Biggest One-Hit Wonders of All Time

“Lean on Me” was a hit for its composer, Bill Withers, in 1972. California-based R&B-pop band Club Nouveau recorded a popular cover version in 1986, which not only hit the charts again, but also belatedly won Withers a Grammy for Best R&B Song.

Tommy Page’s one hit was this song, which he co-wrote with New Kids on the Block members Jordan Knight and Danny Wood. Page, who died in 2017 of apparent suicide, went on to become a successful music industry executive, including stints as a vice president of Top 40 promotion for Warner Bros./Reprise Records and as publisher of the music business bible, Billboard.

Bobby McFerrin took a phrase popularized by Indian spiritual adviser Meher Baba (who also influenced The Who’s Pete Townshend) and turned it into a hit in 1988. McFerrin has been nominated for 18 Grammy awards and won 10 times. Three of those awards — song, record, and male pop vocal performance — were for this Jamaican syncopated tune.

Austrian-born rocker Falco, wearing a powdered wig as a punk Mozart, scored his only No. 1 hit in the United States with the campy “Rock Me Amadeus.” The classically trained Falco was unable to successfully follow up that novelty tune. He was killed in a car accident in 1998 while vacationing in the Dominican Republic.

English singer Kim Wilde topped the American charts in 1987 with her cover of The Supremes hit, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.” Wilde was not able to duplicate that feat in the U.S., though she did have some success in Europe. She has sold more than 10 million albums and 20 million singles worldwide.she has sold over 10 million albums and 20 million singles. she has sold over 10 million albums and 20 million singles.