3 One-Hit Wonders from the 1990s that Stick in Your Head for Days on End

There are one-hit wonders and then there are one-hit wonders. Meaning, some bands enjoy the success of having a single song top the charts and garner a great deal of attention. And then there are some bands who write songs that stick in your head for days (decades?) on end. They’re so sticky that they might as well be made of glue and bubblegum.

Here below, we wanted to explore three songs that fall into the latter category. A trio of songs from the decadent decade of the 1990s that won’t leave your psyche until, well, you listen to another song on the list and it takes over the space in your internal ear. Indeed, these are three one-hit wonders from the 1990s that stay in your head for days.

[RELATED: The 28 Best One-Hit Wonders]

“Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice from To the Extreme (1990)

What a perfect storm of culture, unintentional comedy, and musical staying power. This song, which was the first rap track to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and features a sample from Queen and David Bowie’s hit “Under Pressure,” made Vanilla Ice a household name. It is also the prefect confluence of 1980s cheese and 1990s self-seriousness, released on the cusp of each decade. It’s not that Vanilla Ice was without skill, it was that he seemed so not self-aware that this song remains both entertaining and silly. On the classic track, he raps,

Alright stop, collaborate and listen
Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop? Yo, I don’t know
Turn off the lights, and I’ll glow

“MMMBop” by Hanson from Middle of Nowhere (1997)

This song, which also hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, was released in the latter half of the decade by the Tulsa, Oklahoma-born brother trio known as Hanson. Ah, we were all so young then! This song, which features more gibberish scatting than actual song lyrics, is about finding good relationships with people—you know, those truly solid relationships that are few and far between—and holding onto them. But more than that, it is a silly song where three blonde little boys run around singing nonsense. And that’s fine. On the track they offer,

Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose
You can plant any one of those
Keep planting to find out which one grows
It’s a secret no one knows
It’s a secret no one knows
Oh, no one knows

Mmmbop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du, yeah
Mmmbop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, Ba du dop
Ba du bop, Ba du dop
Ba du, yeah

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Deep Blue Something from 11th Song (1993)

This song, which hit No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 upon its release, boasts a chorus that most who know it can’t help belting out at the top of their lungs. It’s about a looming breakup the singer attempts to stave off by bringing up the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, noting that at least they share an appreciation for that in common. Thus, he sings, love will find a way and they should stick together. But no matter how ridiculous the premise, the song is an earworm. And on it, the band sings,

You say that we’ve got nothing in common
No common ground to start from
And we’re falling apart
You’ll say the world has come between us
Our lives have come between us
But I know you just don’t care

And I said “What about Breakfast at Tiffany’s?”
She said, “I think I remember that film
And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it.”
And I said “Well, that’s one thing we’ve got.”

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