They hit it big in 2014 with "We Are Done", a chart-topper in Australia and New Zealand, and never charted again.
  • Marcy Playground had a huge hit in 1998 with "Sex & Candy." They never saw the Hot 100 again, but their follow up "Saint Joe on the School Bus" hit the top 10 on the alternative charts.
  • Matchbook Romance have a fairly large following, but non-fans/the general public know them mostly for "Monsters" because of its appearences in Madden NFL 07 and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
  • Matthew Good Band was one of the most popular alt-rock groups in Canada during the 1990s and early 2000s, but they only managed one hit stateside: "Hello Time Bomb", a #34 hit on the Billboard Modern Rock chart in 2001.
  • Max Q, a side-project of INXS frontman Michael Hutchence, scored a #6 alternative hit in 1989 with their debut single "Way of the World". The band was extremely short-lived and only released one album before Hutchence went back to INXS. The project was never re-activated before his death in 1997.
  • Mazzy Star fell short of the Top 40 with "Fade Into You", which stalled at #44. It was their only song to reach the Hot 100 and still gets recurrent airplay on alternative radio.
  • Meredith Brooks had a massive #2 hit in 1997 with "Bitch", also known as "Nothing in Between". Her only other chart entry was "What Would Happen", which fizzled out at #46, and her only other notable song is "Shine", the original theme to Dr. Phil. After that, she faded into complete obscurity with neither her singles nor albums charting anywhere. Not helping matters is the fact that the song only became a hit because people thought it was a new Alanis Morissette song. Naturally, interest in Brooks faded once people found out she was not Morissette, and the real deal released new music shortly afterwards.
  • Middle Class Rut, a duo from Sacramento, hit #6 on alternative in 2011 with "New Low" but no other top 20 entries.
  • The Neighbourhood's "Sweater Weather" peaked at #14 on the Hot 100 but had a very long tail, becoming one of the most streamed songs of all time and achieving a diamond RIAA certification. It is also easily the band's biggest hit and the only one to even touch the Hot 100. They did have minor success with some follow-ups; "Afraid" reached #4 on the alternative charts and "Daddy Issues" went viral on TikTok well after its initial release, both eventually being certified platinum.
  • Nerf Herder had a minor alternative rock radio hit in 1996 with their tribute to "Van Halen". Nothing else by the band ever charted, and they are remembered as a classic one-hit wonder — just not for "Van Halen", but for the instrumental theme to the Cult Classic TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
  • The Nixons had four hits on the mainstream rock chart, but their only pop hit was 1996's "Sister", which made it to #39 on Billboard's Mainstream Top 40 radio chart. It was also their only entry on the alternative chart, where it peaked at #11.
  • One Day as a Lion was a rap-rock project that was Zach de la Rocha's first substantial musical outing since Rage Against the Machine broke up nearly eight years earlier. The band's debut single "Wild International" made it to #20 on the Billboard Alternative chart in 2008...and that was more or less it for them. The group's five song EP, released shortly thereafter, proved to be the only record they ever put out.
  • The Orwells made it to #23 on the alternative chart in 2014 with their song "Who Needs You". It was their only chart entry, but they remained a popular touring band afterwards. That is, until four years later, when they broke up following sexual assault allegations against three of the band members.
  • Our Lady Peace are an extremely popular band in their native Canada, but their only Hot 100 entry was "Somewhere Out There", which reached #44 in 2002. Despite their lack of pop success, the band had multiple chart hits on both Billboard rock charts, including several that were bigger than "Somewhere Out There".
  • The Presidents of the United States of America are widely considered a Two-Hit Wonder for their pair of 1995 hits, "Lump" and "Peaches". However, because "Lump" was not released as a physical single, "Peaches" was the only one of the two to be eligible for the Hot 100, where it peaked at #29 ("Lump" was the bigger radio hit, making #21 on the pop airplay chart).
  • Primitive Radio Gods. Not really a band, but a solo project of Chris O'Connor, who'd been in a band called The I-Rails. After that band split up O'Connor got a job as an air traffic controller and sent out demo tapes to record labels. One executive liked them and signed him. After the song "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand" was included in The Cable Guy, it became a Breakaway Pop Hit. It hit #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart, made the top 10 of the Hot 100 Airplay chart, and the video was an MTV staple in the summer of 1996. After that O'Connor reunited with other members of the I-Rails and turned Primitive Radio Gods into a full-fledged band. To this day "Standing" is their only-ever chart entry.
  • American grunge band Radish scored a UK hit in 1997 when their song "Little Pink Stars" went to #32 there. Although grunge was not a very popular genre in England by the mid 90s, the band stood out because their lead singer and songwriter Ben Kweller was just 16 years old when they made it big. Radish split a short time later, with Kweller starting a solo career.
    • However, despite critical acclaim for his solo work, Ben Kweller himself also only had one charting single: His 2002 solo single "Wasted & Ready" reached #29 on the Alternative Songs chart in the United States.
  • Soul/rock singer Rag'n'Bone Man had several top ten hits in his native UK, but only his breakthrough 2016 single "Human" managed to cross the pond and chart in the U.S., sputtering out at #74 on the Hot 100. Despite this low peak, "Human" went multi-platinum in the U.S., helped by its presence in numerous commercials and other media in the years since.
  • One-Man Band The Ready Set's song "Love Like Woe" peaked at #27, but none of his other songs charted.
  • The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus had "Face Down", still a fixture on alternative radio today, chart at #23 on the Hot 100 in 2007. The band went indie after their second album, and they are more known for a copyright violation incident in 2014 than any music they put out after "In Fate's Hands".
  • Remy Zero are an alternative rock band from Alabama. They are known for the song "Save Me", the theme song to the hit TV series Smallville, and not much else.
  • Satellite Party was a supergroup led by Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell and also featuring Nuno Bettancourt of Extreme and Peter Hook of New Order. Despite the impressive lineup, the band was short-lived and only scored one chart entry before imploding on itself: "Wish Upon a Dog Star", a #26 entry on the Billboard alternative chart in 2007.
  • Seven Mary Three scored a huge rock hit in 1996 with "Cumbersome". The song reached #1 on the mainstream rock chart, #7 on alternative and even #39 on the Hot 100. The band never crossed over to the pop charts again after that, but they went on to have several more hits on both rock charts for a few years afterward and were influential on the Post-Grunge genre.
  • Shihad are one of the biggest rock bands in New Zealand, but they only had one hit in the US, when their song "Bulletproof" made it to #27 on Mainstream Rock and #37 on Modern Rock there in 2003. At the time, they had changed their name to Pacifier in order to remove the Unfortunate Implications of being a band whose name was a misspelling of "jihad" post 9/11. They changed it back a year later, but they had no further success in the US.
  • The only hit for Sister Hazel was their 1997 debut "All for You", which went to #11 in 1997.
  • Snow Patrol have had many hits in their native UK and on the US alternative charts, but their only top 40 hit in the US was 2006's "Chasing Cars," which remains popular to this day thanks to its use on Grey's Anatomy. Ironically, they were the opening act on many North American dates of Ed Sheeran's Divide Tour because of this status, despite having a longer career, when Sheeran started out as an opening act for ''them.''
  • Aussie rockers Spiderbait made it to #32 on Billboard's mainstream rock chart in 2004 with their cover of Leadbelly's "Black Betty", which was based off Ram Jam's hard rock interpretation from 1977. It was also a #1 hit in their native Australia, but the band didn't follow up the success and went on a long hiatus at the end of 2004. When they reunited in 2013, they were back to being strictly Australian stars, as all of their international momentum had long gone.
  • Technically, The Starting Line's only charting song was 2007's "Island," but it is their earlier song "Best of Me" that is fondly recalled today.
  • Stone Sour, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor's other band, managed a #39 pop hit with "Through Glass", and never hit the Top 40 again. Both bands have had much more success on the rock charts; in fact, most people will be surprised that Stone Sour were more successful on rock radio than Slipknot despite being much less famous overall and having far lower album sales, due to a far more consistent album release schedule especially as of the 2010s.
  • Sublime is an example of a band that's a technical one-hit wonder but is well known for their body of work. Their one Top 40 hit was "What I Got", which peaked at #29 on the airplay charts (it didn't officially chart because of a rule at the time preventing non-physical singles from entering), but they've had numerous hits on alternative radio and are mainstays on that format to this day (including "Santeria", which is almost as well-known and even gets pop radio airplay). Of course, since its frontman Bradley Nowell died tragically of a drug overdose, they're unlikely to fade to obscurity anytime soon.
    • Long Beach Dub Allstars - a group that the two surviving members of Sublime formed with a bunch of the band's friends after Nowell's death - is a more clear-cut example of a one-hit wonder. The band's one and only chart entry, "Sunny Hours", made it to #28 on the Modern Rock chart in 2001. The song is notable for featuring a guest appearance from a pre-fame will.i.am.
  • Talk Show was a very short lived side-project for the members of Stone Temple Pilots who weren't Scott Weiland (plus a new singer), during a period where STP was estranged from their frontman due to his drug habit. Talk Show only released one album and one single, "Hello Hello", a #16 entry on the Modern Rock chart in 1997. The album, however, was a huge flop and the members ultimately decided to reunite as STP with Weiland after all.
  • that dog. had a #27 alternative hit in 1997 with "Never Say Never", which was their only charting single anywhere. Their 1994 single "Old Timer" had a popular video directed by Spike Jonze that got plenty of MTV airplay, but it did not cross over to radio.
  • Tonic had a major radio hit in late 1997 with "If You Could Only See." While they had a few more rock radio smashes and earned Grammy nominations for their third album Head on Straight, they vanished from the Hot 100.
  • Thursday have a devoted following and are considered to be highly influential on the screamo and post-hardcore genres, but their only major chart hit was 2003's "Signals to the Air", which reached #30 on the Billboard alternative chart and #62 in the UK in 2003.
  • U2 is certainly not a one-hit wonder, but three of the band members became one-hit wonders with collaborations: Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen went to the top-10 in 1996 with the theme for Mission: Impossible. In 2010, Bono (who also had a #22 hit with "Across the Universe" in 2005) and The Edge teamed up non-one-hit wonders Jay-Z and Rihanna for the top-20 "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)".
  • Urban Dance Squad, a Dutch group who mixed hip-hop with alternative rock a few years before that style really caught on, scored a #21 hit in the United States in 1991 with "A Deeper Shade of Soul". The band's biggest impact on American music, however, came later that year when they toured with Beastie Boys, and inspired them to play their own instruments on their next album Check Your Head.
  • VAST had a big rock hit in 2000 with "Free" and haven't had much success otherwise.
  • The Verve Pipe (no relation to The Verve) are only known for their top 5 hit "The Freshmen" and never saw any more Hot 100 action (though their song "Photograph" got to #6 on the Alternative chart).
  • Wax had a #28 hit on the alternative chart in 1995 with their song "California". The song's radio success was spurred by its striking video directed by Spike Jonze, which depicted a man on fire running to a bus stop in slow motion. It received a huge Colbert Bump for its appearance on Beavis and Butt-Head, and pretty much became a proto-viral video. The song and video's success did not help Wax score any further hits, though. Their drummer Loomis Fall later appeared on jackass and Wildboyz, and their singer Joe Sib founded the long-running pop-punk record label Sideonedummy.
  • Ween just missed the top 20 of the Modern Rock charts (going to #21) with "Push th' Little Daisies", and even went to #18 on the pop chart in Australia. "Voodoo Lady" charted at a less impressive #36 and #58, and they had no further chart hits. That said, "Ocean Man", despite never charting, unquestionably became their Signature Song thanks to appearing in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
  • Whale, a Swedish band that crossed alternative rock with trip hop and the contemporary dance music of the time, scored a #24 US alternative hit with their offbeat 1993 single "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe". Two years later, a reissue took it to #15 in the UK. The band never made the Top 40 again in either country.
  • Weezer is another band that is a One-Hit Wonder in only the most absolute technical sense - despite being one of the famous and influential '90s rock bands and having no shortage of iconic songs, only one ever cracked the Billboard Top 40 - "Beverly Hills", off of the panned 2005 album Make Believe. 1994's "Buddy Holly" did reach #18 on the airplay charts, but because of Billboard's rule on airplay-only singles at the time, it was ineligible to chart on the Hot 100.
  • Punk-pop band Wheatus reached #7 on the Billboard alternative chart in 2000 with their song "Teenage Dirtbag". The song was their only hit in their native US, but it was an even bigger hit elsewhere in the world, reaching #2 in the UK, Germany, Sweden, and Ireland and topping the charts in Belgium and Australia. While their followup single, a cover of Erasure's "A Little Respect", made it to #3 in the UK and placed in the Top 40 in a few other countries, it did not chart in the US. After that, they only had one more Top 40 hit in the UK before their chart success dried up for good.
  • New Zealand singer Willy Moon had a hit in 2013 with "Yeah Yeah". None of his other songs ever charted anywhere, and his chances of ever scoring another hit went up in smoke after his and his wife Natalia Kills' career-destroying behavior on the New Zealand The X Factor.
  • Yellowcard had a #37 hit on the Hot 100 in 2004 with "Ocean Avenue". While the band would have several more hits on the alternative chart, they never made the pop top 40 again.
  • You Me at Six have been huge in their native U.K. for years, but their only song to get widespread airplay in America to date is the 2014 Black Sheep Hit "Room to Breathe".
  • Zwan was a supergroup that was Billy Corgan's first project following the disbandment of The Smashing Pumpkins, and featured members of other notable groups such as A Perfect Circle and Slint. The band's first single "Honestly" reached #7 on the Billboard alternative chart, #17 in Canada and #28 in the UK in 2003. Despite that good start, it wound being Zwan's only hit, as Corgan abruptly broke the band up just nine months after they released their debut album, citing personality conflicts between its members.

    Britpop 
  • Collapsed Lung, a Brit-hop band from the 90s, hit the UK top 40 twice with their hit "Eat My Goal", which was also tapped for a Coca-Cola advert, but never had another hit.
  • Cornershop had a minor hit with "Brimful of Asha" in 1997, which went to #60 on the UK charts. In 1998, a remix by Norman Cook sent the song straight to #1. Norman Cook, thanks to his output as Fatboy Slim, isn't a one-hit-wonder, but "Brimful of Asha" remains Cornershop's only smash hit.
  • Richard Hawley was originally the guitarist for Britpop group the Longpigs, who had several UK hits, and he embarked on a much-acclaimed solo career after they broke up in 2000. While four of his albums reached the UK top 10, he only had one Top 40 single, when "Tonight the Streets Are Ours" peaked at exactly #40 in 2007. While not a very big hit, the song went on to be used in commercials and films over the next few years, most prominently as the theme song for Banksy's 2010 street art documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop.
  • James were huge in their native U.K., being active in the Britpop scene and having been active since the 80s, but in America are remembered almost solely for the 1993 hit "Laid". It made it to #3 on the alternative chart and #61 on the Hot 100, their only entry there. Back in the U.K., "Laid" isn't even their best-known song; that would be "Sit Down" (which did make it to #9 on the alternative chart but did not crossover to the pop charts in the US).
  • Oasis are in a weird situation in the United States. Just looking at the Hot 100, their only Top 40 hit was "Wonderwall", which made it to #8. However, they had several songs that were big on pop radio that would have made the Top 40 had they not been ineligible due to the infamous '90s Billboard chart quirk that deemed songs not issued as physical singles ineligible to chart. Among those songs were "Champagne Supernova", "Live Forever", and "Don't Go Away". Notably, "Don't Look Back in Anger", which is better known than either of the latter two singlesnote  was released as a single, but only made it to #55.
    • At the height of Oasis-mania in the UK, the band was responsible for creating three one-hit wonders:
      • The Mike Flowers Pops took a Retraux easy-listening cover of "Wonderwall" to #2 on the UK Singles Chart in late 1995, which was the same position the original had peaked at earlier that year.
      • No Way Sis, an Oasis tribute band who had the coveted endorsement of both Gallagher brothers (Noel even gave their guitarist one of his guitars), scored a UK Top 40 hit with a cover of The New Seekers' "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing" in 1996. The actual Oasis has been involved in legal proceedings with the writers of that song, who had successfully argued that the band had lifted its melody for "Shakermaker".
      • Credited specifically to Oas*s, "Wibbling Rivalry" was a bootleg single (albeit one released on legit indie label Fierce Panda) consisting of an NME interview with Liam and Noel Gallagher that devolves into an argument between the brothers about an infamous 1994 incident in which Liam incited a brawl on a ferry ride to the Netherlands, causing the whole band (except for Noel) to be deported back to the UK once they reached land. Owing to the public fascination of the Gallaghers' famously contentious relationship, the single became the best selling interview recording in British history and made it all the way to #52 in the UK in November 1995. No other recordings like this of the Gallaghers made it onto the British charts.
      • After Oasis broke up in 2009, Noel and Liam both started their own bands. While Noel's group Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds has had a handful of UK Top 40 hits, Liam's band Beady Eye, which also featured the rest of Oasis' final lineup, only had one: "The Roller", which made it to #31 in 2011. The band had a few more low charting singles that did not make the Top 40 before they too broke up in 2014. Liam has since started a solo career that has brought him back to the top 40 several more times.
  • Placebo are superstars, with a total of fifteen top 40 hits (with three going top 5)... in the United Kingdom. In the United States, meanwhile, their only song to have an impact on radio is "Pure Morning". Only one other song appeared on the Modern Rock chart, "Infra-Red", only at #35, and quickly forgotten outside their fanbase. And ironically, their best-known song, "Every You Every Me", failed to chart in the US.
  • Republica is primarily known for their one hit single, "Ready to Go", which hit #13 on the U.K. charts, cracked the Top 100 U.S. Singles and charted internationally. Their follow-up single, "Drop Dead Gorgeous", ranked higher on the U.K. charts but bombed everywhere else. Nowadays, even in the U.K., Republica is remembered exclusively for "Ready To Go".
  • Stereophonics are massive in their native U.K., but are known to American audiences for "Dakota" and not much else.
  • Supergrass are very well-known back in the U.K., but international audiences will be hard-pressed to name any other song by them other than "Alright." Weirdly, that song never charted on the American alternative charts, while the considerably less remembered "Cheapskate" was their only entry there, peaking at #35.
  • The Verve are popular in the U.K., but "Bitter Sweet Symphony" was their only hit across the pond. A lawsuit by ABKCO caused the Verve to never make a pence off of their hit, until Mick Jagger and Keith Richards waived their credit for the song and gave their share of royalties back to the band in 2019.
  • Britpoppers Whiteout had exactly one charting single with "Jackie's Racing", barely scraping the UK top 100 at #72, before falling into complete obscurity.

