One-Hit-Wonders That You Probably Remember

These days, it seems like everybody and their mother is releasing a new album. From Taylor Swift to Justin Bieber to Katy Perry, the music industry refuses to quit producing contemporary artists that are supposedly “the next big thing.”

But have you ever wondered about the stories behind the one-hit wonders of yesteryear? Maybe you still remember these names being blasted from radio stations back in the day, but since then, they’ve declined into obscurity. Somehow, they managed to get at least one song onto heavy rotation for a few weeks or months, but nobody really has heard anything about them again after that.

1. Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy

Too sexy for your radio station, that is. I’m Too Sexy has been blasted from radio stations across the world, and it’s easy to see why: the song is an infectious earworm that will stay with you for days.

Too bad for Right Said Fred that the song only peaked at #2 on the charts! What gives?

After a few more mediocre singles, they broke up after a less-than-stellar album called Up. In fact, their album was so underwhelming that they actually reworked it as a new album called Bummed and had to scrap I’m Too Sexy from its tracklist.

2. The Knack’s My Sharona 

You remember this one. We’ve got a sneaking suspicion that a lot of guys in high school were enamored with this song in the mid-’70s. The Knack was a Black Sabbath cover band, and they cut a version of My Sharona in 1975. It became a Top 40 hit and later became the band’s biggest hit single.

Since then, The Knack has produced some albums and charted a few singles here and there (one of which was an adult contemporary track titled Shakin), but it was never enough to make them superstars again.

3. A-ha’s Take Me On

A-ha had a string of hits in the ’80s. They released poignant hits like The Sun Always Shines on T.V. and even had an album titled Scoundrel Days to show off their darker side. But it was Take Me On that popped onto the charts in 1985, reaching #4 in Germany and #5 in Sweden.

In 1991, the band released a new album titled East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Aside from one album cut titled Under the Make-Up, there were no major hits. They have since become a major name in the soundtrack industry and have created soundtracks for movies like Nightwatch, The Kids Are All Right, and The Living Daylights.