Do These '80s One-Hit Wonders Deserve Their Bad Rap?
Ugh, the dreaded “one-hit wonder” designation. In one sense, it’s worth remembering that hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of musicians have tried going pro in pop music, to no avail. Whether it’s becoming a professional singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, instrumentalist, producer, engineer, dancer, choreographer, et cetera—it’s just darn hard to pay your bills being any kind of artist, let alone a music-related one.
So if a music artist at least gets a taste of success—that one fleeting-but-glorious run when a song was released as a single and pierced through the public’s consciousness—one would hope they’d have some pride in that and recognize that, as unlucky as they ended up being, they were still luckier than most. Future music fans talking about a song of yours decades after you released it is certainly better than nothing, right?
Or is it? Ultimately, it probably depends on the person who’s the artist. Some one-hit wonders feel lucky, others feel victimized. Some are thankful they were able to experience living high on the hog for a few months, and some wish they’d never had a hit song at all if their success was only going to be one-and-done.
This is all purely speculative, of course, but one might surmise that the folks who scored only one hit, but are content with the fifteen minutes of fame that hit provided them, were never destined to be lifelong career artists in the first place. Meanwhile, the musicians who endured the hundreds upon hundreds of hours of mental and emotional strain necessary to create, release, and promote their music, only to see brief success and be labeled a “one-hit wonder,” are likely still pretty devastated about it.
And it’s probably especially heartbreaking when you’d been good enough, and had enough quality material to avoid being a one-hit wonder, but bad luck or a poor effort from your team (or both) got in the way. Or perhaps even worse, you literally were not a one-hit wonder, but are thought of as such because your “one hit” was big enough to overshadow all of your subsequent accomplishments.
Whatever the circumstances, if an artist is a 1980s one-hit wonder, that adds another relevant element to the picture. Because there likely has not been a decade of popular music more crammed with artists who had but one hit. It was a decade that saw new technologies like synthesizers and electronic drum machines provide much excitement, innovation, and experimentation. It also ensured that many new artists would unfortunately bestow upon the world but one lonely, very “Eighties” hit single.
The very best of those have been wrangled together on Amazon Music’s totally radical and supremely gnarly (“gnarly” being a good thing) Rediscover the ‘80s: One-Hit Wonders playlist. Let’s examine a handful of these entries—smash radio and MTV hits, all—and mull over whether they have been properly assigned the one-hit wonder moniker or have been unjustly appointed as such.
Soft Cell
“Tainted Love” (1981)
From the debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
The New Wave and proto-techno duo Soft Cell were absolutely, without any doubt, 100 percent one-hit wonders—in North America. “Tainted Love,” a synthy remake of “Northern soul” singer Gloria Jones’s 1965 version, was a big hit everywhere in the world, achieving Number 1 status throughout Europe and Canada and making it to Number 8 on America’s Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. And that’s where the story ends in Canada and the U.S.
For the next few years after “Tainted Love,” however, Soft Cell very much endured in Britain and a good number of neighboring countries. They had a knack for getting early ‘80s British kids to the dance clubs, and therefore “Tainted Love” was the first of five singles in a row to go Top 5 in England. The debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret and its follow-up full-length of new material, The Art of Falling Apart, were both Top 5 sellers in the UK, while a remix album that was released in England between those two LPs went to Number 6 on the UK albums chart.
So were Soft Cell a one-hit wonder? Depends which side of the pond the listener found themselves in 1981.
Thomas Dolby
“She Blinded Me with Science” (1982)
From the debut album The Golden Age of Wireless
For someone who is most certainly a one-hit wonder in the literal sense, Thomas Dolby nonetheless commands industry-wide respect and is thought of as an illustrious innovator behind the synthesizer and with other music-centric technology.
