Best One-Hit Wonders of the Decade

By Amy Wilkinson Posted Dec 25th 2009 06:00AM

With Daniel Powter's 'American Idol' farewell song 'Bad Day,' earning the dubious distinction of Billboard's top one-hit wonder of the decade, we got to thinking of the other blink-and-you-missed-it stars of the aughts-from actors and musicians to authors and reality-show hosts. Their popularity may have fizzled as quickly as William Hung's, but here at PopEater, we'll always remember them for their contribution to the crazy first decade of the 2000s.

Actor: Brandon Routh
Brandon Routh beat out some of Hollywood's hottest young hunks to don Clark Kent's Coke-bottle glasses in "Superman Returns." Though the film soared like a bird (and/or a plane) at the box office, the role may have been career kryptonite for the actor seeing as he's been in little since.

Actress: Lindsay Lohan
As a child actress, Lindsay Lohan gained moderate fame playing scheming twins in the 'Parent Trap' remake, but it was as transfer student Cady Heron in 2004's 'Mean Girls' that the New York-native gained starlet status, for better or for worse. Nowadays, LiLo's known more for her addiction problems and relationship quarrels than her acting chops, with her last effort 'Labor Pains,' released directly to the ABC Family channel.

Singer: Vanessa Carlton
American audiences must have a thing for unrequited love. Much like James Blunt's 2005 hit 'You're Beautiful,' Vanessa Carlton's popular piano ballad 'A Thousand Miles' dealt with the loss of a lover, and just like Blunt's song, became a staple of radio airwaves. Follow-up singles 'Ordinary Day' and 'Pretty Baby' just couldn't go the distance.

Author: James Frey

Technically, author James Frey scored two bestsellers in the aughts with his gripping addiction memoir 'A Million Little Pieces' and its follow-up 'My Friend Leonard,' though the former eclipse the latter by leaps and bounds when it was dubbed one of Oprah Winfrey's book club picks. When it came to light portions of the work had been fabricated, Frey was dropped by his publisher and received quite the rebuke from Winfrey. Reemerging as a novelist, Frey recently published the fictional 'Bright Shiny Morning' and is reportedly working on a second novel based on the Bible.

Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Debut novelist Audrey Niffenegger single-handedly supported the facial tissue industry in 2004 with her weepy sci-fi romance 'The Time Traveler's Wife.' Though it became a bestseller, the film version starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana didn't fair so well at the box office. Her hotly anticipated and similarly fantastical follow-up 'Her Fearful Symmetry' also failed to garner the same reception as her stunning debut.

Documentarian: Morgan Spurlock
If you forsake Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets in the mid-00s, it likely had something to do with a little documentary called 'Super Size Me,' in which intrepid filmmaker Morgan Spurlock set out to see what would happen if he subsisted on a McDonald's-only diet for 30 days. Spurlock went on to produce a spin-off TV series called '30 Days' and film other docs like 2008's 'Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?' but neither left us with the McSweats quite like 'Super Size Me.'

Reality Show: 'Joe Millionaire'

Reality shows come and go, but nothing tickled the zeitgeist in 2003 quite like 'Joe Millionaire.' The show followed faux millionaire Evan Marriott-he was really a construction worker-on his search for love, wining and dining women who had no idea he wasn't loaded. The show's finale garnered 40 million viewers, but a follow-up 'The Next Joe Millionaire' didn't attract viewers quite like the original.

Reality Show Host: Brian Dunkleman
'American Idol''s youngest fans likely can't recall a time when Ryan Seacrest shared hosting duties for the wildly popular talent competition. But he did. And that co-host's name was Brian Dunkleman. The one-time emcee left after the show's first season and went on to appear on VH1's 'Celebrity Fit Club.' With Seacrest pulling in a reported $15 million a year hosting the FOX series, Dunkleman's gotta wonder 'What if?' every now and then.

Television Maid/Butler: Jane Leeves
Perhaps the poor economy is to blame, but hired help just isn't as de rigueur as it used to be. No one did it better in the aughts than Jane Leeves, who played quirky housekeeper/physical therapist Daphne Moon on the series 'Frasier.' We couldn't have been happier when her and neurotic Niles finally tied the knot.

'Friends' Star: David Schwimmer
Everyone's favorite Central Perk patrons have had mixed success since the end of their series in 2004. Courtney Cox has seemingly found a home in "Cougar Town," Jennifer Aniston's rife with movie roles (and tabloid covers) and Matthew Perry had a hit with "17 Again" (though we think Zac Efron might have had something to do with that one). Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc have had series of their own that didn't last, but it's David Schwimmer who's kept the lowest profile of the bunch, sticking largely to directing and stage productions. Could we be any more bummed the 'Friends' star hasn't become a fixture on our television sets?

