Warning: The next sounds you hear may hijack your brain.

"In the year 2525, if man is still alive."

"Here's a little song I wrote, you might want to sing it note for note."

"We are the world, we are the children."

Heard enough? We haven't!

Please enjoy the music while your party is reached:

"Dominique, nique, nique/ S'en allait tout simplement ..."

... followed by more indecipherable French sung by a high, trilling voice that drills like a demonic woodpecker lodged in your ear canal, its beak jackhammering incessantly toward your medulla oblongata ...

The Singing Nun! A classic brain-invader. Dominique, nique, nique ...

MAKE IT STOP!

Actually, today we pause not to scorn these songs, but to toast them. Because, according to Billboard magazine, which is in the thick of a 50th-anniversary celebration of its Hot 100 chart, these songs are among only a dozen that claim a distinction unparalleled in the annals of musical achievement. They are, by Billboard's determination, the ultimate one-hit wonders. Or more accurately, those who performed them are the title-holders in a rarefied category: They hit No. 1 in their first chart appearance, enjoyed fame and fortune, then never cracked the Hot 100 again.

Some faded into obscurity and live modestly on their royalties. Some still enjoy renown and remain vital artists.

There are some sad stories. The Belgian nun? Alas, Jeanine Deckers, or Sister Smile, as she was sometimes known, forsook her vows, descended into penury and committed suicide in 1985 in a pact with her lesbian lover. And Soulja Slim, a rapper on the list, was killed in 2003 - shot in front of his home near New Orleans even before his song peaked at No. 1.

But before we plumb other odd tales of One Hit Wonderdom, let's get the Billboard list out of the way, in chronological order, with dates the songs peaked:

The granddaddy is a doo-wop number by the Elegants, "Little Star," Aug. 25, 1958.

The '60s brought us "Dominique," Dec. 7, 1963, and Zager & Evans' weird sci-fi excursion, "In the Year 2525," July 12, 1969.

M's electro-yet-retro "Pop Muzik" hit big on Nov. 3, 1979.

Representing the '80s: USA for Africa, "We Are the World," April 13, 1985; Jan Hammer's synth-mad "Miami Vice Theme," Nov. 9, 1985; Bobby McFerrin's a cappella "Don't Worry, Be Happy," Sept. 24, 1988; Sheriff's love song "When I'm With You," Feb. 4, 1989.

Just one from the '90s: the Heights' love song, "How Do You Talk to an Angel," Nov. 14, 1992.

And in this decade: Crazy Town, "Butterfly," March 24, 2001; Soulja Slim, "Slow Motion," Aug. 7, 2004; Daniel Powter, "Bad Day," April 8, 2006.

We've had little exposure to the last half-dozen except for "Bad Day," which grew massive as the drumming-off music on "American Idol" and is probably destined to be featured in dandruff shampoo and mouthwash commercials forever.

How do musicians follow a monster song that will end up in the first sentence of their obituaries? Maybe they make more. Maybe they give up and make peace with their career apogee. In literature, Harper Lee never followed up "To Kill a Mockingbird." For an actor, a role can be so indelible that just you have to embrace it: And so it was that Leonard Nimoy eventually accepted his Inner Spock.

Robin Scott, the musician behind the peppy "Pop Muzik" - signature line, "New York, London, Paris, Munich, everyone's talking 'bout pop muzik!" - offered a reflective assessment.

"It's a commercial success that has somehow eclipsed everything else that I've been doing," he says. "It sticks in people's minds, it's a memory that goes down historically. To me it was a pop record, and that's what it was meant to be."