They Sang, They Charted--Just Once

Elton John once said that pop music is supposed to be disposable, and nothing exemplifies this side of pop better than the one-hit wonder. VH1 takes a long, mostly lighthearted look at this phenomenon in a five-part series, “100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders,” which can be seen nightly at 10 this week, starting tonight.

Host William Shatner is the guide through 20 songs each night, working his way from No. 100, Carl Douglas’ 1973 single “Kung Fu Fighting,” up through No. 1, Los Del Rio’s once-ubiquitous 1996 hit “Macarena.”

The cable channel isn’t keeping the list secret--it’s posted on the VH1 Web site, www.vh1.com, along with audio samples of each of the top 20 honorees and a trivia contest. There’s also a section in which fans can vote on current songs they think will most likely wind up as the one-hit wonders of the future.

“This is one of my personal favorites” of VH1’s semi-annual ‘100 Greatest ... ‘ shows,” says Steve Tao, VH1 senior vice president of programming and production, who’s also executive producer of the program. “We’re not making fun of things.... These are songs we all love, which for some reason or other stuck in the consciousness of the nation. One thing we decided early on is that we would make it a celebration of these songs and this kind of music.”

Most of the entries are exactly the kind of throwaway hits John probably had in mind when he spoke of disposable pop: Taco’s 1983 single “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (No. 79), Falco’s 1986 song “Rock Me Amadeus” (No. 44) and Chumbawumba’s “Tubthumping” from 1997 (No. 23).

Others may surprise viewers, among them Sinead O’Connor’s version of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” (No. 18) or the Sugarhill Gang’s influential “Rapper’s Delight” (No. 16).

“It’s interesting to see that some of these artists, many of whom are icons of rock ‘n’ roll, had only one single chart hit,” Tao says.

In view of VH1’s core audience--people ages 25 to 40--the entries not surprisingly skew heavily toward music from the ‘80s and ‘90s. About 20% of the songs were hits in the ‘70s, and just three date to the ‘60s.

Songs and their positions were chosen by Tao and other members of VH1’s editorial staff, who considered not only each recording’s chart position but also, Tao says, “how indelibly marked it became in society, and whether it transcended music to be known in other arenas.”

So the fact that former Vice President Al Gore once attempted to dance the Macarena contributed mightily toward cementing its spot at the top of the heap.

Tao says viewers shouldn’t take the list too seriously. Just sit back and, as the title of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s No. 41 entry puts it, “Relax.”