But before gaining that acclaim, he released perhaps the most wonderfully weird and idiosyncratic epic of a three-and-a-half-minute-long pop single ever. “She Blinded Me with Science” made excellent use of all the futuristic tech components of the day, particularly zeroing in on various synthesizer sounds. Throughout the song, a voice appearing to be that of an eccentric scientist recites the song title at various levels of astonishment and faux horror. Quirky sound effects distort the backing vocal that spars back and forth with the lead. And Dolby spins the tale of a science nerd breaking down and allowing an alluring lady to distract him from his “tubes and wires,” “careful notes,“ and “antiquated notions.”
After “Science” secured his place in pop music history as an artist, Dolby went on to do high-profile session and touring work with acts from David Bowie and Thompson Twins to Foreigner and Def Leppard. He also composed for major film and video game releases, and became a sought-after expert consultant in virtual reality.
Modern English
“I Melt with You” (1982)
From the band’s sophomore album After the Snow
There’s something about Modern English and their solitary radio hit, “I Melt with You,” that has aged well over the years and decades since its 1982 release. Singer Robbie Grey’s understated, confident vocal on the track somehow makes it sound as if this couldn’t possibly have been the band’s first hit (it was) and certainly could not have been their last (it was). The simple, plaintive guitar lines and synth hooks are as catchy as the vocal melody. And the lyrical message is straightforward, accessible, and most importantly, über-romantic: “I’ll stop the world and melt with you??” Awwwww! (Never mind that the melting the young lovers in question are doing is due to, per Grey, an atomic bomb drop.)
“I Melt with You” didn’t even really accomplish that much melting down of the charts. It went to Number 7 on the American Mainstream Rock chart but only reached the back quarter of the Billboard Hot 100. But the wistful romanticism that emanated from the track made it perfect for placements in teen movies through the decades, from 1983’s Valley Girl to 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie. Covers of the tune also made their way onto the soundtracks of movies like 50 First Dates (Jason Mraz) and Disney’s Sky High (Bowling for Soup).
So despite just a number 78 showing on the pop charts, “I Melt with You” feels like it inhabits a much bigger space in the annals of both pop music and pop culture in general.
Tommy Tutone
“867-5309/Jenny” (1981)
From the sophomore album Tommy Tutone 2
Sticklers for details (and probably the band themselves) would like listeners to know that “867-5309” was Tommy Tutone’s second Top 40 hit. The year before, the lead single off the band’s self-titled debut album, “Angel Say No,” made a respectable showing at Number 38 on the Billboard Hot 100. And hey, it’s a nice song. But the single they released the following year hit the sweet spot between power-pop, New Wave, and classic rock and became a decade-defining sensation.
The lyrical storyline’s a tad creepy, truth be told. It chronicles a self-described “disturbed” individual pinning all his romantic hopes on Jenny, whose number he’s acquired off the bathroom wall of the local pub. Not as stealthy of a stalker song as, say, Sting’s Number 1 smash “Every Breath You Take” that the Police would release a few years later. But Tommy Tutone weren’t going for anything that brooding or laid-back. “Jenny” was straight-up guitar-driven melodic rock ‘n’ roll number that featured an absolutely killer, in-your-face chorus refrain. When Tutone singer Tommy Heath laid into “8, 6, 7, 5, 3 oh niii-ee-iiine,” good luck keeping from shouting right along with him.
It didn’t sound that far off from something Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers or Elvis Costello might have done early in their careers. Unfortunately, the success of “Jenny” would have to suffice for the band. But do try to remember: Tommy Tutone was a two-hit wonder, okay?
Rick Springfield
“Jessie’s Girl” (1981)
From the album Working Class Dog
All right, it’s time to put the proverbial foot down on this one. Maybe Rick Springfield is a one-hit wonder as an actor (although he did far more on-screen work than his starring role on the American soap opera General Hospital, too), but as a musician? No way!
This is a classic case of an all-time mega-hit outshining an artist’s subsequent accomplishments. Sure, “Jessie’s Girl” was a surprise sensation and slowly but surely became a Number 1 pop hit in America and Springfield’s native Australia. But that classic song wasn’t even the only big hit on Springfield’s fourth album, Working Class Dog! The one song on the album not written by Springfield, the Sammy Hagar composition “I’ve Done Everything for You,” also cracked the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10.