    College Rock 
  • Big Audio Dynamite was one of the most popular acts on American college radio in the late 1980s, owing in part to the fact that they were led by Mick Jones, the legendary guitarist of The Clash. Despite their alternative success, the band only had a brief time in the mainstream. Their only American top 40 hit was "Rush", which made it to #32 on the Hot 100 in 1991 while the band was in its second incarnation ("Big Audio Dynamite II"). Their only other Hot 100 entry was its followup "The Globe", a top 5 alternative hit that only managed to get as high as #72 on the pop chart. The band had much more success in both their native UK and the Billboard alternative charts.
  • The Chills are one of the most important and influential bands to ever come from New Zealand and helped develop the country's distinct "Dunedin Sound" indie rock scene in the 1980s. Although they're revered as legends in their home country and are critics' favorites around the world, they only had one American hit: "Heavenly Pop Hit", a #17 entry on the alternative chart in 1990.
  • Concrete Blonde reached #19 on the Hot 100 with their 1990 ballad "Joey". The band had several hits on both Billboard rock charts before and after that, but never made the Hot 100 again.
  • Dreams So Real, one of the top names in the Athens, Georgia alt-rock scene, had much less chart success than some of the other bands from that storied college town. Their only chart single was 1988's "Rough Night in Jericho", a #28 mainstream rock hit. Despite an endorsement from their friend Peter Buck of R.E.M., the band grew frustrated by their lack of success and broke up after they were dropped by Arista Records a few years later.
  • Easterhouse scored a #82 Hot 100 and #7 Alternative hit in 1989 with their single "Come Out Fighting". Although the British group was a regular on American college radio, they never again had another mainstream hit. They also weren't particularly popular back in their home country outside of the indie scene, and never made the main UK Singles Chart.
  • fIREHOSE, a band formed by the surviving two-thirds of beloved alt-rock pioneers the Minutemen after the death of frontman D. Boon in a car accident, were one of the top musical acts on the concert touring circuit in the late 1980s. Despite their popularity with the college crowd, the band only had one charting hit, when "Time With You" reached #26 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart in 1989. The band made a jump to a major label for their next album but had no further chart entries before they disbanded in 1994.
    • Mike Watt, the legendary bassist and lead songwriter for both Minutemen and fIREHOSE, scored a hit as a solo artist in 1995 when "Against the 70s" made it to #21 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. Although Watt was greatly respected at the time, what drove the song's success was that it featured Eddie Vedder on lead vocals and Dave Grohl on drums, when he was still known best as Nirvana's drummer, but just as he was starting to put together Foo Fighters. Although Watt continues to be a highly influential elder statesman of alt-rock, he's never returned to the charts again.
  • The Go-Betweens were one of Australia's most popular and influential alternative bands, and their importance on the genre in the country can be compared to that of R.E.M. in the United States or The Smiths in the U.K. Although the band were huge on college radio in the US, they only had one chart entry in the country: "Was There Anything I Could Do?", a #16 modern rock hit in 1988. The band broke up the next year, and although they would reunite in 2000, no further hits came for them.
  • Guadalcanal Diary are one of many jangly indie guitar bands who were favorites on 1980s college radio, but for whom the Billboard alternative chart came just a little too late to fully document their underground popularity. The band's one and only entry on a Billboard chart was "Always Saturday", which made it to #7 on that then-nascent chart in 1989. It was also one of the very last singles the band would release, as they disbanded just a few months later.
  • Hindu Love Gods, a Supergroup that was literally just R.E.M. with Warren Zevon sitting in for Michael Stipe as lead singer, reached #23 on the alternative chart in 1990 with their cover of Prince's "Raspberry Beret". While Hindu Love Gods had made scattered live appearances in the late 1980s, the project was dissolved after the release of their album, and they never recorded another before Zevon's death in 2003.
  • Actress Milla Jovovich scored a #21 hit on the alternative chart in 1994 with her debut single "The Gentleman Who Fell". Her debut album was critically acclaimed and earned her positive comparisons to Kate Bush and Tori Amos, but she never released a follow-up. She continued her successful film career, however, and has pursued much lower-key musical projects.
  • King Missile had a minor 1992 hit with "Detachable Penis", which peaked at #25 on the Modern Rock chart. They had some minor success on college radio.
  • The Lightning Seeds are legends in their native UK, having been active since the late-'80s and being a big force in Britain's Indie Pop scene. Over in America, however, their only Top 40 hit was the debut single "Pure", which hit #31, also something of a Black Sheep Hit as back then The Lightning Seeds were actually just Ian Broudie's solo projectnote . They did better on the Alternative charts with three Top 10 hits (including the #2 hit "The Life of Riley"), and they were also one of the last bands to become popular on US college campus radio stations.
  • Midnight Oil had a few Top 10 hits on rock radio, but "Beds are Burning" was their only song to chart in the Top 40 of the Hot 100. "Blue Sky Mine", which narrowly missed it (#47) was a #1 hit on both rock charts ("Beds are Burning" was #6 on Mainstream Rock, and was released shortly before the Alternative Airplay chart was created), and "Forgotten Years" also was a #1 Modern Rock hit. In their native Australia and some other countries, they're more successful.
  • The Mock Turtles had their only big hit with 1991's "Can You Dig It?", a #18 hit on the UK chart and a #19 hit on the US alternative chart. A 2003 remix brought the song back to the UK top 20. Lead singer Martin Coogan went on to work on the music for some of his brother Steve's Alan Partridge projects after the band broke up.
  • The Rave-Ups reached #12 on the Billboard alternative chart in 1990 with their song "(Respectfully) King of Rain". The band had been building up a following on college radio for a few years beforehand, especially after Fandom VIP Molly Ringwald arranged for them to appear in Pretty in Pink in 1986. Unfortunately for the band, they didn't last much longer after they finally scored a hit: They were dropped from their label a few months after "King of Rain" reached its peak, and they subsequently broke up.
  • Dream pop duo Shelleyan Orphan got a big break in 1989 when The Cure picked them as the opening act on their world Prayer Tour. The exposure resulted in their song "Shatter" going to #23 on the Billboard alternative chart that fall. The band only released one more album before breaking up, with both members going on to form Babacar with former Cure drummer Boris Williams. Although Shelleyan Orphan would eventually reform, they ended for good when singer Caroline Crawley died suddenly in 2016.
  • The Sugarcubes were the first Icelandic musical act of any kind to enjoy worldwide commercial success, and were the launching pad for their lead singer Björk's successful and influential solo career. The band were especially popular in the United States, where they notched four modern rock hits in the early 1990s and do not count as a one-hit wonder in that country. In the United Kingdom however, they only made the Top 40 just once, with 1992's "Hit", which was also their only Billboard Modern Rock #1. Although they were favorites of popular radio DJ John Peel, none of the Sugarcubes' other singles made it higher than #51. "Hit" was also the band's only chart entry in Australia or Sweden.
  • Thelonious Monster were, along with their pals Red Hot Chili Peppers, one of the leading bands of the Los Angeles alternative scene in the late 1980s. Unlike the Peppers, the band only made one appearance on a Billboard chart, with their 1989 #29 modern rock hit "So What If I Did". The band were also well known for their reputation as party animals, which caught up to singer Bob Forrest. After years of battling drug addiction, he got clean in the mid-1990s and started a successful second career as a drug treatment counselor. He's probably best known now for his stint as Drew Pinsky's head counselor on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew
  • The husband-and-wife duo Timbuk3 became one of the first alternative rock bands to cross over from College Radio to the Top 40 in 1986, when their song "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" made it to #13 on the Hot 100. While the song became a pop culture touchstone, Timbuk3 only had a few more minor hits on the mainstream rock chart before dropping off the radar by the end of the 1980s.
  • The Triffids reached #26 in the UK in 1986 with "Wide Open Road", which was their only top 40 entry there. The band were very popular in their native Australia, where their album Born Sandy Devotional is considered an alt-rock classic, but none of their four charting singles in Australia reached the country's top 40. They were also one-hit wonders in New Zealand, where "Bury Me Deep In Love", their followup to "Wide Open Road", reached #34.
  • World Party, which was more of a musical project for Singer-Songwriter Karl Wallinger (formerly of The Waterboys) than an actual band, scored a #27 US hit in 1987 with their debut single "Ship of Fools". World Party never returned to the Hot 100, but remained a staple on alternative radio over the next few years, scoring three top 10 hits on the Modern Rock chart, including the 1990 chart-topper "Way Down Now" and 1993's top-five charter "Is It Like Today?". This was a case of Germans Love David Hasselhoff, since World Party had 9 charted singles in Wallinger's native UK, but never went past #19 ("Is It Like Today?"). World Party also counts as a OHW in Australia ("Ship of Fools" reached #4, no other singles went past #62) and the Netherlands ("Way Down Now" got to #17). However, a World Party song became a #1 UK hit in Covered Up form, when Robbie Williams took "She's the One" to the top in 1999, two years after the original.

    Extreme Metal 
  • Abnormality are the top dogs of the New England death metal scene, but to the general public they are known solely for "Visions". Rather, they are known as "that band that made that really hard song in Rock Band 2". Most people probably don't even know that the band is fronted by a woman.
  • Cannibal Corpse is easily the world's most famous Death Metal band, with two million albums sold worldwide and being possibly the only one the average person can name. However, most only know one song by them — 1992's "Hammer Smashed Face". It was used in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and much later it was featured as downloadable content for Rock Band 2.
  • Meshuggah fans will name many better songs, but the one song of theirs everyone with an interest in metal knows is "Bleed". This may be that it's one of their few songs which is in 4/4 time signature, and has far more streams than any of their other songs. Don't expect them to ever repeat this.

    Electronic Rock 
  • Ghost Town had mild success with Party in the Graveyard and The After Party, but none of their songs were as big as "You're So Creepy", which has a combined 41 million listens on Spotify between its two versions — over six times as many what their runner-up, "Universe", has. They would later disband in 2018, with the lead singer facing a Role-Ending Misdemeanor and the band's socials being dormant since 2020.

    Garage Rock 
  • The 5.6.7.8's, an all-female Japanese band with a throwback surf rock sound, scored a #28 UK hit in 2004 with their cover of The Rock-A-Teens' "Woo Hoo". The song became popular after Quentin Tarantino hand-picked the 5.6.7.8's to appear in his film Kill Bill Vol. 1, wherein they performed "Woo Hoo" and two other songs. Another one of those songs, "I'm Blue", missed the UK Top 40 and peaked at #71 and they never had another pop hit anywhere in the world.
  • The Gentrys, a Memphis, Tennessee band with a flair for showmanship, including three lead singers alongside the other musicians, had a #4 hit in 1965 with "Keep On Dancin'". Popular in their hometown, they were fairly prolific but never managed another national hit, and broke up in 1967. But one of those lead singers, Jimmy Hart, formed a new band in 1969 with himself as a frontman and resurrected the Gentrys name for a few years, but after they dissolved for good, Hart moved on to the world of pro wrestling, where he became a legendary manager, and wrote/performed a lot of wrestlers' entrance music during the '80s and '90s.
  • The Honeycombs, a British Invasion band - best known for having a female drummer at a time when women instrumentalists in rock bands were extremely uncommon, and for being a pet project of the famously innovative and eccentric producer Joe Meek - are known for the #5 hit "Have I The Right?" and nothing else.
  • The Kingsmen, and their famous cover version of Richard Berry's "Louie Louie". They had three top-40 follow-ups: 1964's "Money (That's What I Want)" and "Death of An Angel," and 1965's top 10 "The Jolly Green Giant." Oldies radio has forgotten all about these, though, so the group is widely considered to be a one-hit wonder.
  • The Shadows of Knight are known solely for their bowdlerised cover of Them's "Gloria", released solely due to some stations objecting to lyrics in the original version. The Shadows of Knight's version reached #10 on the Hot 100, while Them only got to #71. The group had a few other releases that went nowhere, and were largely forgotten by the end of the 1960s while Them's original version remained more popular.
  • The Standells had their only major hit with "Dirty Water", their 1965 song about life in Boston (even though they were from Los Angeles), which peaked at #11. The highest any of their subsequent singles would reach was 43. A 1979 cover version by British band The Inmates, which changed the Boston references to London, was the only hit for that band as well.
  • The Trashmen had a #4 hit in 1963 with the iconic "Surfin' Bird", which later spawned numerous covers and usages in media. Their follow-up "Bird Dance Beat" from the eponymous album only made it to #30 and is so obscure that it doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. Younger generations are most likely to only know "Surfin' Bird" from Family Guy due to the episode "I Dream of Jesus" heavily revolving around Peter's obsession with the song and its memetic nature.

    Glam Rock/Hair Metal 
  • A peculiar curse that befell Hair Metal bands in the late 1980s and early 1990s was when they had just one Top 40 hit, and it was with their obligatory Power Ballad single instead of something a little more rocking:
    • Kix, who took "Don't Close Your Eyes" to #11 in 1989.
    • Faster Pussycat, whose bluesy "House of Pain" made it to #28 in 1990.
    • L.A. Guns reached #33 in 1990 with "The Ballad of Jayne". The band is probably better known because its leader and guitarist Tracii Guns was also a founding member of Guns N' Roses (GNR was even formed as a "merger" between an early version of L.A. Guns and Axl Rose's band Hollywood Rose, hence the name), but he was kicked out and replaced by Slash after just a few months.
    • Steelheart, who made it to #23 in 1991 with "I'll Never Let You Go"
    • Saigon Kick, who were relatively late to the party, but still managed a #12 hit with "Love Is On the Way" in late 1992. The band's sound was a little more varied than "hair metal" - in fact, they weren't really much of a metal band at all - but their only hit is a textbook example of a hair metal-style power ballad.
  • British teen idol David Essex had multiple hits in the UK, but his only major success stateside was 1973's glam-influenced "Rock On", which hit #5. A cover version in by actor-singer Michael Damian likewise proved to be his only major hit when it topped the charts in 1989, propelled by his popularity as a cast member on the soap opera The Young and the Restless. Damian had two more Top 40 hits after "Rock On", but neither were especially big and, he is now better remembered as an actor than for his singing career.
  • Although he was very big in the UK, Gary Glitter's only American hit was "Rock & Roll, Part 2". Unfortunately, the song has since been overshadowed by his career-destroying scandal.
  • Cult rock band Foxy Shazam's only taste of radio success came in 2012 with the top 10 mainstream rock hit "I Like It." Frontman Eric Nally would become a one-hit wonder on pop as a feature on Macklemore's "Downtown". See his entry on the hip-hop subpage.
  • Twisted Sister technically only made the top 40 of the Hot 100 once with their #21 peaking "We're Not Gonna Take It." However, they are mostly considered a Two-Hit Wonder for the well-known "I Wanna Rock," which peaked at #68 and among other things was infamously covered in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, as well as being deemed an influential band in the Glam Rock scene.
  • Glam metal band Lion made two albums but everyone remembers them solely for the theme from The Transformers: The Movie.
  • California Hair Metal band Autograph had a #29 hit in 1984 with the Heavy Meta anthem "Turn Up the Radio", one of the most iconic songs of the genre's 80s heyday. However, the song ended up being their only hit.
  • Great White had several hits on the rock charts, but their cover of Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" was their only big pop hit. Unfortunately, the group is today better known for the deadly Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island, which killed over 100 people including its guitarist Ty Longley, than their music.
  • Mott the Hoople was on the verge of breakup in 1972 due to lack of success. Then David Bowie presented the group with "All the Young Dudes," which turned out to be a big hit (#3) in Britain and gave them this status in America, where it peaked at a less stellar #37. Guitarist Mick Ralphs would go on to have considerably more success in America as the guitarist in Bad Company.
  • Roxy Music was extremely successful in the UK during the 1970s and early 1980s with ten top 10 hits, but only broke the top 40 once in the US with "Love Is the Drug", which got to #30 in 1975. Although they were never able to score a bigger hit on the American singles chart, their final album Avalon later became successful and its singles "More Than This" and "Avalon" are still remembered despite not actually charting.
  • T. Rex were superstars in the U.K. in the 1970s, scoring four #1 hits and seven more top 10 hits there, and were extremely influential on generations of British rock musicians. Like many popular British glam acts, T. Rex were not especially popular in the US, but did score a big, memorable hit there with "Bang a Gong (Get It On), which reached #10 in 1972. While a couple of their songs made it to the lower rungs of the Hot 100, that was it for them on the Top 40.
  • Giuffria was a heavy metal band (which included former members of Dio and Quiet Riot) who scored a #15 hit with "Call to the Heart" in 1984. Later singles "Lonely in Love" and "I Must Be Dreaming" made it to #57 and #52 respectively, but no other Top 40 hits. Lead singer David Glen Eisley would later get a second wind in his career, as he was the singer for "Sweet Victory", the ending song from the iconic SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Band Geeks". "Sweet Victory" is nowadays far more iconic than "Call to the Heart" despite having never charted.

    Goth Rock 
  • Bauhaus are credited as the inventors of goth rock, but they were a No-Hit Wonder in the United States (they did have a couple hits in their native UK though). However, the band's members all had brief success with their various side-projects after the band broke up in 1983.
    • The short-lived Tones on Tail, featuring Bauhaus' Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins, is best known only for their 1984 single "Go!". The song did not chart anywhere, but it became a staple of classic alternative radio and '80s playlists over the next few decades.
    • Love and Rockets, which was basically Bauhaus without Peter Murphy, were one of the most popular college rock bands of the late 1980s in the United States (although not in their native England). But their underground success only translated into a single major American hit: "So Alive", a huge #3 Hot 100 hit in 1989. The band had several other hits on both Billboard rock charts before and after "So Alive", but it was their only Top 40 hit and likely the song they're most remembered for there now.
    • Around the same time Love And Rockets were hitting it big, former Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy scored his only major American solo hit, with "Cuts You Up". The song made it to #55 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Billboard Alternative chart in 1990. Like his former bandmates, Murphy had plenty of other rock chart hits to his name, but "Cuts You Up" was his only break into the mainstream.
    • Love and Rockets and Bauhaus bassist David J struck out on his own in 1990 with the single "I'll Be Your Chauffeur". The song made it all the way to #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. David never had another significant hit as a solo artist anywhere else in the world. His bandmate Daniel Ash also tried for a solo career and scored two top 5 hits on the Modern Rock chart in the early 1990s.
  • Danzig, the post-Misfits band of singer Glenn Danzig, has a strong cult following but just one major chart hit. A 1993 re-release of their 1988 single "Mother" made it to #43 on the Hot 100 and #17 on the Mainstream Rock chart. They had only one more fairly minor rock hit, 1994's "Cantspeak", and then they never made a Billboard chart again.
  • Finnish band HIM were quite popular in the United States in the mid-2000s, but during that time they only managed one major chart entry there with "Wings of a Butterfly", a #19 Modern Rock and #87 Hot 100 hit. While followup "Killing Loneliness" was popular on MTV2 and online, its success in those areas did not cross over to the Billboard charts; while "Join Me in Death", which is just as popular, if not more, than those two songs, didn't chart at all in the US. They had plenty of other hits in their native Europe.
  • The Horrors only had one entry in the UK Top 40 with their single "Gloves", a #34 hit in 2007. However, their status as one-hit wonders has an asterisk next to it due to a very unique form of Chart Displacement. Their first three singles were all deemed ineligible to chart in the UK because the band included stickers and other pack-ins inside the sleeve, and the inclusion of such items is banned by UK chart rules. One of these singles was "Sheena is a Parasite", arguably their best-known song, and one that would have very likely made the Top 40 had it been eligible. After "Gloves", the rest of their singles have been chart eligible, but they've come nowhere near the Top 40.
  • Love Spit Love, a side-project of The Psychedelic Furs frontman Richard Butler, had a minor hit with "Am I Wrong" in 1994. The song made it to #83 on the Hot 100 and #3 on the Modern Rock chart. However, that's probably not the song they're best remembered for; That would probably be their cover of The Smiths' "How Soon is Now?", which they originally recorded for the soundtrack to The Craft and was later adapted as the theme song to the TV show Charmed. Despite the notoriety of that cover, it did not chart anywhere.

