Alex Clare is a British singer whose breakthrough came from one powerful song and a well-timed advertisement. "Too Close", released in 2011, fused soulful vocals with crunching dubstep-influenced production, and it became a worldwide hit after being used in a major Internet Explorer commercial, an unusual route to fame that introduced the song to a vast audience.
Clare, an Orthodox Jew, famously prioritised his religious observance over relentless touring, and while he kept recording, no later release approached the reach of that one crossover hit.
On streaming, "Too Close" sits near 254 million plays, while his next most-streamed track trails at around 17 million. That sends the ratio above 14, far past our 5.0 line.
By our measure Alex Clare is a certified one-hit wonder. His is a very 2010s story: an artist whose striking, genre-blending single might have stayed a cult favourite, lifted into global recognition by a single advertising placement, then left standing far ahead of the rest of his catalogue as the spotlight moved on and he stepped back from chasing it. It is a rare case of an artist who, having tasted a global hit, seemed content to let it stand alone rather than chase the next one.