Power Ballads, Cult Bands And The Greatest One-Hit Wonders In Heavy Metal And Hard Rock

Like a one-night stand, people love their one-hit wonders, and heavy metal and hard rock are no exception to the rule. A good one hit wonder takes you back to that time and place that you first heard it. When you sang it out loud, drunk at the bar, and didn’t care what anyone else thought about it. They carry none of the baggage of a more serious artist, whose music must be savored and mulled over like an overpriced bottle of wine. Like those in other genres, in most cases they are just dumb fun though several important bands have also snuck their way into the charts as well.

Just to define terms, when we say “one-hit wonder” we mean a band with only one hit song or album in the top 40 Billboard charts. What’s surprising is how few metal one-hit wonders there really are. Many artists you might think of as such actually had real careers with multiple platinum albums to their names. Unsurprisingly, many of these hits are power ballads because let’s face it, everybody loves a power ballad. Check out the greatest one-hit wonders in hard rock and heavy metal history and try not to sing along to these songs too loudly.