Top 10 One Hit Wonders - Where Are They Now?

Back in 2011, you couldn’t walk five steps without hearing Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.” The song was absolutely massive, winning the Triple J Hottest 100 poll, topping dozens of country charts, and winning two Grammy Awards. In recent years, Gotye has served as a featured vocalist on tracks by electronic musician Bibio and rock band The Night Game. He also founded the Ondioline Orchestra, and the group played at the New York Roulette Mixology Festival in 2018. Gotye also plays the drums and provides the vocals for the rock band The Basics, whose third live album, “In the Rude!”, was released in 2017.

No, no of course you don’t. So, to refresh your dusty old person memory, they did “Stacy’s Mom”, one of the biggest power pop singles of 2003. To this date, “Stacy’s Mom” remains the band’s only charting single in the US, where it peaked at #21. The band continued to release music up until 2011, when their fifth studio album, “Sky Full of Holes”, was released. However, the album proved challenging to make, with vocalist Chris Collingwood blaming his own assertive personality on the persistent strife. The band split up following the release of the album, and they have no plans to reunite.

Besides having the goofiest band name in existence, Hoobastank has one single to their name – “The Reason”, another major song from the glory pop days of 2003. Of course, it also proved to be their last charting single in the United States. Surprisingly, Hoobastank is still pumping out the tunes, and their sixth studio album, “Push Pull”, was released in May of 2018. Two singles were released from the album – “More Beautiful” and “Push Pull” – but both failed to chart in any country. In fact, their last charting single was 2012’s “This Is Gonna Hurt”, which reached #70 in Japan and #28 on the US Mainstream Rock chart.

In one sense, it is Baha Men who let the dogs out. You know, your dorky Gen-Y uncle's favorite song, AKA one of the worst songs of all time? But be darned all the way to the tepid pools of heck if it isn’t catchy. The song became “somewhat” “relevant” again in 2019, when a documentary about the making of the song was shown at the SXSW music festival. But, Baha Men are still going strong, and their most recent album, “Ride with Me”, was released in 2015. They also released a new single in 2019 called “Let’s Go” to celebrate the NCAA Final Four and performed on season 14 of “The Bachelorette” when the show went to the Bahamas.

Crazy Town was just another rap rock group in the early 2000s when they stormed from nowhere and onto the scene with “Butterfly”. “Butterfly” was an enormous success, reaching #1 in fifteen countries and launching the band to stardom. Unfortunately, no one seemed to care about their follow-up album, and the band broke up in 2003. However, they reunited in 2007, and their third studio album, titled “The Brimstone Sluggers”, was released in 2015. The band are currently working on something called “The Beautiful Insane”, although Epic – the singer guy, the one without the star tats – has announced that he will no longer perform as a member of the band.

Back in 1999, Macy Gray released a song called “I Try”. The single has remained popular, appearing in shows like “The Office,” “Mrs. Brown’s Boys,” and “The Last Man on Earth,” so really, all Macy Gray needed was one song to be set for life. That hasn’t stopped her from releasing music on the regular, and 2018 saw the release of her tenth studio album, titled “Ruby”. Two singles were released from the album – “White Man” and “Sugar Daddy” – the latter of which reached #21 on the US Adult R&B chart. Gray may not be the chart-topping smash success she was back in 1999, but then again, something tells us she doesn’t want to be.

Canadian pop rock artist Daniel Powter struck gold in 2005 with his anthem “Bad Day”, which – fun fact – was the first song to sell two million digital copies in the US. Powter followed this up with “Love You Lately,” which reached #5 ... in his native Canada, but following that, he sort of dropped off the map. However, he’s still releasing music, and four singles from his fifth studio album, “Giants”, were released throughout 2017 and 2018. He also had a minor hit in Canada in 2012 called “Crazy All My Life,” which our Canadian viewers are sure to recognize. It’s good to see him still chuggin’ away!

Vanessa Carlton wrote one of the most bangin’ piano melodies this side of Mozart for her hit song “A Thousand Miles,” which reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. The accompanying album, “Be Not Nobody”, also reached #5 in the US and was eventually certified platinum. Oh, the power of a good single. Her follow-up, “Harmonium”, only reached #33, and she has since failed to surpass that peak. However, it’s not for a lack of trying, as she has released three albums since, the most recent of which was released in 2015. Vanessa also made her Broadway debut in 2019, landing the lead role in a limited run of “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.”

This soul duo was composed of CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse, and they released two albums in the mid-to-late 2000s – “St. Elsewhere “and “The Odd Couple”. But their biggest claim to fame is easily “Crazy,” their neo-soul classic that has been ranked in numerous publications as one of the greatest songs of all time. The duo entered an indefinite hiatus in 2010, although CeeLo Green stated in 2017 that they were working on a new album. In the meantime, CeeLo released his fifth solo album, “Heart Blanche”, in 2015, and Danger Mouse has won numerous Grammy awards for his production work on albums like “El Camino” and Adele’s “25”.

Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5” is perhaps the one-hit wonder-est of all the one-hit wonders. This silly piece of music was quite literally everywhere in 1999, peaking at #1 in nearly every country in continental Europe, Canada, Iceland, and Australia, and peaking at #3 in the United States. Way to kill the momentum, America! Lou Bega has released five studio albums over the years, and his latest output was “A Little Bit of 80’s” in 2013. He continues to perform relatively well in his surprisingly native Germany with three of his post-“Mambo No. 5” singles peaking within the top 40. The latest, 2010’s “Sweet Like Cola,” peaked at #38.