'80s One-Hit Wonders 2

Like meteorites they came, out of nowhere, to illuminate our skies with moments of magic and then flare out, just as quickly as they'd appeared. Many '80s one-hit wonders hold a special place in history too: without the Sugarhill Gang's milestone "Rapper's Delight," hip-hop as we know it today might not exist, and "The Safety Dance," by Montreal's Men Without Hats, was one of the earliest examples of electronic new wave to scale worldwide charts. With the addictive dance-floor anthem "In My House," the Mary Jane Girls brought boogie fever to thermometer-boiling new heights. They may have been one-hitters, but more often than not they hit it out of the park. Check and see in our Next Steps section.

Jazz master Stanley Clarke, with collaborator George Duke, scored one of the decade's most enduring slow jams with "Sweet Baby" (featuring Jeffrey Osborne on vocals); and country music also had its wonders: Indiana-born songbird Sylvia had her one and only chart-topper with the sassy breakup tune "Nobody." Montreal-born guitar and keyboard wizz Aldo Nova gave us the fizzing, futuristic rock of "Fantasy" and Oran "Juice" Jones lit up '86 with that lightning bolt storm sample and synth line on "The Rain." Wade into Deep Cuts to investigate the full breadth of creativity and cool that defined the one-hit wonders of the '80s.

British comedienne Tracey Ullman did more than give The Simpsons its first home on TV; she recorded (and had a hit with) "They Don't Know," a brilliantly crafted pop paean to the Lesley Gores and Petula Clarks of a bygone era. Fuelled by the take-no-prisoners vocals of Dale Kranz, the Southern-rocking Rossington Collins Band set "Don't Misunderstand Me" proudly alongside the sainted canon of Lynyrd Skynyrd, the band which had spawned them. And Belgian punk Plastic Bertrand scored big in Quebec with "Stop ou encore."

The musical landscape of the '80s was painted by artists both major and minor, and the one-hit wonders are as much a part of the canvas as anyone. Significantly, this was the first generation to come of age alongside burgeoning music television, so many of these songs – from "99 Red Balloons" by German vocalist Nena (and her like-titled band) to "Never Ending Story" from former Kajagoogoo front man Limahl — were vividly and inexorably married to wonderfully creative videos. It was a time when the world was changing with breathless speed, yet the music remains — as fresh and vital as ever.