A one-hit wonder is a musical artist who is successful with one hit song, but without a comparable subsequent hit. Music reviewers and journalists sometimes describe a musical artist as a one-hit wonder, based on their professional assessment of chart success, sales figures and fame. For the purpose of his book The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders , music journalist Wayne Jancik defines a one-hit wonder as "an act that has won a position on Billboard ' s national, pop, Top 40 just once. Eponymous bands are generally not separated; thus Charlie Daniels is not counted as a one-hit wonder for " Uneasy Rider " and the hits of the Charlie Daniels Band are credited to him. Fred Bronson , a journalist and former writer for Billboard magazine, in his book Billboard's Hottest Hot Hits , uses the criterion that an artist is ineligible to be categorized as a "one-hit wonder" if they have a second song listed on the Billboard Hot

Because sometimes one hit is all you need...
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Subscriber Account active since. Even though an artist may be a one-hit wonder, they still might have contributed one of the most famous songs of all time. Take Tommy Tutone, for example. You might not know the band, but you can definitely recite the number "" — Jenny's phone number.
"Rockin Robin" by Bobby Day (1958)
Rank and File finds us sorting through an exhaustive, comprehensive body of work or collection of pop-culture artifacts. This time, we sift through the slush pile and revisit the one-hit wonders we actually love. The standard definition determined by who, Right Said Fred? What, you had a late-career single make 41? Um, no … maybe?
A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with only one hit single that overshadows their other work. Sometimes, artists dubbed "one-hit wonders" in a particular country have had great success in other countries. Music artists with subsequent popular albums and hit listings are typically not considered a one-hit wonder. One-hit wonders usually see their popularity decreasing after their hit listing and most often don't return to hit listings with other songs or albums. In The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, music journalist Wayne Jancik defines a one-hit wonder as "an act that has won a position on [the] national, pop, Top 20 record chart just once.