Harvey Danger were an American alternative-rock band from Seattle who captured the jittery, ironic spirit of late-1990s alt-rock in one breakout hit. "Flagpole Sitta", released in 1997, is a frantic, witty burst of post-grunge with a shouted, paranoid chorus, and it became a radio and MTV hit, later finding a second life as the theme to a popular British sitcom.
The band were thoughtful and well-regarded, releasing further albums for their fans, but no other song approached the reach of that one nervy anthem.
On streaming, "Flagpole Sitta" sits near 170 million plays, while their next most-streamed track trails at under three million. That sends the ratio above 60, far past our 5.0 line.
By our measure Harvey Danger are a certified one-hit wonder. Theirs is a classic late-90s alt-rock story: a smart, self-aware band who scored one perfectly twitchy single that became a fixture of the era, then continued making music for a loyal audience while the wider world moved on, leaving that single restless hit standing far ahead of everything else they recorded. Its sneering "paranoia, paranoia" hook has proved oddly timeless, popping up in new shows and adverts decades on, keeping the song alive long after the band's other work slipped from view.