One Singular Sensation (The Late 1980s) Quiz

Answer: Midnight Oil

Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning" was a Top 20 hit in the US in 1987. The band was a major success in the home country of Australia, having three straight Number One albums there, and in fact making the music hall of fame in 2006. But the subsequent single releases in America did not garner the same success.

Answer: Nu Shooz

Nu Shooz's "I Can't Wait" had some longevity on the chart, it never made the top spot, but it had legs on how long it maintained on the Top 40, which made it a big hit on the year-end charts. But Nu Shooz never gained that pop chart success again.

Answer: Georgia Satellites

Georgia Satellites got some exposure doing a remake of "Hippy Hippy Shake" from the movie "Cocktail". But the longevity of "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" has allowed them to continue to tour, and the garage band style of the recording makes it easy to recreate the sound live.

Answer: Timbuk 3

Timbuk 3 hailed from Wisconsin, and had a smart sound about them, but they were a bit of a novelty band with the creativity of the song title. This didn't bode well for their longevity on the chart.

Answer: Bobby McFerrin

Bobby McFerrin vaulted to the top of the vocal jazz community with his first three albums, but his fourth album, "Simple Pleasures" produced a rather innocuous ditty that got picked up by the "Cocktail" soundtrack and then released as a single. And it became a national phenomenon after that. McFerrin though hasn't performed it in years, as he isn't pleased with the political message it became during presidential campaigns. "Don't Worry Be Happy" holds the honor of being the first acapella song to reach Number One on the Billboard Hot 100.

Answer: Stacey Q

Stacey Swain went with the arcane Q as a pop star, and got a Top Five hit with this one, but she milked this hit for all it was worth, even performing it as a one-episode character on "Facts of Life". There was some dance chart success with other songs, but nothing of circumstance on standard pop charts after "Two of Hearts".

Answer: Edie Brickell

Edie Brickell and New Bohemians had a Top Five album "Shooting Rubberbands At the Stars", which produced the Top Ten song. But being an anti-pop group also means that accepting success looks like selling out, so popularity fell quickly. This was their only Top 40 Billboard single.

Answer: A-ha

A-ha's popularity was white hot due to a cutting edge music video connected with the song. This video has stood the test of time over three decades, as has the song. In fact, the song featured prominently in multiple 2010s movie soundtracks, from "Deadpool 2", to "Ready Player One", to "Riverdale", to the Transformers spin-off "Bumblebee". A-ha may have made more off the song in 2018 than they did in 1985.

But mainstream success stopped with this song, at least in the US.

Answer: Vixen

Three of these bands actually are all male bands, despite the names. Vixen was backed by solo artist Richard Marx; in fact "Edge of a Broken Heart" was written and produced by him, and the band toured with Marx in 1988. But the touring grind with multiple acts afterward created musical differences and they disbanded in 1992.

Answer: Michael Damian

All four of them were 1980s soap opera stars who saw music crossover success, but Michael Damian had the 1989 hit. Much of the success was from promotion saturation, he got backed by his soap "Young and the Restless", and lots of MTV airplay. He never saw success from original songs after the "Rock On" remake.