    Hard Rock 
  • Another Animal, a supergroup composed of Ugly Kid Joe and Godsmack members, neither of whom is considered a one-hit wonder, hit the top 10 in late 2007 with "Broken Again". The group never charted again afterwards and went their separate ways.
  • Apocalyptica themselves are often seen as one by American audiences for "I Don't Care". While the Finnish cello metal band is very popular in Europe, they only experienced brief popularity stateside before falling off the map. As it stands, despite having three Top 10s on mainstream rock (the others being collaborations with Corey Taylor and Bush's Gavin Rossdale) and a fourth minor hit with Shinedown’s frontman (but would be re-recorded with Hoobastank’s lead singer due to a dispute with Shinedown’s label), "I Don't Care" is the only one American audiences still remember them for.
  • Army of Anyone, a supergroup consisting of Richard Patrick, the DeLeo brothers, and Ray Luzier, had a major rock hit in 2006-7 with "Goodbye". Their song "Father Figure" stalled in the 30s and they split up almost immediately afterwards.
  • A Perfect Circle is not a one-hit wonder, but member Billy Howerdel's solo project Ashes Divide are known only for the song "The Stone", which made the Top 10 on Alternative and Mainstream Rock.
  • Audiovent, a rock band from California, only had one major rock radio hit with 2002’s "The Energy". Most of the band’s success derived from the fact that their lead singer and guitarist were the brothers of Incubus members. Once that novelty wore off, so did interest in the band.
  • Blue Öyster Cult were a one-hit wonder in Britain with "Don't Fear The Reaper", which made it to #16 in 1976, and none of their other singles made the Top 40. In their native United States, BOC were a Two-Hit Wonder, for "Reaper" and 1981's "Burnin' for You".
  • Under the standard definition, Breaking Benjamin just barely qualifies as a one-hit wonder, when their 2009 single "I Will Not Bow" peaked exactly at #40. They've had much more success on the mainstream rock charts, with seven #1 hits there.
  • Brownsville Station had a #3 hit with "Smokin' in the Boys' Room"; their follow up "Kings of the Party" stalled at #31 and they never had another major hit anywhere again. "Smokin'" was later Covered Up by Mötley Crüe. Frontman Cub Koda went on to have a second career as a much-respected music historian and critic, writing several books on the history of the blues and becoming a prolific contributor to the Allmusic website and book series before his death in 2000.
  • Buckcherry was very popular back on their native mainstream rock format, but "Sorry" was their only pop crossover. Even then, some would claim this status based on their best known song, "Crazy Bitch", which peaked 50 spaces lower.
  • St. Louis based rock band Cavo had two big hits in 2009-10, the #1 "Champagne" and top 10 follow-up "Crash"; however, the latter is almost completely forgotten and they are usually considered one-hit wonders for the former.
  • In 2002 and 2003, there was a pair of rock hits about being "Caught in the" weather; namely Course of Nature's "Caught in the Sun" and Revis's "Caught in the Rain". Both hit top 10 on the rock airplay charts, the former even getting some minor pop radio play, but neither ever had another major hit. That being said, Mark Wilkerson, Course of Nature's frontman, later co-wrote Daughtry's crossover smash "It's Not Over" and is better known as the husband of Melissa Joan Hart.
  • Crossfade had several hits on the mainstream rock charts, but are now known solely for their debut 2004 single "Cold", their biggest hit on their home format as well as their only top 10 on modern rock and their only Hot 100 or even Bubbling Under entry. They've had three Top 10s on their native format, but "Cold" is their only song to get recurrent airplay.
  • Canadian-American rock musician Custom had a hit in 2002 with "Hey Mister". Unfortunately, most of the song's publicity revolved around its sexually provocative music video. It was banned by MTV and crippled his momentum afterwards.
  • Default are very popular in their native Canada, but the only song of theirs to have any impact outside their native country was "Wasting My Time." They've had some rock airplay for other hits, but nothing by them has been able to go anywhere near where "Wasting My Time" was. Lead singer Dallas Smith had a successful Breakup Breakout as a Country Music artist.
  • Diffuser charted in 2001 with "Karma" from the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack. Although they never had another hit, frontman Tomas Costanza later found fame as a producer.
  • Rock band EndeverafteR had brief success in 2007 thanks to minor hits "I Wanna Be Your Man" and "Baby Baby Baby", but they are mostly remembered for the album track "No More Words" which is best remembered for being the theme song Jeff Hardy used in 2008 and 2009.
  • George Thorogood, despite selling millions of albums and having many hits on rock radio, only ever crossed over to the Hot 100 once - not with his Signature Song "Bad to the Bone", but instead with his cover of "Willie and the Hand Jive". To most newer listeners, he's known exclusively for the former song.
  • Giant is known almost entirely for their 1990 hit "I'll See You in My Dreams", although they had a few other hits on the Mainstream Rock charts. After the band broke up in 1992, lead vocalist/guitarist Dann Huff and bassist Mike Brignardello both became session musicians in Country Music. Huff has since become more known since the end of The '90s as a Record Producer, having worked with Faith Hill, Lonestar, Rascal Flatts, and Keith Urban among others. (Coincidentally, Huff was originally a member of the Christian rock band White Heart, which also had a few members move over to country in the '90s.)
  • In their native United States, Grand Funk Railroad were one of the biggest rock bands of the early 1970s, with two #1 singles and a streak of gold or platinum albums. Across the pond in the UK? There were not particularly popular at all. That shows in their chart history; Their only UK chart entry was their cover of The Animals' "Inside Looking Out", which made to #40 for a single week in 1971. That cover never even charted in America and is nowhere near as popular as their actual hits over there.
  • Three Days Grace have had plenty of hits on rock radio, but former frontman Adam Gontier only has one notable credit as a soloist: his feature on Apocalyptica's "I Don't Care."
  • Motörhead is certainly not a one-hit wonder, but the short-lived Headgirl project with Girlschool are, thanks to their #5 St. Valentine's Day Massacre EP. As for Girlschool, it marked their only major presence on the UK charts to date.
  • Canadian rock band Headstrong's only hit was "Adriana" in 2002.
  • Hinder was also this, but to a much lesser degree. "Lips of an Angel" was an unbelievably massive hit, but "Get Stoned", "Better than Me", and "Use Me" were also big hits; not as big as "Lips of an Angel" by any means, but still big enough that people will probably remember hearing them a lot along with "Lips". On pop radio, however, "Lips" was their only major hit, period; although "Better than Me" cracked the bottom of the top 40, virtually no one from that radio format's audience remembers it.
  • Honeymoon Suite reached #34 on the Hot 100 in 1986 with "Feel It Again". They had three other Hot 100 hits, several further entries on the mainstream rock chart, and were very successful in their native Canada for most of the 1980s, but they never reached the American pop top 40 again.
  • Jackyl had a few hits on the Mainstream Rock chart in the early '90s, but today they're only remembered for one - their debut single "The Lumberjack", most notable for its chainsaw solo.
  • British band Kill It Kid had a #20 hit on the U.S. Mainstream Rock charts with "Blood Stop and Run". It was also their only entry on any American chart, and they entered an indefinite hiatus soon after.
  • In 1978, all four members of KISS simultaneously released solo albums. Three of them had Hot 100 hits from this project that were also their only entries on that chart.
    • Guitarist Ace Frehley had the biggest hit, a cover of Hello's "New York Groove" that made it all the way to #13. His album was the best selling of the bunch as the result of the single's popularity, and Kiss would occasionally perform it in concert. After he left the band, he would have one more Mainstream Rock chart hit with "Into the Night" in 1987, which was also his only entry on that chart.
    • Lead singer Paul Stanley reached #46 that year with "Hold Me, Touch Me (Think of Me When We're Apart)". Stanley didn't record another solo album until 2006, and it spawned no singles.
    • Iconic bassist Gene Simmons made it to #47 with "Radioactive". Like Stanley, Simmons didn't release another album for decades, 2004 in his case, and that album also didn't have any singles.
  • Linkin Park isn't a one-hit wonder at all, but several of the band members' side projects are one-hit wonders:
    • Dead By Sunrise, the short-lived side project of vocalist Chester Bennington only had one successful single on rock radio — "Crawl Back In", which peaked at #11 on Mainstream Rock. They never hit the charts again and disbanded soon afterwards.
    • Bennington had a short-lived stint as the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots, who aren't one-hit wonders either. However, Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington (specifically credited as such) only had one major hit on rock — "Out of Time", which topped the mainstream rock charts and was used as the Theme Song for WWE's Hell in a Cell. The follow-up "Black Heart" only reached #15 before falling off the charts. Afterwards, Bennington left to focus solely on Linkin Park, while their original frontman Scott Weiland died not long after due to drugs, and Bennington committed suicide two years later, with STP carrying on with The X Factor US contestant Jeff Gutt as their new lead singer.
    • Co-vocalist Mike Shinoda's side project Fort Minor was a very unusual case of a one-hit wonder. They had a smash hit in 2006, when "Where'd You Go" peaked at #4, while follow-up "Remember the Name" stalled at #66 and dropped off the charts quickly afterwards. However, thanks to the latter song being used as a sports anthem and in countless movie trailers, it has completely overshadowed the former in the public eye. "Where'd You Go" also provided the only top 40 appearance for featured artist Jonah Matranga, the lead singer for influential '90s emo band Far (the song's other credited artist, Holly Brook, had two other hits after she changed her stage name to Skylar Grey). Far themselves also count as a one-hit wonder: When the band reunited in 2008, they released a joke cover of Ginuwine's R&B hit "Pony" that went to #40 on the Billboard Alternative chart. The band broke up again in 2010, immediately after putting out their fifth album, and never released another single. Likewise, "Remember the Name" is the only thing rap group Styles of Beyond is really known for.
    • Shinoda was also involved in another one-hit wonder when he provided lead vocals to "It's Goin' Down", a song by the turntablist collective The X-Ecutioners. The song made it to #85 in the US, #7 in the UK and #13 on the Billboard alternative chart. The song also featured Linkin Park's own DJ, Mr. Hahn, and was his only hit as away from the band. Shinoda wouldn't have another solo chart entry until he launched his solo career in 2018.
    • Bennington also helped another underground turntabalist, in this case Z-Trip, score his only hit when he provided lead vocals on the single "Walking Dead", a #17 alternative hit in 2005. While Z-Trip has been in demand as a remix producer since, "Walking Dead" remains his only charting single anywhere.
    • Just like Fort Minor, Kiiara is probably an artist whose non-hit was more popular than her actual hit. Her hit was "Gold" which peaked at #13. She was then featured on Linkin Park's "Heavy" which only peaked #45, but saw increased attention after Bennington's death.
  • Living Colour is technically not a one-hit wonder, as they had two top 40 hits on the Hot 100 and a couple Top 10 hits on rock radio. However, they are solely remembered for 1989's "Cult of Personality," which peaked at #13. The song's newfound lease of life in 2011 when professional wrestler CM Punk adopted it as his theme certainly did not help.
  • Nickelback is not a one-hit wonder at all, but frontman Chad Kroeger is as a soloist with "Hero" from the Spider-Man 1 soundtrack. His only other hits were guest spots on two Santana songs, "Why Don't You and I" and "Into The Night". However, since they weren't his hits, and the former is better known for its alternate version with Alex Band, it doesn't disqualify him. It is also a one-hit wonder for Saliva's Josey Scott, who never recorded another solo song nor has he ever had another pop hit with or without his group.
  • Mötley Crüe isn't a one-hit wonder at all, but drummer Tommy Lee had a #5 hit on rock radio with his debut solo single "Hold Me Down". His next single "Tryin' to Be Me" peaked at #26 on the same chart, whereas "Good Times" peaked at #95 on the Hot 100.
  • Masters of Reality, a critically acclaimed forebearer of the stoner rock genre, only managed a single chart entry when "She Got Me (When She Got Her Dress On)" reached #8 on the Mainstream Rock chart in 1993. Part of the reason it did so well was that the band's drummer at the time was the legendary Ginger Baker of Cream, which captured the attention of radio programmers and audiences. The band didn't release another album for six years, by which point Baker was long gone and they had lost all their momentum. However, frontman Chris Goss began a very fruitful career as a producer, most notably being behind the boards for Queens of the Stone Age's first five albums.
  • Speaking of Evanescence, they were huge in the early '00s, and are not a one-hit wonder by any stretch of the imagination. However, their Signature Song "Bring Me to Life" features guest vocals from Paul McCoy, frontman of the Christian Rock band 12 Stones. That was the only song McCoy was involved in that anyone remembers since none of the singles from his band made it past the 20s on the rock charts nor did they ever enter any other chart, and even their albums barely registered on the Billboard 200. Shortly after the success of Fallen, bassist John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray formed the side project Future Leaders of the World. The group had a hit in late 2004 with "Let Me Out" and not much else.
  • Despite being influential in the development of heavy metal, Mountain had only one top 40 hit in 1970 with "Mississippi Queen". Another song of theirs, "Long Red", is largely forgotten; but its drum break is one of the most Sampled Up drum breaks in history.
  • Mr. Big hit #1 in 1992 with the ballad "To Be With You." While they had two other songs hit the top 40, "To Be With You" is the only one that's remembered today outside of Japan.
  • My Darkest Days were rather popular in their native Canada but in America, their success began and ended with "Porn Star Dancing," their breakthrough smash. Lead singer Matt Walst later joined Three Days Grace.
  • No Address, a short-lived mid-2000s rock group, had a hit with "When I'm Gone (Sadie)" and never did anything else of note.
  • Despite being one of the most iconic (and controversial) hard rockers of all time, Ted Nugent only managed to go top 40 once in his career with 1977's "Cat Scratch Fever". That being said, his pre-solo career band The Amboy Dukes also qualify with their 1968 classic "Journey to the Center of Your Mind". The same can essentially be said for Damn Yankees, his early-'90s supergroup known for the ballad "High Enough". Damn Yankees had one other hit in 1992 with "Where You Goin' Now" and several entries on Mainstream Rock (including the #1 "Coming of Age"), but only "High Enough" seems to be remembered today.
  • In 2007, ex-Puddle of Mudd guitarist Paul Phillips and actor Johnny Strong formed Operator. The band had a hit with "Soulcrusher" and nothing else.
  • Papa Roach is hardly considered a one-hit wonder, having numerous hits on rock radio and headlining many rock festivals, especially in their early-'00s peak. However, they technically only had one Top 40 hit: their #15 "Scars" in 2005. Despite their rock radio mainstay status, many outside their audience would only be able to recognize one song from them, but it's not "Scars". 2000's "Last Resort", despite only peaking at #57 (and #1 on Alternative Airplay), is easily their best-known song, and one of the most iconic songs of the Nu Metal era.
  • pete. had a Top 20 rock hit in 2001 with "Sweet Daze" and they were dropped by Warner (Bros.) Records soon afterwards.
  • Ram Jam is known pretty much only for their 1977 version of "Black Betty", their only song that charted.
  • Heavy metal guitarist Kane Roberts was best known for his work in Alice Cooper's backing band in the late 1980s and his cameo in the horror classic Shocker, but in 1991 he had a hit with "Does Anybody Really Fall in Love Anymore?", a cover of an unreleased Bon Jovi song that was previously recorded by Cher.
  • Saving Abel scored a surprise crossover hit in 2008-09 with "Addicted" (#2 mainstream rock, #7 alternative, #20 Hot 100), in an era where dance-pop and rap ruled the airwaves. Their follow up "18 Days" managed to bubble under and was another top 10 hit on rock radio. Their chart success dried up after "The Sex is Good" became their only #1 on Mainstream Rock radio, and they faded into complete obscurity. Today they are remembered exclusively for one song: "Addicted".
  • Seasons After had three entries on the rock charts but are today only remembered for their cover of "Cry Little Sister".
  • South African rock band Seether has had many #1 hits on the Mainstream Rock charts, yet only one of their songs crossed over to the pop Top 40: 2004's "Broken". It reached #20 and marked their only song to successfully travel to non-rock audiences. Proving that one can be a star of their own format but a one-hit wonder on another. Additionally, it featured frontman Shaun Morgan's then-girlfriend Amy Lee, which became her only hit independently from Evanescence.
  • Shinedown is the all-time leader in #1 singles on Mainstream Rock radio, but their only crossover hit was in 2009 with "Second Chance", which peaked at #7. None of their other singles reached the Top 40, although "If You Only Knew" almost made the mark peaking at #42. Today, "Second Chance" is seen as the swan song of crossover mainstream rock music, as it was released just before the EDM-pop-rap takeover of The New '10s that killed all forms of harder rock in the mainstream. 2022's "A Symptom of Being Human" was a radio hit, making the Top 10 on alternative and mainstream rock, and the Top 20 on pop and adult contemporary radio, but it failed to enter the Hot 100.
  • Nu metal band Snot never charted before the death of their lead singer Lynn Strait in 1998. After his death, the members of the band reconvened as Strait Up and put out a memorial album to Strait in 2000 featuring some of the top metal vocalists of the day as guests. One of these songs, "Angel's Son" featuring Sevendust frontman Lajon Witherspoon, made it to #11 on the mainstream rock chart and #15 on the alternative chart. Strait Up was only formed to put out that one album and they never charted again. Neither did Witherspoon, who has never actively pursued a solo career, though his band has several top 20 hits on mainstream rock.
  • Bassist Corey Lowery (brother of Sevendust guitarist Clint) had the misfortune of playing in two one-hit wonder rock groups, namely Stereomud ("Pain") and, alongside his brother, Dark New Day (with the appropriately titled "Brother"). He later joined supergroup Saint Asonia, and is now the guitarist for Seether (both of whom have had several Top 10 hits on rock radio).
  • Tantric had quite a few hits on mainstream rock radio, but their only hit single on the modern rock chart was the top-5 "Breakdown" in 2001.
  • Thin Lizzy are legends in Ireland and popular in the UK, but elsewhere are only really known for "The Boys Are Back in Town". The song was their only Top 40 hit in the United States, where it made it to #12. For a while in the 70s it looked like they were destined to be known as One Hit Wonders in the UK as well, for their rocked-up reading of the folk song "Whiskey in the Jar" (the version later Covered Up by Metallica) - it was their first major UK hit, but the parent album bombed, as did their next LP. It was a few years before they finally broke through properly.
  • Rock band Valora proved to be a one-hit wonder by association with Breaking Benjamin, as their only success to date was their collaboration with them on the 2011 re-recording of "Blow Me Away."
  • The Veer Union are known for the 2009 #10 mainstream rock hit "Seasons" (best remembered for being the theme to WWE's 2009 Backlash pay-per-view), and little else.
  • We Are Harlot, the blues-influenced side project of Asking Alexandria's Danny Worsnop during his brief hiatus from the band, had a major rock radio hit in mid-2015 with "Dancing on Nails". Their success stopped afterwards and Worsnop returned to AA a year later, leaving the group's future in doubt.
  • Australian Hard Rock band Wolfmother had a large fanbase in the mid-'00s, but they only had one real radio hit in the US — "Woman". It peaked at #7 on mainstream rock and #10 on modern rock. Although "Joker & The Thief" is generally well known (and a Top 10 hit back home), none of their other songs even hit the Top 25 of either chart.
  • Zakk Wylde has had several hits with Ozzy Osbourne and Black Label Society, but his featured credit on the aforementioned "Porn Star Dancing" was the only major hit he has ever had under his own name. Prior to forming Black Label Society, he fronted a band called Pride & Glory, who hit #14 with "Losin' My Mind" and never had another hit afterwards.
  • British rock band Young Guns had a smash #1 rock hit with "Bones" but quickly floundered afterwards.
  • Zac Brown Band aren't even close to one-hit wonders on the country charts or the Hot 100. However, their only successful trip to rock radio was "Heavy Is the Head", featuring vocals from Chris Cornell. It actually topped the Mainstream Rock Charts, making them only the second artist after Bon Jovi to have a #1 hit on both that chart and the country charts. Their follow-up rock song "Junkyard" stumbled to a #32 peak before quickly falling off. It's unlikely they'll have another rock hit any time soon, considering that it sounds nothing like their normal material and will probably need another assist from a rock legend.
  • Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction reached #18 in the UK with "Prime Mover" in 1987. Although they continued to record after that, they never made the Top 40 again. Their song "Feed My Frankenstein" became a hit through a cover by Alice Cooper in 1992, while bassist Jimmy Cauty had many more hits as one-half of The KLF.

