There is no greater pop staple than the one-hit wonder. There are more than a few signs and the genre may change, but the outcome is always the same.

It begins as a simple song you might have heard, then it gets a little bit of airplay. Pretty soon, it's everywhere.

It infects every part of pop culture and life itself until you cannot stand it anymore. What began as a cool little song that only you knew has become the reason you flick over a radio station.

Herein lies a definitive ranking of the ten finest one-hit wonders of recent years. Listen and nostalgise. That's totally not a word.

10. GOTYE - Somebody That I Used To Know

A recent member of the One-Hit Wonder Brigade, Gotye's stirring little pop song about the changing landscape of a relationship was soon co-opted into TV ads and parodies, making it the first real one-hit wonder of the 2010's. 

9. GARY JULES - Mad World

Although this was initially used in Richard Kelly's sci-fi teenage drama Donnie Darko, Gary Jules' haunting cover of Tears For Fears' Mad World gained popularity when it was used in the commercial for the videogame Gears of War. It also turned up in pretty much every 90's TV drama when somebody was walking through rain or having a moment of contemplation about whether Cody really wanted to date them.

8. EMILIA - Big, Big World

Next time this comes up in a pub quiz about crap 90's one-hit wonders, remember the name. Emilia. Like a lot of this list, you've heard dozens of times but you can never place the artist.

7. CRASH TEST DUMMIES - Mmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmm

We're not 100% if we have the correct amount of "mmmm", but we're certain this song had just the right amount of 90's cheese. Crash Test Dummies were a Canadian folk-rock band who went to have - wait for it - NINE albums. They even had a Christmas album. Crazy.

6. CRAZY FROG - Axel F

This happened. We, as a society, let this happen. We are all guilty.

5. DEEP BLUE SOMETHING - Breakfast At Tiffany's

90's college-rock trivia time - did you know that Deep Blue Something intended to change the Something of their name to something more appropriate once they got famous? And isn't that the saddest thing you've ever heard? They had all these plans and now they're stuck with it.

4. BABYLON ZOO - Spaceman 

How this Gary Numan-esque doom-electro thunderer became a smash-hit and defined the 1990's is beyond us. It might have something to do with a certain advertisement and jeans. Also - trivia time. The lead singer hated jeans and wore skirts in public. Yes, really.

3. MR OIZO - Flat Beat

Speaking of music used in advertising campaigns, Mr. Oizo's Flat Beat could be considered an early progenitor of dubstep. Just listen to that deep, driving LFO bass. Also, there's a yellow puppet involved. So this is way up the list for that reason.

2. EIFFEL 65 - Blue

So listen up, here's a story. About a song from the 90's that was pretty much everywhere and had blue aliens in the video. If ever there was a genre that was pure and unadulterated 1990's, it was trashy Eurodance and Eiffel 65 were the frosted-tip kings of Eurodance. For all of five minutes. But what a five minutes that was.

1. RICHIE KAVANAGH - Aon Focal Eile

This was No.1 on the Irish charts for EIGHT weeks in 1996. And yet, whenever it comes on at the end of a wedding, every single person - young and old - knows the lyrics. And overemphasises the focal part.