'00s One-Hit Wonders

Decades come and go . . . and so do one hit wonders. This fresh batch of say-hello, wave-goodbye artists all 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") and B.C.'s Daniel Powter, with his American Idol consolation tune "Bad Day." A brilliant Tears for Fears cover brings fleeting fame for Gary Jules and Michael Andrews, 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. Jet Set Satellite made a huge impression with "Best Way to Die" from debut album Blueprint at the start of the decade, Hampton the Hampster cornered the novelty market with "The Hampster Dance Song," and Gary Jules (with Michael Andrews) scored a global hit with their cover of Tears for Fears' "Mad World," which had featured on the soundtrack to cult 2001 movie Donnie Darko. Daddy Yankee waves his fast-burning reggaeton sparkler in Next Steps.

Robbie Williams? One hit wonder? Surely some mistake — well, he earns his place among these ephemeral Essentials by virtue of his guest slot on "My Culture" from the one-off project 1 Giant Leap, which mashed up artists recorded in many different locations around the world. Daddy Yankee went a long way on his tankful of "Gasolina" — and had a crack at the movie business, with the semi-autobiographical Talento de Barrio — while Khia got hot with "My Neck, My Back" before the limelight shone elsewhere.

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 supercharged "Smooth Criminal"). Whichever route these artists took, they're all now immortalised on this list of here today, gone tomorrow, available for download forever Essentials.