    Indie Rock 
  • Commercials for Apple products were a proto-viral phenomenon in the 2000s, and several of the songs appearing in those ads became Billboard hits, and several artists became one-hit wonders as a result:
    • New Zealand alt-rockers Steriogram reached #14 in the UK with their song "Walkie Talkie Man" after it appeared in a 2004 iPod ad. The band never charted again in the UK, only had one more follow-up hit in New Zealand, although they remained popular in that country until their split in 2014.
    • Swedish rock band Caesars' song "Jerk It Out" only made it to #60 in the UK upon its original release in 2003, right after appearing in the hit video game FIFA 2004. Two years later, the song re-charted at #8 in the UK and #70 in the US after featuring in the inaugural iPod Shuffle ad in 2005.
    • French electro-rock duo Rinôçérôse scored a #40 hit on the modern rock chart in 2006 with their song "Cubicle" following its appearance in an iPod Nano ad.
    • Brazilian dance-punk band CSS scored a #63 hit on the Hot 100 in late 2007 with their song "Music is My Hot, Hot Sex" following its appearance in an iPod Touch commercial. Despite missing the Top 40, it was the band's biggest hit to date and their only appearance on any American singles chart. For a time, the song was actually the most-viewed video of any kind on YouTube.
    • Canadian singer-songwriter Feist is a big name in the indie rock world, but had her only mainstream success after her song "1234" appeared in an iPod Nano commercial in 2007. The song became an international hit, going to #8 in both the US and UK. It was also the only time she ever made the pop charts in either country. She has, however, continued to be a mainstay over on the adult alternative chart, where she's had three songs that have charted higher than "1234".
    • Israeli-French singer Yael Naim made it to #7 in the US with her song "New Soul", following its appearance in a MacBook Air commercial.
    • Indie electronic band Marian Hill joined the trend in 2017 when their song "Down" made it to #21 on the Hot 100 after being featured in an iPhone 7 commercial. Their only other song to gain even the slightest bit of traction is "Back To Me", which solely gained attention because Lauren Jauregui of Fifth Harmony (who ironically would release their own song called "Down" a few months later) was featured on it. Because "Down" wasn't particularly a massive hit, Marian Hill have little chance of scoring a successful follow-up hit.
    • Electropop band Shaed had their song "Trampoline" featured in a MacBook Air commercial in 2018, leading to a gradual growth on alternative airplay that ultimately resulted in the song reaching as high as #13 in 2020. The band has only had a few minor alt radio hits since.
  • Most people who know of April March are only familiar with the song "Chick Habit", aka "The High-Pitched End Credits Song From Death Proof". The song is actually a cover of "Laisse tomber les filles", a song written by famed French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, which she then translated and re-wrote into English. March has released a number of albums and is quite popular in France, but "Chick Habit" was her one and only appearance in the American mainstream.
  • American Authors are known for their almost-Top 10 hit "Best Day of My Life" from their debut album released in 2013; despite consistently releasing music in the decade since, they have never returned to the Hot 100.
  • British band The Big Pink scored a Top 40 hit on both the UK Singles Chart and the Billboard alternative chart in the US with their 2009 single "Dominos". The song's success earned the band considerable hype, which had unfortunately cooled by the time their second album was released in 2012 to less-than-stellar reviews. "Dominos" remains the band's only charting single.
  • The Black Keys are not a one-hit wonder on rock radio. However, The Arcs, the side-project of frontman Dan Auerbach, only had one single that got widespread airplay — "Outta My Mind".
  • Danish indie band The Asteroids Galaxy Tour scored a minor hit in 2011 with their song "The Golden Age" after it was used in a Heineken commercial. The song reached #109 in the US, and made the Top 40 in a half dozen European countries. While they had no further actual hits, they are sometimes remembered as a Two-Hit Wonder because "Around the Bend" gained prominence after being used in a 2009 iPod commercial despite never charting anywhere.
  • Bell X1 are one of the most popular indie bands in their native Ireland, with several top 40 pop hits there. In the United States, however, their only charting single was the Talking Heads-influenced "The Great Defector", which made it to #9 on the adult alternative chart in 2009.
  • Big Data, the electronic rock music project of Alan Wilkis, had a #1 hit on alternative radio with "Dangerous", which featured Joywave (who had a minor hit on the charts afterwards). After that, nothing.
  • Denver alt-pop band Churchill scored an alternative radio hit with "Change" in 2013, riding off the song's selection as the iTunes Free Single of the Week. Unfortunately, the band abruptly broke up just as the song was at its peak of popularity. "Change" turned out to be their final single.
  • Alex Clare had a hit with "Too Close", which reached #7 on the Hot 100 and #4 on the UK Singles Chart. The song only became popular because of an Internet Explorer commercial, and his album didn't sell very strongly, leaving his career in the dust. He did lend his vocals to the moderately successful Rudimental track "Not Giving In" and the UK top 10 "Endorphins" by Sub Focus. As far as his own songs go, he hasn't charted since.
  • Actors Michael Cera and Elliot Page reached #91 on the Hot 100 in 2008 with their cover of The Moldy Peaches' "Anyone Else But You" from the Juno soundtrack. It was both's only chart appearance anywhere in the world.
  • Fyfe Dangerfield was not a one hit wonder as the frontman to the popular indie rock group Guillemots, as they scored four top 40 hits on the UK Singles Chart. As a soloist, however, his only hit of note was a 2010 cover of Billy Joel’s 1977 hit "She’s Always a Woman" that hit #7. The cover gained attention through its use in an advertisement for high-end department store chain John Lewis, and the original Billy Joel version re-entered the charts around the same time.
  • Danger Mouse is certainly not a one-hit wonder as a producer, but he does count as a solo artist in collaboration with Italian composer Daniele Luppi. Their song "Two Against One" made it to #20 on the Alternative chart in 2011, driven by a guest lead vocal by non-one-hit wonder (on the alternative charts anyway) Jack White. Because Luppi is a composer instead of an alt-rock artist, it will likely be his only entry on an American singles chart unless he collaborates with another artist again. Danger Mouse has had other alternative chart hits as a member of both Gnarls Barkley and Broken Bells, but he never charted again there as a solo act.
  • EL VY was a short-lived indie supergroup featuring Matt Berninger of The National and Brent Knopf of Menomena. Their first single "Return to the Moon (Political Song for Didi Blume to Sing, with Crescendo)" reached #6 on adult alternative and #28 on the alternative chart in 2015. The song was Berninger's first-ever entry on either chart; Although the National were one of the most popular indie rock bands at that point, they didn't start having rock radio hits until 2017. EL VY never released another album, and "Return to the Moon" was their only song to chart anywhere.
  • The Everlove are solely known for their cover of Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Cities In Dust", as featured in the trailer for season 4 of Game of Thrones.
  • British band Florence + the Machine is one of the biggest indie rock bands ever on both sides of the Atlantic. However, they technically only got one song into the American Top 40; "Dog Days Are Over", which peaked at #21, a feat they achieved without bothering mainstream pop radio (though it did crossover to Hot AC). They've had more success on the alternative charts (and on the mainstream charts back home) and have sold millions of albums worldwide (including two platinum albums in the US). In 2024, they were featured on Taylor Swift's song "Florida!!!" which debuted at #8 on the Hot 100. However, because it wasn't their hit (and because it was an album cut that wouldn't have even made the Hot 100 in 2024 without help from the most popular artist in the world at the time), it isn't enough to disqualify their one-hit wonder status.
    • Frontwoman and namesake Florence Welch became a one-hit wonder twice over by Billboard standards, as she was featured on Calvin Harris' #10 hit "Sweet Nothing", which actually marked her only visit to pop radio. Of course, since Florence + the Machine is basically her solo project anyways, this tag doesn't really follow her.
  • The Folk Implosion, a side project of Sebadoh/Dinosaur Jr. member Lou Barlow, managed a #29 entry on the Hot 100 in 1995 with "Natural One", from the film Kids. As a lo-fi band with a somewhat noncommercial sound, it's not surprising that they never troubled the pop charts again. In fact, they never even hit the Alternative charts afterwards.
  • Foster the People had a surprise debut hit in 2011 with "Pumped Up Kicks", with the song's viral success helping them earn a record deal as it slowly climbed to a #3 peak. The song's popularity helped spawn several more alternative airplay hits off of their debut album Torches, but while many of them wound up going platinum, none of them managed to reach the Hot 100. In 2018, their song "Sit Next to Me" became a borderline second hit, falling just short of the Top 40 after several months on the Hot 100; they haven't return to the main chart since.
  • Australian band Frente! were having some success in their home country when they scored an international hit recording a Softer and Slower Cover of "Bizarre Love Triangle". While reissuing overseas their first single "Labour of Love" somewhat paid off (it even outpeaked that cover by one position in the US' Modern Rock chart), it was the end for them, as their second album tanked and Frente! called it quits two years later.
  • British indie rock group Glass Animals released "Heat Waves" in 2020, where it became the ultimate Sleeper Hit, debuting on the bottom tier of the Hot 100 over six months after its release and steadily climbing for the next year, eventually reaching #1 in the U.S. after 59 weeks on the chart (a record length for such a climb) before lingering for several more months, breaking the record for the longest run on the Hot 100 at 91 weeks (since surpassed by "Lose Control" by Teddy Swims). Due to the song's unique commercial trajectory and the band's psychedelic sound, they were unable to land another hit; while "Heat Waves" went #1 in numerous countries (including the Billboard Global chart), Glass Animals hasn't charted another single anywhere outside of alternative charts (save for Australia, where their earlier song "Gooey" had peaked at #40 a decade before), and their next album couldn't even crack a top ten debut.
  • Grouplove just barely missed the top 40 in 2012 with "Tongue Tied" and then… nothing else on the pop side of things. They've done better on the alternative chart, with "Ways to Go" hitting #2 in 2013.
  • While fairly popular in his native Canada, Coleman Hell's American career fizzled out quickly after the success of 2015's "2 Heads".
  • Swedish Garage Rock band The Hives are yet another example of this like the ones above. They are highly respected, especially during the garage rock revival movement of the early-2000s. However, their only real radio hit stateside was 2000's "Hate To Say I Told You So", which went #6 on modern rock charts after being re-released in 2002, and #86 on the overall Hot 100. The closest thing they had to that success was "Walk Idiot Walk", which only reached #19 and was quickly forgotten. Funny thing is, the song didn't even chart back home. Their biggest success locally is, of all things, "A Christmas Duel", with Cyndi Lauper.
  • California duo In the Valley Below scored a #18 alternative hit in 2015 with their song "Peaches" and never made the charts again afterward.
  • Washington D.C. indie band Lilys scored a surprise UK hit in 1996 after nearly the entirety of their song "A Nanny in Manhattan" was used in a television commercial for Levi's jeans. Although American-style indie rock rarely crossed over into the British charts in the mid-90s, the commercial's popularity resulted in the single reaching the Top 20. After that, Lilys never had another hit anywhere.
  • The Living Tombstone are not one-hit wonders (although can be fairly called no-hit wonders due to their lack of actual chart and/or radio presence), but singer Aviya Dor-Kolan is almost purely known for being the vocalist on their classic "It's Been So Long" and nothing else.
  • Lord Huron was one and done on the Hot 100 with "The Night We Met". While it stalled out at #84 on the Hot 100, it did receive recurrent airplay on alternative radio and managed to become certified 3x Platinum in the US regardless, mainly due to its prominent featuring in 13 Reasons Why.
  • Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li is a one-hit wonder with two different songs depending on the country. Her 2012 single "I Follow Rivers" was a huge hit in Continental Europe, reaching #1 in Germany and Belgium and #2 in Austria. In most of the countries it was a hit, she never had another major charting single. The single she released before it, "Get Some", was her only charting single in the United States, where it made #31 on the Billboard Alternative chart. Despite her relative lack of success on the singles charts, her three albums have each received critical acclaim, and she's better known as an albums artist than as a singles-driven one.
  • Marmaduke Duke, the quirky side-project of Biffy Clyro frontman Simon Neil, scored a surprise #12 hit in the UK in 2009 with their funky dance-rock tune "Rubber Lover". The duo's follow-up single didn't chart and Neil has largely focused on his main band since.
  • Miike Snow have been cult icons in their native Sweden and beyond since they first arrived on the scene in 2009. Despite that, they have only ever managed to score one successful song on United States radio with 2016's "Genghis Khan". However, that isn't to say they haven't had hits by other means: The core of the group are songwriters Bloodshy & Avant, who are most famous for writing the Britney Spears smash hits "Toxic" and "Piece of Me", while lead singer Andrew Wyatt won an Oscar for co-writing Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's hit duet "Shallow". Also, in the United Kingdom, they're probably better remembered for their debut single "Animal", which didn't chart but it now well-known as the theme tune to Friday Night Dinner.
  • California alt-pop band The Mowgli's are known exclusively for their 2012-13 moderate alternative hit "San Francisco", which gain more prominence after being featured in the soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
  • New Young Pony Club reached #40 in the UK with "Ice Cream" in 2007. Although the band members would later contribute backing vocals to Kaiser Chiefs' top 5 hit "Never Miss a Beat", New Young Pony Club never reached the top 40 as a lead artist again.
  • OK Go are well known and much loved in the indie rock community, in particular for their one-shot music videos, but they have only one song that hit the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, their 2006 viral breakthrough "Here It Goes Again."
  • Pavement. One of the most influential indie rock groups of all time. A grand total of one song that charted on the Modern Rock charts: "Cut Your Hair" in 1994.
  • Peter Bjorn and John have long been one of the top indie rock bands in their native Sweden, but the only time they made any commercial impact outside of Scandinavia was with their international smash "Young Folks" from 2007. The song was inescapable for anyone who listened to indie music for a better part of a year, and was a Top 40 hit in six countries, including the UK. None of the band's other singles have charted, but their 2011 song "Second Chance" remains well known as the theme song for the American sitcom 2 Broke Girl$.
  • Joel Plaskett is a respected name on the Canadian indie-rock scene, but his only hit was "Nowhere With You" in 2006, which gained popularity in a commercial for defunct Canadian department store Zellers and hit #5 on the Canadian radio chart. He had two more chart entries on the Canadian rock charts, but neither the top 40, though his albums have been extremely successful due to his acclaim.
  • Rogue Wave had a #29 alternative hit in 2007 with the catchy "Lake Michigan". Despite the song's success and its frequent use in commercials, Rogue Wave never had another chart hit.
  • Sheppard, an Australian family band, had a big hit in 2014 with their debut album's sophomore single "Geronimo", which topped the ARIA charts back home and crossed over internationally, cracking the top ten in several countries, the top 40 in the UK, and peaking at #53 in the US. The band is not a one-hit wonder in their home country thanks to a few other charting hits, but they are very much a one-hit wonder in other English-speaking countries, where none of their songs made the leap. The band haven't charted a song on the main ARIA chart since their second album in 2017.
  • "That's Not My Name" was the only American hit for British duo The Ting Tings. Interestingly, that song has largely faded from public consciousness (at least until it was given a Colbert Bump through Tik Tok in early 2022) while "Shut Up and Let Me Go", which missed the Top 40, remains a popular recurrent on rock and pop radio.
  • Two Feet, the electronic-rock project of Harlem-based jazz and blues musician Bill Dess, first got attention on SoundCloud for the viral hit "Go Fuck Yourself". While it got no airplay, it did land him a record deal with Republic Records, and he hit #1 on alternative radio out the bat with "I Feel Like I'm Drowning", his major-label debut. Two Feet has only had one other alternative chart entry, "You?", which only made it to #30 in 2019.
  • The Scottish band Urusei Yatsura - yes, named after the manga - scored a #40 hit on the UK chart in 1997 with their song "Hello Tiger". They never made the British charts again; The fact that they sounded more like American indie rock bands like Pavement instead of either the current trend in British rock or the band that was about to redefine the country's whole music scene probably didn't help matters for them.
  • Viola Beach have a tragic reason for their one-hit wonder status. The British indie band had just released their first singles and were gaining buzz through festival performances when all four members were killed in a van accident in 2016. Following the accident, the band's debut single "Swings & Waterslides" made it to #11 on the UK charts as a result of a campaign to get it on the chart in their memory, which had been endorsed by British rock luminaries like Liam Gallagher and Ian Brown. The band's second and final single "Boys That Sing" only reached #50, despite a similar push from Chris Martin, who encouraged his fans to buy the song. A few months later, Viola Beach's only album (a collection of those two singles plus live radio sessions) made it to #1 on the UK album chart.
  • While fairly popular in the indie scene (with a top 20 hit on the alternative side with "Anna Sun"), Walk the Moon's 2015 smash hit "Shut Up and Dance" will likely be the only thing the general public will know them for. It became their first single to chart on the Hot 100, climbing up all the way to the Top 5 as a massive crossover sleeper hit and wedding staple. Their follow-up "Different Colors" made barely a dent on alternative radio, their 2018 single "One Foot" became their second #1 on the alternative airplay chart but only got to #65 on the Hot 100, and the group disbanded in 2023 without another major hit.
  • The White Stripes were a hugely successful and acclaimed alt-rock duo, but strangely enough can be seen as one-hit wonders from two different directions. Technically, their only Top 40 hit was 2007's "Icky Thump", which hit #26 due to strong first-week digital sales. However, they are generally known to the mainstream audiences almost exclusively for one decade-defining indie-rock anthem that technically wasn't a hit — 2003's "Seven Nation Army." Frontman Jack White's other project The Raconteurs are known solely to the greater public for their 2006 hit "Steady, As She Goes". They had a couple of other hits on alternative, but since going on hiatus that's the only one most people can name. It's also the only song by them that gets any airplay today. "Steady" also falls into the "famous one-hit wonders that weren't technically hits" zone, as it only reached #54. Finally, Jack White himself got a top 40 hit as a guest on Beyoncé's "Don't Hurt Yourself". Since his music isn't made for pop radio, it'll likely remain his only Top 40 hit.
  • Canadian band Wintersleep are a popular live act and an acclaimed band, but their only chart entry was "Weighty Ghost" in 2007, though they had many hits on alternative radio stations.
  • PB&J's "Young Folks" featured vocals from Swedish singer Victoria Bergsmann, whose solo project Taken by Trees also only had one hit. Her soft, piano-driven cover of Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine" made it to #23 in the UK in 2009. The song charted after it received a Colbert Bump from being featured in that year's Christmas advertisement from the department store John Lewis, which is a highly anticipated annual tradition in Britain. After that, she never charted again in any country.

