Sometimes I have asked myself what it feels like to have a hit single, then just vanish professionally. It has happens a lot in the recording industry. Some people who had the moxie to get out there and make a record, even if it garnered praise and awards, just did not sustain their creative or artistic momentum for various reasons. They went under, never to be resurrected. It's sad and puzzling to have a promising career reduced to being be an asterisk in the annals of the music business - a one-hit wonder.
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Here are three such artists from the early 2000s who had this fate - Baha Men, Howie Day, and James Blunt. Call them fads, gimmicks, or flashes in the pan. Whatever it takes to stick around long-term at the height of fame, they evidently did not have it or choose to cultivate it.
'Who Let The Dogs Out' (2000)
Baha Men
This was a top-tapping (novelty?) song that got on some listeners' nerves fast. Even so, it got folks moving, swaying, or spinning on the dance floor. Per the Baha Men web site, "The song earned the band several awards; a Grammy Award in 2000, a Billboard Music Award for World Music Artist of the Year and World Music Album of the Year; a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award for Favorite Song and in 2002, they won another Kids Choice Award for Favorite Band." Despite all the prestigious music industry tributes, the song sank out of memory for many.
'Collide' (2004)
Howie Day
When Morgan Wallen was a contestant on The Voice ten years ago, he sang this song for his audition. He was eventually booted off the show, which was definitely no fault of Howie Day's. Per American Songwriter, "...'Collide' became certified gold by the RIAA for 500,000 copies sold in September 2005." Now 43, Day, who is from Maine, certainly had a major success with the song, which went 4x platinum, according to his web site. He never really attained that level of heady fame and acclaim again, though.
'You're Beautiful' (2004)
James Blunt
This song came in at number 7 in a Most Annoying Songs list compiled by Rolling Stone seventeen years ago, according to Cosmopolitan. Not exactly a great distinction. Per the outlet, Blunt received "three Grammy Award nominations, a quadruple platinum RIAA certification, and the first ever BMI Internet award." That seems to have been the pinnacle for him that he did not reach again.
