Here's a look at one-hit wonders who found Grammy success throughout the years.
Ah, 2000; such an innocent time. It's been 16 years since Baha Men released their Best Dance Recording Grammy-winning single, and they have not released anything since that has come close to "Who Let The Dogs Out" in popularity.
Sir Mix-a-Lot made his one hit count. He released "Baby Got Back" in 1992. The record sold 2.4 million singles in its first year, only second behind Whitney Houston's (not a one-hit wonder) "I Will Always Love You," and earned Mix-a-Lot the Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. In recent years, Mix-a-Lot was recently seen on the "(Baby Got) Back to the 90s Tour," featuring other 1990s hip hop luminaries like Naughty by Nature, Color Me Badd, and Tone Loc.
McFerrin is a 10-time Grammy Award winner, five of those coming before "Don't Worry, Be Happy" existed, which usually isn't something you'd expect from a one-hit wonder, but nothing McFerrin created after "Don't Worry, Be Happy" will ever surmount it.
Dawson's Creek, and by association, countless millennials who grew up with the show, are indebted to Paula Cole for her hit "I Don't Want to Wait". Cole won Best New Artist at the 1997 Grammy Awards, though her only single to reach the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 was "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?"
Marc Cohn won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1991 for his hit "Walking in Memphis." The single, described by Cohn as "auto-biographical," was inspired by Cohn's musical pilgrimage to the city.
The "Britain's Got Talent" audition heard 'round the world, Susan Boyle's tryout has over 200 million views on YouTube. Her run on the show and eventual second place finish went viral around the world and earned her two Grammy nominations: one in 2011 for Best Pop Vocal Album, and the second in 2012 for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
The man who first told us all to “Bust A Move”. The 1989 single earned Young MC the Grammy for Best Rap Performance, where it beat legendary hip hop tracks such as De La Soul's "Me, Myself, and I" and Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It."
Now 49 years old and a far cry from the rapper we saw performing his chart-topping "Ice Ice Baby" in 1990, Vanilla Ice was a trail blazer for white artists in hip hop. The artist also known as Robert Van Winkle earned a Grammy nod for Best Rap Solo Performance in 1991 on the strength of his inescapable single.
"Blue (Da Ba Dee)" was like a pixelated version of the EDM we know today, only released in 2000 by Italian group Eiffel 65. An instant earworm, the track peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard charts and earned the group a Grammy nod for Best Dance Recording.
Rachel, Phoebe and Joey are still upset that Ross, Chandler and Monica went backstage with Hootie & The Blowfish without them. Lead man Darius Rucker has had a substantial solo career post-Blowfish, but it seems history remembers the band most for "Only Wanna Be With You." Hootie & The Blowfish picked up Grammys in 1996 for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "Let Her Cry."
Arguably the most tragic name on this list, Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan were a smash hit for their 1988 single "Girl You Know It's True," from the album of the same name, which netted them the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1990. However, their meteoric rise to the top of the pop world took a sharp turn into ignominy after allegations of lip-syncing uncovered the fact that Morvan and Pilatus didn't actually contribute vocals whatsoever, resulting in numerous lawsuits and their dissolution.
Thank you, Mark Wahlberg, for giving us “Good Vibrations” before becoming a major movie star. Marky Mark was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1993 for Best Rap Solo Performance ("You Gotta Believe"), but did not win. Marky Mark's doing just fine these days, though.
Daniel Powter will forever be linked to bad days in America. Powter was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2007 for Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Bad Day," and though he ultimately lost to John Mayer, the song gained some additional fame as the montage song for eliminated contestants on American Idol.
A Taste of Honey won a Best New Artist Grammy Award in February 1979, besting critical and commerical darlings such as Elvis Costello, The Cars, and Toto off the strength of their hit, "Boogie Oogie Oogie." Released in the waning years of disco's popularity, the band found their chart-topper to be their sole hit.
An obscure name in the United States, the Welsh singer earned comparisons to then-contemporary Amy Winehouse, and won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album in 2009 for her album Rockferry. A regular chart-topper in the UK throughout the late aughts, but her 2010 followup to Rockferry failed critically and commercially, prompting a hiatus from her recording career.
Megan Armstrong (@megankarmstrong) is a writer with previous work appearing in places such as Billboard, Bleacher Report, GQ and others. She's most interested in writing about people and how they live their lives, through the framework of music, entertainment and sports.
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