If there's one thing we British love, it's an underdog. This may explain why even our pop one hit wonders are guaranteed a second chance of stardom.

For instance, Chesney Hawkes' cheesy tune The One and Only has been voted as the greatest One Hit Wonder of all time, in a new survey.

The hit song stayed at number one for five weeks in 1991 but the follow-up song failed dismally to set the charts alight, peaking at a lowly number 27.

Yet strangely, Chesney still has a huge following among students and is kept busy touring university bars and clubs entertaining his fans with performances of the hit song.

John Sewell managing director of onepoll.com who compiled the report says: "Everyone takes the mick out of Chesney Hawkes and The One and Only, but at the same time, everyone knows and loves the song.

"That's the great thing about One Hit Wonders. Some of them are so bad they are brilliant and everyone buys a copy of the single. But that is also the main reason they don't enjoy the same success again. It's funny once but when they try to release a second single no-one takes them seriously or they fail to live up to the first single."

Second in the poll is The Weather Girls' It's Raining Men. Originally released in 1984, when it reached number three, it finally got to the top in 2001 after former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell covered it for the soundtrack to the film Bridget Jones' Diary.

Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles, came third in the poll of 2,500 Brits, followed by Nena with 99 Red Balloons.

Bournemouth's Nick Barnes of Radio 1's The Cut Up Boys had a number one album last year. He believes that a hit record needs to offer something unique.

"Our album was a little bit different than the usual - with the Mash Up Mix albums we took a slight departure from the norm and were doing something that not everyone was doing."

Europe's Final Countdown made it in at number five. The song reached number one when it was released in 1986 but is now known by millions thanks to revellers around the country playing it every New Year's Eve minutes before the clock strikes midnight.

It seems that many one-hit wonders are popular for only special occasions or a brief time, but their hits often have nostalgic value and are featured on era defining compilations and soundtracks to period films.

Dorset singer-songwriter Gordon Haskell, shot to fame in 2001 at the age of 55 with the Christmas number two hit single, How Wonderful You Are.

"It was a great adventure and we overcame impossible odds to do what we did," he said. "It was a miracle. We tore up the rulebook and took on the business at its own game. It's like a guerrilla hit. We won!"

However, having a hit record can have its downside, according to Gordon: "When you get dragged along by the nose on a journey you don't want to make it leaves you feeling grubby and if you're not careful it can destroy the beauty in what you do.

"Having said that, for all the things I wasn't happy about, for all the wrongs that were done to me, I let them happen. They were my responsibility, I allowed myself to go that way. I don't bear any malice - in fact, I should thank these people for the things I've learned through my experiences."

With the Eurovision Song Contest this Saturday, perhaps any future one-hit wonders should be weary of the pitfalls of a rapid rise to fame.