    Jam Bands 
  • The Dave Matthews Band has had several hits across multiple charts, but bandleader Dave Matthews hasn't been as lucky as a solo artist. His only Top 40 solo hit was his guest appearance on Kenny Chesney's "I'm Alive", a #32 Hot 100 entry in 2009. On the alternative chart, his only solo entry is "Gravedigger", which made it to #35 in 2003. He did better on the adult alternative chart, where all three singles from his 2004 solo album made the top 10, two of them going all the way to #1. However, his solo success there pales in comparison to that of his band, who have had 9 #1 hits on that chart.
  • The Disco Biscuits became popular in the early 2000s for adding electronic and trance influences into their jam band sound, creating a new subgenre called "livetronica". Despite their devoted following, the band has only had one chart entry anywhere in the world: "On Time", which reached #20 on the Billboard dance club chart in 2010.
  • Edie Brickell & New Bohemians had a #7 hit in 1989 with "What I Am". Although their album sold well and they had a few other hits on the rock-centric charts, they never troubled the pop charts again. Brickell herself is otherwise best known for being Paul Simon's wife.
  • The Grateful Dead is one of the most famous psychedelic bands, but they only hit the Top 40 once with 1987's "Touch of Grey", which peaked #9 in 1987. While the song introduced the band to a new generation of Deadheads (for better or worse) and made the band unlikely MTV stars, they're also known for a whole catalog of classic tunes that never made the Top 40 and for their reputation as one of the greatest live concert acts in rock history. They also did well as an album band, with 18 gold albums and six platinum or multi-platinum albums.
    • Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia, the two frontmen for the Grateful Dead, both had one minor Hot 100 solo appearance in the 1970s. Garcia's "Sugaree" reached #94 in 1972, while Weir's "Bombs Away" peaked at #70 in 1978. Both guitarists had long solo careers separate from the Dead, but those songs remain their only charting singles away from the band. "Sugaree" was regularly performed by the Dead in concert before and after Garcia released his solo recording, and it appears on several of the group's live albums.
    • Bobby and the Midnites, a side-project for Weir and fellow Dead member Brent Mydland, scored a rock radio hit in 1981 when their song "Too Many Losers" squeaked onto the Mainstream Rock chart at #48 (before 1992, the chart had 50 positions). No further hits followed, and the project split a few short years later. Although there were many Dead side-project bands, this was the only time that any of them made any singles chart.
  • Ivan Neville, the son of funk and R&B legend Aaron Neville, scored his only top 40 hit in 1987 with "Not Just Another Girl", a #26 Hot 100 hit. "Not Just Another Girl" was a new wave song, which made it Early-Installment Weirdness for Neville's later career. He became a fixture on the jam band scene with his group Dumpstaphunk, and was the keyboardist for the Spin Doctors for a time in the late '90s.
  • O.A.R. were primarily known as a jam band before the mid-2000s, when they pulled a Genre Shift to adult-alternative. After having a minor hit with "Love & Memories" in 2005, the band had their first and only top 40 hit with "Shattered (Turn the Car Around)", which reached #36 in 2008. The band never made the Hot 100 again but continues to have a regular presence on the adult contemporary chart.
  • Rusted Root are known almost exclusively for their 1994 song "Send Me On My Way". The song only reached #72 on the Hot 100, but its use in popular culture, namely in Matilda and the first Ice Age 1, led to it becoming one of the most well-known folk songs of The '90s. They haven't had any other well-known songs since, but sustained a cult following and toured extensively until they went on hiatus in 2015, after which frontman Michael Glabicki formed an offshoot band called Uprooted that still tours.

    Metal 
  • Andrew W.K. scored a #19 hit on the UK Singles Chart with "Party Hard", but never charted again anywhere afterwards. Averted in his native US, where he's a No-Hit Wonder despite being one of the most well-known rock/metal solo artists of the last decade.
  • Black Veil Brides are one of the biggest metal bands of the 2010s, with a rabid fanbase and hugely successful concert tours. That being said, their only radio hit to date has been 2013's "In The End" (not that "In The End"!).
  • Minneapolis-based blues-rock band Crow took their song "Evil Woman" to #19 in the US in January 1970. It's probably better known for the cover that Black Sabbath released a few months later on their debut album.
  • Power metal group DragonForce are one of the most respected names in their genre and have a huge cult following around the world, but they are known to the general public almost exclusively for their 2006 song "Through the Fire and Flames," due to its memorable inclusion in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock as the hardest song to play in the series' history. The song is even their only Billboard chart entry, making it to #34 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #86 on the Hot 100.
  • Though they are popular in the metal world, metalcore band I Prevail's only Hot 100 entry was a joke metal cover of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" complete with screaming, as it was a curious novelty for both metalheads and Swifties. Although their Hot 100 action stopped after the "Blank Space" cover, the band saw further success on rock radio and their 2019 single "Bow Down" got a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance nomination.
  • Lo-Pro, formed from the ashes of nu-metal underdogs Ultraspank, hit the top 20 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in 2003 with "Sunday". Unfortunately, no follow-up single was ever released and the band didn't put out any new music until 2010.
  • Avenged Sevenfold are technically No Hit Wonders on the Hot 100, as they never went higher than #51 with 2010’s "Nightmare" (though they of course had many hits on the rock charts). However, lead singer M. Shadows and guitarist Synyster Gates hit #39 on the Hot 100 in 2007 when they respectively provided guest vocals and guitar on Good Charlotte's "The River".
  • System of a Down were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed metal bands of the 2000s, but they only managed one Billboard Hot 100 top 40 hit. "BYOB" made it to #27 in 2005, reaching that peak with no help from pop radio, relying mostly on sales, downloads, and what little airplay rock radio contributes to chart placement. Two of their other songs, "Aerials" and "Hypnotize", came close to the Top 40, but missed by about a dozen places each. On the rock charts, it's a different story since pretty much all of their singles charted on both.
    • Scars on Broadway was a short-lived side project of System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan. The group made it to #15 on the Billboard Alternative chart in 2008 with their song "They Say". The band's next two singles failed to catch on, and they went on hiatus until 2017.
  • Underoath, despite their huge following, didn't score their first chart hit until 2018. However, there were three one-hit wonder groups featuring Underoath members that charted before that:
    • First, drummer Aaron Gillsepie's other band, The Almost had a top 10 alternative hit in 2007 with "Say This Sooner". They never had another charting song anywhere else.
    • Then, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, the southern-rock side project of original vocalist Dallas Taylor, had a minor hit with "Step Up (I'm On It)", which was used as a WWE pay-per-view theme. Other than recording a tag team theme for Chris Jericho and the Big Show, the band never did anything else notable.
    • Most recently, lead singer Spencer Chamberlain and his band Sleepwave got a hit in 2014 with "Through the Looking Glass".

    Nu Metal 
  • Alien Ant Farm had a major hit in 2001 with a cover of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal". Despite "Movies" charting in a few markets and "Glow" going top 5 in New Zealand while doing nothing everywhere else, they are remembered only for their cover (maybe also "Wish", for players of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3). Interestingly, Croatian duo 2Cellos covered "Smooth Criminal" over ten years later on Glee and it became their only Top 40 hit as well.
  • Coal Chamber was one of the pioneering nu metal bands, who even coined the term, but never enjoyed much in the way of commercial success as their contemporaries. Their only single to get any meaningful airplay on the radio was a cover of Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey", featuring Ozzy Osbourne. It peaked at #26 on the Mainstream Rock chart, which the Gabriel original already topped. It's not even their best-known song, since it only got airplay due to Ozzy. It's not nearly as well-known as songs like "Loco", "Big Truck", "Sway", and "Fiend".
  • Rap Metal band Crazy Town had a number one Black Sheep Hit in the US in 2001 with "Butterfly", which also topped the Modern Rock chart. It was also their only single ever to reach the Billboard Hot 100. The band had another song chart on both Modern and Mainstream Rock, "Drowning", which peaked at #24 on both charts.
    • One of the lead vocalists, Shifty Shellshock, almost scored a solo Top 40 hit, but "Starry Eyed Surprise" fell short at #41.
  • Disturbed is not usually considered a one-hit wonder, but Device, the side project of frontman David Draiman, are known mostly for the song "Vilify."
  • Drowning Pool had five top ten hits on the Mainstream Rock charts and ten other top 40 hits there. Despite an impressive backlog of hits on that format, to the greater public, the only song they are remembered for is their very first single, "Bodies." It also made them bonafide one-hit wonders in the UK, where its #34 peak made it their only Top 40 entry.
  • Guano Apes are hugely successful in their native Germany and continental Europe. However, their only song to travel across the Atlantic was "Open Your Eyes", which peaked at #24 on Mainstream Rock and was used in several films. After that, they were never heard from by American audiences again, as that was their only entry on any American chart whatsoever and they only play a show in the U.S. once in a blue moon.
  • Korn, the creators of Nu Metal, barely qualifies under the standard definition of a one-hit wonder. They had a #38 Hot 100 chart entry with "Did My Time" in 2003, which was their only Top 40 hit and they achieved the feat with no pop radio airplay (largely due to crossover promotion with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life). It's not even among their best-known songs.
  • Pantera is not a one-hit wonder on rock radio, but Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul's short-lived side project Damageplan scored a #16 hit on mainstream rock in 2004 with "Save Me" (which was actually a higher peak than Pantera ever reached on that chart). Their follow-up "Pride" peaked at #30, and they permanently disbanded after Dimebag was murdered on-stage.
  • Primer 55 is known solely for their debut single "Loose", which surprisingly never charted anywhere at all but became known through use in video games. Their only chart entry was "This Life", which peaked at #33 on Active Rock and #37 on Mainstream Rock.
  • Quarashi, a rap-metal group from Iceland, scored a #27 alternative hit in 2002 with their single "Stick 'Em Up", which appeared on the soundtracks to a few popular video games. Shortly thereafter, lead singer and rapper Hössi Ólafsson quit the band, and their label lost interest in them to the point where their next album was only released in Iceland and Japan.
  • Rap-rock singer Richy Nix had a 2010 rock radio hit with "In My Head" and was never heard from again afterwards.
  • Trapt had two #1 singles on mainstream rock ("Headstrong" and "Still Frame"). Today they're only remembered for the former song, which peaked at #16 and was their only Top 40 hit on the Hot 100. Trapt saw a brief return to the spotlight in 2020, not so much for their music as for frontman (not that) Chris Taylor Brown's controversial political views, and then dropped back into obscurity like nothing happened.
  • Cold had a few hits on rock radio in the 2000s, but lead singer Scooter Ward has two charting entries as a featured artist—the biggest one being "Far Away" by Breaking Benjamin, which hit #1 on the mainstream rock charts in 2020. The other one was 2001's "Inside Out (Can You Feel Me Now)" by Reveille, where he was billed as "Scooter from Cold". Reveille never had any other hits on mainstream rock radio.

    Power Pop 
  • Tal Bachman, the son of Bachman-Turner Overdrive guitarist Randy Bachman, scored a hit of his own in 1999 with "She's So High". While the song reached #14 in the US and #30 in the UK, he had no further hits in either country. He had two more minor hits in his native Canada, and that was it for him there too. He hasn't released a new album since 2004.
  • American band The Connells had a #1 hit in Norway and Sweden and a top 20 hit in the UK with "'74-'75" in 1995. That was their only song to chart in Europe, but they had four entries on the Billboard Modern Rock chart back home, including three top 10 hits. Interestingly, none of those songs were "'74-'75".
  • The Click Five had a #11 hit in 2005 with their song "Just the Girl" before they disappeared into obscurity... except in Southeast Asia, where they've maintained a huge fanbase.
  • Crabby Appleton had a #36 in 1970 with "Go Back" and were never heard from again.
  • Marshall Crenshaw has had a long career that has been admired by critics, but his only Top 40 hit was "Someday, Someway" in 1982. He's had more success as a songwriter, most famously for "'Til I Hear It from You" by the Gin Blossoms.
    • One of Crenshaw's best-known songs, "You're My Favorite Waste of Time", was a UK Top 5 hit for Scottish singer Owen Paul in 1986. Paul's career came tumbling down shortly thereafter: He and his band were involved in a particularly embarrassing incident on the BBC show Pebble Mill at One where they were supposed to mime the song, but couldn't hear the track and stood around while it played. It was ultimately his only hit: He had a falling out with his record label shortly thereafter and didn't release his second album until 2002.
  • The Dwight Twilley Band, a power-pop act from Tulsa, burned up the charts in 1975 with "I'm On Fire", but failed to find a follow-up hit and disbanded three years later. Dwight Twilley himself became a one-hit wonder as a soloist with 1984's "Girls".
    • Former Dwight Twilley Band member Phil Seymour, who sang backup on Tom Petty's hit "American Girl", scored a top 40 hit of his own 1981 with "Precious to Me". Sadly, he died of lymphoma 12 years later.
  • A very unique example: Fastball have had only one top 40 hit: 1999's "Out of My Head." However, they are far, far better remembered for their 1998 hit "The Way," which was never released as a single but was a significantly bigger radio hit than "Out Of My Head" would be. Today, Fastball is remembered almost exclusively for their first hit and isn't uncommon to see "The Way" in a one-hit wonder retrospective. "Out of my Head" only re-emerged once it got Sampled Up by Machine Gun Kelly and Camila Cabello in "Bad Things".
  • Despite a long and critically acclaimed career, Power Pop group Fountains of Wayne never matched the success of their 2003 #21 hit single, "Stacy's Mom" (which provides the trope of the same name). They did have two minor alternative hits before "Stacy's Mom", but that was their only entry on the Hot 100. Bassist and co-leader Adam Schelsinger later won an Emmy for writing the songs for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Schlesinger died from COVID-19 complications in 2020, and the rest of the group reunited for a virtual tribute concert a year later.
  • Hellogoodbye only had one hit with "Here (In Your Arms)" in 2007, which just missed the Hot 100's Top 10 at #14 and went Top 5 in the UK. Afterwards, they vanished into obscurity. They had other songs on the dance and alternative charts, but no others on the Hot 100.
  • The Knack scored a #1 smash in 1979 with their debut single "My Sharona". However, they were almost immediately hit with an immense backlash. They had two more Top 40 hits, which are now forgotten, and broke up two years later. Today, "My Sharona" is seen as a quintessential example of a one-hit wonder.
  • Nick Lowe has an extensive career as a producer and critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, but his only top 40 hit in the US is "Cruel to Be Kind", which got to #12 in 1979. In his native UK, however, "I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" is also well-known.
  • The Monroes reached #59 on the Hot 100 and #20 on the mainstream rock chart in 1982 with "What Do All the People Know?". The band followed it up with a five-song EP, but then their label folded shortly thereafter and they never recorded again.
  • The New Radicals released one album, Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, and managed one hit single, "You Get What You Give" (which only peaked at #36 but has had a long shelf life). Their second single, "Someday We'll Know", was only a minor hit on Adult Pop radio, and the cover sung by Mandy Moore and Jonathan Foreman, made for the A Walk to Remember soundtrack, is more well-known. Gregg Alexander went on to find success as a producer/songwriter, writing the #5 hit "The Game of Love" for Santana and Michelle Branch, and nabbing a Oscar nomination for the song "Lost Stars" from Begin Again (which he co-wrote with fellow New Radicals member and former child actress Danielle Brisebois).
  • Nine Days released a few underground independent albums before releasing a mainstream album and striking up a hit with "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)". However, due to Executive Meddling causing them to leave their label, their follow-up song "If I Am" performed more poorly, and the band would never have mainstream success again.
  • Scottish group Pilot scored a #5 pop hit in the US with their single "Magic" in 1974. In their native UK, they're remembered as a Two-Hit Wonder: "Magic" made it to #11 there, and they followed it up in 1975 with the #1 hit "January". Two follow-up singles barely cracked the top 40 and they never charted again anywhere in the world after 1976. Despite "January"'s UK success, they're probably better known around the world as the band who did "Magic" instead.
  • The Plimsouls garnered a #82 Hot 100 with "A Million Miles Away" in 1983 after it appeared in the classic Valley Girl soundtrack. The song is considered a power pop standard, but the band broke up shortly thereafter and did not reuinite until 1995.
  • Quietdrive are mostly known for their Power Pop cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time", which was popularized through its use in John Tucker Must Die. Despite peaking at only #102 on the Billboard Hot 100 it did receive a good amount of airplay.
  • Todd Rundgren is hardly considered a one-hit wonder, but two of his groups were: Runt, behind "We Gotta Get You a Woman", and Utopia, behind "Set Me Free".
  • British band The Records made it to #56 in the US in 1979 with their song "Starry Eyes", which is now widely considered by music critics to be one of the greatest Power Pop tunes ever recorded. No further chart success followed on either side of the Atlantic.
  • Semisonic (which began as a side project for members of the Minnesota alternative band Trip Shakespeare) is known almost exclusively for their 1998 hit "Closing Time". The song never reached the Hot 100 due to chart rules at the time, but reached #11 on the radio airplay chart and #1 on the modern rock chart. They never hit the American pop charts again, but had a couple more minor rock chart entries, and their followup single "Secret Smile" was a bigger hit in the UK than "Closing Time" was there. Frontman Dan Wilson later wrote hit singles for Dixie Chicks, Adele, and Dierks Bentley. Drummer Jacob Slichter wrote an entertaining book called So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star: How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer’s Life, which provides an inside account of their One Hit Wonderdom.
  • Swirl 360, a band led by twin brothers Denny and Kenny Scott, made it to #47 on the Hot 100 with their 1998 debut single "Hey Now Now". Despite the song's success, particularly on radio, the band never scored a follow-up hit because of the PolyGram / Universal Music Group merger, as Mercury Records stopped promoting their album and dropped them shortly afterwards.
  • Bram Tchaikovsky, a band led by the same-named former keyboardist for The Motors, had a #37 hit in the US in 1979 with "Girl of My Dreams". The band's lack of further success greatly annoyed Tchaikovsky, and he left the music industry altogether after they broke up in 1981.
  • Tonight scored a #17 hit in the UK with the catchy "Drummer Man" in 1978. Their follow-up single "Money (That's Your Problem)" fizzled out at #66 and two more singles didn't chart at all. By January 1979, the band was done and had broken up without releasing their (already recorded) debut album.
  • Tommy Tutone are remembered for one of the catchiest songs of the '80s: "867-5309/Jenny." Since it was viewed as a novelty song, the public didn't accept them as a hot new band. Interestingly enough, in 1980, their song "Angel Say No" hit #38, which technically disqualifies them as one-hit wonders, but from a pop-cultural standpoint does not.

