A one-hit wonder is usually thought of as a popular musician who had a single song reach the Top 40, but then faded into obscurity. Extending the term to classical composers is more subjective since there are no comparable sales rankings for classical music. The primary problem is determining what constitutes a "hit" in classical music. Without ready access to recording sales records and classical concert programs this must be determined by a subjective guess. This guess can only be based on a collective idea of what is frequently performed in concerts, played by classical radio stations and recorded by a variety of orchestras.

Asterisks identify what might be called popular one-hit wonders. These composers whom people familiar with classical music regard as major composers with many significant works, who for some reason have a single piece that has become extremely familiar to a wide public. For example, the final section of the overture to Rossini's William Tell is known to millions of people through its association with The Lone Ranger, but most opera-lovers are probably more familar with some of his other overtures.

Baroque

• "Canon in D" by Johann Pachelbel* See these articles for detailed information on its meteoric rise to popularity in the 1970s.

Classical

• "Cassation in G for Orchestra and Toys" (Toy Symphony) by Leopold Mozart
• "Minuet" by Luigi Boccherini*

Romantic

• "Polovtsian Dances" from "Prince Igor" ("Kismet: A Stranger in Paradise"), Alexander Borodin*
• "Symphony on a French Mountain Air" by Vincent D'Indy
• "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by Paul Dukas
• "Spinnerlied " ("Spinning Song ") by Albert Ellmenreich
• "Symphony in D Minor" by César Franck*
• Russian Sailors' Dance by Reinhold Gliere, from The Red Poppy: "Until recently, Gliere has been remembered in the West only for a single symphony (No. 3, Ilya Murometz), a single dance from his ballet The Red Poppy, and for his being the first and most significant teacher of Sergei Prokofiev." (W. Zagorski, program notes for a Musical Heritage Society recording)
• The Rustic Wedding Symphony, by Carl Goldmark
• "Hänsel und Gretel" (opera) by Engelbert Humperdinck
• "In a Persian Market" by Albert Ketelbey
• "Symphonie Espagnole" by Édouard Lalo
• "Merry Widow Waltz" by Franz Lehár*
• "The Land of the Mountain and the Flood" by Hamish MacCunn, thanks to its use in the BBC television series Sutherland's Law.
• "Narcissus" by Ethelbert Nevin
• "The Dance of the Hours" from "La Gioconda" ("Camp Granada") by Amilcare Ponchielli
• "Vltava" ("The Moldau") by Bedřich Smetana*
• "Light Cavalry Overture" by Franz von Suppé*
• "La Wally" by Alfredo Catalani

20th Century

• "Midsommarvaka " ("Swedish Rhapsody ") by Hugo Alfvén
• Schelomo , Hebrew Rhapsody for 'Cello and Orchestra, by Ernest Bloch
• "Romanian Rhapsody " by George Enescu*
• Symphony No. 3, (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs), Henryk Gorecki*
• "Grand Canyon Suite " by Ferde Grofe, particularly the third movement, On the Trail, with musical depictions of a mule braying and the cadence of its hooves. Grofe may have made an even greater contribution to "popular classical music" as orchestrator of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
• "Pacific 231 " by Arthur Honegger
• "Escales " ("Ports of Call ") by Jacques Ibert
• "Sabre Dance" from "Gayaneh" (Ballet) by Aram Khachaturian* This is an example of a piece of classical music that literally was a popular hit, twice in fact in 1948 in recordings by the Woody Herman Orchestra and as a Sabre Dance Boogie by Freddy Martin. Khachaturian is considered a significant composer, and other pieces are fairly well-known to classical aficionados. An Adagio from Gayaneh was used in the motion picture 2001: A Space Odyssey to highlight the loneliness of the astronauts in space.
• "Háry János Suite " by Zoltán Kodaly*
• "Cavalleria Rusticana" by Pietro Mascagni
• "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff
• Bachianas Brasilieras by Heitor Villa-Lobos
• "Puffin' Billy by Edward White, 1910-1994 Familiar to millions from its use as introductory music to the U. S. children's television program Captain Kangaroo.

References

• Mordden, Ethan (1980) A Guide to Orchestral Music. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195040414
• One Hit Wonders, 2003, Dg Deutsche Grammophon, catalog number 472700. The composers DG includes in this compilation are: Richard Addinsell, Tomaso Albinoni, Hugo Alfvén, Samuel Barber, Luigi Boccherini, Joseph Canteloube, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Jeremiah Clarke, Léo Delibes, Paul Dukas, Reinhold Gliere, Ferde Grofé, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Aram Khachaturian, Edward MacDowell, Pietro Mascagni, Jules Massenet, Jean Joseph Mouret , Carl Orff, Johann Pachelbel, Amilcare Ponchielli, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Emil Waldteufel, Peter Warlock, and Charles-Marie Widor.