The Biggest One-Album Wonders
You've heard of one-hit wonders
Over the next couple of months, I’m going to (hopefully) be doing a ton of press for my book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves. In the last week or so, I did two things that might interest people here:
Embedded: I did an interview with the popular newsletter Embedded about some of my internet browsing habits, including where I get my news and my favorite internet debates.
Reasonably Irreverent: Sportscaster Danny Clinkscale invited me on his podcast to talk about my book. My favorite part about this interview is that we actually dove into how I ended up starting this newsletter.
The Hoboken Girl: A publication based where I live highlighted me as “Local to Watch.”
If you are interested in interviewing me about my book or my career in the music industry, do not hesitate to reach out. I’ve got some press lined up, but I am looking to do much more. If we set something up, there’s even a chance that I can get you a free copy of the book. Now, let’s talk about one-album wonders.
The Biggest One-Album Wonders
By Chris Dalla Riva
The last time my coworkers asked me a question, I was able to get an answer despite how unexpectedly tricky it was. In that case, the question was about two-hit wonders. When they followed it up last week with a question about one-album wonders, I didn’t know the world of confusion that I was headed towards.
A “one-album wonder” is simple to define. If a one-hit wonder is an artist that only has one massive hit single, then I think we can define a one-album wonder as follows:
A one-album wonder is an artist that only has one massive hit album
Given that I have access to Billboard’s album chart and data from Spotify, this seemed like it was going to be easy. Sadly, it wasn’t. In fact, this analysis caused me more problems than almost any other.
When you do exactly what I described, you get a bunch of artists that definitely don’t fit this definition. For example, on my first pass, one of the listed artists was “Linkin Park & Jay-Z.” What? These are two massively popular acts, both as far from “one-album wonder” as I could imagine. Since they released an album together, namely Collision Course, it looked like they fit the bill. Technically, this was a group that had one big album.
I had to reroute. First, I decided to discount any albums that were by groups that had careers outside of that album. That nixed Collision Course. It also tossed out Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, the sole album from the Eric Clapton-led group Derek and the Dominos. With that in mind, I decided to throw out groups that only had one album. Bye-bye, Sex Pistols! You can’t be a one-album wonder if you never tried again. So, now a one-album wonder is defined as follows:
A one-album wonder is an artist that released at least two albums but only one charted in the top 40 of the Billboard 200
This methodology spit back some stuff that made sense. Mindless Self Indulgence, for example, has released 6 albums. Their album If peaked at number 27 in 2008. No other album cracked the top 100. That sounds like a one-album wonder.
Other things didn’t make sense, though. First, there were many Latin artists on the list, some of which are quite well regarded in the Latin community. Vicente Fernández is a good example of this. Fernández has been cranking out popular albums since the 1970s. In fact, he’s had four top 40 albums in Mexico. The problem is that the Billboard 200 is based on US sales. It felt strange to declare someone a one-album wonder because their popularity was outside the US. So, let’s update our definition:
A one-album wonder is an artist that released at least two albums but only one charted in the top 40 across all countries
This list looks a bit better. As far as I can tell, each of these acts truly only had one top 40 album around the globe. Of course, there are still a smattering of Latin artists (e.g., Los Temerarios), but we also have representation from rappers (e.g., Sir Mix-A-Lot) and rockers (e.g., 3OH!3).
Still, there are some oddities on this list. Take Soulja Boy as an example. The rappers only top 40 album around the globe was Souljaboytellem.com, which contained his smash his “Crank That (Soulja Boy).” But Soulja Boy’s biggest hits other than “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” are “Kiss Me Thru the Phone” (no. 3) and “Turn My Swag On” (no. 19). Those songs are actually from another album, iSouljaBoyTellem. That album peaked at 43 in the United States. By our definition, he is a one-album wonder. But is he? Something feels wrong.
I don’t know what a one-album wonder is
This is usually the part of the newsletter where I come with a solution to all of my issues and land on the true answer. But I don’t think that’s going to happen here. And I think the reason is that based on the definition that I am working from, it’s quite rare to be a one-album wonder.
If I were to throw these rules out and just try to find the most popular artist on Spotify whose most famous songs are concentrated on a single album, I’d probably end up with Jeff Buckley or fun.
This may not be a satisfying answer. This is a newsletter dedicated to music and data, yet my result here is based on vibes and gut. And I’m okay with that. One of the most important things you need to learn when working with data is when the data is insufficient to solve your issue.
So, if your gut is telling you that the answer is different, please tell me about it in the comments. The only rules you have are that the artist’s album must have charted on a top 40 pop chart somewhere.
A New One
"Pray Hard" by BigXthaPlug ft. Luke Combs
2025 - Country Rap
Few artists have had a bigger come up over the last year than BigXthaPlug. The Dallas rapper first splashed on the scene in 2019 but didn’t find success for another two years. Like many other rappers, his latest album detours into country music with every track featuring a notable country artist singing the hook. While BigX sounds at home in this crossover genre, “Pray Hard” is a good reminder that Luke Combs can sing the heck out of a hook.
An Old One
"Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star
1993 - Dream Pop
If you are only looking at the US pop chart, then Mazzy Star is technically a one-album wonder. Again, that comes across as strange given how critically acclaimed the band is. That said, when I noticed them during the writing of this piece, I started listening to some of their music, including “Fade Into You,” their most well known song.
It’s actually crazy how contemporary this song sounds despite being over 30 years old. That’s probably the reason that the hazy reverie that is “Fade Into You” has found popularity with Zoomers all those years later.
If you enjoyed this piece, consider ordering my book Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves. The book chronicles how I listened to every number one hit in history and used what I learned during the journey to write a data-driven history of popular music from 1958 through today.
if we're going off vibes I feel like that Fugees album is the best example
I think one-hit wonders are about subjective perceptions, not objective chart positions. No one remembers how high a song charted, they just recall it being more popular than anything else the band did before or since. I'd include "Laid" by James, for example, even if they technically had other hits.
I feel like a one-album wonder should be similar, so I'd include bands like Boston or Supertramp. If you saw them in someone's record collection, you could bet it was only ever the one popular album.