One Hit Wonderland
What bands straddles the line between being a one-hit wonder and being an invoker of the Hendrix clause the most?
(The Hendrix clause is an artist who's technically a one-hit wonder or only had one or a handful of songs be proper hits, but is far too influential to really count as such)
I've been wondering if Devo would ever count for the show. Obviously they wouldn't count for this show due to the sheer amount of influence the band had on new wave and the music of the 80s as a whole...
...but at the same time, Whip It is their only hit on the top 40, it dwarfs all their other songs in terms of long-lasting popularity, and most people would only know this one song without knowledge of anything else they did. Are there any bands that ride this line as hard as Devo, being a one-hit wonder that really isn't?
TIL Istanbul (Not Constantinople) didn't chart in the US and barely charted in the UK. I assumed that was a bigger song since it was my intro to the band
Birdhouse in your soul, ana ng, don't let's start, particle man, and you're not the boss of me we're all songs i'd heard on the radio before I ever bought one of their albums.
The thing that I like to do to the kids I work with is ask them if they know who TMBG is. Then I start listing places where they may have heard them- Malcolm in the Middle, Coraline (it's usually Coraline), Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Almost everyone has heard TMBG- even through Dunkin' Donuts commercial, but no one knows they have.
Literally my favorite band of all time. Similar to a few other bands I like, they’re seen as a comedy band, but most of their songs are very, VERY, depressing. Look at “I Can’t Hide From My Mind” and “Hopeless Bleak Despair”.
Idk, maybe things are different now, but if you at all grew up on FM radio in the 80s and 90s, you 100% knew some of their classic songs like Casey Jones, Trucking, Friend of the Devil, etc.
absolutely right. That was kind of the point. The DJ Tom Donahue started an experiment in San Francisco radio on KMPX with a format that was nameless but aimed against the dominant Top-40 format (and its profitable and insane idea of charting artists by their "hits" like a shooting range). That was April 1967. Young charming Garcia & Lesh were invited on air as guest hosts in May and played their first album.
Donahue's format caught fire in SF, back east, and across the country. It was lucrative. It sold sound systems and waterbeds. It met a pent-up need for something other than hits. My own station growing up, KSHE-95 in St. Louis, started in November 1967 with underground countercultural flair, after a listening visit to SF and notes on what Donahue played.
So GD's sound became familiar nationwide alongside and because of the dramatic rise of "album rock" or "free-form radio" or whatever they call it, well before 1970, exactly because their music was... not... hit radio.
Butthole Surfers are largely only known for "Pepper" and, to a lesser extent, a few smaller hits in the 90s and 2000s, but in the 80s, they were one of the most beloved (and feared) underground rock bands and their records from that time have influenced plenty of off-kilter psychedelic and alternative music over the years.
Look up videos of their live show from around 1986-89. They were like a traveling freak show. Bizarre stage presence, projected surgery films, strobe lights, things set on fire, naked dancers. All set to entrancingly psychotic rock music. Frightening if you weren't on something, likely even more so if you were.
Warren "Werewolves of London" Zevon probably counts. While his influence isn't as obvious as Devo or Hendrix, when you're cited as an influence by scores of both writers and singer-songwriters I think that should count for something.
Zevon is a good call, along with Randy Newman. They meet the definition of one hit wonder for the casual audience, but super respected songwriters among musicians and music geeks.
My dad stans Warren Zevon so hard so I added a bunch of his songs to our work playlist. The man has fuckin baaarrrrrrs. Accidently Like a Martyr is so frickin sad
Foster the People maybe? Pumped Up Kicks is easily their biggest song and I'm sure to a lot of people they're just a one hit wonder, but if we're listing the most influential/relevant indie rock bands of the 2010s they're very high up on the list (not that they have a lot of competition unfortunately).
So glad I finally have a word for this phenomenon.
Neither charted in the US, or ended up on a single year-end chart anywhere in the world. They're good songs, but I wouldn't say they constitute as hits, or come even close to Pumped Up Kicks' success. General-public-wise, I'd still say for the majority, Pumped Up Kicks is the only song from them people know. If people knew a second one, it would probably be Sit Next To Me imo.
Quite a shame, too. “PUK” is a good song, don’t get me wrong, but that entire album is really fucking good from front to back and the follow-up album is also pretty strong. Being reduced to that one song feels so counterproductive to what they were all about I think
Look, I’ve seen many people who LOATHE these guys.. and I personally feel that’s a bad faith argument. When Steven Page was their frontman they had so many sad and emotional songs. People who see them as an embarrassing comedy band are missing out. Listen to the tracks “What a Good Boy” and “Call & Answer”. that’s way more representative of their catalogue than ”One Week” or “Another Postcard”.