Who are your favorite one-hit wonders of the 00s?

Comments

(96)

Saturday 26 December

By Patrick

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Vanessa Carlton is amazing, and so underrated!

By George

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Nate,

As there was never a year "zero", and as you pointed out, it takes ten year to make a decade, one hundred to make a century and one thound to make a millinium, yes, the third milliania started in 2001 and e will not end the present decade until the end of 2010.

Hold your breath and wait another year.

By Marcus

How about Talyor HIcks from American Idol. He wins the show, has a sucky song "Do I Make You Proud", is dropped by his label and rides off into the sunset. Gone faster than a snowflake on a 90 degrees day.

By Jason

Having David Schwimmer on this list instead of Matt LeBlanc is amazing. LeBlanc has done NOTHING since Friends except play Joey for a few episodes.... Seriously, he hasn't appeared in anything.

Schwimmer has been in Curb Your Enthusiasm and 30 Rock and was in a decent movie, "Big Trouble".

It's not the end of the decade until the end of 2010. The first decade were years 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Second decade 11-20. All of the ***0 years are from the previous decade because there was NO YEAR ZERO. If that does not explain it, but who cares we will be using the Chinese calendar by the next decade anyway.

By Alois

"When her and neurotic Niles."

What's wrong with this? Who ~wrote~ this garbage, and why did her drop out of school in the second grade?

I bet your favorite Beatles song is "Hers Leaving Home." Your favorite description of a conflict is "He said, her said." You buy towels labeled "His and She's." Sheesh!

Illiteracy. That's the new Aol. (Thank God I'm short the stock.)

By bill

Schwimmer also had a fairly large and well played role in "Band of Brothers". Thats when I started liking him a little bit. At least he proved he can act like something other than a mornon on a tv show

By Ed

Otis Redding died at age 26 and it wasn't until after his death that Sit'in on the Dock came out.Not only was his song recognized but also he introduced us as a society to black rythym and blues and the raspy sounds of the southern soul. He and Jim Croche both would have given us far more musical inspiration if their lives hed not been cut short a such a young age. Now as far as the R&R Hall of Fame goes....Why would Abba be inducted before Chicago?

By Derek

Ummm, okay, so, I guess that David Schwimmer's voice ISN'T heard in the two Madagascar movies which both earned over 100 million at the box office and not to mention DVD sales? If you ask me, he's doing okay for NOT being as popular or famous as his other "Friends" are

By Jim

I believe that the first decade of the 21st century started with the first day of the year 2000 and ends with the last day of the year 2009.

01/01/2000 - 12/31/2000 = 1st year;
01/01/2001 - 12/31/2001 = 2nd year;
01/01/2002 - 12/31/2002 = 3rd year;
01/01/2003 - 12/31/2003 = 4th year;
01/01/2004 - 12/31/2004 = 5th year;
01/01/2005 - 12/31/2005 = 6th year;
01/01/2006 - 12/31/2006 = 7th year;
01/01/2007 - 12/31/2007 = 8th year;
01/01/2009 - 12/31/2008 = 9th year;
01/01/2009 - 12/31/2009 = 10th year.

I should have done a bit more research before making my last post. The 21st century, according to Wikipedia, began on January 1, 2001 and ends on December 31, 2100. Therefore the first decade of the 21st century ends on December 31, 2010. I stand corrected.

By Biff

Jim, I'm glad you caught your mistake--and it was a whopper--but I would caution you relative to using Wikipedia as an absolute source of information, since it does have a lot of mistakes in it, I have found, because anybody can write things for it, whether he (or she) knows anything about the subject or not. In this case, it all boils down to the fact that there was no year 0, between B.C. and A.D.

By Chanda

They're not calling it the first decade of the 21st century. They're calling it the "aughts," which mean 00's. In other words, the 2000s. They didn't say anything about what century.

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Monday 28 December

By Valerie

I don't know how this thread turned into an argument about Otis Redding, but he did not write "Satisfaction". It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Look it up.

Otis Redding was not a one hit wonder. I have his greatest hits CD and it is da bomb. I wasn't around back then but look up the stats. I'm sure what I am writing can be varified.

By common sense guy

Mike! (the decade expert):

YOU should check your math! The year 2000 DID belong to the 20th century ans was NOT the first year of the 21st century. why? when the A.D. calendar was used, they didn't start off saying "year zero", it was "year one", hence 'the count' began with what in math is called 'the counting numbers'. so do you consider yourself a year older than you are? were you 'one' when born, or, was the age of your first year counted by and referred to in 'months'?

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