One-Hit Wonder Day 2024 is on Wednesday, September 25, 2024: Hit Wonder Day - Is Carly Rae Jespen a one hit wonder?

Wednesday, September 25, 2024 is One-Hit Wonder Day 2024. Clinically Clueless: One Hit Wonders Day...Do you Remember... So what is a one hit wonder

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It’s what we have all been awaiting, each day to celebrate every artist that has conspired to provide us one massively effective song….and also the grand total of nothing since. One-Hit Wonder Day was established by music journalist Steve Rosen in 1990 to pay for tribute to individuals who may have had their 5 minutes (or fewer) of fame and subsequently disappeared, departing us merely a appealing (hopefully!) tune to keep in mind them by.From bizarre, middle-aged Spaniards Los Del Rio doing the ‘Macarena’, to beanie-hatted Daniel Powter singing about his ‘Bad Day’, via Lou Bega’s Mambo #5, their email list of 1-hit miracles is really a lengthy and varied one, so search your old record collection and find out the number of of those unfortunate souls are hiding there.Then come along in sitting back, hearing their tunes and wondering what is these artists do now (aside from investing their massive royalty cheque).

Dude I didn't know she was signed by Justin Bieber! Yeah...that's another story for another day allright-don't get me started on him. I think she seems nice, but to be honest I hope Call Me Maybe is it. She doesn't seem like a very talented songwriter. I mean honestly, the majority of the pop music world is kinda a joke-very cheesy and cookie-cutter manufactured. Everything's the same. I mean, "Call Me Maybe" is like techno-loop the same 15 seconds and its like listening to the whole song. How many times can you say "Hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's my number, so call me maybe?" over and over before it gets annoying?? Like, that's pretty much the whole damn song. I mean sure, there's like 1 or 2 other phrases. Wah-hoo. But its really just that same chorus the ENTIRE SONG. She has a new album coming out I believe, but I certainly hope it doesn't generate any more radio hits. Let's hand the spotlight to someone with real talent, not just a pretty face and a catchy hook.

where did the phrase "one hit wonder" come from in music?

'One-hit wonder' is directed at popular musicians, although it is also sometimes used to describe others who are popularly known for a single sucess (unfairly or otherwise). For example, Joseph Heller - referring of course to his best-known work Catch-22. The term is used in various sports too, notably boxing. The meaning there is slightly different from other fields of endeavour. A boxing 'one-hit wonder' is someone who is not considered especially skillful, but relies on single knockout punches to win matches.

In the popular music sense, the term isn't as easy to define as it might seem. Several artists who had several hits in one country might have had just one elsewhere. For example, Frankie Goes To Hollywood is considered a one-hit wonder in the USA, but not in the UK. Also, some artists might be technically one-hit wonders but aren't usually listed as so as they had hits with other bands or under other names - for example, Derek and the Dominoes, Limahl/Kajagoogoo.

this term doesn't appear in print until surprisingly late. The earliest I can find is from the Winnipeg Free Press, in July 1977, in a piece about Abba:

"Instead of becoming what everyone expected [after winning the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo], a one-hit wonder, they soon had a string of hits behind them."

The use of the phrase there suggests that it was already known. It would certainly be ironic if the first use 'one-hit wonder' was in an article about Abba - one of the most successful groups in pop history.

There were many one-hit wonders in the 1950s and 1960s, although whether they were called that at the time seems in doubt.

The phrase was used long before 1977 in another context. In baseball a one-hit wonder is a pitcher who restricts the opposing team to a single base-hit by virtue of outstanding pitching. This goes back to at least 1914, as here from the New York newspaper The Middletown Daily Times-Press, July 1914 - in a piece entitled One-hit wonder fails to hold locals down:

"The Middies trimmed Newburgh by a score of 6 to 1, although Newburgh were aided and abetted by 'Let-er-go' Gallagher, their one hit pitcher."

Whoever coined the term 'one-hit wonder' in the musical sense might have plucked it out of the air. there's also the possibility that it was an ironic re-use of the earlier phrase - referring to relative failure rather than success. It could also have harked back to an much earlier phrase 'nine days' wonder', which has the same meaning, of something that is a flash in the pan.

In recent years, yet another 'one-hit wonder' has emerged. Anyone who has used Internet search engines will be familiar with searches yielding thousands or millions of hits. A search term that yields just one hit at Google is known as a Googlewhack.

One-Hit Wonders...?

Obvious choices are Gustav Holst: - The Planets and Carl Orff - Carmina Burana both pieces are mentioned on here almost every day but nevr anything else. Arrigo Boito is known (as a composer) for Mefistofele but no other operas that I have seen or heard. Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chénier is revived regularly but nothing else. Many other prolific opera composers, too many to mention. More recently Terry Riley lunched minimalism with In C but nothing else of his is ever played.

Edit: The operative word here is HIT. I'm not arguing that Gustav Holst didn't writ other, worthwhile music but rather its hardly available or played much. A recording by Richard Hickox or two does not make any definition of hit, no matter how worthwhile. I can't recall St. Paul's Suite being programmed here in NY and I go to a lot of concerts.