    Progressive Rock 
  • Argent made it to #5 in the US in 1972 with their song "Hold Your Head Up" and never saw the inside of the Top 40 again. The band had one more hit in the UK, with "God Gave Rock and Roll to You", which is better known stateside for its 1991 cover by KISS. Namesake keyboardist Rod Argent already had several hits in the 1960s as a member of The Zombies, while lead singer Russ Ballard became an in-demand songwriter, writing hit singles for artists like America and Santana.
  • Can are one of the most critically acclaimed and influential bands of the 1970s, but were (and still are) best known as an album act as opposed to a singles-driven one. Nonetheless, they managed to become one-hit wonders in two different countries with two different songs. "Spoon", from their seminal 1972 LP Ege Bamyasi, made it to #8 in their native Germany when it was released as a single the year before. Then, in 1976, the disco-influenced Black Sheep Hit "I Want More" made it to #26 in the UK.
  • Curved Air, one of the few prog bands with a female lead singer, Sonja Kristina, reached #5 in the UK with "Back Street Luv" in 1971. Although that was the band's only major hit anywhere, Stewart Copeland, who was the drummer for a later lineup, later found considerate success as a member of The Police.
  • Legendary power trio Emerson, Lake & Palmer sold millions of records and played to packed houses throughout the 1970s, but made it into the Top 40 only once, and then just barely. "From the Beginning" (from their third album Trilogy) peaked at #39 in October of 1972, making them officially one-hit wonders. In the UK they are probably best known for the edited single version of their Aaron Copland cover "Fanfare for the Common Man".
    • After having broken up at the end of the '70s, Emerson and Lake reunited, but replaced Palmer, who was too busy with Asia, with Cozy Powell, thus forming the new supergroup Emerson, Lake & Powell. The group had a big rock hit in 1985 with "Touch & Go", but they went their separate ways very shortly afterwards.
    • A couple of years later, Emerson and Palmer got back together, but Lake was replaced by the little-known Robert Berry. They named their new band 3, had a #9 rock hit with "Talkin' Bout", and then broke up a year later.
    • Greg Lake was the only member of the group to find any solo success, thanks to his 1975 Christmas smash hit "I Believe In Father Christmas". It remains one of the most beloved holiday songs in the UK, but his solo career never took off.
  • The Dutch band Focus are mostly remembered for their 1973 top 10 instrumental hit "Hocus Pocus". They had another minor hit with "Sylvia", but it's mostly forgotten today.note 
  • Dave Stewart (not that one) and Barbara Gaskin, former members of prog rock bands Egg and Spriogyra respectively, made it all the way to #1 in the UK in 1981 with their stripped-down avant garde cover of Lesley Gore's early '60s hit "It's My Party". Stewart had already had another UK Top 20 hit with a similarly experimental cover of Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?" with The Zombies' Colin Blumstone on lead vocals, but Gaskin never made the Top 40 again.
  • The supergroup GTR, which featured two of the most famous guitarists in all of prog rock in Steve Howe of Yes and Steve Hackett of Genesis, reached #14 in the US in 1986 with "When the Heart Rules the Mind". The band only released one album and broke up the next year. Incidentally, the song marks the only time that Hackett ever performed on a US Top 40 hit.
  • 10cc are certainly not a one-hit wonder, but the band's precursor Hotlegs were with 1970's novelty song "Neanderthal Man."
    • Likewise, Godley & Creme, the post-10cc project of members Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, only experienced charting success in the US with the song "Cry." The pair were more successful as music video directors than as a pop act and helmed high concept, arty clips for several artists.
    • In the 1980s, 10cc frontman Graham Gouldman joined forces with singer Andrew Gold (of “Lonely Boy” fame) and put together the supergroup Wax (not to be confused with the band who did “California”). They scored a #12 hit in the U.K. with “Bridge to Your Heart”. They also had a minor U.S. hit with “Right Between the Eyes" at #43 (#60 in the U.K.), but nothing else after the two songs. They returned to their usual careers afterwards.
  • The Moody Blues are very much not considered one-hit wonders, but the short-lived union of Justin Hayward & John Lodge were with the #8 UK hit "Blue Guitar" in 1975. In the States, the duo's biggest success was instead with "I Dreamed Last Night", but it didn't become a hit. As a soloist, Justin Hayward saw his only notable hit with "Forever Autumn" from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.
  • The Power Ballad "Kayleigh" by Marillion is their only entry on the singles charts in America (even though it still didn't make the top 40). They have had other hits in Europe, but "Kayleigh" is still their best-known song. It's a bit of a departure from their usual style, so it comes under the Black Sheep Hit category.
  • The Canadian band Klaatu had an unusual reason for their brief moment of fame: there was a bizarre rumor going around that they were The Beatles in disguise. Although many bands from the '70s were significantly influenced by the Fab Four, the unknown band's songcraft and production were so close to the real deal that some journalists and fans were convinced there were clues about their "real" identity on their debut album. Capitol Records, who were both Klaatu's label and the Beatles' US label, didn't help matters by releasing effusive statements on the rumors. In 1977, at the height of the rumors, the band had their only chart hit with the spacey "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft", a #62 Hot 100 entry. The song became an even bigger hit when The Carpenters covered it the same year. Eventually, the band's real identities were discovered and public interest waned when they didn't turn out to be the Beatles after all. They never had another American hit, but they do have a sizable cult following that endures to this day.
  • The Mars Volta had a #7 hit on the Billboard modern rock charts and a #20 hit in the UK with "The Widow"; The song even crossed over to the Hot 100 and made it to #97. It was also their only hit on any of those charts, although two of their previous singles just barely missed the UK Top 40. The band's predecessor, At the Drive-In, also only have one hit on their record: 2000's "One-Armed Scissor". Despite their rabid following, ATDI broke up right around the time the song was becoming big, and their label didn't promote followup single "Invalid Litter Dept." too well as a result.
  • Mashmakhan, a rock fusion band from Quebec, had a minor hit in late 1970 with "As The Years Go By". While that was all anyone in North America knew of them, they were enormously popular in Japan.
  • Mike Oldfield, despite his clout as one of the only solo prog acts to receive major attention, only had one charting single in the US, that being the Tubular Bells intro (which wasn't even released with his permission). It went to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, largely off of the popularity it gained from The Exorcist, but later single releases failed to crack the American market. The closest he got was Daryl Hall & John Oates' cover of "Family Man" reaching No. 6 and "Nuclear" becoming the subject of memes after being featured in a trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (and even then it didn't chart, even after its picture disc release off the heels of the game's publicity).
  • Porcupine Tree were one of the most popular prog-rock bands of the 1990s and 2000s, and are often given credit for keeping the genre afloat and relevant during the alt-rock era. Like most prog bands, singles and radio success were not priorities for Porcupine Tree and they only had one significant chart entry anywhere in the world; Their song "Shallow" reached #26 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in 2006.
  • Queensrÿche reached #9 on the Hot 100 in 1991 with "Silent Lucidity". The soft, orchestral ballad was a Black Sheep Hit for the band, who were better known for their concept albums and technical prog metal sound. While "Silent Lucidity" was their only Hot 100 hit, Queensrÿche had multiple entries on the Mainstream Rock chart before and after it.
  • Renaissance had only one charting single in the UK, with "Northern Lights", a top ten hit in the UK in 1978.
  • Rush actually had a Top 40 hit with the song "New World Man" from their 1982 album Signals. Which is weird since the general public know them more for their signature songs "Tom Sawyer", "Limelight", and "The Spirit of Radio" than the aforementioned hit.
    • Rush had countless hits over on the Mainstream Rock charts; Enough so that guitarist Alex Lifeson was able to score a single chart entry for his side-project group Victor in 1995. Their song "Promise" reached #18 on that chart. The group was a one album wonder, and Lifeson never recorded under that name again.
  • Saga were one of the most popular neo-prog groups of the 1980s, noted for incorporating new wave and AOR elements in their sound. The band had several hits in their native Canada and on the then-new Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, but only "On the Loose" cracked the top 40 of the Hot 100, reaching #26 in 1981. Their commercial success in North America only lasted for a few more years after that, but they have remained successful in Europe, and Germany in particular.

    Psychedelic Rock 
  • The Avant-Garde, a duo consisting of Chuck Woolery and Bubba Fowler, recorded just three singles between 1967 and 1969, but one of them, the Love Is a Drug-themed "Naturally Stoned", managed to reach #40 in 1968. After they broke up, Fowler became a session musician, recorded a solo album, then left music to become a minister. Meanwhile, Woolery struck it big in the completely unrelated field of Game Show Host (Wheel of Fortune, Scrabble, Love Connection, Lingo), though he also pursued a Country Music career during his earliest years of hosting Wheel.
  • The neo-psychedelic band Blind Melon had only one hit, "No Rain," best remembered for its memorable video of the girl in the bee costume. The band had some hits on alternative radio, but any chance of matching that success was permanently derailed by the death of lead singer Shannon Hoon in 1995 from a cocaine overdose. It's also a textbook case of their biggest hit being at odds with their usual style.
  • Blue Cheer took their cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" to #14 on the Hot 100 in 1968. While the band proved influential on artists who came after them, with their heavy guitar sound providing an early basis for heavy metal and the rest of their catalogue retaining a cult following, "Summertime Blues" would remain their only hit single, and though its parent album Vincebus Eruptum charted at #11, none of their others came remotely that high.
  • Crazy Elephant scored their only Top 40 hit in 1969 with the #12 entry "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'". The group actually didn't exist at all, but were a studio ensemble assembled by bubblegum pop pioneers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz of Super K Productions. The duo claimed the band was formed by a group of Welsh coal miners, but in reality, they were a bunch of veteran studio musicians. Crazy Elephant never made the Hot 100 again after "Gimme", and the project evaporated by 1970.
    • The Music Explosion, another Super K project, were actually a real garage band discovered by Kasenetz and Katz instead of one they developed in the studio. The band also only had one hit, with the #2 smash "Little Bit O'Soul" in 1967. Their follow-up "Sunshine Games" made it to just #63 and that was the last time they ever made the Hot 100.
    • The Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus, a supergroup consisting of musicians from several Super K acts, scored a #25 hit in 1968 with "Quick Joey Small (Run Joey Run)". The project never made the charts again under this name. However, The 1910 Fruitgum Company and The Ohio Express - who participated in the recordings - each had several major hits in the 1960s as separate entities.
  • The Crazy World of Arthur Brown with "Fire", which charted at #1 in the U.K and #2 in America, most likely due to Brown donning a flaming helmet during live shows and for the song's famous intro ("I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE!"). Despite some attempts, he never achieved the same chart success, though he still remained a popular underground act during the late '60s and early '70s.
  • Count Five scored a #5 hit in 1966 with the Yardbirds-influenced "Psychotic Reaction," and that's about it for them—they released one album and a few more singles then disappeared.
  • A familiar name in one-hit wonders happens to be Norman Greenbaum, whose "Spirit in the Sky" hit #3 in 1970.
    • Four years prior to scoring his only hit, Greenbaum was a member of the psychedelic-rock band Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band, whose song "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago" hit #52 on the charts.
    • The glammy new wave band Doctor and the Medics scored their only hit with a cover of "Spirit in the Sky" in 1986. The original song "Burn", and a cover of "Waterloo" did not do as well.
  • Jimi Hendrix is the most influential guitar player of all time and is hardly considered a one-hit wonder in the eyes of the public. However, he technically only hit the Top 40 once in his short life with his cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower". Fortunately, he's fondly remembered for other songs such as "Purple Haze", "Hey Joe", "Foxy Lady", "Fire", "Voodoo Chile", and his rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner.
  • Iron Butterfly is only remembered for their hit "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", which peaked at #30. Their only other charting singles, "Soul Experience" and "In The Time of Our Lives" peaked at #75 and #96 respectively, and are almost entirely forgotten today.
  • Janis Joplin qualifies twice: as lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company, which had a #12 hit in 1968 with "Piece of My Heart" (they continued for quite a while after her departure), and as a solo artist two years later with the #1 "Me and Bobby McGee" — recorded only a few days before her death. However, Joplin is considered a rock icon despite her short life. "Piece of My Heart" was originally released by Aretha Franklin's sister Erma Franklin, for whom it was her only hit.
  • Love are often hailed as one of the best and most influential bands to come out of the California psychedelic scene. Despite their acclaim, they managed just a single top 40 hit: "7 and 7 Is", which peaked at #33 in 1966. That being said, they're probably better remembered for another song, "Alone Again Or", which barely scraped the Hot 100.
  • Neil MacArthur reached #34 in the UK in 1969 with a cover of The Zombies' British Invasion classic "She's Not There". Interestingly, MacArthur was actually a psudeonym for the Zombies' own lead singer Colin Blunstone, who began a solo career after the Zombies broke up the previous year. Blunstone dropped the Neil MacArthur name not long after, and had three more UK Top 40 hits under his own name.
  • People!, a sextet from San Jose, California fronted by lead singers Gene Mason and Larry Norman, scored a #14 hit in the US in 1968 with their cover of The Zombies' "I Love You". Norman left the band shortly thereafter and became much better known as one of the earliest and most iconic Christian Rock performers.
  • Portugal. The Man is moderately popular on the alternative side, but their only song to chart on the Hot 100 is their surprise 2017 hit "Feel It Still". "Live in the Moment", the follow-up to "Feel It Still", followed its predecessor to the top of the Alternative Songs chart, but it gained no traction anywhere else.
  • Procol Harum began their career in 1967 with the smash-hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Even today it's almost the only one of their songs that gets airplay, though to be fair they did have two or three other hits (including an orchestrated rendition of "Conquistador"). But despite releasing ten subsequent albums in the 60s and 70s, and making a comeback in the 90s, it's annoying that only that one song tends to get remembered nowadays.
  • The Rattles were successful in their native Germany in the 1960s as a British Invasion-influenced beat group, but following a Genre Shift into psychedelic rock they achieved their one international hit with 1970's "The Witch".
  • The Bob Seger System scored their only Top 40 hit when "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" hit #17 on the Hot 100 in 1968. Lead singer and band namesake Bob Seger went on to have a legendary career with multiple classic hits as both a solo artist and with his Silver Bullet Band. The Breakup Breakout was so complete that the band's three albums are retrospectively considered Seger's first three albums as opposed to releases by a separate band.
  • Psychedelic garage band The Seeds are widely considered to be progenitors of punk rock, and were namechecked as an influence by countless rock groups, from The Ramones to The Smashing Pumpkins. But the band just had one Top 40 entry: "Pushin' Too Hard" which reached #36 in 1967. Their biggest hit in Canada was "Can't Seem to Make You Mine", which hit #33 that same year.
  • Dutch rockers The Shocking Blue topped the Hot 100 with "Venus", which was later Covered Up by Bananarama. It was their only Top 40 hit, but "Love Buzz" (which didn't chart) is also quite well-known for being covered up by Nirvana.
  • Spirit were a highly influential and important band in the 1960s psychedelic rock scene, but their only Top 40 hit was "I Got a Line On You", which reached #27 in 1968. The band's three other Hot 100 entries didn't come anywhere close to the Top 40. Lead singer Jay Ferguson had two Top 40 hits in the late '70s and later became a television composer best known for the theme to The Office (US).
  • "Incense and Peppermints" by Strawberry Alarm Clock, a B-side (not even sung by a member of the band), that went all the way to #1. The band managed another Top 40 hit soon after, "Tomorrow", but it is now largely forgotten. Nothing else by the band ever made even a dent, and they aren't even known for their live shows. Came outta nowhere, hit the top and utterly vanished. Except for guitarist Ed King, that is. He went on to have considerably more success when he joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in the early 1970s.
  • Vanilla Fudge had their only Top 40 hit in 1967 with a psychedelic remake of The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On".
  • Zager and Evans were a psychedelic-tinged duo from Lincoln, Nebraska who modeled themselves on Simon & Garfunkel: Rick Evans was the songwriter and lead singer, Denny Zager did harmonies and shaped their musical sound. Their dark Techno Dystopia-themed "In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)" had a fascinating history: it was written in 1964, then recorded in 1968 at a small studio in Odessa, Texas owned by Tommy Allsup, best known as the Buddy Holly guitarist who lost a coin toss to Ritchie Valens for the final seat on the plane that crashed. A high school orchestra was brought in to back the duo. Zager & Evans released "In the Year 2525" on their own label, and it became a sizable local hit, prompting RCA Records to pick it up for national distribution in 1969 (after subjecting the song to a remix, most prominently adding a bombastic mariachi-style horn riff to the intro). It succeeded in becoming a Sleeper Hit of massive proportions, reaching #1 on both the US and UK charts. But they hold the dubious honor of being the only artist to accomplish that feat without ever making either chart again. The immediate follow-up, the disturbing "Mr. Turnkey" (built around a first-person confession of a rapist) was a huge bomb that never got past the Billboard Bubbling Under chart, and a string of other singles and albums by the duo attracted little interest, leading them to split up in The '70s. Zager eventually became a guitar maker, with a huge list of famous clients.

