20:42Oldies Music · 1976 · One-Hit Wonders1982 One-Hit Wonders Only True 80s Fans Remember
Episode: Only True '80s Fans Remember These 1982 One-Hit Wonders
From Sora Music Rewind · 22 min ·This episode plays on YouTube — the button opens it in a new tab.
About These 1982 One-Hit Wonders
The 1982 one-hit wonders on this list were everywhere for a few months, on car radios, in shopping malls and at school dances, and then their artists never returned to the top of the pop charts.
This countdown follows our episode from #10 to #1. Chart positions and stories below were checked against Billboard chart records and other reliable sources. A few years refer to the year the song became a hit in America, even when the record first came out in late 1981.
The Countdown: 10 One-Hit Wonders of 1982
#10: Mickey — Toni Basil (1982)
"Mickey" began as "Kitty," a song by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn that the British band Racey recorded for a 1979 album. Toni Basil changed the name and turned it into a song sung to a boy.
She also added the famous cheerleader chant, which was not in Racey's version, though the songwriting credit stayed with Chapman and Chinn. Basil directed and choreographed the video herself, wearing the cheerleading sweater from her own days at Las Vegas High School.
The single went to No. 1 in Australia and Canada, and it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1982. It was certified platinum.
#9: 867-5309/Jenny — Tommy Tutone (1982)
Songwriter Alex Call said he came up with the name, the number and the guitar part on his own. When his co-writer, guitarist Jim Keller, stopped by, Keller remarked that it sounded like a girl's number on a bathroom wall, and the two finished the verses in about 15 or 20 minutes.
Released in November 1981, the song climbed to No. 4 on the Hot 100 in 1982. People who really had the number paid the price. An Alabama woman changed her number in 1982 after late-night calls asking for Jenny, and Chicago's WLS radio reportedly received 22,000 calls in four days after obtaining the number.
Tommy Tutone is usually called a one-hit wonder, though to be fair, their earlier single "Angel Say No" did reach No. 38 in 1980.
#8: Tainted Love — Soft Cell (1982)
Gloria Jones first recorded "Tainted Love," written by Ed Cobb, in 1964. It ended up as the B-side of a 1965 single that did not chart at all. Years later, British DJs made it a favorite of England's Northern soul clubs.
Soft Cell turned it into a cool synthesizer track. The recording took about a day and a half, and singer Marc Almond's first vocal take was the one they kept. The single hit No. 1 in Britain in 1981.
In America, it entered the Hot 100 in January 1982, peaked at No. 8 that summer, and stayed on the chart for 43 weeks, a record at the time. Gloria Jones, who sang the original, had been through her own sorrow: she was driving the car in the 1977 crash that killed her partner, Marc Bolan of T. Rex.
#7: Valley Girl — Frank Zappa featuring Moon Zappa (1982)
Frank Zappa's biggest American hit started with a note. His daughter Moon slipped it under his studio door, offering to sing on his album and to do her "Encino accent."
In early 1982 he took her up on it, waking her in the middle of the night to record. She imitated the slang she heard at parties, bar mitzvahs and the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Zappa himself said he hated the San Fernando Valley and called it "a most depressing place."
The record reached No. 32 on the Hot 100, Zappa's only Top 40 single, and earned a Grammy nomination. Instead of mocking "Valspeak," the song made it a national craze.
#6: Genius of Love — Tom Tom Club (1982)
Talking Heads' Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz formed Tom Tom Club as a side project. "Genius of Love," released in the fall of 1981, features Tina on lead vocals with her sisters Lani and Laura singing backup.
It reached No. 1 on the dance club chart and No. 31 on the Hot 100 in April 1982, the band's only Hot 100 entry. Its real impact came later. Early rap records borrowed its groove, including Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "It's Nasty," and Mariah Carey built her 1995 No. 1 hit "Fantasy" around it.
#5: Pac-Man Fever — Buckner and Garcia (1982)
Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia were doing studio work and TV jingles around Atlanta in 1981 when they found diners crowding around a new Pac-Man machine in Marietta, Georgia. They waited their turn and ended up playing for two hours.
No station wanted their novelty song at first. Then Atlanta's 94Q played it for fun on a morning show, listeners called in to hear it again, and CBS Records took notice. It reached No. 9 on the Hot 100 in March 1982 and was certified gold.
#4: Let It Whip — Dazz Band (1982)
The Dazz Band came from Cleveland, Ohio, and had performed as Kinsman Dazz before signing with Motown in 1980 under a new name. "Let It Whip" was written by producer Reggie Andrews and drummer Leon "Ndugu" Chancler, not Leon Sylvers as is sometimes said.
The track mixes a drum machine with live drums and a Minimoog bass with electric bass. It spent five weeks at No. 1 on the R&B chart and reached No. 5 on the Hot 100. At the Grammy Awards in February 1983, it shared the R&B duo or group prize in a tie with Earth, Wind & Fire. The band placed 20 singles on the R&B chart, but this was its only big pop hit.
#3: I Know What Boys Like — The Waitresses (1982)
Chris Butler wrote this song in Ohio in 1978, while still playing in the band Tin Huey. He recorded it with Patty Donahue singing as a guest, and it came out as a single in 1980, becoming an underground favorite without charting.
After Butler built the Waitresses around Donahue's cool, deadpan voice, the band re-recorded it for their 1982 debut album. It reached No. 62 on the Hot 100 and No. 14 in Australia.
The Waitresses split up in 1983. Patty Donahue died of lung cancer on December 9, 1996, at just 40.
#2: Key Largo — Bertie Higgins (1982)
Bertie Higgins wrote "Key Largo," with help from songwriter Sonny Limbo, about Beverly Seaberg, the woman he had lived with in Florida. The two used to watch old movies together, and the song remembers a cold winter and Bogart films on the late show. It even borrows a famous line from Casablanca.
Released in September 1981, it reached No. 8 on the Hot 100 in 1982, his only Top 40 hit, and spent two weeks at No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Higgins played the song for Beverly, told her he had written it for her, and the two later married.
#1: I've Never Been to Me — Charlene (1982)
Charlene's first release of this Ron Miller and Ken Hirsch ballad peaked at only No. 97 in 1977. Discouraged, she left the music business, married an Englishman and moved to England, where she took a job in a sweet shop in Ilford.
In 1982, Tampa disc jockey Scott Shannon, a former Motown employee, started playing the version with the spoken passage. Listeners responded, Shannon alerted Motown president Jay Lasker, and Lasker personally called Charlene to bring her back.
The reissue spent three weeks at No. 3 on the Hot 100 and went to No. 1 in Britain, Australia, Canada and Ireland. Her only other Hot 100 entry that year was a duet with Stevie Wonder that peaked at No. 46.
Why 1982 One-Hit Wonders Still Bring Back Memories
Almost none of these songs followed a plan. A chant was added in the studio, a teenager left a note, two jingle writers stopped for lunch, and a forgotten ballad came back because one disc jockey believed in it.
That is why they still feel personal. They were not built to last, yet they turned up at every dance and on every car radio that year.
Which of these 1982 one-hit wonders takes you right back, and where were you when it was playing everywhere?
Sources and Further Reading
Topics in This Story
Your turn...
Which song takes you right back — and where were you when you first heard it?
Tell us the story — fellow fans would love to hear it.
We check every fact — but if you spot a mistake, we'd love to know.Report a correction →
