Sham Rock were an Irish act who turned a traditional folk singalong into one bouncy dancefloor hit. "Tell Me Ma", released in 1998, set the old children's rhyme to an upbeat, celebratory pop arrangement, and it became a hit across Europe, a permanent fixture of weddings, sports celebrations, and St. Patrick's Day parties ever since.
The act were unable to follow it, and to the wider world they exist entirely through that one knees-up anthem.
On streaming, "Tell Me Ma" sits near 32 million plays, while their next most-streamed track trails at well under one million. That sends the ratio above 65, far past our 5.0 line.
By our measure Sham Rock are a certified one-hit wonder. Theirs is a classic novelty-party story: an act who dressed a beloved traditional tune in cheerful pop production and watched it become a celebration staple, then disappeared almost entirely, leaving that single singalong anthem standing far ahead of everything else they recorded. Wheeled out whenever a crowd wants to dance, especially each March, the song has become a permanent part of the party-music canon, far better known than the act that recorded it.