    Punk Rock 
  • 999 made it to just #40 on the UK Singles Chart in 1978 with their song "Homicide". They never got any higher than that with subsequent singles.
  • Be Your Own Pet scored a #36 hit in the UK with "Adventure" in 2006. They also became one of the most talked-about American rock bands in Britain that year, recieving acclaim from the country's music magazines and scoring several high-profile festival slots. While the band retained their British popularity and acclaim with their next album in 2008, they broke up while touring it, and none of its singles made the UK Top 40 like "Adventure" did.
  • Irish American Celtic punk band Black 47 scored a #27 hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart in 1993 with their Signature Song "Funky Ceili (Bridie's Song)". Despite their intensely devoted following, they've never managed another chart entry.
  • The Doll scored their only UK Top 40 hit with "Desire Me" in 1978. The band broke up two years later, with guitarist Jamie West-Oram going on to enjoy more chart success with his next band The Fixx.
  • Southern California punk band Face to Face reached #39 on the Billboard alternative chart in 1995 with their single "Disconnected". The song had been released on indie punk label Fat Wreck Chords in 1993 and had become a big local radio hit on Los Angeles' KROQ before spreading across the country. The charting 1995 version was a re-recording that is prefaced on their major label debut Big Choice with a self-aware comedy skit parodying its appearance. Face to Face never had a hit like that again, but they have continued to be a respected name in the punk world.
  • Green Jellÿ is an American Comedy Music outfit that peaked in The '90s. Besides getting sued for some of their content, they are best known the one song that has been a hit anywhere: their 1992 hit "Three Little Pigs", which hit #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 on the UK pop chart. The band received three Gold records in 1993 for the "Three Little Pigs" single, its parent album Cereal Killer Soundtrack, and their Cereal Killer videotape, but they didn't find any success with their followup and had broken up by 1995. Band members Maynard James Keenan and Danny Carey went on to longer lasting success as the founders of tool.
  • Havana 3AM, a rockabilly-influenced band led by Paul Simonon of The Clash, reached #6 on the Modern Rock chart in 1991 with their song "Reach the Rock". The band didn't last long and splinted apart after its lead singer Nigel Dixon died in 1993 and Simonon quit shortly thereafter. Their guitarist Gary Myrick continued the band with new members, but that version of the group did not have any hits and eventually broke up.
  • Stewart Copeland of The Police - under the name Klark Kent - scored a #48 UK hit with "Don't Care" in 1978. It had actually charted before The Police themselves had any hits of their own, and earned him a spot on Top of the Pops. Copeland released four more singles and an EP under the Klark Kent name, but none of them charted. Luckily for him, however, the Police finally took off in early 1979 and garnered him more attention than his solo singles ever did.
  • Belgian singer Plastic Bertrand had a Top 10 hit in the UK - and a Top 50 hit in the US - with the French-language tune "Ça plane pour moi" in 1978. Interestingly, Bertrand does not perform the vocals on the song despite being credited as the artist; They're actually performed by producer Lou Deprijck. No other hits followed for Bertrand in any Anglophone countries. He later represented Luxembourg at the 1987 Eurovision Song Contest...where he finished at a rather poor 21st place.
  • The Rezillos' only Top 40 hit in the UK was, humorously enough, "Top of the Pops". The song's #17 peak resulted in them being invited to perform it on the same named programme. Guitarist Jo Callis would go on to have much more success after he joined The Human League in 1981.
  • Rocket from the Crypt reached #12 in the UK in 1996 with "On a Rope". Despite their critical acclaim and sizeable influence on later punk and post-hardcore bands, RFTC never reached the top 40 again in any other country. That includes their native United States, where "On a Rope" missed the modern rock chart entirely.
  • The Saints, notable for being one of the first punk rock bands from Australia, had a #34 hit in the UK in 1977 with their song "This Perfect Day". Ironically, this song is nowhere near as well-known in the UK as their debut single "I'm Stranded", which didn't chart but is now a staple of punk rock compilations released in the UK. Even more ironic was that the UK was the first area they experienced commercial success, thanks to NME. It was a few years before they broke out into their native Australia, where their debut album is now hailed as a classic.

    Rock 
  • The Assembled Multitude, a Philadelphia studio instrumental group, got to #16 in 1970 with "Overture from Tommy (A Rock Opera)", their orchestrated take on the opening track of The Who's classic Rock Opera. They did a few more singles (including the theme song for Philadelphia TV newscast) and an album, but never reached the Top 40 again and the project dissolved. However, many of the same musicians were later part of MFSB (mentioned on the Rhythm & Blues page).
  • When Fleetwood Mac went on hiatus in the early-to-mid '80s, their members pursued solo careers of varying success. While Stevie Nicks became a big solo star, Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie only had one big hit each: "Trouble" and "Got a Hold on Me", respectively. Though Buckingham does have one other well-remembered song; while "Holiday Road" only made it to #82 on the Hot 100, it's well-remembered for its use in National Lampoon's Vacation.
    • Several Fleetwood collaborators have become one-hit wonders by association. Walter Egan had his only hit with 1978's "Magnet and Steel", for which Buckingham and Nicks provided backing vocals. Egan returned the favor by appearing in the video for Buckingham's "Trouble". Robbie Patton had a hit in 1981 with "Don't Give It Up", which was produced by McVie and featured Buckingham on guitar (his unsuccessful follow-up, "Smiling Islands", featured Nicks' vocals). Patton returned the favor by co-writing Fleetwood's #4 hit "Hold Me" with McVie.
  • Tampa-based rock band Blues Image are known for their 1970 top 5 hit "Ride Captain Ride" and absolutely nothing else.
  • Eric Burdon was hugely successful as the frontman of The Animals, but his only hit without them was "Spill The Wine", a song he recorded with his band War. In a reverse Breakup Breakout, War would go on to have phenomenal success throughout the 1970s without Burdon.
  • The Young Rascals were not one-hit wonders, but frontman Felix Cavaliere was with 1980's "Only a Lonely Heart Sees".
  • Tom Cochrane hasn't touched the charts outside Canada since "Life Is A Highway" in the early 1990s. He's a bit more popular at home, though.
    • Not only that but Tom's pre-solo career band, Red Rider, were also one-hit wonders, with "Lunatic Fringe", which never charted on the Hot 100. Again, Red Rider had much more success back in Canada.
  • By no means is The Who a one-hit wonder. However, frontman Roger Daltrey only managed to get one hit out of his Solo Side Project: "Without Your Love", which peaked at #20.
  • Funk-rockers Dan Reed Network scored a #38 Hot 100 hit in 1988 with their song "Ritual". The band are also one-hit wonders in the UK with a completely different song, "Stardate 1990", which #39 there in 1990. They would be all but forgotten today if a Chicago musician named Billy Corgan hadn't met bass guitarist D'Arcy Wretzky after one of their concerts, argued with her about whether the band they just saw was any good and subsequently invited her to join a band he was putting together.
  • Daughtry are definitely not one-hit wonders in their native United States, where they have had eight top 40 hits. In the UK however, like most acts discovered on American Idol they never caught on, other than having their hit "What About Now" reach #11 due to its use on The X Factor and a cover version from Westlife being released around that time.
  • David & David reached #37 on the Hot 100 with their debut single "Welcome to the Boomtown" in 1987. The song also made the top ten on the mainstream rock chart, where they had two more hits, but "Ain't So Easy" was the only other one to make the Hot 100 and it stopped short of the Top 40 at #51. The duo split shortly thereafter, but they were both part of the songwriting collective that contributed songs to Sheryl Crow's hit 1993 debut album Tuesday Night Music Club.
  • Eric Clapton is by no means a One Hit Wonder, having scored hits as a solo artist and with The Yardbirds and Cream. With Derek and the Dominos, however, he did obtain the status, when "Layla" — which has since become a staple of Clapton's solo career — reached #10 in Billboard in 1972 — two years after the song had been recorded.
  • Styx are not one-hit wonders by any stretch of the imagination, but its two frontmen Dennis DeYoung and Tommy Shaw are on their own, with "Desert Moon" and "Girls With Guns" respectively. Technically, however, they are in the U.K., as their sole U.S. #1 "Babe" was also their only Top 40 chart entry on the other side of the pond.
  • Dr. John has had a long, colorful, and acclaimed career and is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, but he's only had a single Top 40 hit: The 1973 #9 smash "Right Place, Wrong Time".
  • Swedish rock band Europe had two smash hits in 1987: the hard-rock song "The Final Countdown" and the ballad "Carrie", but in the USA, these days they're remembered almost exclusively for the former.
  • Steely Dan is not a one-hit wonder, but co-bandleader Donald Fagen had a #26 hit in 1982 with "I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World)".
  • Faith No More had several Top 40 hits on rock radio and in Europe and Australia, but only one pop hit back home: "Epic", which peaked at #9. While "Epic" is the only song most mainstream listeners will recognize, the band has a devoted cult following and was a massive influence on Alternative Metal.
  • Billy Falcon had a #35 hit with "Power Windows" but never saw any chart again.
  • British rock singer Wayne Fontana hit #1 in 1965 with "Game of Love". His band, The Mindbenders, had another hit a year later, "A Groovy Kind of Love", without him.
  • Japanese rock group Godiego reached #37 in the UK in 1977 with their theme song to the television series The Water Margin, which had been dubbed in English and aired on the BBC. The band's British success was helped by the song being in fluent English, and their lineup also featured two American members. However, those aspects did not help them score any more hit singles in the UK. These days, Godiego is better known in the West for their soundtrack to the surrealist horror comedy House and their theme songs for Monkey and Galaxy Express 999 than they are for "The Water Margin".
  • Holy White Hounds, an Iowa-based rock band, saw fleeting success in 2016 with the song "Switchblade".
  • Blind Canadian rock and blues guitarist Jeff Healey hit #5 in 1989 with "Angel Eyes" but had no other hits in the US. However, he was more popular in his native country, in both blues and jazz circles, and had several hits on rock-specific charts.
  • While Danish jazz guitarist Jørgen Ingmann was popular in Europe, both as a solo artist and with his wife Grethe (the duo was the winner of the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest), he is only remembered for one hit in North America: his cover of "Apache", which reached #2 in the U.S. and #1 in Canada in 1961. Elsewhere, the song was a big hit for U.K. instrumental group The Shadows; the original recording by Bert Weedon only made #24 in the U.K. and is now an obscure curio.
  • Ernie Isley, the virtuoso guitarist for R&B legends The Isley Brothers, scored his only solo chart hit in 1990 with the hard-rocking "Back at Square One", a #31 entry on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.
  • Rhode Island rockers John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band had a top 10 hit in 1984 with "On The Dark Side" from the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack. While they had a few other minor hits afterwards, "On The Dark Side" (a.k.a Emperor Palpatine's favorite song) is the only one that is still remembered today.
  • Sass Jordan has had multiple hits in her native Canada and four top 20 singles on the rock charts, but her only Hot 100 entry was "Sun's Gonna Rise" in 1994, which is nowhere near as well-known as songs such as "Make You a Believer" or "High Road Easy."
  • Kid Rock is not a one-hit wonder in any genre — not even through his on-again, off-again relationship with Country Music, where he has had two hits: "Picture" in 2002-03 and "All Summer Long" in 2008. However, with those two songs, he has created two (or three) one-hit wonders in unusual ways:
    • As Kid did not release his music to iTunes (until the mid-2010s), he created one-hit wonders out of two different covers of "All Summer Long" by karaoke band soundalikes: one by the Hit Masters, the other by The Rock Heroes, both of which climbed into the Top 40 of the Hot 100 (#19 for Hit Masters, #29 for the Rock Heroes). Obviously, neither group saw chart action again.
    • "Picture" was originally recorded as a duet with Sheryl Crow, but due to Kid's label being unable to reach an agreement with Sheryl's, the official single edit replaced Sheryl's part with a new vocal track sung by Allison Moorer, the sister of country and Americana singer Shelby Lynne. While most stations continued to play the Crow version anyway, the song was credited on all charts to "Kid Rock with Sheryl Crow or Allison Moorer", thus giving Moorer her only major chart hit to date. (Averted with Crow, who has a total of three hits on the Hot Country Songs charts.)
  • The Larsen-Feiten Band had a 1980 hit with "Who'll Be The Fool Tonight". Member Buzz Feiten later became known for inventing a guitar tuning system.
    • "Matchstick Men" was also a rock one-hit wonder for Camper Van Beethoven, who topped the Modern Rock chart with their cover in 1989. CVB were stars on college radio in the 1980s but were one of many such bands for whom the Modern Rock chart debuted just a little too late to fully document their success on the nascent alternative radio format. In fact, the band broke up shortly after the song became a hit.
  • Looking Glass were a popular rock band on the Jersey Shore. They hit it big in 1972 with their #1 hit "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)". That was the last time the band saw any mainstream success; "Brandy" proved to be a Black Sheep Hit, as the soft-rock sound of it stood out from their rawer rock-and-roll material they normally played. A follow-up "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne" stalled at #33 and they never saw any chart again. The group slowly metamorphosized into the hard-rock band Starz, who would score a #33 hit of their own with "Cherry Baby" before disappearing again. Elliot Lurie, the frontman of Looking Glass, would later find some more success with production work, but not as a singer.
  • Lol Mason was a member of two bands who were one-hit wonders in two countries. In 1978, his band City Boy had its lone U.S. hit with "5-7-0-5" (the band's one-hit wonder status was averted in their native U.K. when "What a Night" snuck in at #39 later that year). Four years later, Mason was in the Maisonettes, whose lone hit, "Heartache Avenue", peaked at #7 for that band's lone appearance in the UK Top 40 (however, the band didn't make the Top 40 across the pond).
  • Lee Michaels was known for his prolificacy on the Hammond organ and had multiple popular albums. However, his only major chart hit was "Do You Know What I Mean" which hit #6 in 1971. A cover of Marvin Gaye's "Can I Get a Witness" only barely notched top 40.
  • Thunderclap Newman reached #1 in the UK and #37 in the US with their 1969 debut single "Something in the Air". The band never charted again in the US, while their followup single "Accidents" missed the UK Top 40. Guitarist Jimmy McCulloch later joined Wings, which had plenty of chart success in both countries.
  • Nielsen/Pearson, who hit #37 in 1980 with "If You Should Sail". Reed Nielsen later became known as a country songwriter.
  • Aldo Nova had a top 10 album in 1982 with his self-titled debut. The opening track, "Fantasy," became Nova's sole top 40 hit. Another song, "Foolin' Yourself," was a minor hit but none of his other albums or singles made the charts. He never found any further success as an artist, and moved to backstage work, penning hits for Céline Dion and Clay Aiken, among others.
  • Led Zeppelin was quite possibly the biggest music act of the '70s and is most certainly not a one-hit wonder. However, a very weird variation of this happened to guitarist Jimmy Page. He had a credited appearance as the guitarist in Puff Daddy's Rap Rock reworking of "Kashmir" made for the Godzilla (1998) soundtrack called "Come with Me". It became a Breakaway Pop Hit, reaching #4 on Hot 100. Since Page was never a solo artist and he was never credited for another single, he never appeared on that chart again.
    • Page also was a member of the one-hit wonder supergroup The Firm, best known for their 1986 hit "Radioactive".
  • Sanford Townsend Band had their only hit in 1977 with "Smoke from a Distant Fire". Nothing else charted, and they were never heard from again.
  • Eddie Schwartz is primarily known as a songwriter, having penned three #9 hits, including the iconic "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", but as a singer, he had a minor 1982 hit with his own "All Our Tomorrows". His chart credits go well into the 2010s, as Glee and Pitch Perfect both had covers of "Best Shot" that charted.
  • Many artists well-known for being in successful groups and bands were one-hit wonders solo, like John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful (whose theme song for Welcome Back, Kotter hit #1 in 1976) and Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers (who went #1 in 1987 with "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing, though he also had several country hits).
  • Sheriff had a #1 hit in their native Canada in 1983 with "When I'm With You"; it only peaked at #63 in the USA. In 1988, radio DJ's across the United States started adding the song to their playlists. It topped the USA charts five years after they disbanded, and was their only song to enter the Hot 100. Songwriter/keyboardist Arnold Lanni later became a record producer.
    • After "When I'm With You" became a hit, there was naturally a lot of interest for Sheriff to reform and go out on tour. However, only two of the band's five members were interested. Instead, those two members formed Alias, who became a Two-Hit Wonder (their biggest hit was the #2 smash "More Than Words Can Say"), and broke up after a single album.
  • Chris Spedding had an illustrious career as a session guitarist, and played on classic albums such as Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson, Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets and Tom Waits' Rain Dogs. Although Spedding also released several solo records, his only hit anywhere was "Motor Bikin'", which made it to #14 in the UK in 1975. His only other hits as a lead artist were during his time as the guitarist for the children's group The Wombles in the mid 1970s.
  • Frank Stallone, Sylvester Stallone's younger brother, scored a #10 hit on the Hot 100 in 1983, with "Far from Over" from the soundtrack of Staying Alive. He had a few more placements on his brother's film soundtracks - and was the repeated subject of Norm Macdonald's punchlines, during his tenure as Weekend Update host on Saturday Night Live - but never managed another major hit.
  • Stealers Wheel ("Stuck In The Middle With You") broke up after their one hit, freeing lead singer Gerry Rafferty to become a moderately successful solo act in the middle to late 1970s ("Baker Street", "Right Down The Line", "City to City" and others).
    • Stealers Wheel actually did have another Top 40 hit, "Star," but it was from the same album as the first hit.
    • "Baker Street" is sometimes considered an example on its own, but Gerry Rafferty certainly didn't intend it that way, and the song's distinctive sax break was improvised by session saxophonist Raphael Ravenscroft. Ravenscroft, for his part, has said that there are better works to remember him for, especially as he recorded the entire sax part in the wrong key.
  • Stiltskin topped the UK charts in 1994 with "Inside" after its use in a Levi's jeans advert. Their follow-up single "Footsteps" barely cracked the top 40, and they disbanded after one album. Vocalist Ray Wilson would later have a brief stint with Genesis.
  • British rock band Status Quo had a single Top 40 hit in the United States with their debut single "Pictures of Matchstick Men" in 1968. After a Genre Shift from psychedelic rock to a boogie-influenced hard rock sound, the band became massive stars in their home country. Although they've had over 50 Top 40 hits in the UK - the final one coming in 2008 - the band was never able to find another crossover hit in America again.
  • The Kingston Trio are not one-hit wonders, but group member John Stewart had his only major hit with "Gold", a #5 hit in 1979, with help from Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, after almost a decade of being a prolific Acclaimed Flop as a solo artist after leaving the Trio. His other two Top 40 hits ("Midnight Wind", "Lost Her in the Sun") were the follow-up singles from "Gold"'s parent album Bombs Away Dream Babies. Stewart also wrote "Daydream Believer", a #1 hit for The Monkees in 1967, and recorded his own version in 1971, but it was not a hit.
  • Stories hit #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart with their cover of Hot Chocolate's "Brother Louie." A follow-up, "Mammy Blue," only managed to chart in the mid-40s. The group split soon after. End of Stories.
  • Henry Lee Summer had a small slew of minor hits (none higher than top 30), but is only remembered for "Wish I Had A Girl" — even in the Mid West (US), right here in his home town. Ouch.
    • Don't forget, "Hey Baby" actually charted a bit higher than "Wish I Had A Girl."
  • Before Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds became the two-hit wonder they are known as today, they were members of garage rock group The T-Bones, noted for the instrumental "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)."
  • British blues-rock band The Temperance Movement had a hit in 2015 with "Take It Back" and nothing else.
  • Canadian singer Ian Thomas had one U.S. hit in 1973 with "Painted Ladies". His brother Dave was also a One-Hit Wonder; he and Rick Moranis (with Rush vocalist Geddy Lee) hit in 1982 with "Take Off" in their Bob & Doug McKenzie personae.
  • Scottish singer Ali Thomson, who had a hit in 1980 with "Take A Little Rhythm" and nothing else afterwards. He wrote a minor hit for Gary Wright before vanishing into obscurity.
  • Dutch rocker Vandenberg had a 1983 hit with "Burning Heart" and nothing else. He later joined the ranks of Whitesnake.
  • Although they're popular in the Christian community, We As Human are only known to mainstream audiences for "Take The Bullets Away", a collaboration with former Flyleaf frontwoman Lacey Sturm.
  • Although Warren Zevon has a strong cult following, his only top 40 hit was 1978's "Werewolves of London."

