3 One-Hit Wonders You Probably Heard and Sang Along to in High School

When it comes to music, high school is an interesting time. Your tastes and choices are still rounding into form. You are shedding the Top-40 pop sensibilities you likely grew up with and you’re starting to get into more unique and nuanced sounds. But sometimes a one-hit wonder can slip into your playlist or mix CD and live in your mind rent free.

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Here below, we wanted to explore three such examples. A trio of tracks that you probably heard in high school—especially if you are of a certain age. Songs that embedded themselves in you, in part because you loved to sing along with them. Indeed, these are three one-hit wonders you probably heard and sang along to in high school.

[RELATED: 3 Energetic One-Hit Wonders That Are Perfect To Dance Along To]

“Flagpole Sitta” by Harvey Danger from Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? (1998)

Just an instant good time. This Seattle band was discovered by the iconic 1990s DJ Marco Collins, who was breaking bands nonstop for 107.7 The End. And after he got a hold of “Flagpole Sitta,” it became a national phenomenon. Everyone knew the lyrics about paranoia, feeling fine, but also not being well and everything in between. Heck, lead vocalist Sean Nelson just wanted to publish ‘zines and all of a sudden he was moving up the Billboard charts. And on the track, Nelson sings,

I had visions, I was in them
I was looking into the mirror
To see a little bit clearer
The rottenness and evil in me

Fingertips have memories
Mine can’t forget the curves of your body
And when I feel a bit naughty
I run it up the flagpole and see who salutes
(But no one ever does)

“Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice from To the Extreme (1990)

Somehow, something like 98% of the English-speaking world knows all the lyrics to this song. OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it’s remarkable how effortlessly the lyrics flow out once this track comes on. It was ubiquitous for several years in the 1990s and ever since, it’s taken on a life of its own. A work of art and caricature all at once. Released just as the new decade was unfurling, Vanilla Ice is still in the zeitgeist today thanks to the tune. Raps Vanilla Ice,

All right stop, collaborate and listen
Ice is back with the brand-new invention
Something, grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop? Yo, I don’t know
Turn off the lights and I’ll glow
To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle
Dance go rush to the speaker that booms

“I Try” by Macy Gray from On How Life Is (1999)

Boasting one of the most unique voices in all of the Billboard Hot 100 chart history, the Canton, Ohio-born songwriter and performer Macy Gray earned a hit with her seemingly ubiquitous track, “I Try,” which she dropped in 1999 on the LP, On How Life Is. With a bubbly tone and a bombastic chorus, the offering was one everyone sang along to in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Heck, even today. On it, she belts,

I try to say goodbye and I choke
Try to walk away and I stumble
Though I try to hide it, it’s clear
My world crumbles when you are not near
Goodbye and I choke
I try to walk away and I stumble
Though I try to hide it, it’s clear
My world crumbles when you are not near

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