The one-hit wonders every pop music fan will remember

When the paranoia-fueled hit "Somebody's Watching Me" first hit the airwaves in 1984, few people knew that Rockwell was the son of music royalty, Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records. Born Kennedy William Gordy, Rockwell—who wrote, co-produced, and handled most of the song's arrangements—adopted a pseudonym to avoid allegations of nepotism and went to great lengths to keep his upbringing a secret. 

The synth-pop anthem, which featured uncredited background vocals from Michael Jackson during the chorus, entered the Billboard Hot 100 weeks after its release and remained on the chart for nearly five months, peaking at No. 2 behind Kenny Loggins' "Footloose."

After the smashing success of what has since become something of a Halloween anthem, Rockwell released a follow-up single, "Obscene Phone Caller." While the track found modest success, it came nowhere near matching the popularity of "Somebody's Watching Me," which made Rockwell a part of the one-hit-wonder team.

Toni Basil was nearly 40 when she released "Mickey" in 1982, which didn't stop her from self-choreographing the song's iconic cheerleading video. The track, which has since become a cheerleading anthem forever associated with high school culture, was actually a cover of the 1979 song "Kitty" by English pop-rock group Racey. Basil added the cheerleading chant and changed the title to "Mickey." 

The new wave dance-pop hit became a smash success, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and emerging as an era-defining hit during the early years of MTV. While Basil had a full-blown career in music and acting and was one of the first musical guests on Saturday Night Live, "Mickey" was the only hit that achieved global recognition.

In 1983, when the Cold War's nuclear threat was still looming, a Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) band with a post-punk, funky, electronic sound and a cheeky frontwoman released a fun, danceable song addressing those fears. Nena, named after the childhood nickname of lead singer Gabriele Kerner, released "99 Luftballons"—or "99 Red Balloons" in English—which became a global sensation. Sung entirely in German, the anti-war protest song caught the attention of a U.S. Radio DJ, who played it relentlessly until it broke into the mainstream. The song peaked at No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming one of the most successful German-language songs ever released in the United States.

Nena was far from a flash in the pan. While both the band and Kerner enjoyed long and successful careers in Germany, internationally they remain best known for a single hit.

Canadian singer-songwriter Alannah Myles had been writing songs since childhood and performing for years. But it was only after the release of the sultry pastiche "Black Velvet," a lyrical ode to Elvis Presley and the outsized role The King played in rock 'n' roll history, that her name became familiar not only in Canada but around the world.

The blues-pop-rock ballad, inspired by a visit to Memphis during the 10th anniversary of Presley's death, was a massive success upon release. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 and earned Myles her first—and only—Grammy Award.

Myles' follow-up single, "Love Is," enjoyed some success and peaked at No. 36 on the charts, but she is still largely remembered for the enduring popularity of "Black Velvet."

Andrea True Connection was following a very different career path—one in adult films—before discovering chart success as a singer. In 1976, Andrea True teamed up with songwriter Gregg Diamond to record the disco-pop hit "More, More, More," which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song's catchy lyrics and infectious groove made it one of the defining disco anthems of the decade.

While it would be unfair to label Andrea True a complete one-hit wonder, as she later released dance-club hits such as "White Witch" and "N.Y., You Got Me Dancing,"  the late singer remains best remembered for "More, More, More."

One-hit wonders are almost always emblematic of a particular era before ending up in the purgatory of forgotten earworms. In the case of OMC's "How Bizarre," however, the ultimate feel-good hit of the 1990s is enjoying a second wave of success. New Zealand band OMC (Ōtara Millionaires Club), made up of frontman Pauly Fuemana and producer Alan Jansson, scored an instant smash hit with "How Bizarre."  The band's rapid rise, which translated into millions in royalties, was followed by a messy legal dispute over copyrights, and OMC stepped out of the spotlight almost as quickly as it entered it.

The song might have remained largely forgotten if it weren't for TikTok, where it resonated with Gen Z users, becoming a viral audio trend that generated billions of views and helped push streams into the hundreds of millions.

If you lived through the '80s and '90s, you might remember that "Funkytown" was the only acceptable place to be. Lipps, Inc. released the infectious single in 1980, not knowing it would soon become a global hit. Driven by an instantly recognizable synth riff and unbeatable groove, the track arrived at the tail end of the disco era and topped charts around the world, and spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

While the song played a huge part in merging disco and synth-pop, the Minneapolis-formed band stayed forever in "Funkytown" and never achieved any mainstream success beyond that single.

The Canadian reggae-rap artist Snow released the tongue-twisting hit "Informer,"  with all the ingredients of a smash hit. It was an earworm with a catchy hook and lyrics that sounded like gibberish. The track, which was inspired by Snow's stint in jail, spent seven consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned a Guinness World Record as the best-selling reggae single in U.S. history.

While "Informer" became a defining pop-culture staple of the decade, Snow was never able to replicate its success. His follow-up single, "Girl I've Been Hurt," peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100, leaving him firmly in one-hit-wonder territory in North America.

In 2019, Puerto Rican superstar Daddy Yankee introduced the song and Snow himself to a new generation of listeners when he sampled and reimagined "Informer" for the global smash hit "Con Calma."

If one-hit wonders had an unofficial patron saint, it would be Los del Río and their one and only global sensation, "Macarena." Along with its catchy, earwormy tune and playful lyrics, the song came with a 16-step dance routine that turned it into a worldwide phenomenon.

