Link Wray is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a “one hit wonder” for ‘Rumble’ but everyone from Bob Dylan to Pete Townsend to John Lennon was a huge fan and owes him a debt of gratitude in making them excited about music enough to pick up a guitar.
Wayne Jancik’s book The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders (Billboard Books, 1998) defines a one-hit wonder rather strictly, as “an act that has won a position on Billboard’s national, pop, Top 40 just once.” He therefore includes such performers as Janis Joplin (for “Me and Bobby McGee”) or Jimi Hendrix (for “All Along the Watchtower”), solely on the basis of their Top 40 performance.