The best one-hit wonders of the 2000s

In 2000, while gimmicky nonsense like “Blue (Da Ba Dee) and the Bloodhound Gang’s “The Bad Touch” were reaching one-hit wonder status, a band that had been around a while just happened to break through with one song. Filter, the brainchild of a former touring guitarist for Nine Inch Nails, had an alternate rock hit with “Hey Man Nice Shot” in the ‘90s, but like a lot of alt-rock bands needed to mellow out to have a hit. “Take a Picture” is decidedly less edgy, and catchier, leading it to climb into the top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It may feel like, “Wait, Macy Gray only had one hit?” but it’s true. In fact “I Try” is her only song to even crack the top 100. Now, it rose to No. 5 and became ubiquitous, ensuring Gray’s distinct voice became part of 2000s music lore. Still, she never really captured that magic again.

Four Irish siblings found themselves with an earworm of a hit doing it the old-fashioned way. Well, one of the old-fashioned ways: Getting a song from a confirmed hitmaker. The famed producer Mutt Lange produced “Breathless” for the Corrs, and he also co-wrote the song with them. That paved the way for an “adult contemporary” kind of hit, which we don’t mean in a bad way. If every song was aimed for teenagers, music would be intolerable.

Indeed, the early 2000s were loaded with goofy, gimmicky hits, but some of them we don’t mind! When Afroman isn’t waging legal battles (it’s a long story, look into it if you’re interested), he’s the guy with the song about getting high. He’s not what you’d call a technically-adept rapper or singer, but he amused a lot of stoners back before it was legal in most places to be a stoner.

Television shows can still make a song a hit. Sometimes that is true for older songs, like “Running Up That Hill” from Kate Bush, but sometimes it is a contemporary song. “The O.C.” was a soapy sensation for FOX, and that show’s theme song was “California” by Phantom Planet. Also notable about Phantom Planet is that, for a time, actor Jason Schwartzman was the drummer.

Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” walks a tightrope. It comes oh-so close to being cheesy. However, it manages to land on just the right side of endearing. This is, inexplicably, captured quite well in the movie “White Chicks.” It is, perhaps, the only culturally-astute thing in the movie “White Chicks.”

Jimmy Eat World started off closer to a second-wave emo band, and some of that is still evident on the album “Bleed American,” which came out in 2001. By that time, though, while still indebted to emo influences (Davey von Bohlen appears on “A Praise Chorus”) Jimmy Eat World sounded more and more like the pop-punk of the era. Of course, that’s how the band managed to score a huge hit with “The Middle.” It’s designed to be a crowd-pleaser and came packaged with an MTV-friendly music video. Jimmy Eat World got to spend 2026 touring around with The Get Up Kids and Sunny Day Real Estate because of “The Middle.” That’s a fair trade for all parties involved.

Okay, we’re cheating a little bit. “Stacy’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne is not a good song. It’s dumb, and it’s supposed to be dumb, but it doesn’t quite stick the landing. However, it’s still catchy as all get out, and we wanted to include it because we wanted to shout out the power-pop prowess of Fountains of Wayne. Specifically, Adam Schlesinger, who took credit for/copped to writing “Stacy’s Mom.” He wrote the titular song for “That Thing You Do!,” and he wrote some of the music for the “Josie and the Pusşycats” movie. Schlesinger had a remarkable knack for crafting catchy songs. Sadly, he died from COVID-19 complications in 2020 at the age of 52.

Arguably the last gasp of rock music came in the mid-2000s with throwback acts like Jet and The Hives and The Vines and a lot of bands that found a footing after The Strokes broke through. Of course, a lot of those bands only found footing for one song. Jet was one of those bands. The Australian rockers propelled through “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” all guitars and vocal posturing. It worked on Americans…for one song at least.

Anybody who was a fan of Modest Mouse prior to “Float On” probably found it difficult to square the circle of the band having a song that would end up on a “Kidz Bop” compilation. Prior albums were littered with angsty, often long songs featuring Isaac Brock’s erratic, yelping vocals. To be clear, Modest Mouse did some excellent work prior to “Float On.” Also, “Float On” is a good song that manages to both sound like Modest Mouse but be understandable as their one song to break through to the mainstream.

Scottish post-punkers Franz Ferdinand, and their label, seemingly didn’t know what they had on hand. To be fair, a band named after the assassinated archduke probably isn’t aiming for the mainstream. “Take Me Out” was the second single off of the band’s debut album. It’s also hard to pin down, as it starts off as one thing, but then becomes something entirely different. Franz Ferdinand may have stumbled into mainstream success, but at least they stuck to their guns en route to getting there.

“Weird Al” Yankovic has one of the finest ears for music in history. This has helped him repeatedly pinpoint songs to parody, and when he does it with an artist that isn’t a big name, you know there is something to the song in question. Chamillionare’s only hit is “Ridin’,” but it became the jumping off point for one of Weird Al’s biggest songs, “White & Nerdy.” A big part of that is the fact that “Ridin” is such a strong song to begin with.

A concept-heavy side project from two eccentrics was never going to yield a long shelf life or many hits. Gnarls Barkley was comprised of Danger Mouse and Cee Lo Green, and it was about as weird a ride as you would expect. And yet, “Crazy” became a ubiquitous song and a massive hit. Fair enough, of course, as it’s also excellent. These two may be odd characters (and by many accounts Cee Lo’s behavior has gone beyond eccentricity into problematic territory), but they know a lot about making music.

Sometimes, you just know a band is going to be a one-hit wonder. That doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy the moment for that one song while it lasts. “Young Folks” from Peter Bjorn and John is undeniably an earworm, but it felt, and feels, almost like a novelty song. Not a gimmicky or jokey song, mind you, but it succeeded because it had a novel feeling in 2006. That is something one can only manage once.

There are, of course, tragic backstories to some one-hit wonders. “Rehab” is, in and of itself, a tragic song. It, after all, is expressly about Amy Winehouse refusing to go to rehab. She would die of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27. The song sounds fantastic and she had a great voice. All of these things can be true at once.

Whether with Broken Social Scene or as a solo artist, Leslie Feist, aka Feist, has made delightful, folk-inflected indie pop for years. Also, thanks to “1234” she has probably paid a lot of bills and bought a house somewhere in her native Canada, and that’s great. “1234” is simple, yet effective, which is probably why it became both a commercial staple and a song parodied on “Sesame Street.” We prefer “I Feel It All” from the same album, but that song never bought Leslie a cottage (all Canadians with the means own a cottage).