Best one hit wonder of the 80s (Female)

Patrice Rushen:

Shannon:

Tracey Ullman:

Lulu - I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do) [#18]

Got to be Mickey, you just can't hear it and not sing along. It's a classic.

God, I HATED Edie Brickell. Nails on chalkboard.

OP, Sylvia was hardly a one-hit wonder. She’s a country singer, but this song crossed jandras to the pop side.

Sylvia was a huge country artist in the 80s with country #1 songs

Sharon Brown - I Specialize In Love

Alison Moyet - Invisible

Quarterflash - Harden My Heart.

I don't think Alison Moyet or Lulu can count has 'one hit wonders.' I chose Shannon, I still love 'Let the Music Play' and it still gets airplay.

Wot is he like?

Shannon had two hits.

Stacey Q:

"Baby Love" was intended for Madonna to record. After she declined it, Regina recorded the vocal herself in late 1985, though with Stephen Bray's production it sounded similar to Madonna's other recordings of the time and was sometimes mistaken for one.

Alisha - Baby Talk

Stacy Q also had two hits, though to be fair I cannot distinguish between them, they sound exactly the same.

Berlin - Take My Breath Away

Jocelyn Brown - Somebody Else's Guy

Alannah Myles was 1990.

December 1989, according to 45cat...

What bullshit chart did OP use? Most of those chart rankings don’t reflect actual chart peaks.

Charlie Dore's "Pilot of the Airwaves" hit #13 US in 1980:

[quote] What bullshit chart did OP use? Most of those chart rankings don’t reflect actual chart peaks.

The Billboard US Chart was used.

Deborah Allen - Baby I Lied

Fun poll, OP, but you got these wrong:

Forget Me Nots peaked at #23

They Don’t Know #8

Black Velvet #1

Mickey because of the video.

Sylvia was really considered a country singer and had several country hits during the 80s. Nobody was her only single to score on the pop chart.

"Shame Shame Shame" is her best, though.

Sylvia's pop hit:

Toni Basil only reached #81 in 1983. Why wasn't this a hit?

For me, it was close between Toni Basil and Tracey Ullman, but I voted for Tracey's "They Don't Know".

*Kirsty Maccoll's "They Don't Know."

Quarterflash had 2 other sizable hits : "Find Another Fool" #14 and "Take Me To Heart" #14

But if people only remember one...

Always wanted Tracy Ullman's cover of Irma Thomas' "Breakaway" to be a bigger hit. It stalled at #70 or so in the US.

Jane Wiedlin - Rush Hour

R37 Such a great song

I agree with R12. Lulu is a 3 hit wonder.

R7 "jandras" lol

Your nobody called today

Lulu actually had 4 Top 40 hits.

[Quote] Such a great song

Courtesy of Jackie DeShannon.

99 Luftbalons, If The Love Fits Wear It, The Seven Year Ache, Heart and Soul-T’pau, When We Kiss are some of my faves.

Edie Brickell was from the “my name is Luca” school of performance.

Holy crap—If the Love Fits Wear it! Totally forgot that one. I have never seen any videos of Leslie Pearl performing her one hit.

Patrice Rushen is no one hit wonder.

Alison Moyet a "one hit wonder"!? Just kill yourself, cretin.

Melba Moore's version of R4 in 1980:

Alison Moyet had one Top 40 hit. "Invisible" peaked at #31.

Bobbi Walker's cover in 1980, r50.

Having just one Top 40 hit does not make one a "One Hit Wonder". There are additional criteria, dumbasses.

[quote] Your nobody called today

Your "Nobody" called today and she hung up when I asked her name.

what was the fourth?

????

Some friends dragged me to a stupid trivia night a few years ago, and in the “one hit wonders” category, one of the answers was Laura Branigan.

I almost flipped the table.

Was "Gloria" the hit?

Well Moyet isn't a one hit wonder because she was in Yaz/Yazoo, iconic New Wave band, and Moyet developed respect and cred as an "underground" great singer that endured for 15 years. Earned or not. One hit wonder means - huge success with 1 hit - then gone and if not forgotten, existing in the shadow of that one hit in a pathetic oldies act way.

"Yazoo" is a different act to "Alison Moyet." Nobody is counting Stevie Nicks' Fleetwood Mac hits...

The fourth Lulu hit. Branigan had more than "Gloria".

[Quote] Branigan had more than "Gloria".

Indeed. I was asking about the quiz.

R32 I love that song - Over My Head by Toni Basil!!!! The video too!!

Baby Love by Regina is gr8

Sylvia was not a one hit wonder

Lulu's Top 40 hits are:

To Sir With Love, Best of Both Worlds, Oh Me Oh My, I Could Never Miss You.

Patti had the best "Gloria"!

No. Them have the best "Gloria."

Sylvia had several hits in the US

Drifter

The Matador

Nobody

Like Nothing Ever Happened

Snapshot

The Boy Gets Around

I Never Quite Got Back From Loving You

Fallin In Love

Cry Just a Little Bit

I Love You By Heart

Country hits don't count unless they go Top 40 on the Hot 100.

Kim Carnes had several Top 40 hits too.

Don’t Fall In Love With a Dreamer (w/ Kenny Rogers)

More Love

Bette Davis Eyes (#1 for 9 weeks)

Invisible Hands

I Pretend

What About Me (w/ Kenny Rogers and James Ingram)

Crazy In The Night (Barking At Airplanes)

[quote] she hung up when I asked her name.

Why would she do that?

Does she think she’s being clever?