And then did Springfield sink into obscurity? Heck, no! He released arguably even better tunes that also made their way onto the singles charts. While not quite as successful as Springfield’s massive power-pop chart-topper (and what could be? “Jessie’s Girl” is still a phenomenon!), “Don’t Talk to Strangers” from 1982’s Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet went to Number 2 in the U.S., “Affair of the Heart” from 1983’s Living in Oz went Top 10, and “Love Somebody” from 1984’s Hard to Hold reached the Top 5. The epic video for “Bop ‘til You Drop” from the latter album was also a giant hit on MTV, and Springfield starred in a feature film, also called Hard to Hold, in 1984 as well.
Then, yes, things died down and the hits dried up. But Springfield is still a concert draw, and with all those hits (hits, plural!) to his name, it’s awfully difficult to justify calling him a one-hit wonder.
Rockwell
“Somebody’s Watching Me” (1984)
From the debut album Somebody’s Watching Me
Kennedy William Gordy took on the stage name Rockwell and secured his first record deal in secret precisely because he didn’t want future writeups to start off like this one, by divulging that he’s the son of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy. He also likely did not want future articles to confirm his status as a one-hit wonder, which, by definition, he is.
But while “Somebody’s Watching Me” did benefit from his lifelong friends Michael and Jermaine Jackson singing on it, Rockwell is credited as the sole songwriter of a track that went all the way to Number 2 on the pop charts. In fact, it only missed the top slot because of bad timing; two of the biggest hits of the decade, Van Halen’s “Jump” and Kenny Loggins’s “Footloose,” reached their zeniths at the same time as “Somebody’s Watching Me.” And that ain’t nothin’!
Matthew Wilder
“Break My Stride” (1983)
From the debut album I Don’t Speak the Language
It’s a lot easier to freely declare someone a bona fide one-hit wonder when their music career outside of that as a performing artist went so well. Because let’s face facts: listeners hopefully remember the track “Break My Stride,” because it’s a maddeningly catchy pop song more than worthy of its Top 5 pop chart status back in late 1983. But who remembers it was an artist named Matthew Wilder who sang it?
So yes, one-hit wonder he is. No doubt. But (did someone say “no doubt?”) Wilder went on to great success as a producer, helming No Doubt’s diamond-selling ska-pop masterpiece Tragic Kingdom along with successful releases by Hannah Montana (a.k.a. Miley Cyrus), Christina Aguilera, and Kelly Clarkson. He also received an Oscar nomination for his work on the Disney favorite Mulan, for which he co-wrote the score with legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith.
And that’s just a sampling of his post-”Stride” credits. A guy could fare worse than having a huge hit (albeit just the one hit) lead to a rewarding career behind the scenes in the big bad music industry!
The Buggles
“Video Killed the Radio Star” (1979)
From the debut album The Age of Plastic
There is no single entity that is more identified with the decade of the 1980s than the music video channel MTV, which shook the pop world to its core starting in the summer of 1981. And the first-ever video shown on the new network? The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.”
But “Radio Star” was a two-year-old single by the time it made its way into the living rooms of American teens across the country at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981. By that point, the two primary members of the band, bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes, had already abandoned the Buggles to join prog-rock royals Yes, who then disbanded themselves a few months before MTV debuted. So it was a bit of a surprise for their little futuristic-sounding New Wave single from the Seventies to have kicked off what would become the single-most dominant force of the ‘80s in determining artists’ fates.
Horn and Downes recorded more music as the Buggles after their video unexpectedly caught fire, but alas, the group’s destiny was to simply make history as the first band to be shown on MTV. Horn, though, went on to become a hugely consequential producer, helming ‘80s landmark tunes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (“Relax”), Godley & Creme (“Cry”), and the all-star British assemblage for famine relief, Band Aid "(“Do They Know It’s Christmas?”). He also served as producer for much of Seal’s catalog, including the 1994 smash “Kiss from a Rose.” For his part, Downes went on to co-found the hit progressive rock group Asia (“Heat of the Moment”).
