'00s One-Hit Wonders

Decades come and go . . . and so do one hit wonders. All of these say-hello, wave-goodbye artists briefly lit up the charts like roman candles, then faded into the landscape of nostalgia, victims of the world's short attention span and pop's disposability. Here, though, you can love them forever — let's hear it for the Baha Men ("Who Let the Dogs Out"), Las Ketchup (taking a leaf out of Baccara's book with "Aserejé"), former Baywatch lifeguard David Hasselhoff ("Jump in My Car" — if you'd like more Hasselhoff, you could consider moving to Germany, where's he's been a rock star since the late '80s) and Psycho Teddy, creator of the ultimate pure techno ringtone. A slow-moving earth-mover delivers fast fame for Nizlopi, in Next Steps.

When the big book of pop is finally written, these artists will be found not in the chapter headings, but in the footnotes. Khia got hot with "My Neck, My Back (Lick It)" before the limelight shone elsewhere although, to be fair, the track helped secure gold status for her debut album Thug Misses in 2002. Nizlopi's charming tale of father-son bonding ("The J.C.B. Song" — one of the greatest one-hitters ever) remains a highlight from 2005, and Natalie Gauci delivered debut single "Here I Am" after winning Australian Idol in 2007 (there will surely be more hits to follow), while Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" became the universal uplifting theme for Idol disappointment. Daddy Yankee waves his fast-burning reggaeton sparkler in Deep Cuts.

Look at it this way — one hit is better than no hits, especially if it's a good 'un. Daddy Yankee went a long way on "Gasolina" in the mid '00s — since then the Puerto Rican reggaeton star has had a crack at the movie business, with the semi-autobiographical Talento de Barrio — while Crazy Town produced one of the most addictive rap-rock tracks in chart history with 2001's "Butterfly." The ever-clever Lemon Jelly's "Nice Weather for Ducks" helped define the mellow side of 2002 and prompted further exploration of their excellent album, Lost Horizons, and progressive house project Motorcycle left a sweet tire track on our memory with "As the Rush Comes" (2003).

Although there's no perfect single formula for a one-hit wonder, a quick scan of these '00s flashes in the pan of pop reveals a couple of interesting approaches — for example, you can try extracting an iron-lunged rock balladeer from his familiar group surroundings and sticking him on a tent-pole movie soundtrack — check out Nickleback's Chad Kroeger on "Hero" from Spider-Man, and Audioslave's Chris Cornell on "You Know My Name" from Casino Royale; or you can take a familiar tune and give it an fresh spin (Alien Ant Farm's Michael Jackson reworking, "Smooth Criminal"; Hermes House Band's "Country Roads"). Whichever route these artists took, they're all now immortalised on this list of here today, gone tomorrow, available for download forever Essentials.