Patrick Hernandez is a French singer who gave the disco era one of its most euphoric anthems. "Born to Be Alive", released in 1979, was a glittering, full-throttle disco track that became a worldwide number-one hit, selling millions of copies and turning a long-struggling performer into an overnight international star.
There is a wonderful footnote to the story: among the dancers hired for his touring revue at the height of his fame was a young, then-unknown Madonna. Hernandez himself, though, never followed the song with anything close to its success, and his career came to rest entirely on that one euphoric record.
On streaming, "Born to Be Alive" sits near 352 million plays, and almost all of his other top tracks are alternate versions of the same song. No separate track comes anywhere near it. That sends the ratio near 13, far past our 5.0 line.
By our measure Patrick Hernandez is a certified one-hit wonder of the purest kind. His catalogue, on the numbers, is essentially one shimmering disco anthem, a song so completely of its moment that it conquered the globe in 1979 and has remained, ever since, the single thing his name calls to mind.