4 One-Hit Wonders From the 2000s That I Honestly Forgot About

Some one-hit wonders stubbornly stick around for years, decades, forever. They take hold of your brain, and the hooks of “Never Gonna Give You Up” or “Funkytown” just never leave. Then others come and go like Instagram reels. They have your attention for a bit, then you barely remember what you’ve just watched minutes ago.

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Occasionally, you’ll hear a track and suddenly a tune from long ago races back to you. In some cases, you can recite the words without recalling the artist.

Here are four one-hit wonders from the 2000s that escaped my memory until now. Let’s see if you remember them.

“Girl Next Door” by Saving Jane

Marti Dodson led the Columbus rock band Saving Jane through its lone hit “Girl Next Door”. Dodson struggles to live up to the perceived perfection of her cheerleader neighbor with the muted angst of Alanis Morissette. You’ll notice echoes of Avril Lavigne’s clean alt-pop, which helped Saving Jane find an audience on MTV’s Total Request Live.

“I Do!!” by Toya

After Nelly’s “Country Grammar (Hot Sh*t)” put St. Louis hip-hop on the map, a new sound had emerged that didn’t resemble the dominant East and West Coast styles. Nelly’s manager discovered Toya in 2000, and her single “I Do!!” became a Top-20 hit. Toya’s R&B showed a softer side of a scene made famous by the St. Lunatics, but you can still hear traces of Nelly’s Midwest rap in her easy delivery.

“Heaven” by Los Lonely Boys

Los Lonely Boys’ sunny Tex-Mex hit “Heaven” arrived in 2004. This one seems aimed at fans of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Los Lobos. The West Texas band consists of three brothers, Henry, Jojo, and Ringo Garza. And their GRAMMY-winning song found success on pop, adult contemporary, and country radio stations. But this blues aims in the opposite direction of whatever crossroads deal Robert Johnson made with the devil.

“Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn And John

If you remember “Young Folks”, you probably remember the whistling. Now, whistling in a song is usually a deal breaker for me, but Sweden’s Peter Bjorn And John make it work. The DIY track features Victoria Bergsman of The Concretes and fuses block-rocking beats with hazy dream pop. Musically, it’s a 2006 glimpse back to hazier moments of the 1990s. The song details a couple cautiously moving into the next phase of a relationship. They think it’s doomed to fail, but choose to see what happens anyway.

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