Pinegrove are an American indie-rock band from New Jersey, beloved by a devoted following for their emotionally raw, country-tinged songwriting. They are very much an album-and-community band rather than a singles act, which makes their appearance here a borderline one. But streaming has reshaped their numbers around a single track.
"Need 2", a short, aching song from their 2016 album Cardinal, found a vast new audience years later when it went viral on TikTok as a kind of universal expression of longing, pulling far ahead of the rest of their catalogue.
Their other songs are cherished by fans but trail well behind on streams. "Need 2" sits near 436 million plays, while their next most-streamed track, "Old Friends", trails at around 55 million. That puts the ratio above 7, past our 5.0 line.
So by our strict, numbers-only measure, Pinegrove register as a certified one-hit wonder. We flag the caveat: this is a critically respected band with a deep, admired catalogue, whose one most quietly devastating song found an outsized second life on TikTok and, on streams, simply pulled far enough ahead to tip the maths.