It's National "One Hit Wonder" Day!

Probably any criteria that might be conjured up to define "one-hit wonder" will result in at least a few anomalies. But the list that has been linked to, https://top40weekly.com/all-one-hit-wonders/, clearly defines "one-hit wonder" as an artist or group having one and only one song released as a single that made the top 40, based apparently on Billboard’s "hot 100" listings. That seems to me to be as good a definition as any other that might be conjured up, and one which makes the listing as objective as possible.

And it appears that "Crazy Mama" was the only J. J. Cale single meeting that criterion.

Regards,
-- Al

Hi Joe,

Looks like Elizabeth's post was deleted.  But here is the link she had provided:

https://top40weekly.com/all-one-hit-wonders/

Regards,
-- Al

Rich, no, neither of those groups were one-hit wonders. The Duprees also did "My Own True Love" and "Have You Heard," among others.

And The Crests, with Johnny Maestro, did "Step By Step," "The Angels Listened In," "Trouble In Paradise," and others. For example, here’s Johnny performing "Step By Step" as a member of The Crests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E284QNyoJug

All of these were solid top-40 hits.

Regards,
-- Al

Many thanks to Elizabeth for posting the link to the comprehensive list of one-hit wonders.  Brings back a lot of memories.

Although I'm mostly a classical music listener, I enjoy listening to a lot of those listed from the late 1950s and the 1960s in my cars on the Fifties on Five and Sixties on Six channels on SiriusXM. 

I was surprised to see Bo Diddley listed as a one-hit wonder, and for "Say Man" rather than for "Bo Diddley."  But sure enough I see in the Wikipedia writeup on him that "Say Man" reached no. 20 on the pop charts, while "Bo Diddley" didn't hit the pop charts at all, although it reached no. 1 on the R&B chart. 

Anyway, while I like many of the vocal recordings on the list I'll single out for mention three oldies that are instrumentals:

"Midnight in Moscow" -- Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen.  (In addition to liking the music this sounds remarkably good on my main system, played from a commercial CD compilation of various instrumentals of the time).

"Harlem Nocturne" -- The Viscounts.

"Love is Blue" -- Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra.

Regards,
-- Al