10 Pop Stars Who Should Have Been One-Hit Wonders

You only get one chance to make a first impression, and nobody knows that better than the dreaded one-hit wonder. Just ask Chumbawamba if they'd like to go back in time and maybe shelve "Tubthumping" (a.k.a. the "I get knocked down" song) for a few more years in favor of something a little less kitschy. They're actually a very solid punk group with a penchant for political skewering, but you'd never know that from the song about "pissing the night away" from whiskey drinks, lager drinks, and cider drinks.

Part of the trick to avoid having one ultra-popular song overshadow the rest of a musician's discography is staying away from any song that might be considered a novelty. No one's taking your work seriously after "Who Let the Dogs Out?" It's just not happening.

Although, how did human garbage bin Kesha (spelled without the dollar sign symbol, because that's stupid and she's not Prince) get to be so popular? Who knows. That's the luck factor playing a major role, as fate apparently lets a few stinkers slip through the cracks for more than just their fifteen minutes on occasion.

The following musicians all caught a lucky break somewhere down the line, because based solely on their breakout single, they all should have failed to make it past the "Where Are They Know?" files. They're not all bad, per se, just...fortunate.

Though it might be a stretch to still be calling Avril Lavigne a "pop star" by today's standards, she's managed to scrape together a couple of hits over the last few years. Her relationship with fellow Canadian musician (and equally unlikely pop star) Chad Kroeger probably helped keep her in the spotlight. (Together, they form the power couple that no one wants to get stuck talking to at the awards show after parties.)

Lavigne's debut single, "Complicated," was a polite, inoffensive little slice of pop music played to a pre-teen market that had just missed out on the Britney/Christina years. It was fine. It did it's job. But then "Sk8er Boi" happened. It was incredibly painful to type the name of that song just now, but it was even harder to constantly sit through a three and a half minute insult to punk music that would make Good Charlotte cringe. Yet, it was a big time hit. 

And she wasn't done yet. A few years later the world let her have another big seller with "Girlfriend," a watered down rip-off of Toni Basil's "Hey Mickey." This is why people find it so easy to mock Canada at times.