On October 10, 1964, Joe Hinton's only Top 40 hit maxed out at #13.

'Funny (How Time Slips Away)'

Time slipped away for the 38 year old Hinton in 1968.

 

That's 300 'One Hit Wonders'.

 

Reaching #9 on July 18, 1970, 'Gimme Dat Ding' by Pipkins is still stupid.



Thank God---no more.

 

McFadden & Whitehead had a single Top 40 hit. It was "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now", which peaked at #13 on July 21, 1979. Obviously, something stopped them soon after that.

 

September 23, 1967. That was the date that Davie Allan & The Arrows broke through the barrier into the Top 40. It was their only trip and they only reached #37, but it put them in the books.

"Blues Theme"

 

And another #37 peaker: Balloon Farm's "A Question Of Temperature" from March, 1968

 

#8. That was as high on the charts that Marcy Playground ever got. "Sex and Candy" hit that mark on April 18, 1998.

 

Here is a weird one, and I do not think that anything like this ever happened before or since.

Another from 1998. Loreena McKennitt's "The Mummer's Dance" was her only Top 40 hit. It reached #18 on March 21, 1998.

However, Loreena McKennitt's "The Mummer's Dance" (Live in Paris) reached #35 on April 25, 1998.

TWO versions of the same song BY THE SAME ARTIST make the Top 40, only a month apart. STILL only "one hit", though.....

 

Bobby Scott's weird "Chain Gang" (which appears to try and imitate a black man and the sound of 1920s and 1930s blues) reached #13 on February 18, 1956. It is not as though Scott was never heard from again....just not in the Top 40.....

 

There have been dozens of recordings of "Mule Skinner Blues". The Fendermen had their only Top 40 hit with the tune in July 1960 when their version hit #5. For some reason, their phony yodeling never attracted that large a following again.

 

August 1, 1970, a band calling themselves Pacific Gas & Electric hit #14 with "Are You Ready". If they were asking us if we were ready for a further string of hits from them, the answer, sadly, was 'no'.

 

That is 309 "One Hit Wonders" so far.....

 

In April 1971, C Company featuring Terry Nelson reached #37 with "The Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley"

 

June 9, 1984 saw the peak of Icicle Works' career when the band hit #37 with "Whisper To A Scream"

 

On May 28, 1966, Frank Gallop hit the heights of his career as "The Ballad of Irving" reached #34.

 

Don Robertson reached #6 on June 2, 1956 with "The Happy Whistler". Luckily for all of us, that was it.

 

"Let Me In" was The Sensations only Top 40 hit. Though it is pretty undistinguished, it reached #4 on March 17, 1962.

 

"Long Lonesome Highway" by Michael Parks is so good that it might have sold 3 whole copies if idiot fans of his boring television program had not scrambled to buy it. It reached #20 on April 18, 1970. No wonder I despised AM radio in the 70s.

 

Ali Thomson hit it somewhat big just once, on August 23, 1980, with 'Take A Little Rhythm' at #15

 

January 7, 1956 was the date that Kit Carson's 'Band Of Gold' reached its peak at #11