    Rock and Roll 
  • The Big Bopper, aka J. P. Richardson, is a rather unfortunate example brought about by his death. After he scored a hit in 1958 with "Chantilly Lace", his follow-up "Big Bopper's Wedding" petered out at #38 and was quickly forgotten. He died in the same plane crash as Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. "Chantilly Lace" was later Covered Up by Jerry Lee Lewis, with whom the song has become more associated, but Richardson also wrote "White Lightning" by George Jones and "Running Bear" by Johnny Preston (later Covered Up by Sonny James).
  • Donnie Brooks was a rockabilly singer who had a #7 hit in 1960 with "Mission Bell". His follow up "Doll House" stalled at #31, killing his momentum. He was well-respected enough in rockabilly circles to enter the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, however.
  • Johnny Burnette may not be the most iconic rock and roller of the '50s, but he was no one-hit wonder. However, his brother Dorsey Burnette and son Rocky Burnette were, with "In The Spring" and "Tired of Toein' The Line", respectively.
  • The only chart entry for Harold Dorman was 1959's "Mountain of Love". The song was later Covered Up by Johnny Rivers and Charley Pride among others. Dorman later had some Country Music success as a songwriter (with Charley Pride recording some of his songs).
  • Guitarist Tommy Facenda is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Gene Vincent & The Blue Caps, but he only had one hit as a solo artist, with 1958's "High School USA". The song made the Top 40 in an unusual fashion; Facenda recorded 28 different versions of the song featuring high schools from different areas of the United States (The original version of the tune featured schools from the part of Virginia where he grew up and was released in areas that didn't receive a special version). The sales from all of the different versions of the single were rolled into one, resulting in a #28 chart peak. His followup "Bubba Ditty" went nowhere, and he quit music in the early 1960s, later becoming a firefighter.
  • Don Fardon, former lead singer of the UK band The Sorrows, was the first artist to have a hit with "Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)", a song written in 1959 and recorded by a handful artists before then, getting to #20 in the US with it in 1968 (with a reissue reaching #3 in his homeland in 1970). But the song was Covered Up by Paul Revere and the Raiders (more or less copying Fardon's arrangement) in 1971, reaching #1 in Billboard. Fardon never had another hit.
  • Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids was a throwback rock and roll group whose greatest success was the mid-chart hit "Did You Boogie (With Your Baby)" in 1976. Only two other singles charted, neither getting higher than #41.
  • Dale Hawkins is remembered almost exclusively for the song "Susie Q", later Covered Up by Creedence Clearwater Revival. His only other top 40 hit was the long-forgotten "La-Do-Da".
  • Jumpin' Gene Simmons (not to be confused with Gene Simmons of KISS, who claims his stage name is a Shout-Out) had his only chart success with the #11 "Haunted House" in 1964. Simmons was more successful as a touring artist, and co-wrote Tim McGraw's Breakthrough Hit "Indian Outlaw". "Haunted House" also made one-hit wonders out of The Compton Brothers, whose cover got to #11 on the country music charts five years later.
  • One of the most popular rock and roll instrumentals of the late '50s is "Raunchy", which managed to be the only major hit for both Nashville studio musician Bill Justis and acclaimed R&B pianist Ernie Freeman.
  • The Kingsmen (not to be confused with a later group that became famous with "Louie, Louie") was a spin-off group made up of members of Bill Haley and His Comets in 1958 who recorded as the Kingsmen as a side project. The group scored a surprise Top 40 hit in the US with the instrumental "Week End", even going so far as to perform it on American Bandstand. It was their only chart hit and the Comets made no further recordings under this name.
  • John D. Loudermilk had only Top 40 pop hits with "Sittin' in the Balcony", which was Covered Up by Eddie Cochran, in 1957 (Loudermilk's version was credited to Johnny Dee); while he had another Top 40 hit with "Language of Love" under his real name, it was quickly forgotten. He was also a one-hit wonder in Country Music when "That Ain't All" hit #20 in 1965. Loudermilk was far more successful as a songwriter, including the #1 country hits "Abilene" by George Hamilton IV, "Waterloo" by Stonewall Jackson, and "Talk Back Trembling Lips" by Ernest Ashworth. Coincidentally, several of his compositions were also responsible for one-hit wonders, including "Tobacco Road" and "Indian Reservation", as listed above, "Teen Angel" by Mark Dinning, and "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" by the Casinos (see the "Pop" subpage for the latter two).
  • Doo-wop group The Monotones are known entirely for their 1958 hit "The Book of Love".
  • The Nashville Teens had only one hit in the US with "Tobacco Road", often considered an important Garage Rock predecessor. The band was more successful in their native England. They're also famed for backing Jerry Lee Lewis on his Live at the Star Club! record, widely considered to be one of the greatest live albums ever released.
  • Bill Parsons is one of the most unusual cases of a one-hit wonder ever documented. He had a #2 hit with "The All American Boy" in 1958, but it was actually recorded by his friend Bobby Bare intended as a demo for him. His record label decided to use the original Bare version instead but erroneously released it under Parsons' name. Bare resurfaced as a successful country star in the mid-'60s, but Parsons was never heard from again.
  • Carl Perkins is one of the architects of rock and roll, but his only Top 40 single came in 1956 when his iconic "Blue Suede Shoes" made it to #2. His highest peak on the pop charts after that was the #67 "Your True Love". Perkins did, however, go on to have several more hits on the country chart up through the mid-1980s.
  • "Sea of Love" by Phil Phillips (not to be confused with American Idol winner ''Phillip'' Phillips). One of the most recognizable songs of the late 1950s, Phil Phillips received little in the way of royalties from it and never had another hit song.
    • It was also a hit for The Honeydrippers the post-Led Zeppelin supergroup of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. While they had another hit chart in the bottom half of the top 40, "Rockin' at Midnight," it wasn't that much of a hit.
  • The Ramrods had a #30 U.S. and #8 U.K. hit in 1961 with an instrumental rock arrangement of "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky". Their other two singles, "Loch Lomond Rock" and "War Cry", failed to chart. They were the first rock group to feature a female drummer (Claire Lane) in an otherwise all-male lineup. note 
  • The Routers were an instrumental group from L.A. who had one Top 40 hit, "Let's Go (Pony)", which reached #19 in 1962. It's the ultimate in a Limited Lyrics Song, since the "lyrics" are just "let's go!" shouted every few bars. But the song and the group secured some odd legacies in music and pop culture history. For one thing, it's the basis of the ubiquitous "let's go!" cheerleading chant. And The Cars gave a Shout-Out to it in the chorus of their hit "Let's Go". And the band's bassist was a 19-year-old named Scott Engel, now better known as Scott Walker.
  • The Royal Teens were the group who originally asked the question "Who Wears Short Shorts?" with "Short Shorts", a #2 R&B hit and #3 pop hit in 1958. Their other major hit was "Believe Me" in 1959, but since it was not used in Nair commercials, it fell into obscurity. Two of the members moved on to bigger things: keyboardist and co-founder Bob Gaudio quit shortly after "Believe Me" to become one of The Four Seasons and guitarist Al Kooper (a member circa "Believe Me") went on to play with Bob Dylan and form The Blues Project and Blood, Sweat and Tears.
  • Tony Sheridan was a British singer and guitarist who recorded a rock & roll version of the traditional Scottish folk song "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" in 1961 that was released only in Germany, where he had built up a following. The song made #32 there, and didn't chart anywhere else. That is, until his backing group on the song, The Beatles (credited as The Beat Brothers on the original release), became international superstars just a few years later. "My Bonnie" was reissued, this time credited to "The Beatles with Tony Sheridan", and made it to #48 in the UK in 1963 and #26 in the US in 1964. It was his only major hit in either country, and he's best remembered now as an associate of the Beatles than for his recordings.
  • Huey "Piano" Smith is remembered pretty much exclusively for "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu".
  • Terry Stafford is known almost entirely for his debut single "Suspicion" in 1964, which Covered Up a song first recorded by Elvis Presley as an album track. While he hit #25 with "I'll Touch a Star", it was quickly forgotten. Stafford had minor success as a Country Music artist, including the original version of "Amarillo by Morning", later Covered Up by George Strait.

    Southern Rock/Country Rock 
  • Gregg Allman, the legendary lead singer and keyboardist for The Allman Brothers Band, scored his only solo hit in 1973, when his solo version of the Allmans' classic "Midnight Rider" reached #19 on the Hot 100. The closest Allman would come to the top 40 again without his band was when "I'm No Angel" made it to #49 in 1987.
  • Black Oak Arkansas had a top 40 hit in 1974 with "Jim Dandy (To the Rescue)". While they would remain a popular live act for a few more years thanks to their colorful, eccentric lead singer "Jim Dandy" Mangrum (reputedly a role model for David Lee Roth's stage antics), it would be their only major charting single.
  • Blue Rodeo had only one chart entry in the US with "Til I Am Myself Again", which reached #19 on the modern rock chart and #37 on the mainstream rock chart in 1990. They were far more successful in their native Canada, where they've had many hit singles on the pop, country and rock charts and a string of gold or platinum albums.
  • The Bottle Rockets made it to #27 on the Mainstream Rock chart with "Radar Gun" in 1995. Despite remaining a popular live draw, this was their only chart entry.
  • Fire Town reached #18 on the alternative chart in 1989 with "The Good Life". The alt-country group broke up shortly after that, but guitarist Doug Erikson, drummer Butch Vig, and engineer Steve Marker later saw considerable success as three-fourths of Garbage.
  • The Georgia Satellites went to #2 with "Keep Your Hands to Yourself". They had a few more hits on the Mainstream Rock chart, but most are obscure today. This song is notable for being one of the few Southern rock songs in 1986, a total antithesis to the Bon Jovi generation. After the group broke up, frontman Dan Baird became a one-hit wonder on his own with 1993's "I Love You Period".
  • Despite being a major radio hit at the time, Molly Hatchet's 1980 single "Flirtin' with Disaster" actually missed the top 40 and peaked at #42. The song has remained a classic rock radio staple. The band had three other low charting songs on the Hot 100, none of which made it past #80.
    • Shortly after the release of "Flirtin' with Disaster", Molly Hatchet frontman Danny Joe Brown left the band to form the redundantly named Danny Joe Brown and the Danny Joe Brown Band. That band scored a #12 hit on the mainstream rock chart with "Edge of Sundown" in 1981. Brown broke up this new band in 1982 after only releasing one album and rejoined Molly Hatchet, staying with them until a stroke caused him to retire from music in 1995.
  • Head East are remembered for their classic rock hit "Never Been Any Reason" and nothing else. They also charted in 1978 with a cover of Russ Ballard's 'Since You Been Gone', but since it peaked at #43 (ironically higher than "Never Been Any Reason" got), it failed to have a lasting impact and the version recorded by Rainbow the next year is considerably better known.
  • The Monkees had plenty of hits, but former Monkee Michael Nesmith saw the US Top 40 only once: "Joanne", which peaked at #21 in 1970. However, he is considered a pioneer in the country-rock genre and is also noted as an early adopter of both home video and the music video. In the UK, he achieved one-hit wonder status with a different song, "Rio", which peaked at #28 there in 1977.
  • Outlaws had a hit in 1975 with "There Goes Another Love Song". While they also hit top 40 a few years later with a cover of "Ghost Riders in the Sky", it failed to leave much of an impact, and while the Epic Rocking "Green Grass and High Tides" was popular on album-oriented radio (and saw a revival in popularity after its inclusion in Rock Band), it was never released as a single. Guitarist Henry Paul later went on to greater success in The '90s as the lead singer of the Country Music band Blackhawk, whose original lineup included fellow one-hit wonder Van Stephenson (see the Pop page) and occasional Outlaws member Dave Robbins.
  • The Rossington-Collins Band was formed by four former members of Lynyrd Skynyrd a few years after the 1977 plane crash that killed three of their bandmates. The new group's first single "Don't Misunderstand Me" reached #50 on the Hot 100 in 1980, but that would be their only entry on that chart as their career was short-lived. They would only last two more years and one more album before internal friction split the band in half: Gary Rossington and RCB lead singer Dale Krantz formed the Rossington Band, while Allen Collins and the other two Skynyrd alumni formed the Allen Collins Band. Neither band scored any hits of their own.
  • Charlie Ryan is known entirely for his 1960 hit "Hot Rod Lincoln", his only chart entry in the US. A cover that same year for the pop format was the only major Hot 100 entry for Johnny Bond, who fared more successfully on the country music charts. The song was Covered Up twelve years later by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, who remained a popular album and touring act but saw no major chart activity otherwise.
  • Boston cowpunk group Scruffy the Cat were fairly popular on college radio in the late 1980s, and are often considered to be a significant influence on later Alternative Country bands. They only made the Billboard charts once, when their not particularly country-sounding song "Moons of Jupiter" peaked at #23 on the then-new alternative chart in 1988. The band broke up shortly after the song's success.
  • Silver had a #16 Hot 100 hit in 1976 with "Wham Bam" but had no further chart entries. However, most of the members would see success by other means after the band broke up: Keyboardist Brent Mydland later joined The Grateful Dead, while drummer Harry Stinson became a session musician in Country Music. Bassist Tom Leadon (Brother of Eagles co-founder Bernie Leadon) had previously been a member of Tom Petty's pre-fame group Mudcrutch, and rejoined that band when it reformed in 2007. Lead vocalist John Batdorf (son of Country Music singer Earl Scott, also a one-hit wonder) previously had a few minor hits as Batdorf and Rodney.
  • Son Volt had a #10 Mainstream Rock and #25 Modern Rock hit with "Drown" in 1995. which was their only charting single. They've retained a cult following, but are probably best remembered as the other band that formed out of the breakup of vaunted alt-country group Uncle Tupelo, the other being the much better-known and more successful Wilco.
  • The Souther–Hillman–Furay Band, a supergroup consisting of J.D. Souther, Chris Hillman of The Byrds and Richie Furay of Buffalo Springfield and Poco, made it to #27 on the Hot 100 with "Fallin' in Love" in 1974. The band was short-lived, as the three musicians had personality conflicts with one another. They split up just a year after their hit, with the members going back to their other projects.
    • The three artists all became one-hit wonders of their own in 1979. J.D. Souther reached #7 with his own song "You're Only Lonely". His only other major chart hit was providing duet vocals on James Taylor's #11 hit "Her Town Too." Chris Hillman got back together with former Byrds Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark in the creatively named trio McGuinn, Clark, & Hillman, who hit #33 with their single "Don't You Write Her Off". Finally, Richie Furay had a #39 with "I Still Have Dreams", the title track of his third solo album.
  • B. W. Stevenson took "My Maria" to #9 in 1973. The 1996 cover version by country duo Brooks & Dunn would later become the better known version. "My Maria" was Stevenson's followup to his Spring 1973 release "Shambala", which had the rotten luck of coming out at the exact same time as a competing version by the much better-known group Three Dog Night, which made it all the way to #3 while his version stalled at #66.
  • Whiskeytown were an influential band on the Alternative Country genre, but their only chart entry was "Yesterday's News", which reached #35 on the mainstream rock chart in 1998. Lead singer Ryan Adams embarked on a successful solo career after the band broke up two years later.

    Space Rock 
  • Babylon Zoo scored a major hit in 1996 with their first single "Spaceman". It was chosen to accompany a Levi's jeans advert shortly after it was released, which arguably promoted the single more than the jeans: it went to the top of the charts in 23 countries, and their album release, The Boy with the X-Ray Eyes, charted all round the world on the strength of it. By the time their next album was finished, three years later, EMI were no longer prepared to spend significant sums promoting it, and the Zoo's frontman was not prepared to make up the difference on the promo circuit. In the end, the album didn't chart and the band sank without trace. It didn't help that the Levi's advert only contained the remixed first 30 seconds of the song, which led to some electronica and dance music fans unknowingly buying a song that opened with the aforementioned Alternative Dance beat before segueing into a neo-psychedelic space rock song. If anyone on the street remembers the song, it's generally that part they'll remember. It should also be noted that Babylon Zoo did have two other UK top 40 hits besides "Spaceman", the top 20 "Animal Army" and the top 40 "Boy with the X-Ray Eyes". However, neither song charted outside the UK, while Spaceman was a top 5 hit in over 15 countries, most of which it also hit #1.
  • Failure reached #23 on the modern rock chart and #31 on the mainstream rock chart in 1996 with their single "Stuck on You". The band broke up not long after that but reconvened for a critically acclaimed reunion album in 2015, which unfortunately produced no singles. Frontman Ken Andrews went on to become a prolific mixing engineer and session musician, working with artists like Paramore and Tenacious D.
  • Hawkwind are one of the progenitors of the Space Rock genre and had a huge cult following in the UK, but their only successful single was "Silver Machine", a #3 UK hit in 1971. The song was sung by bassist Lemmy Kilmister, who would be kicked out of the band a few years later but went on to much success as the leader of Motörhead. Hawkwind's only other UK Top 40 hit (apart from two reissues of "Silver Machine") was "Urban Guerilla", which made it to #39 in 1973 before being pulled from sale by the band after three weeks due to an IRA bombing in London. Hawkwind were a best-selling album band, however, with several silver and gold albums in the UK.
  • Hum went to #11 on modern rock with 1995's "Stars". Three years later, RCA Records dropped them after their follow-up album bombed, despite critical acclaim.
  • Spacehog reached #32 in the US and #29 in the UK in 1996 with their single "In the Meantime". While the glammy space rock band would have a couple of American rock radio hits after that, they never made the pop Top 40 in either country again.
  • The Tornados were the first British group to send a single to number one on the American charts in 1962 with "Telstar", a composition of the English independent Record Producer Joe Meek. It's one of the first successful space rock singles, and it's their only hit on that chart (they had a couple of further hits on the UK chart in collaboration with Meek). Meek himself was sued for plagiarism by French film composer Jean Ledrut, who claimed it sounded too similar to his composition "La Marche d'Austerlitz" from Austerlitz*. The case was thrown out three weeks after Joe Meek committed suicide in 1967.*

Alternative Title(s): One Hit Wonder Rock Music

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