Buffalo Springfield demand a loud caveat. The 1960s band were a launchpad for some of rock's greatest figures, including Neil Young, Stephen Stills, and Richie Furay, and their influence on folk rock and country rock is enormous. To call them a one-hit wonder ignores their towering place in music history.
But on streaming, one song stands far above the rest. "For What It's Worth", written by Stills and released in 1966, became an enduring protest anthem, its uneasy refrain of "stop, hey, what's that sound" forever tied to the turbulence of the era and revived endlessly in films and documentaries. It now sits near 866 million plays.
The rest of their catalogue, beloved by aficionados, trails far behind on streams. Dividing the hit by their second biggest gives a ratio above 18, many times our 5.0 line.
So by our strict, numbers-only measure, Buffalo Springfield register as a certified one-hit wonder. We flag it as the historical-blind-spot case it is: much of their listening came in an era streaming never counted, the members went on to define rock for decades, and one indelible protest song has, on streams alone, come to represent a far richer legacy.