I greatly dislike the term “one hit wonder.” The very fact that someone made something that you know is astounding and wonderful. They had a hit song. They published a book. They made a movie. They wrote a play.
Just one. Only one.
But that one thing was great. Why do we insist that greatness must be matched or followed?
One of the greatest books in American literature is “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Harper Lee wrote only this book. That she published nothing else does not diminish its greatness. She remains a great American writer. Period.
It is time that we stopped judging artists on the volume of their work, on how much money they make, or how big a celebrity they become. None of these things have anything to do with the quality of their work, or the truth and impact of their creation.
Many of these artists have written many other plays, songs, and books. But those works remain unpublished or simply unknown by the general public. Often this is for good reason. But that you should know even one of their works is something to be celebrated. Their one “hit” isn’t a validation of their life work, it’s just the sign that maybe you should dig deeper. That one hit may be the tip of an iceberg of other great works, something that others miss. What else is there? And if there’s nothing else, be thankful for that one piece of brilliance.
You should be so lucky to have even one hit.
The One Hit Wonder by Randy Murray, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.