Criminally commercially unsuccessful bands

[MCF]

A couple prog bands that come to mind.

U.K.
Flash

I still listen to Flash. Love Peter Banks. I had a friend in high school who didn’t get them at all, but he bought the albums for the covers.

 

[MCF]

Fanny...

They were pretty big on the west coast though.

 

[IngloriousOz]

Failure

 

[bobba66]

Anybody mention King Diamond?

 

[joebar]

King’s X has to be top of the list.
Even the band was getting disillusioned by the time their 5th album came out. They knew they were making great music consistently.
Apparently, over their entire career, they sold 770,000 records- no one bought the music
Badlands was the poopie. Plain and simple.
Ray Gillen was the best unknown rock singer ever IMO. The whole band was killer no filler.

And Cry of Love- that was a great blues rock album. Damn near perfection.

 

[Dean N]

There were a bunch of Chicago bands that fell apart when Capitol put all of their money behind the Beatles Anthology, but then there were really good Chicago bands that simply fell apart. Two of my faves:

Dovetail Joint

Yes!

I was in band back then and we relentlessly covered Dovetail Joint!

They were superb.

 

[MCF]

OK, switching gears to mid 70s brit art-pop, Be Bop Deluxe should've been bigger in the US...

Yep. My freshman year dormates were crazy over Boston. I managed to convince a few of them that Wilson could outplay Sholz any day. Deluxe should have been huge.

 

[maxmaroon]

Sound of Urchin... their album The Diamond is a masterpiece of rock.

 

[Space Pickle]

Cracker / Eels / Pavement / They Might Be Giants

All have a good following, but not as commercially successful as I thought they could have been.

I love Pavement, but I can see why they didn't do better, they have a lot of weird songs.

Anyway, my two votes are The Rentals and That Dog, although once again I understand why they weren't bigger.

 

[HamOnTheCob]

Project 86


Down and Above (One of the best bands you've never heard of. Amazing 3-piece. Ian Allison's bass playing is ridiculous, his tone is ridiculous, and he sang about 50% of the songs)


Sun of Sound (Hesitate to put them on this, because I think they still might explode eventually if the right person hears them. In my opinion, they're the best band in the world right now. One of the best bass players I've ever heard, Andrew Davis, and I first heard them from a video he posted on TalkBass because I did a search for a bass, and he used the same one, so thanks TB!)

 

[Basshappi]

There are bands that I love, that are just never going to be commercially successful (I'm looking at you obscure instrumental prog & djent), but there are bands that I just don't get why they never made it big.

King's X
I've been reading the King's X Oral History book and pretty much all the musicians in the book, (which are really respected names), are equally confused as to why they never became huge arena filling headliners. Amazing talent, great songs, all that.

Who else should have made it big that didn't?

This was the first band that came to mind when I read the thread title.

 

[Huw Phillips]

Mott the Hoopel pioneered by David Bowie and I believe financial help was offered along with a certain amount of production and writing

 

[Blunder]

Thought Blind Melon could have been bigger than they were. Really reduced to being a one hit wonder .. which is a shame. Both albums were great

 

[blindrabbit]

More punk bands than I can list.

 

[And I]

Orgone

 

[BAG]

Now my dyslexia gives me a great name for a band - "Witless Thunder"!

Reminds me of a girl at school who was known as the t1tless wonder.

 

[ERIC31]

First band that comes to mind....

THE PRODUCERS! Excellent musicianship, catchy songs, great production on their first 2 lps, MTV played their videos and had them play their NYE show.......

It just didn’t happen. I’m was bummed cause I loved them.

 

[petch]

Wishbone Ash - twin lead guitars driven by the unique bass stylings of Martin Turner.

 

[Michedelic]

Mott the Hoopel pioneered by David Bowie and I believe financial help was offered along with a certain amount of production and writing

I don't know how David Bowie 'pioneered' Mott The Hoople; they had recorded four albums from '69 to '71, but, having not gotten very far past a small but loyal audience, decided to call it a day. Bassist Overand Watts inquired to David Bowie about playing in his band, and Bowie, who had been a fan, convinced them not to hang it up. Using his growing clout in the wake of Ziggy, he got them management, a record deal, and gave them one of his songs("...Dudes")for a attention getting single. Aside from Bowie convincing them to cover The Velvet Underground/Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane", everything else was written by the band, primarily Ian Hunter. They became huge stars in the UK and Europe, but had a tougher time in the US beyond a sizable cult following as America didn't take to Glam/Glitter rock(which they were quickly associated with)too well.

 

[sabre79]

Gentle Giant