There hasn’t been a massive amount of rock one-hit wonders through the years. However, the few we’ve gotten to enjoy are still major jams today. Let’s headbang through music history and revisit a few stellar rock one-hit wonders that still have staying power!
1. “Turn Up The Radio” by Autograph
Glam metal was huge in the mid-1980s, and plenty of bands in that genre struggled to compete with their contemporaries. Autograph is one such band. They had a huge hit with “Turn Up The Radio” in 1984, which was only helped by all the airplay the song got on MTV.
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Unfortunately, the band never had as big of a hit again. “Turn Up The Radio” was their only song to make it to the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. “Blondes In Black Cars” from 1986 charted well on the US Mainstream Rock charts, but that was about it for Autograph.
2. “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” by The Georgia Satellites
These rock one-hit wonders got quite a bit of attention for their Southern rock hit “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” in 1986. It was The Georgia Satellites’ debut single and positioned them for greatness. Sadly, they didn’t get quite as big as they could have, in our opinion.
“Keep Your Hands To Yourself” made it to no. 2 on the US Hot 100 chart. Their follow-up single, “Battleship Chains”, made it to no. 86. “Hippy Hippy Shake” from 1988 did fairly well, but none of their singles made it to the Top 10 on the Hot 100 again.
3. “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba
There’s something about this dance-rock hit that still gets people riled up today. “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba was an absolutely enormous hit back in 1997. It topped the charts in multiple countries and even made it to no. 6 on the Hot 100.
It was a stellar major label debut. Unfortunately, Chumbawamba couldn’t quite capitalize on that one major hit. “Tubthumping” was their only single to chart in the US.
4. “Black Betty” by Ram Jam
These Southern rock one-hit wonders made waves (both positively and negatively, depending on how you interpret this song) with their cover of a traditional African-American work song by Lead Belly.
It was a decent modern reimagining of the original tune with an almost disco-esque element to it. “Black Betty” made it to no. 18 on the Hot 100 in the late 1970s, but Ram Jam disbanded after just one year together.
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