10 Best One-Album Wonders In Rock Music History

For one reason or another, one major album was all these groups could manage.

wheatus teenage dreams
Columbia

Marilyn Monroe once said, "Fame doesn't fulfil you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary."

All of these bands can relate to Marilyn in that way, although it's unclear how many of them have ever stood over a subway vent wearing a skirt.

These ten groups all had a brief taste of fame thanks to one of their albums. Sadly for them, they were unable to capitalise on their successes and now languish in pop culture obscurity.

The term "one-album wonder" can mean different things to different people.

It can either mean a band who had one hit record and then all their others flopped or it can refer to an artist who only released one album and it just so happened to be great.

Luckily for you, both of those definitions will be covered here.

You're welcome.

Whilst some of these bands might have other critically acclaimed albums under their belts, they didn't sell well enough to be classified as a hit.

This list is going purely by the numbers, so there's no need to get upset if one of your favourite groups ends up on here.

10. Electriclarryland - Butthole Surfers

Let's get the band with possibly the worst name of all time out of the way early.

Butthole Surfers (yes, they're really called that) have been around since the early 80s, but failed to make a significant impact on the commercial scene until the mid-90s.

Maybe the name had something to do with that? Just a thought.

Electriclarryland came out in 1996 and was the seventh record released by the band. Everything else up to this point had gone under the radar; they'd made some headway on the UK Indie charts but that was about it.

This release changed everything though, as it rocketed up the US charts to number 31. That may not sound very high, but considering that their previous peak was 154, let's cut them some slack.

The album was certified gold in America, their first and only album to do so, and also gave the world the band's only top 40 hit with Pepper.

It took the group over five years to put out a collection of new material, by which point their moment had been and gone. 2001's Weird Revolution is the last Butthole Surfers album to be released at time of writing.

In this post: 
Rock Music
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.