3 One-Hit Wonders That Aren’t One-Hit Wonders

How one defines a one-hit wonder probably differs greatly.

Before streaming and social media, official charts like Billboard provided a good place to keep score on hit songs. But not every hit is also a chart-topper. (Bruce Springsteen has never topped the Billboard Hot 100 as an artist.)

Still, there are plenty of musicians with colossal singles who some might mistake for being one-hit wonders. Here are three artists that weren’t one-and-done.

Blur

If you didn’t know or care about Britpop, you may only recognize one Blur song. Perhaps you don’t even know its title. For the record, it’s not called “Woo-hoo!” or “The Woo-Hoo Song,” though its real name is nearly as elemental. By the late ’90s, one of Britpop’s giants had grown tired of the pop-culture movement they helped popularize. On their 1997 self-titled album, Blur adopted the sound of American indie rock and landed a global smash hit called “Song 2.” Meant to provoke their record label, the record label instead loved the noisy and sardonic track. One of rock’s greatest slacker jams has no chorus; its title reflects its placement in the track listing and subsequently broke the band in the United States. Far from a one-hit wonder, seven Blur albums have reached No. 1 in the UK, and the band continues to sell out stadiums.

The Verve

“Bitter Sweet Symphony” isn’t just a song from a Nike commercial, it’s a defining anthem of ’90s British rock music. The Verve released Urban Hymns in 1997, and it lives as a threshold between the Britpop and post-Britpop eras. It began as a Richard Ashcroft solo album following The Verve’s messy breakup. But soon after, he reformed the band and together, The Verve made a bombastic and gorgeous masterpiece. Before then, the Wigan band released two critically acclaimed albums of shoegaze-adjacent indie rock. But they were always on the verge of breaking up. Ashcroft famously ended Urban Hymns by declaring, “We’re breaking up,” and “This is a big f–k you!” beneath the swaggering Wall of Sound on “Come On.” Thankfully, they lasted long enough to create one of the decade’s best rock albums.

Hozier

In 2013, Hozier’s debut single “Take Me to Church” became a massive hit. However, the Irish singer and songwriter soon faced the daunting task of trying to follow that song’s extraordinary success. As ubiquitous as “Take Me to Church” was, you might be surprised to learn it peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. But Hozier did top the Hot 100 with “Too Sweet,” his 2024 single from the EP Unheard. And Hozier has several songs within spitting distance of a billion plays on Spotify. Though he’s probably stuck placing “Take Me to Church” near the end of his setlist to keep casual fans from splitting early, the artist known only by one name has proven to be more than just one song.

Photo by Peter Pakvis/Redferns