John Waite
“Missing You” (1984)
From his sophomore solo album No Brakes
Here’s a multi-layered conundrum: is an artist a proper one-hit wonder if he was in a successful band before his one hit under his own name? How about if he went on to join another band after that solo hit that also had one hit? And perhaps it should also be mentioned: both hits in question were Number 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. So, not just any old hits.
Waite sang lead for the Babys from 1975 to 1981, scoring two hits that each went to Number 13 on the U.S. pop chart. Then he embarked on a solo career, and “Missing You” happened. It’s a tune that’s held up extremely well over the years; it’s known to be a song from the ‘80s, but one that doesn’t sound dated. Instead of relying on the new tech of the day, its production is sparse. Above all else, it’s just a very well-written, and very cool track.
Then what does Waite do after releasing a couple more solo albums to only moderate success? He grows his hair long and recreates himself as lead singer of the glam rock supergroup Bad English. The band’s common link was keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who was in the Babys with Waite but went on to greater fame as Journey’s keys player. Bad English, then, were rounded out by Journey’s Neil Schon (guitar) and Deen Castronovo (drums), with former Baby Ricky Phillips on bass.
Not only did the power ballad “When I See You Smile” rule the American pop chart for a time in 1989, but Bad English followed it up with a Top 5 U.S. pop hit in “Price of Love.” So while “John Waite” may be a one-hit wonder, John Waite most certainly is not.
‘Til Tuesday
“Voices Carry” (1985)
From their debut album Voices Carry
The story of ‘Til Tuesday’s Aimee Mann resembles that of Waite’s a bit, at least in terms of her status as a hitmaker. The New Wave-y band she fronted in the mid-’80s did indeed score with just a single hit song. “Voices Carry” might be one of the better songs of that time period, though, and there aren’t many singer-songwriters more respected by critics and fans alike than Mann.
It was Mann’s intensely emotional performance on “Voices Carry,” both on record and in the unforgettable video that became an award-winning MTV mainstay, that catapulted ‘Til Tuesday to the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10. Listeners could tell how personal the lyrics were for Mann by the way she sang them practically through gritted teeth. When she left the band for a solo career, that kind of authenticity in her art never wavered.
Mann gained critical acclaim as a singer-songwriter immediately upon releasing her debut solo album, 1993’s Whatever. But it was her collaboration with filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson on the soundtrack to his film Magnolia that garnered her a Grammy and an Oscar nomination and solidified her status as a seminal artist who must definitely not be defined by any pop success she may have had back in 1985. (Although, again, “Voices Carry” has to be one of the best songs of the entire decade.)
A-ha
“Take on Me” (1984)
From the debut album Hunting High and Low
The Norwegian threesome of Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket, and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, better-known as A-ha, could very well be the most successful one-hit wonders in pop music history. Similar to the story of Soft Cell who topped off this list, A-ha only enjoyed massive success in America with one song: the MTV-fueled phenomenon “Take on Me.” But they continued to appear on the pop charts consistently in their home country and throughout the rest of Europe until they finally went on hiatus in 1994.
A-ha especially endured in Norway, where “Take on Me” was the first of nine Top 10 singles in a row. But it must be said (and said again) what a glorious single “Take on Me” was, and is. The way the chorus vocal starts low on the first line, climbs higher on the second, and then reaches the falsetto stratosphere on lines three and four? Simply sublime. That performance (“I’ll beeee gone, in a DAYEEEEEE”) by singer Harket solidified the tune’s place in the pop pantheon and ensured it would remain known and loved across generations.
So think of them as a relic of the mid-1980s who are long past their prime if you will. A-ha are no doubt content to allow music fans elsewhere in the world to call them one-hit wonders while they continue to headline European arenas, enjoy their being named Knights of the 1st Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, and relish going down in history as their homeland’s biggest band ever.
