'80s One-Hit Wonders

Decades change, music evolves, but as long as there are pop songs there will be a group of artists who will forever be remembered for their one moment of blistering brilliance, confident that their first big hit wouldn't be their last. Sadly, it would. When the '80s ended and the mousse dissolved, these songs stuck with us the most.

Not the biggest hits of the decade, but not in the realm of trivia, these one-hit wonders have managed to outlast legwarmers, Rubik's Cubes, and Roland Rat. Katrina and the Waves captured summer in a bottle with "Walking on Sunshine", and proto-cyberpunks Sigue Sigue Sputnik harnessed the power of hype to launch "Love Missile F1-11".

New Zealand's Split Enz opened the '80s with a truly outstanding single, "I Got You" — lynchpin member Neil Finn would go on to form Crowded House. Another chart highlight of the decade was '87's "Big Decision" by That Petrol Emotion, whose vocalist, Steve Mack, fronted a band gathered from the shards of the Undertones.

You might say that the very notion of the one-hit wonder is essential to the well being of pop music. We, the fickle lovers of catchy tunes, get distracted by a great single, then cruelly abandon its creators as soon as something new comes along. Such pleasures are instantly gratifying, and utterly disposable. That said, some of these tracks are real classics ("Turning Japanese", "Fade to Grey"), and the artists deserve the recognition of a playlist that's as big on quality as nostalgia.