{"id":668043,"date":"2026-05-27T12:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/668043\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T12:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:42:17","slug":"3-one-hit-wonders-from-1981-with-melodies-that-still-echo-decades-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/668043\/","title":{"rendered":"3 One-Hit Wonders From 1981 With Melodies That Still Echo Decades Later"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some melodies never die. Human beings have been writing music ever since they discovered they could hum, but over the years, only a tiny select few songs have stood up to history. Like grains of sand through an hourglass, most music is lost to time. But then there are those tracks that stay with us. Some songs just seem to stick around. Why? There is something about them that we can\u2019t forget. And that\u2019s what we wanted to highlight below. Indeed, these are <a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/3-one-hit-wonders-from-1981-wed-travel-back-in-time-for\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">three one-hit wonders from 1981<\/a> with melodies that still echo decades later.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c867-5309\/Jenny\u201d by Tommy Tutone from \u2018Tommy Tutone 2\u2019 (1981)<\/p>\n<p>These days, we can\u2019t even remember our own phone numbers. Those who grew up pre-cell phones remember. We knew dozens of phone numbers like the back of our hands. It was a necessity. But these days, we\u2019re lucky if we remember one or two. Somehow, though, we remember Jenny\u2019s. We can recite with ease and clarity her phone number thanks to the 1981 tune \u201c867-5309\/Jenny\u201d. That\u2019s the power of melody. That\u2019s the power of song. And that\u2019s the power of young love, too. And that\u2019s the power of Tommy Tutone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenius Of Love\u201d by Tom Tom Club from \u2018Tom Tom Club\u2019 (1981)<\/p>\n<p>Fans of 1990s R&amp;B might hear a few familiar things in this track. Of course, it was sampled by the singer Mariah Carey for her song, \u201cFantasy\u201d. But even if you didn\u2019t harmonize with Carey in 1995, \u201cGenius Of Love\u201d by Tom Tom Club likely still rings out in your world. The group, which was a side project of members of the Talking Heads, combined rock and disco for this memorable offering. From the falsetto vocals to the intoxicating synths, this is an all-timer. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cTainted Love\u201d by Soft Cell from \u2018Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret\u2019 (1981)<\/p>\n<p>If one song had to sum up the entire 1980s, it might be this one. The eerie, erotic \u201cTainted Love\u201d is lush, unique, and full of memorable melodies. From the smacking rhythms to the floating vocals, every time you hear this offering, you\u2019re reminded that sometimes you indeed have to\u2014bang, bang\u2014run away. It\u2019s a task made easier thanks to the indelible sounds of this tune, which will dutifully stick by your side in your moment of escape.<\/p>\n<p>Photo by Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some melodies never die. Human beings have been writing music ever since they discovered they could hum, but&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[20278,88,216,34562,17172],"class_list":["post-668043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1980s","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-one-hit-wonders","tag-pop-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}