Patrice Rushen had other popular songs like Watch Out and Settle For My Love

Berlin had The Metro years before Take My Breath Away came out as well as No More Words

Berlin, The Metro

Berlin made me think of this one-hit wonder

I voted for Tony Basil's "Micky," but Moon Unit Zappa's "Valley Girl" is also a favorite, fer sure, fer sure.

Berlin’s the Metro is one of my fave tracks from the New Wave era

R75 I love that one too by the Passions!!!

What about fuckin’ Terri Gibbs “Somebody’s Knockin’”?????

Somebody’s knockin’ Lord if it’s the devil would you let him in?

Great song!

There is no best. There are MANY.

MANY MANY MANY.

Come On Eileen!

You have to be a true pedant to think that "one-hit wonder" can refer to a person who had only one hit as a solo artist, but who also had multiple hits singing in a group.

By that logic, all Diana Ross' Supremes hits should be counted as "Diana Ross" hits.

I voted for Tracey, because she’s so multitalented & I love that song & vid. Breakaway, Bobby’s Girl, & Move Over Darling should’ve been hits!

Travey's pop career was so fucking pedestrian.

Kitrina and the waves sucked

Love, shine a light on r88 and take him out.

Safire - Thinking of You

Katrina’s a lesbian now, along with Maria McKee of Lone Justice—two bands that stood out during my lowest point of 1985.

"Thinking of You" from the 45 by Safire.

[Quote] during my lowest point of 1985.

Tell us about it.

Brenda K. Starr - I Still Believe

Pretty Poison - Catch Me I’m Falling

Swing Out Sister - Breakout

Vixen - Edge of a Broken Heart

Robin - Save Up All Your Tears

Swing out Sister had a few hits, Am I the Same Girl, Surrender, Twilight World, Waiting Game…I love them!

I like them too but op has set the rules as a hit being US Billboard Hot 100 top 40

R92 it’s from her self titled album “Sa-Fire”. I have the CD. It’s considered a freestyle classic.

A far better singer than most on this list: Toni Childs - Don't Walk Away

R102 Toni Child’s Union CD got me through my sophomore year in high school.

Maybe the problem was having Child in your last name:

Jane Child - Don't Wanna Fall In Love

Child!!? Oh, they're girls...

Toni Childs was nominated for the Grammy for Best New Artist for the year 1988. She was quite deserving.

Martika - Toy Soldiers

Martika had top 40 hits with More Than You know and Love Thy Will Be Done besides Toy Soldiers.

R91 a different time. That's why I give people like KD Lang , Boy George and Melissa Etheridge a ton of credit.

kd lang.

I disagree about Maria McKee being a low point. I’m a fan of her music.

The only Melissa Etheridge song I still enjoy is her 1st or 2nd single “Similar Features”.

Agree r111 my favorite is an astonishingly great song she wrote with Robbie Robertson - Nobody's Child

I’m Gonna Soothe You and Scar Lover are my faves by Maria McKee.

"Ways to Be Wicked" is a good one of hers also.

Debatable whether this 2nd release from Til Tuesday was an actual hit, but I'm saying it's a better song than their big hit

[Quote] I disagree about Maria McKee being a low point. I’m a fan of her music.

That poster was talking about their own life.

"Coming Up Close" is their best song.

R87

SLAP!

Piss off, cunt!

I love Aimee, with that band and solo, but boy, after seeing that video I know why she doesn't dance around at concerts.

Even though it only made it to #72, Don’t Walk Away was the only US Billboard entry for Toni Childs. For some reason, I thought it went Top 40. I loved it back then, and now.

The 90s poll had endless bitching about Alannah Myles.

Doesn't seem her hit was really that popular after checking the votes.

If we're talking U.S., I think Frida's I Know There's Something Going On was a great one.

Had to research so I wouldn't get called out by Billboard nazis, but Romeo Void is a literal one-hit wonder with Girl In Trouble being their only Top 40 hit

R124 I loved that song! I was in elementary when it came out, which should have been a sign. I was obsessed with that song, even though I had NO idea what it meant at the time.

I would have guessed that "Never Say Never" was a bigger hit for Romeo Void. I'm pretty sure it was in Los Angeles, where KROQ played it all the time. Memorable line, "I might like you better if we slept together" - and excellent use of the saxophone.

Never Say Never was limited in its airplay, I think, but some of the lyrics (and the f word) but it was definitely one of those songs that built a fan base/reputation as time went on.

A Girl In Trouble is a great song, too, but watching the video pisses me off. The record company thought that somehow trying to minimize the lead singer's weight in the video would somehow affect the number of people that would buy the record. All sorts of camera tricks that they did on Alison Moyet's videos, too.

I will never be able to think of "Hey Mickey" again without thinking of Khan dancing to it (and Minh clapping along) in the privacy of their living room on "King of the Hill."

[quote] Stacy Q also had two hits, though to be fair I cannot distinguish between them, they sound exactly the same.

Stacey Q hit #35 with her followup:

Let the Music Play takes me back to the Boston gay bars of the 80s. The 1270 especially.

Toni Basil still looks great (2020 interview):

"Give Me The Night" was also a hit for Shannon, though.

Hey Mickey for sure not because it’s the best song but it’s fun, universality appealing and everyone can sing along to it but of course the video is iconic!

Based on song alone I’d say Shannon and then Patrice for me.

The song is “Mickey” by Toni Basil, r133

[quote] but of course the video is iconic!

Yeah, the video really made it. The song itself is a cover of Mike Chapman and Nikki Chin's "Kitty" first released by Racey two years prior.

Shannon’s song was Give me Tonight. Hey remember liking her so much, also liked Do you Wanna Get Away.