100 Greatest One Hit Wonders Of The 80s: Read the List
Vixen, The Church, Midnight Oil, Aldo Nova – they all found a spot on our list. We counted down the 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s, and these guys, plus acts such as Timbuk 3, The Georgia Satellites, and Paul Hardcastle, all made a dent. Check the list below to see where they ranked. Click the links to watch the videos. Head to The Greatest page for more playlists and show information.
Haven’t gotten your fill of 80s music yet? Here’s some more for you.
Watch an alphabetical list of the 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s
Watch 30 videos that missed making the top 100 list
100 Greatest Songs of the 80s: The Ladies
THE COMPLETE LIST…
1 Dexys Midnight Runners: “Come on Eileen”
2 Flock of Seagulls: “I Ran (So Far Away)”
3 A-Ha: “Take On Me”
4 Tommy Tutone: “867-5309 / Jenny”
5 Soft Cell: “Tainted Love”
6 Toni Basil: “Mickey”
7 Modern English: “I Melt With You”
8 Bow Wow Wow: “I Want Candy”
9 Kajagoogoo: “Too Shy”
10 Frankie Goes to Hollywood: “Relax”
11 Gary Numan: “Cars”
12 Animotion: “Obsesssion”
13 Thomas Dolby: “She Blinded Me With Science”
14 Big Country: “In A Big Country”
15 Devo: “Whip It”
16 Nena: “99 Luft Balloons”
17 Men Without Hats: “The Safety Dance”
18 Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock: “It Takes Two”