Ugh, the dreaded “one-hit wonder” designation. In one sense, it’s worth remembering that hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of musicians have tried going pro in pop music, to no avail. Whether it’s becoming a professional singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, instrumentalist, producer, engineer, dancer, choreographer, et cetera—it’s just darn hard to pay your bills being any kind of artist, let alone a music-related one.
So if a music artist at least gets a taste of success—that one fleeting-but-glorious run when a song was released as a single and pierced through the public’s consciousness—one would hope they’d have some pride in that and recognize that, as unlucky as they ended up being, they were still luckier than most. Future music fans talking about a song of yours decades after you released it is certainly better than nothing, right?
Or is it? Ultimately, it probably depends on the person who’s the artist. Some one-hit wonders feel lucky, others feel victimized. Some are thankful they were able to experience living high on the hog for a few months, and some wish they’d never had a hit song at all if their success was only going to be one-and-done.
This is all purely speculative, of course, but one might surmise that the folks who scored only one hit, but are content with the fifteen minutes of fame that hit provided them, were never destined to be lifelong career artists in the first place. Meanwhile, the musicians who endured the hundreds upon hundreds of hours of mental and emotional strain necessary to create, release, and promote their music, only to see brief success and be labeled a “one-hit wonder,” are likely still pretty devastated about it.
And it’s probably especially heartbreaking when you’d been good enough, and had enough quality material to avoid being a one-hit wonder, but bad luck or a poor effort from your team (or both) got in the way. Or perhaps even worse, you literally were not a one-hit wonder, but are thought of as such because your “one hit” was big enough to overshadow all of your subsequent accomplishments.
Whatever the circumstances, if an artist is a 1980s one-hit wonder, that adds another relevant element to the picture. Because there likely has not been a decade of popular music more crammed with artists who had but one hit. It was a decade that saw new technologies like synthesizers and electronic drum machines provide much excitement, innovation, and experimentation. It also ensured that many new artists would unfortunately bestow upon the world but one lonely, very “Eighties” hit single.
The very best of those have been wrangled together on Amazon Music’s totally radical and supremely gnarly (“gnarly” being a good thing) Rediscover the ‘80s: One-Hit Wonders playlist. Let’s examine a handful of these entries—smash radio and MTV hits, all—and mull over whether they have been properly assigned the one-hit wonder moniker or have been unjustly appointed as such.
Soft Cell
“Tainted Love” (1981)
From the debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
The New Wave and proto-techno duo Soft Cell were absolutely, without any doubt, 100 percent one-hit wonders—in North America. “Tainted Love,” a synthy remake of “Northern soul” singer Gloria Jones’s 1965 version, was a big hit everywhere in the world, achieving Number 1 status throughout Europe and Canada and making it to Number 8 on America’s Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. And that’s where the story ends in Canada and the U.S.
For the next few years after “Tainted Love,” however, Soft Cell very much endured in Britain and a good number of neighboring countries. They had a knack for getting early ‘80s British kids to the dance clubs, and therefore “Tainted Love” was the first of five singles in a row to go Top 5 in England. The debut album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret and its follow-up full-length of new material, The Art of Falling Apart, were both Top 5 sellers in the UK, while a remix album that was released in England between those two LPs went to Number 6 on the UK albums chart.
So were Soft Cell a one-hit wonder? Depends which side of the pond the listener found themselves in 1981.
Thomas Dolby
“She Blinded Me with Science” (1982)
From the debut album The Golden Age of Wireless
For someone who is most certainly a one-hit wonder in the literal sense, Thomas Dolby nonetheless commands industry-wide respect and is thought of as an illustrious innovator behind the synthesizer and with other music-centric technology.
