Soft Cell. Right Said Fred. Men Without Hats. Deep Blue Something. What do all these random phrases have in common? Well, they’re actually all bands that are known for one singular thing--one massive musical hit. That’s right, A-Tourneys, we’re finally getting to the bottom of an impossible question: Which One Hit Wonder is the best One Hit Wonder?
As we learned throughout our research for this episode of the podcast, One Hit Wonders have existed since the dawn of recorded popular music. There were virtually thousands of songs we could have chosen to include on our list of One Hit Wonders, so in order to narrow down an infinite list into one containing a bracket-friendly number of songs (in this case, sixty-four), we followed a semi-strict set of criteria. We consulted numerous ranking lists, focused our efforts on the latter half of the 20th century, and tried to find songs that were on the Billboard Hot 100 for...a while. What we landed with isn’t perfect--it never is--but we think it’s a solid collection of tunes that are both wildly famous and were birthed from artists that were otherwise never heard from again.
Some songs are ones you’d expect like Haddaway’s “What is Love” or “Macarena.” Some are songs where you might think some multi-hit band is actually the artist behind it, like Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music,” or Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling.” And then some are almost as obscure now as their artists are, like Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me with Science” or Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life.” But in addition to being One Hit Wonders, all of these songs are certified bangers, which is why we also made this Spotify playlist of all of them in rank order (also so you can play along at home).
We always like to reward our fans with things they want to hear about, so for this episode, we gotta give credit to A-Tourney at Pod Steven Hix. Not only did Steven give us the idea for this episode, but he’s also helping us predict which song will win as a special guest on the pod! The only thing you have to do now is listen, vote, and then listen again!!
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
8/2/21: Opening round voting
8/3/21: Second round voting
8/4/21: Sweet Sixteen voting
8/5/21: Elite Eight voting
8/6/21: Final Four voting
8/7/21: Championship voting
8/9/21 - Winner reveal on a brand new Results Episode of the podcast (and Steven's b-day!)