One Hit Wonders That Should Be Long Gone By Now

I was recently reading an article by about the greatest one hit wonders, and I thought to myself, why? Not why am I reading this, although that crossed my mind too. But why do these songs still exist? Why are these songs considered great? And are they really one hit wonders or is it some side project another band's lead singer is doing in disguise.

I mean, has anyone ever actually seen Don Cherry from Eagle Eye Cherry and Chris Cornell in the same room at the same time? Exactly.

The one hit wonder. We hear of them all the time. On the radio, on our own playlists, or in some dumb TikTok video everyone had putting up pics of when they were “Teenage Dirtbags.”
One hit wonders are a part of the fabric of any civilized society. And some uncivilized as well, thanks to Tubthumping by Chumbawamba. Ok, that song is more about political unrest, according to udiscovermusic.com. So it's got like a deeper meaning and stuff. But man, it sucks.

Rock and Roll is many things: Cool, loud, in-your-face, and, sometimes funny.

One of the best examples of this comes via The Offspring, whose fifth studio album, Americana, was released on November 17, 1998. The album was a big hit for the band. Americana sold 198,000 copies in the United States during its first week of release. It went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide. Five million copies alone were sold in the United States.

Dexter Holland summarized the album's overall sentiment in a 1998 interview with Billboard. At the time, he said, "I was thinking about how today's America is distorted really. It's not Normal Rockwell anymore; it's Jerry Springer."

Out the gate, Americana got a lot of attention thanks to its lead single, "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)." The single made fun of posers and was rather ahead of its time for making fun of white people for appropriating Black culture. Not only was the song hilarious, but its music video was in heavy rotation on MTV and truly complemented the track. (Side note: After a re-watch, the video still holds up all these years later. It was one of many music videos at that time directed by McG.)

This has us thinking about other funny rock songs in history. They have been sprinkled throughout the decades. Some of these funny rock songs were all about getting laughs. Meanwhile, others had a hidden meaning or served as commentary on society. Then again, some of these songs were just plain weird. (Looking at you, Frank Zappa!)

In honor of the anniversary of Americana, here are just five of our favorites. (For the sake of this list, we've omitted notable comedy acts, like "Weird Al" Yankovic, who are known for their humor. This list focuses on acts that weren't exclusively known for their comedy.)

The world loves wannabes, and by "loves," we clearly mean "loves to make fun of" wannabes. There are plenty of clever lyrics in this Offspring hit. If we had to pick a favorite, we going with, "He needs some cool tunes, not just any will suffice/But they didn't have Ice Cube so he bought Vanilla Ice."

Randy Newman's "Short People" is absurd satire at its finest and most catchy. On the surface, the song is completely silly, but as with most satire, it holds a mirror up to the world. In this case, it showed just how ridiculous prejudice is in all its variations.

Frank Zappa was a delightful, one-of-a-kind weirdo who was a true original. If we're being honest, "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" is just good advice.

Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show were really, to borrow slang from the Brits, "taking the piss" out of rock stars and Rolling Stone with their classic song "The Cover of 'Rolling Stone'." Also, the track was penned by Shel Silverstein, which makes the song even cooler.

We've said this before, but we'll say it again: AC/DC doesn't do subtle, but they do do silly. (And yes, we just said "do-do.") "Big Balls" is clearly the silliest song in the legendary band's catalog. You truly can't help but laugh at this one.

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