But before gaining that acclaim, he released perhaps the most wonderfully weird and idiosyncratic epic of a three-and-a-half-minute-long pop single ever. “She Blinded Me with Science” made excellent use of all the futuristic tech components of the day, particularly zeroing in on various synthesizer sounds. Throughout the song, a voice appearing to be that of an eccentric scientist recites the song title at various levels of astonishment and faux horror. Quirky sound effects distort the backing vocal that spars back and forth with the lead. And Dolby spins the tale of a science nerd breaking down and allowing an alluring lady to distract him from his “tubes and wires,” “careful notes,“ and “antiquated notions.”
After “Science” secured his place in pop music history as an artist, Dolby went on to do high-profile session and touring work with acts from David Bowie and Thompson Twins to Foreigner and Def Leppard. He also composed for major film and video game releases, and became a sought-after expert consultant in virtual reality.
Modern English
“I Melt with You” (1982)
From the band’s sophomore album After the Snow
There’s something about Modern English and their solitary radio hit, “I Melt with You,” that has aged well over the years and decades since its 1982 release. Singer Robbie Grey’s understated, confident vocal on the track somehow makes it sound as if this couldn’t possibly have been the band’s first hit (it was) and certainly could not have been their last (it was). The simple, plaintive guitar lines and synth hooks are as catchy as the vocal melody. And the lyrical message is straightforward, accessible, and most importantly, über-romantic: “I’ll stop the world and melt with you??” Awwwww! (Never mind that the melting the young lovers in question are doing is due to, per Grey, an atomic bomb drop.)
“I Melt with You” didn’t even really accomplish that much melting down of the charts. It went to Number 7 on the American Mainstream Rock chart but only reached the back quarter of the Billboard Hot 100. But the wistful romanticism that emanated from the track made it perfect for placements in teen movies through the decades, from 1983’s Valley Girl to 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie. Covers of the tune also made their way onto the soundtracks of movies like 50 First Dates (Jason Mraz) and Disney’s Sky High (Bowling for Soup).
So despite just a number 78 showing on the pop charts, “I Melt with You” feels like it inhabits a much bigger space in the annals of both pop music and pop culture in general.
Tommy Tutone
“867-5309/Jenny” (1981)
From the sophomore album Tommy Tutone 2
Sticklers for details (and probably the band themselves) would like listeners to know that “867-5309” was Tommy Tutone’s second Top 40 hit. The year before, the lead single off the band’s self-titled debut album, “Angel Say No,” made a respectable showing at Number 38 on the Billboard Hot 100. And hey, it’s a nice song. But the single they released the following year hit the sweet spot between power-pop, New Wave, and classic rock and became a decade-defining sensation.
The lyrical storyline’s a tad creepy, truth be told. It chronicles a self-described “disturbed” individual pinning all his romantic hopes on Jenny, whose number he’s acquired off the bathroom wall of the local pub. Not as stealthy of a stalker song as, say, Sting’s Number 1 smash “Every Breath You Take” that the Police would release a few years later. But Tommy Tutone weren’t going for anything that brooding or laid-back. “Jenny” was straight-up guitar-driven melodic rock ‘n’ roll number that featured an absolutely killer, in-your-face chorus refrain. When Tutone singer Tommy Heath laid into “8, 6, 7, 5, 3 oh niii-ee-iiine,” good luck keeping from shouting right along with him.
It didn’t sound that far off from something Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers or Elvis Costello might have done early in their careers. Unfortunately, the success of “Jenny” would have to suffice for the band. But do try to remember: Tommy Tutone was a two-hit wonder, okay?
Rick Springfield
“Jessie’s Girl” (1981)
From the album Working Class Dog
All right, it’s time to put the proverbial foot down on this one. Maybe Rick Springfield is a one-hit wonder as an actor (although he did far more on-screen work than his starring role on the American soap opera General Hospital, too), but as a musician? No way!
This is a classic case of an all-time mega-hit outshining an artist’s subsequent accomplishments. Sure, “Jessie’s Girl” was a surprise sensation and slowly but surely became a Number 1 pop hit in America and Springfield’s native Australia. But that classic song wasn’t even the only big hit on Springfield’s fourth album, Working Class Dog! The one song on the album not written by Springfield, the Sammy Hagar composition “I’ve Done Everything for You,” also cracked the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10.
