10 Best Two-Album Wonders In Rock Music History
They might be big names, but they only really have two big albums under their belts.
Every artist would love to get to the stage of their career where everything they touch turns to gold; every single a hit, every TV appearance a smash, every bit of tatty merchandise sold at an extortionate price. Sometimes though, success can be fleeting.
A good way to track a performer's success over time is to look at the reception to their albums. Some acts are continuously popular, shifting thousands of copies year in, year out. Others, well, they're not so lucky.
Whilst the acts on this list aren't flops by any means, their ability to sell records has been inconsistent, to say the least. They only really have two big albums to their names, despite some being pretty well known.
In the context of this list, a "two-album wonder" means somebody who could only manage a pair of albums that sold well enough to be considered a hit. Equally, it could mean a band who only had two albums in total, but both of them did quite well.
Whilst diehard fans will obviously know more of these artists' work, for the majority of the population, their major achievements can be counted on two fingers.
10. Warrant
When it comes to the band Warrant, their time in the spotlight was essentially over after their first two albums.
This glam metal act's first release, Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich, came out in 1989. Thanks to the success of the power ballad Heaven, the record reached tenth place in the US charts and went double platinum in the country too.
One year later saw the band follow-up this up with Cherry Pie. The title track went on to become Warrant's signature tune, and the album itself went double platinum once again.
Unfortunately for these long-haired spandex-lovers, their style of music was quickly going out of style.
Their third release, Dog Eat Dog, failed to even crack the US top 20 in 1992. The group wouldn't appear in the Billboard 2000 again until 2017, and even that was only at #97.
Warrant's other albums sold pretty well, and they retain a strong fanbase to this day, but they joined the hair metal movement way too late to have any sort of longevity.
At least they'll always be associated with a certain flavour of pastry-based dessert.