But the global hit that we all love to roll our eyes at while secretly enjoying was not actually the original version. The Spanish flamenco-pop duo released the track in 1993  as a traditional, rumba-infused pop song, which became a regional hit in Spain. It wasn't until the Miami-based Bayside Boys remixed the track in 1995—adding an English-language chorus and a faster, more danceable beat—that the song exploded internationally.

The remix spent 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and turned Los del Río into international stars. Unfortunately for the duo, lightning struck only once, and while they continued their careers, their mainstream fame faded somewhere around the 16th step of the dance.

In the late '90s, 24-year-old German singer David Lubega Balemezi took a 1950 instrumental track, "Mambo No. 5," by Cuban bandleader Dámaso Pérez Prado, added catchy lyrics and an upbeat remix, put on a Panama hat, and created a cultural juggernaut. Released in 1999, the track peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped charts around the world.

More than an inescapable party staple, "Mambo No.5" was also one of those love-it-or-hate-it songs, but its earwormy potential transcended generations. Stephen King joked in a Variety interview that he played the song so often that his wife threatened to divorce him.

Lou Bega continues to record music and remains active, but, as is often the case with one-hit wonders, he is best remembered as the "Mambo No. 5" guy.

Trinidadian-German singer Haddaway dared to ask an existential question wrapped inside a Eurodance banger, and the song turned into a head-bobbing sensation. Released in 1993, "What Is Love" combined thumping beats and soulful vocals and became an international smash, reaching No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping charts across Europe. While its success made Haddaway a household name in the dance-pop world, none of his follow-up releases came close to matching the popularity of his signature hit.

"What Is Love" lingered longer in the ether than Haddaway himself, thanks to Saturday Night Live's "Roxbury Guys" sketches and the film A Night at the Roxbury, transforming the song from a dance-floor favorite into a pop-culture institution.

It feels somewhat unfair to label Aqua as one-hit wonders because, while they will forever be associated with the bubblegum Europop track "Barbie Girl," the song's cultural impact was so epochal that it feels like the band did far more than produce a mere flash-in-the-pan hit. The Danish-Norwegian group released the tongue-in-cheek track in 1997, and it became one of the defining campy pop songs of the late '90s.

The track sold millions of copies and reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Mattel, however, wasn't amused by Aqua's satirical take on its flagship doll and sued over the song.

Aqua went on to score several additional hits in Europe, including "Doctor Jones" and "Turn Back Time," but the U.S. audiences largely never looked beyond Barbie's Dreamhouse.

Released in 1998, the breezy pop hit "Crush" turned the then-24-year-old Jennifer Paige into an international star. With its instantly relatable theme, the song became a global smash, reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topping charts in several countries.

Paige continued recording music, including the duet "Beautiful Lie" with Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter, which appeared on the deluxe edition of her 2008 album "Best Kept Secret." She found success in parts of Europe, but "Crush" remains the only hit most people associate her with.

a-ha can definitely be placed in the "one-hit wonder" category, but only in America, where they will forever be remembered as three Norwegians jumping in and out of a pencil drawing in their 1985 synth-pop hit "Take On Me," helping the song climb to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and turning the band into international stars.

The band went on to enjoy a long and successful career, particularly in Europe, but in the U.S. it is still remembered almost entirely for a single song.

Everything But the Girl spent more than a decade making music before one unexpectedly found them. In 1995, a dance remix of "Missing" turned the British duo into international stars, sending the melancholy breakup song into clubs, radio stations, and seemingly every corner of the decade's pop culture.

The track peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and lingered on the charts for more than a year, becoming one of the most recognizable songs of the 1990s. While Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt continued to record music and earn critical acclaim, "Missing" remains the song most listeners associate with the duo.

Daniel Powter became famous for making people feel better about having a sucky day. Released in 2005, "Bad Day" topped the Billboard Hot 100 and became unavoidable thanks to constant radio airplay and its recurring role on American Idol. 

Powter never managed to repeat the song's success, but few one-hit wonders can claim their signature hit became shorthand for an entire emotion.

At the height of the aggressive rap-rock era at the turn of the millennium, Crazy Town became famous for a surprisingly sweet song called "Butterfly." The track mixed hip-hop, rock, and an irresistible Red Hot Chili Peppers sample into one of the most unexpected No. 1 hits of the decade.

As nu-metal gradually faded from the mainstream, so did Crazy Town's chart fortunes.

In 2005, Belgian duo DHT gave a Eurodance twist to Roxette's power ballad "Listen to Your Heart" and climbed into the Billboard Hot 100, becoming a radio fixture of the mid-2000s.

While the cover introduced DHT to mainstream audiences, the group never managed to build the same connection with listeners through its original material.

In the 2010s, when EDM was king and pop was becoming increasingly electronic, along came Passenger—a guy with an acoustic guitar, a raspy voice, and sentimental folksy lyrics. "Let Her Go" was released in 2012 and turned English singer-songwriter Mike Rosenberg into an unlikely global star. The acoustic ballad topped charts around the world and became one of the decade's most recognizable sing-along songs. Rosenberg continued releasing music and touring extensively, but "Let Her Go" remains the song most listeners associate with Passenger.

Few one-hit wonders have had a hit so big that it overshadowed almost everything else around it. In 2011, Belgian-Australian musician Gotye released "Somebody That I Used to Know," a haunting breakup duet featuring New Zealand singer Kimbra that turned into a global phenomenon.

Built around a quirky xylophone sample and sparse production, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight consecutive weeks and became one of the defining songs of the early 2010s.

While Gotye never chased mainstream fame with the same intensity afterward, in one of pop music's stranger ironies, the man behind one of the decade's biggest hits eventually became somebody the mainstream used to know.