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Music lovers have heated debate online over 'best one hit wonder ever'

Home> Music

Published 15:15 26 Sep 2024 GMT+1

Music lovers have heated debate online over 'best one hit wonder ever'

A few names came up again and again

Michael Slavin

Michael Slavin

People have been debating the greatest one hit wonders ever - and there are some clear favourites.

Music lovers are famously some of the most argumentative people around, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Whether it’s insisting their favourite artist is the best and anyone else suggesting otherwise is ridiculous, or insisting objectively an artist they dislike is s**t.

Unfortunately, there isn’t an objective answer to these questions – but that hasn’t stopped music fans from digging deep into a debate on a huge topic: the best one hit wonder ever.

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There is something beautiful about a one hit wonder.

Gotye was a name thrown around a lot (Eleven Universal V2)
Gotye was a name thrown around a lot (Eleven Universal V2)

Musicians will flit into our lives, leave a song that is stuck in your head for years, then return to the mountains never to be heard from again (or so it feels).

The debate was sparked by the fact that, supposedly, yesterday was ‘national one hit wonder day’.

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While this sounds like a bunch of made-up nonsense, it has understandably led to a great deal of furore online about what deserves that title.

One tweet that began an online debate read: “Happy National One-Hit Wonder Day!

“What is one of your favorite one-hit wonders? I'll start: 'Come on Eileen'.”

Honestly, the debate may have simply been ended in one tweet – because 'Come on Eileen' is an absolutely iconic song and if you put a gun to my head and told me to name another song by Dexys Midnight Runners, I’d tell you to pull the trigger.

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One answer in the replies pointed to 'I’m Too Sexy' by Right Said Fred, whilst another said: “If you want to be technical, Dream Theater's 'Pull Me Under'.

“Despite having an amazing catalogue of songs, 'Pull Me Under' was their only hit AND it was during the height of Grunge.”

Another thread under Pop Crave started with the suggestion of Gotye’s 'Somebody That I Used to Know'.

This on pure streams may be one of the biggest, with the song amassing over 1.8 billion streams on Spotify, and 2.3 billion views on YouTube.

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Another replied saying 'very jealous of this man', and put a picture of PSY, who with 'Gangnam Style' blows Gotye out the water with 5.2 billion views on YouTube, however only (used liberally here) 500 million views.

Whilst many were calling Carly Rae Jepsen a one hit wonder for 'Call Me Maybe', but her fans were customarily… let’s say polite, in their disagreement with this.

The same happened for Rebecca Black and 'Friday', while another pointed to Rick Astley’s 'Never Gonna Give You Up'.

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Regardless, we were never going to all agree.

Featured Image Credit: Eleven Universal V2/604 Records Inc

Topics: Music

Michael Slavin
Michael Slavin

Michael Slavin is a Film and TV writer for UNILAD and LADbible. After completing an English Literature with Creative Writing degree at Surrey University, followed by a Masters in International Journalism at Salford University, he began working for the Warrington Guardian as a reporter. Throughout this though, he did freelance work about Film and TV for publications such as DiscussingFilm, looking for any excuse to get to rant about films. He has now finally got that wish.

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@MichaelSlavin98

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