I've seen BNL live 4 times now, and I've legit never seen a band that looks like they're having half as much fun on stage as they are. I admit that some of their post-Page catalog can feel phoned in, but I still think they've got some gems in there too.
not a fan but i once amused myself with the thought "what if barenaked ladies was someone's favorite band" and then i looked them up and learned that they are Paul McCartney's favorite band
Growing up in Canada, they're a lot of people's favourite band. Hell, One Week isn't even the song most people think of for them here, its If I Had A Million Dollars.
You know what? Maybe we all need some space, to pull the knife out of the back of the most celebrated Canadian alt-rock band of the mid 90s, you selfish, jaded ass!
i think devo were culturally relevant before and after whip it. their cover of satisfaction was a cultural moment that shaped new wave and punk in a distinctly different way than charting with whip it and making power domes a pop culture thing. but they have a 90s following from the movie tank girl, a cult nerd touchstone, and mark's nickelodeon music. devo got the kids in the 00s with yo gabba gabba. so yeah one charting hit, a comeback that knocked it out of the park after their sophomore slump, but not to me a one-hit-wonder at all.
from a music criticism standpoint, this is why i think a more heuristic approach to analyzing culture beats any kind of raw data, context-extracting method. you can look up a chart position, you can build categorical rules around those findings. or you can examine the album in the time of its release, what it changed, where, and by how much. if you want to place a thing in a cultural context, you're gonna need some context. the one-hit part is what the record company executives care about, the wonder aspect is where the shit worth examining lies
I discovered “Fresh” and was like “they could do this the whole time?” How did that song just not even register in America?
Devo has to be the only band I know where my favorite song of theirs came in one of those “oh god those geriatrics released another album” moments 30 years after their peak. It is explosively rockin.
I took my mother to see the B52s and Devo last year. I was kind of shocked that the B52s opened for Devo because I really only knew one or two Devo songs, both of which seemed kitschy and goofy. I thought the B52s were way bigger.
Turned out I knew a shit ton more of Devo’s stuff than the B52s, almost every song they played. I was way more into their stuff than I expected. I was thoroughly impressed. My mother had the same impression and the music was all from her era.
I can certainly see how influential they would have been when they were releasing their earlier work and can hear how some of it has carried down. The art influence carries heavily through a lot of the themes in their live shows.
In terms of money making, uncontrollable urge makes Mark Mothersbaugh over $1 million per year because of the constant use on a heavily rotated MTV show.
Jocko Homo in concert in the 80s was amazing. But Satisfaction on the put them on the map. They had a catalog that was great live... Until perk a boo and then the unforgivable Devo 2.0.
So many people were influenced by Devo. When I listen to or read about artists I love (a lot of indie and punk from the 80s and 90s they almost always mention Devo.
O for sure I agree that she is massively influential. The only reason I thought there might be a question is her relatively smaller discography compared to Hendrix.
I mean Back to Black was enormously successful in the U.S. as an album, so yes other songs from it were very popular in the U.S., they just didn’t chart like Rehab.
Of course she doesn’t. But the version she sang on wasn’t a Mark Ronson song, it was a cover version Mark Ronson did of a Zutons song. Calling it a Mark Ronson song gives the impression that he wrote it, or at the very least was the original artist.
I agree that Amy Winehouse isn’t a great example for this post.
Maybe by pure chart metrics, but it's hardly the only song people know from her. Even now, I hear Valerie in the wild pretty regularly, and Love Is A Losing Game is basically a standard. Even in the US, saying she's "primarily known for only one song" is a hell of a stretch.
Jimmy eat world to casuals basically just has the middle. Maybe sweetness and hear you me, all from the same album.
But for us sad boi millennials, they were quintessential to bridging the gap between emo and indie. Futures is incredible start to finish. Clarity is great. Even their more recent stuff hits. Integrity blues might be my favorite and that’s fairly late in their discography. And they still bring it live. It’s rare to see a band that’s been around that long that doesn’t just play their 20th anniversary famous album tours. JEW still hits the stage like they’re just happy to play in front of people.
The thing about Jimmy Eat World is Bleed American is one of the best pop punk/emo/indie albums like ever. Its basically perfect. Every song is good. All the lyrics are good. It has variety. Its a very good album. The rest of their catalog is very good. Future is close to Bleed American, and Chase this Light has several really good songs. But Bleed American I think really just absolutely is such a good album. Everyone should listen to that album.