And then did Springfield sink into obscurity? Heck, no! He released arguably even better tunes that also made their way onto the singles charts. While not quite as successful as Springfield’s massive power-pop chart-topper (and what could be? “Jessie’s Girl” is still a phenomenon!), “Don’t Talk to Strangers” from 1982’s Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet went to Number 2 in the U.S., “Affair of the Heart” from 1983’s Living in Oz went Top 10, and “Love Somebody” from 1984’s Hard to Hold reached the Top 5. The epic video for “Bop ‘til You Drop” from the latter album was also a giant hit on MTV, and Springfield starred in a feature film, also called Hard to Hold, in 1984 as well.
Then, yes, things died down and the hits dried up. But Springfield is still a concert draw, and with all those hits (hits, plural!) to his name, it’s awfully difficult to justify calling him a one-hit wonder.
Rockwell
“Somebody’s Watching Me” (1984)
From the debut album Somebody’s Watching Me
Kennedy William Gordy took on the stage name Rockwell and secured his first record deal in secret precisely because he didn’t want future writeups to start off like this one, by divulging that he’s the son of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy. He also likely did not want future articles to confirm his status as a one-hit wonder, which, by definition, he is.
But while “Somebody’s Watching Me” did benefit from his lifelong friends Michael and Jermaine Jackson singing on it, Rockwell is credited as the sole songwriter of a track that went all the way to Number 2 on the pop charts. In fact, it only missed the top slot because of bad timing; two of the biggest hits of the decade, Van Halen’s “Jump” and Kenny Loggins’s “Footloose,” reached their zeniths at the same time as “Somebody’s Watching Me.” And that ain’t nothin’!
Matthew Wilder
“Break My Stride” (1983)
From the debut album I Don’t Speak the Language
It’s a lot easier to freely declare someone a bona fide one-hit wonder when their music career outside of that as a performing artist went so well. Because let’s face facts: listeners hopefully remember the track “Break My Stride,” because it’s a maddeningly catchy pop song more than worthy of its Top 5 pop chart status back in late 1983. But who remembers it was an artist named Matthew Wilder who sang it?
So yes, one-hit wonder he is. No doubt. But (did someone say “no doubt?”) Wilder went on to great success as a producer, helming No Doubt’s diamond-selling ska-pop masterpiece Tragic Kingdom along with successful releases by Hannah Montana (a.k.a. Miley Cyrus), Christina Aguilera, and Kelly Clarkson. He also received an Oscar nomination for his work on the Disney favorite Mulan, for which he co-wrote the score with legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith.
And that’s just a sampling of his post-”Stride” credits. A guy could fare worse than having a huge hit (albeit just the one hit) lead to a rewarding career behind the scenes in the big bad music industry!
The Buggles
“Video Killed the Radio Star” (1979)
From the debut album The Age of Plastic
There is no single entity that is more identified with the decade of the 1980s than the music video channel MTV, which shook the pop world to its core starting in the summer of 1981. And the first-ever video shown on the new network? The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.”
But “Radio Star” was a two-year-old single by the time it made its way into the living rooms of American teens across the country at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981. By that point, the two primary members of the band, bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes, had already abandoned the Buggles to join prog-rock royals Yes, who then disbanded themselves a few months before MTV debuted. So it was a bit of a surprise for their little futuristic-sounding New Wave single from the Seventies to have kicked off what would become the single-most dominant force of the ‘80s in determining artists’ fates.
Horn and Downes recorded more music as the Buggles after their video unexpectedly caught fire, but alas, the group’s destiny was to simply make history as the first band to be shown on MTV. Horn, though, went on to become a hugely consequential producer, helming ‘80s landmark tunes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (“Relax”), Godley & Creme (“Cry”), and the all-star British assemblage for famine relief, Band Aid "(“Do They Know It’s Christmas?”). He also served as producer for much of Seal’s catalog, including the 1994 smash “Kiss from a Rose.” For his part, Downes went on to co-found the hit progressive rock group Asia (“Heat of the Moment”).
