The Trashmen were an American surf-rock band from Minneapolis who recorded one gloriously demented garage-rock classic. "Surfin' Bird", released in 1963, is a frantic, nonsensical mash-up of two earlier songs, all squawking vocals and primal energy, and it became a hit that has echoed through rock history, covered by the Ramones and revived by everything from Full Metal Jacket to Family Guy.
The band never came close to repeating it, and to the wider world they are entirely the "Surfin' Bird" group.
On streaming, "Surfin' Bird" sits near 72 million plays, while their next most-streamed track trails at under two million. That sends the ratio above 38, far past our 5.0 line.
By our measure The Trashmen are a certified one-hit wonder of the starkest kind. Their catalogue, on the numbers, is essentially one beautifully unhinged burst of garage rock, a song so primal and so absurd that it has been embraced as a cult classic for generations, standing now almost completely alone above everything else they recorded. From the Ramones to Family Guy, "Surfin' Bird" keeps finding new generations of fans who delight in its sheer chaotic energy, long after the band themselves were forgotten.