Violent Femmes are an American folk-punk band from Milwaukee whose place on this list is a clear case of measurement, not judgement. Their scrappy, acoustic-driven self-titled debut became a slow-burning classic, cherished by generations of teenagers, and they have a catalogue of songs that fans know by heart.
But streaming concentrates their audience around one track. "Blister in the Sun", released in 1983, is a jittery, instantly recognisable burst of nervous energy, all muted guitar and yelped vocals, and it has become a fixture of films, adverts, and parties far beyond their core following.
On streaming, "Blister in the Sun" sits near 328 million plays, while their next most-streamed tracks, "Kiss Off" and "Add It Up", trail at around 47 million each. That puts the ratio near 7, past our 5.0 line.
So by our strict, numbers-only measure, Violent Femmes register as a certified one-hit wonder, and we flag the caveat clearly. This is a band with a deeply loved debut album and a devoted cult audience who would never call them a novelty. It is simply that one song escaped into the wider culture so completely that it now towers over the rest of their work on streams.