30 Best One-Hit Wonders of the ’70s (Favorite Picks)

Midder ^ | 5/30/23 | Will Fenton

[DallasBiff]

20. “(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden” by Lynn Anderson

[DallasBiff]

I know nostalgia.

#19 was Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever".

[Red Badger]

Driver’s Seat..................

[blackdog]

Or, “Travesty”.......

[Albion Wilde]

Great list! They are almost all familiar.

[Responsibility2nd]

I don’t think the author knows what a One Hit Wonder is.

Most of the artists on his list had plenty of hit songs.

[Steely Tom]

Very obscure, but I love it:

Sad Café — Run Home Girl 1978

[woweeitsme]

...and nearly every song was better than 99% of the garbage being put out today.

[Vahan1987]

Some of these artists weren't really one hit wonders (i.e. The Knack had another with Good Girls Don't) and some were bigger in the UK than in the US.

[1Old Pro]

...and nearly every song was better than 99% of the garbage being put out today.

It's a numbers game, in the 70's there were literally hundreds of good bands. What's amazing is how many you totally forget about that were excellent....and better than today's "music".

[devere]

“Love Grows” by Edison Lighthouse

[waterhill]

Elvin Bishop is a beast. Wrote a lot of songs. Badass guitar player.

[unixfox]

Afternoon Delight.

Now THAT would be a wonder.

[waterhill]

I don’t think he really plays anymore

[Dilbert San Diego]

Are they talking about “Top 40” hits, such as on the Casey Kasem countdowns, of big hit songs, as opposed to album sales, or how do we define these?

They note a hit song by Charley Pride, who I think had a number of country big hit songs, but perhaps just this one made a splash on the “Top 40” music charts.

[Alas Babylon!]

25. “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” by Elvin Bishop was actually sung by Mickey Thomas, who would go one to be the lead singer for the 1980s Starship, with hits like “We Built This City”, “Sara” and “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”.

[1Old Pro]

the 1980s Starship, with hits like “We Built This City”, “Sara” and “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”.

hits? It's the Hall of Fame inductions, everyone gets a trophy now.

[CletusVanDamme]

That’s a now obscure one from late in the summer of ‘79.

[Red Badger]

It was my wife and my ‘Our Song’ when we dated and were married that year..............

[Sirius Lee]

Didn't get a mention but my favorite would be Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again Naturally". The most upbeat heartbreakingly tragic song ever composed. And only an Irishman could pen lyrics whose meter make absolutely no sense as written, but only in the context of the music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_P-v1BVQn8

[Responsibility2nd]

... and some were bigger in the UK than in the US.

I recently learned that ‘Rock the Boat’ by the Hues Corporation is still a tradinal song and dance at Irish weddings.

https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=585680499&rlz=1CAPOUW_enUS991US991&sxsrf=AM9HkKmexnNnBU5vs7oInV9TA2GTODWwyw:1701112517818&q=derry+girls+rock+the+boat&tbm=vid&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi06-L68eSCAxXQnGoFHdBmCzwQ0pQJegQICxAB&biw=1280&bih=616&dpr=1.5#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:da4e48c6,vid:uCfys0_IMXo,st:0