Ween are an American band whose presence on this list is almost comically at odds with their reputation. Across decades, the duo of Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo built one of the most sprawling, genre-hopping, fiercely loved cult catalogues in rock, a body of work their devoted fans treat as a whole universe. Calling them a one-hit wonder is exactly the kind of paradox this measure throws up.
Streaming, though, concentrates their audience on one short song. "Ocean Man", a brief, jaunty track from 1997, reached a vast new audience after featuring in the SpongeBob SquarePants movie, dwarfing the rest of their catalogue on streams.
On streaming, "Ocean Man" sits near 172 million plays, while their next most-streamed track trails at around 25 million. That puts the ratio above 6, past our 5.0 line.
So by our strict, numbers-only measure, Ween register as a certified one-hit wonder, and we flag the caveat as loudly as we can. This is a band with an enormous, adored, wildly varied catalogue. It is only that one quirky little song, boosted by a beloved film, has pulled far enough ahead of everything else to tip the maths.