John Waite
“Missing You” (1984)
From his sophomore solo album No Brakes
Here’s a multi-layered conundrum: is an artist a proper one-hit wonder if he was in a successful band before his one hit under his own name? How about if he went on to join another band after that solo hit that also had one hit? And perhaps it should also be mentioned: both hits in question were Number 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. So, not just any old hits.
Waite sang lead for the Babys from 1975 to 1981, scoring two hits that each went to Number 13 on the U.S. pop chart. Then he embarked on a solo career, and “Missing You” happened. It’s a tune that’s held up extremely well over the years; it’s known to be a song from the ‘80s, but one that doesn’t sound dated. Instead of relying on the new tech of the day, its production is sparse. Above all else, it’s just a very well-written, and very cool track.
Then what does Waite do after releasing a couple more solo albums to only moderate success? He grows his hair long and recreates himself as lead singer of the glam rock supergroup Bad English. The band’s common link was keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who was in the Babys with Waite but went on to greater fame as Journey’s keys player. Bad English, then, were rounded out by Journey’s Neil Schon (guitar) and Deen Castronovo (drums), with former Baby Ricky Phillips on bass.
Not only did the power ballad “When I See You Smile” rule the American pop chart for a time in 1989, but Bad English followed it up with a Top 5 U.S. pop hit in “Price of Love.” So while “John Waite” may be a one-hit wonder, John Waite most certainly is not.
‘Til Tuesday
“Voices Carry” (1985)
From their debut album Voices Carry
The story of ‘Til Tuesday’s Aimee Mann resembles that of Waite’s a bit, at least in terms of her status as a hitmaker. The New Wave-y band she fronted in the mid-’80s did indeed score with just a single hit song. “Voices Carry” might be one of the better songs of that time period, though, and there aren’t many singer-songwriters more respected by critics and fans alike than Mann.
It was Mann’s intensely emotional performance on “Voices Carry,” both on record and in the unforgettable video that became an award-winning MTV mainstay, that catapulted ‘Til Tuesday to the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10. Listeners could tell how personal the lyrics were for Mann by the way she sang them practically through gritted teeth. When she left the band for a solo career, that kind of authenticity in her art never wavered.
Mann gained critical acclaim as a singer-songwriter immediately upon releasing her debut solo album, 1993’s Whatever. But it was her collaboration with filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson on the soundtrack to his film Magnolia that garnered her a Grammy and an Oscar nomination and solidified her status as a seminal artist who must definitely not be defined by any pop success she may have had back in 1985. (Although, again, “Voices Carry” has to be one of the best songs of the entire decade.)
A-ha
“Take on Me” (1984)
From the debut album Hunting High and Low
The Norwegian threesome of Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket, and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, better-known as A-ha, could very well be the most successful one-hit wonders in pop music history. Similar to the story of Soft Cell who topped off this list, A-ha only enjoyed massive success in America with one song: the MTV-fueled phenomenon “Take on Me.” But they continued to appear on the pop charts consistently in their home country and throughout the rest of Europe until they finally went on hiatus in 1994.
A-ha especially endured in Norway, where “Take on Me” was the first of nine Top 10 singles in a row. But it must be said (and said again) what a glorious single “Take on Me” was, and is. The way the chorus vocal starts low on the first line, climbs higher on the second, and then reaches the falsetto stratosphere on lines three and four? Simply sublime. That performance (“I’ll beeee gone, in a DAYEEEEEE”) by singer Harket solidified the tune’s place in the pop pantheon and ensured it would remain known and loved across generations.
So think of them as a relic of the mid-1980s who are long past their prime if you will. A-ha are no doubt content to allow music fans elsewhere in the world to call them one-hit wonders while they continue to headline European arenas, enjoy their being named Knights of the 1st Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, and relish going down in history as their homeland’s biggest band ever.