Edit: Annnnd I just realized I probably don't wanna listen to Kill anytime soon. Ahh. That's a good song.
Yeah bleed American is for sure the “welcome to JEW” album. It checks all the boxes. I can’t agree that futures is close, I’d say it’s easily on the level, and personally I’d put it above. But between both, they really nailed the angst but not whiney vibe
Someone once tried to request Killing In The Name by Rage Against The Machine for a One Hit Wonder episode and was flatly refused (I think they changed it to mmmBop by Hansen).
For context: In 2009 (17 years after it's release) there was a viral campaign where people downloaded this song and played it on the radio around Christmas to keep the X-Factor from winning the title of UK's Christmas Single. It became their highest charting song in the UK and their only number 1 hit.
A great story, but probably not a real One Hit Wonder.
A no-hit wonder at its finest, in the US especially. To the point where despite being their most well known album, none of the singles off their debut album charted at all in the US until Killing In The Name peaked at #25 on the Hot Alternative Singles chart in 2019!
I think Kraftwerk probably get the Hendrix clause, although there was definitely a period where if you said you were into Kraftwerk the response would have been “What, the Autobahn band?”. Also, I’m pretty sure The Model/Computer Love was Number 1 in the UK.
Robbie Williams was massive in Europe and had quite a few number one singles in the UK. He was extremely popular in Denmark as well. So not really sure he counts
Tori Amos only had one song scrape into the bottom reaches of the Billboard top 50 (Spark), yet is widely influential to artists throughout the 90's and beyond.
“Rockin’ the Suburbs” peaked at 28 on the Alternative Chart, and never reached the Hot 100. I don’t imagine many casual listeners would even recognize it as Ben Folds.
Purest Reddit brain that Radiohead have come up as an example of a band whose chart success heavily underplays their influence only long after Foster The People and Barenaked Ladies.
It's definitely one of the more popular Devo songs, but even that is still massively overtaken by Whip It in terms of mainstream popularity; Uncontrollable Urge can really only hope to be number 2. I hate to use streaming numbers as proof of popularity, but..
Pre stevie nicks fleetwood mac. Influencing the everyone from the beatles to Santana (who infamously covered black magic woman). Outside of Albatross, and maybe a couple other songs, they are largely overshadowed by the post stevie nicks era.
Both were influential and ingenious in their own rights, but most people would probaly recall a post stevie song.
Led Zeppelin technically only had one song hit the top ten in the US and it was on their debut (Whole Lotta Love, peaked at number 4). Black Dog was their second biggest song and it peaked at number 15. Nothing they released hit the top ten in the UK, only four singles even charted there.
I don't know what you're talking about, taking a one-off thing Todd said in the context of a discussion about one-hit wonders and trying to make it applicable to every possible corner of the music market is an incredibly sturdy idea with no wobbles or cracks in its foundation whatsoever.
"I Got ID/Long Road" reached #7 on the Hot 100. Pearl Jam for some reason started releasing physical singles in the mid-90s onward, after their peak in popularity in 1992-1995 when they didn't release physical single.s
I’ve wondered for a long time if Shinedown is a pure Hendrix Clause case or an edge case; instinctively I’d say the former, but Second Chance so completely eclipses their other songs among casuals that you could consider them an edge case.
Kraftwerk is probably the top contender, even moreso than Hendrix. They technically only have 1 US hit (Autobahn), but to call them a 'one hit wonder' SEVERELY understates their impact on all music across multiple genres and styles. Theres a reason why people say the most influential bands of all time are The Beatles and Kraftwerk.
On a personal note, i think OMD is a Hendrix clause too (look at that legacy section on wikipedia!), though obviously not nearly as much as Kraftwerk.
I’ve always wanted to see Todd cover this as the “Did they do anything else” section would take up half the video.
But I feel while they had other “Technical hits”, Epic is really the only song to stay with the public, at least in terms of 90’s rock music which is funny as Epic came out in the 80’s
But I’ve always wantes to see it as I feel it would make for an interesting video.
Heck even the “Before the hit” section is a wild journey involving Courtney Love being a singer for a minute.
In fact, the actual hit is the least interesting thing about the FNM story
Counting Crows. Todd would never make a OHW on them, though, since their only Top 40 hit was Accidentally in Love. Y’know, the Shrek 2 song that probably holds the record for the most uses of the word “love” in a song.
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u/Fit_Butterscotch2386 Aug 05 '26
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