19 Dead or Alive: “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”
20 Rockwell: “Somebody’s Watching Me”
21 Twisted Sister: “We’re Not Gonna Take It”
22 Michael Sembello: “Maniac”
23 Eddy Grant: “Electric Avenue”
24 Edie Brickell & New Bohemians: “What I Am”
25 Musical Youth: “Pass the Dutchie”
26 Cutting Crew: “I Just Died In Your Arms”
27 Stacey Q: “Two of Hearts”
28 John Parr: “St. Elmos Fire (Man In Motion)”
29 Madness: “Our House”
30 The Vapors: “Turning Japanese”
31 Bobby McFerrin: “Don’t Worry Be Happy”
32 Quarterflash: “Harden My Heart”
33 John Waite: “Missing You”
34 The Waitresses: “I Know What Boys Like”
35 Tom Tom Club: “Genius of Love”
36 Weather Girls: “It’s Raining Men”
37 Lipps, Inc.: “Funkytown”
38 Bruce Willis: “Respect Yourself”
39 Matthew Wilder: “Break My Stride”
40 The Buggles: “Video Killed the Radio Star”
41 Billy Vera “At This Moment”
42 Timbuk 3 “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades”
43 Shannon “Let the Music Play”
44 Wall of Voodoo “Mexican Radio”
45 Robbie Nevil “C’est La Vie”
46 Georgia Satellites “Keep Your Hands To Yourself”
47 Pretty Poison “Catch Me I’m Falling”
48 Yello “Oh Yeah”
49 Philip Bailey (w/ Phil Collins) “Easy Lover”
50 Neneh Cherry “Buffalo Stance”
51 After the Fire “Der Kommissar”
52 Mary Jane Girls “In My House”
53 Taco “Puttin’ On the Ritz”
54 Chris DeBurgh “Lady in Red”
55 Johnny Kemp “Just Got Paid”
56 Til Tuesday “Voices Carry”
57 Jermaine Stewart “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off”
58 Don Johnson “Heartbeat”
59 The Outfield “Your Love”
60 Nu Shooz “I Can’t Wait”
61 E.U.: “Da Butt”
62 XTC: “Dear God”
63 Oran “Juice” Jones: “The Rain”
64 Robbie Dupree: “Steal Away”
65 Boomtown Rats: “I Don’t Like Mondays”
66 The Jeff Healy Band: “Angel Eyes”
67 Martika: “Toy Soldiers”
68 Peter Schilling: “Major Tom”
69 T’Pau: “Heart And Soul”
70 Harold Faltermeyer: “Axel F”
71 Jack Wagner: “All I Need”
72 Swing Out Sister: “Breakout”
73 Paul Hardcastle: “19″
74 Information Society: “What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy)”
75 Bertie Higgins: “Key Largo”
76 J.J. Fad: “Supersonic”
77 General Public: “Tenderness”
78 Aldo Nova: “Fantasy”
79 Alannah Myles: “Black Velvet”
80 Eddie Murphy: “Party All The Time”
81 Josie Cotton: “Johnny Are You Queer?”
82 Red Rider: “Lunatic Fringe”
83 Paul Lekakis: “Boom Boom Boom Let’s Go Back to My Room”
84 The Church: “Under The Milky Way”
85 Ziggy Marley And The Melody Makers: “Tomorrow People”
86 Patrice Rushen: “Forget Me Nots”
87 Vixen: “Edge Of A Broken Heart”
88 Nik Kershaw: “Wouldn’t it Be Good”
89 Rodney Dangerfield: “Rappin’ Rodney”
90 Haircut 100: “Love Plus One”
91 Gloria Loring & Carl Anderson: “Friends And Lovers”
92 Frank Stallone: “Far From Over”
93 L.A. Guns: “The Ballad of Jayne”
94 Club Nouveau: “Lean On Me”
95 Midnight Oil: “Beds are Burning”
96 The Fabulous Thunderbirds: “Tuff Enuff”
97 Will To Power: “Baby I Love Your Way / Freebird”
98 Buckner & Garcia: “Pac-Man Fever”
99 Michael Damian: “Rock On”
100 Clarence Clemons (and Jackson Browne): “You’re A Friend Of Mine”
September 8th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Are you people serious about wanting CDs?
Do a search, there are hundreds of 80s compilations available out there. Might not be this exact list, but I’m sure you could get pretty close.
Or you could just use one of the hundreds of download options and make your own for free…
Altough I think you’ll find once you have this on CD and listen to it about twice, you’ll find it gets old pretty quick.
September 10th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Anybody else remember the one-hit “There ain’t no Age for Rock & Roll” by The Veterans? Last seen on Countdown.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:39 am
I need help. There’s a commercial for an online credit reporting company (the one with the guys who sing in different situations). The newest commercial shows them on a roller coaster. I swear the tune reminds me of an 80s song, but I can’t recall the artist. I’m pretty sure the group has a female singer. Nothing in the list above rings a bell. Can anyone here help me?
September 14th, 2009 at 7:41 am
A-ha are not one hit wonders lol…
September 15th, 2009 at 11:56 am
For all intents and purposes, A-Ha is a one-hit wonder in the US.
Though they technically had a second ‘hit’ with ‘The Sun Always Shines on TV’, no one in the US remembers it and it was only a ‘hit’ because it was the follow-up to the huge ‘hit’ ‘Take On Me’.
Obviously they had multiple hits in other countries, but as others have mentioned OVER AND OVER before, this is a US ONLY list.
September 15th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Chris DeBurgh? I’d have thought his one-hit was “Don’t Pay the Ferryman”.
After hearing that song, I was disappointed to discover that most of his other stuff was cheesy ballads like “Lady in Red”.
And then the Ferryman said: “There is trouble ahead. You must pay me now.” (Don’t do it!) “You must pay me now” (Don’t do it!) Too many men have failed befoooooooore! Don’t pay the ferryman! Don’t even fix a price. Don’t pay the ferryman! Until he gets you to the other siiiiiiide.
September 20th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Great show but who is researching the artists on this list?? Many of them had more than 1 hit in the Billboard Top 40. Quarterflash, Animotion, Stacey Q, Chris DeBurgh, etc.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:50 am
Brilliant observation ‘Bart’, and if you read many of the other posts you will see that not only ‘many’ had more than one hit, but 37 had more than one hit, and although you didn’t mention it, 13 had NO hits in the 80s.
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:47 pm
What about “Shattered dreams”?
October 5th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
La verdad que las lista esta buenisima estan las que tenian que estar,para los que vivimos recordando esta gran decada.
Deberian hacer un programa con otras rolas que permanecieron en lista y que no fueron numero 1y que siguen siendo buenisimas.
Felicitaciones por esta lista y por los buenos programas que hacen sobre musica de los 80′S.
October 14th, 2009 at 8:58 am
A-Ha, Madness, Falco and chris de brugh..are no one hit wonders…
October 20th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
this by far is the coolest vh1 countdown some songs were on the regular 80’s countdown,some of the graetest one hit wonders of all time,some maybe even on both,but ther were some i never heard of that were so cool
October 21st, 2009 at 4:05 pm
what the hell?? wheres depeche mode???!!!!
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:12 am
can someone help me. I’m trying to remember a song from the 80’s with the words ” take it all back ” in the chorus. the video clip was of 2 guys singing and the main singer was gorgeous ! these are the only 4 words that i can think of. i know it’s not much help but maybe it rings a bell with someone. please help me, it’s driving me insane !
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:24 pm
What the hell? Which one of Depeche Mode’s multiple hits would you have them put on the countdown that is only supposed to be for ‘one hit wonders’, even though it fails miserably as has been pointed out ad nauseum by now…
October 27th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
please review numbers 57, 93,and 97.thank you for your atention