The Greatest Two-Hit Wonders

Sometimes one hit isn't enough

A few months ago, my coworker Brendan launched a newsletter called Good Stuff, where he recommends, well, good stuff. Many people think they have refined taste that they need to share with the world, but Brendan is a true cultural omnivore. His newsletter is worth a subscription.

Anyway, last week when I wrote about music in supermarkets, I mentioned the classic rockers 38 Special. Because of that, Brendan and I had an exchange in the comments that inspired this week’s newsletter:

Brendan: I would argue listening to 38 Special in a grocery store is a peak life experience

Chris: Both of their songs

Brendan: i need a deep dive into 2-hit wonders

Here’s your deep dive, Brendan.

---

The Greatest Two-Hit Wonders

By Chris Dalla Riva

One-hit wonders are unfairly maligned. From the Baha Men to Right Said Fred, these groups are often remembered for weird novelties that are annoying at best. But I think we should celebrate these groups. Most people who ever release music professionally will never have a hit. One hit is a miracle, especially if it’s a true smash.

But if one hit is a miracle, then two hits is a near impossibility. Two-hit artists sit in a weird space, though. Pop stars a remembered because they are very famous. One-hit wonders are remembered for the opposite. Their un-memorableness makes them great answers to bar trivia questions. Two-hit wonders are stuck in the middle. Some might be able to parlay those two hits into careers, but others are lost in a musical no man’s land, too many hits for trivia, not enough to be legends. Still, there’s got to be a greatest two-hit wonder.

To find these great two-hit artists, I decided to start with the band that inspired it, 38 Special. In my mind, 38 Special’s two hits are “Hold On Loosely” and “Caught Up in You,” both dynamite rock songs. Despite the ubiquity of those songs on classic rock radio, 38 Special isn’t technically a two-hit wonder. In fact, they had nine top 40 hits between 1981 and 1991. Still, they felt like a good band to establish a two-hit standard from.

“Hold On Loosely” peaked at number 27 in 1981. “Caught Up in You” peaked at number 10 a year later. Those aren’t their highest charting singles, but to be a two-hit wonder in this exercise, you had to have at least one top 30 hit and one top 10 hit. By that definition, there have been 324 two-hit wonders between the start of the Billboard Hot 100 and 2010 among the 3,271 artists who have had at least one top 30 hit and one top 10 hit in that period. That means about 10% of all artists who met that criteria are two-hit wonders.

When you look through this list, you see many interesting acts. Blues Traveler, for example, makes the cut. Though they have a very dedicated fanbase, they technically only have two hits: “Hook” and “Run-Around.” Bonnie Tyler is also a two-hit wonder. “It’s a Heartache” charted at number three in 1977, and “Total Eclipse of the Heart” charted at number one in 1983. But where is “Holding Out for a Hero,” you might ask? It peaked at 34 in 1984. By our 38 Special definition, we are only looking within the top 30. Quirks aside, who are the greatest two-hit wonders?

---

---

In this case, I am equating greatness with popularity. What I did was find every artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 that had exactly two top 30 hits, one of which had to be within the top 10. I then sorted those artists by their popularity score on Spotify.

This list is kind of shocking. Pink Floyd, one of the best-selling bands of all-time, is a two-hit wonder? By the definition, I just outlined, yes. Pink Floyd’s albums always did better than their singles, though. In fact, Pink Floyd might be the platonic form of artists on the list. They are mostly in the rock universe and sell more albums than singles.

There are also other artists on the list that are typically classed as one-hit wonders. a-ha is a good example of this. Most known for their 1984 smash “Take On Me,” they technically landed another hit in the top 30: “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.” Additionally, outside the U.S. they had many other hits, but the Billboard Hot 100 is focused on American sales and streams.

Maybe we can take this a step further, though. Rather than just looking for artists that had exactly two top 30 hits, one of which had to be within the top 10, we can look for artists that meet those criteria but also never had a top 10 album. Again, we will use Billboard’s charts, which are focused on American sales and streams.