Another thread got me thinking of bands that were successful, faded into obscurity & then became successful again. The only band that comes to mind is Slade who where massive in the UK in the early 70's, then couldn't sell a bean but became big again for a period in the 80's.
I'm sure there's others?
Dick Dale. Was huge in the early 60s, then was dormant until the early 80s and has been huge again ever since. He plays Boston tonight.
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
Aerosmith --- They are the only band I can think of that had TWO highly-successful careers
The Bee Gees - major success in the 60's, to relative obscurity in the 70's to world disco domination in the 80's .
Aerosmith: Went through a low point before their career was revived by the combined efforts of Run-DMC (or more accurately, Rick Rubin) and (yick!) Desmond Child.
Robert Plant: he's had a bit of a comeback with his recent work, hasn't he?
Tina Turner: Private Dancer was a big deal, after nearly a decade of obscurity following her divorce from Ike. And I hear during the 90's, she was bigger in Europe than she ever was in the US.
Yes: 90125 was sort of a comeback. Then Union (the tour more so than the actual album) was sort of another comeback.
Deep Purple: two words: Perfect Strangers
Pink Floyd: You may not like A Momentary Lapse Of Reason or The Division Bell, but the former at least was a big seller, and they still were able to put warm bodies in the seats on a nightly basis on the respective tours. In the case of the 87 tour, that's pretty impressive for a band who hadn't released an album in 7 years, and hadn't toured in a decade.
On a smaller scale, I'd call the last decade or so of activity from the likes of Magma, Van Der Graaf Generator (not quite a decade, but you know what I mean), and Richard Pinhas to be sort of mini-comebacks.
Good call on Tina Turner .Originally Posted by GuitarGeek
Kinda agree with Robert Plant. He had a lull in the 80's & saw him play at Essex University
He's back to playing Arenas & major festivals !
Dont agree with Yes. Their last album Drama before the Rabin era still sold well & the supporting tour sold out . They just went away for a couple of years !
Kiss - they hit rock bottom around the time of The Elder, at least in the US. I think they were still huge in South America or someplace like that. But once they took off the makeup for the Lick It Up tour, they became huge again here in the States.
Elvis Presley. By the mid-60s he was looking like a has-been, churning out cheesy films and flailing around in the middle-to-lower reaches of the singles charts, until the end of 1968 when the Elvis TV special gave his career a major boost.
Jefferson Starship. Damn them.
yes, it is hard to fathom that the band that had its roots giving us "White Rabbit" () also gave us "We Built This City on Rock n Roll" <facepalm> (
)
Santana. He sort of faded away in the late 80's and the 90's. I recall I saw him perform in Puerto Rico in 1994 at what is now known as the Tito Puente Amphitheater, which is a small amphitheater. Then he hit it big again with 'Supernatural' and you know the rest of the story.
Golden Earring hit their second wind with “Twilight Zone.”
Would Nick Drake count here? He was far more famous and successful in the 90s, years after his death, than he was when he was actually recording. A bit sad, but at least he’s remembered.
-------------
MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
"Siento que debemos saber para el sueño de quién brillará esta luz
o consagrar una propia estrella" --Alberto Felici
N.P.:“Neanderthal Man”-Space Negros/The Space Negros Do Generic Ethnic Muzak Versions of All Your Favorite Punk/Psychedelic Songs from the Sixties
Donovan was considered a fad of the sixties until he released "Sutras" in 1996 and proved that he was still alive and still relevant. He's done a few more albums since then.
I few others I would throw in:
Meatloaf: He had gone from selling out huge arenas during the Bat Out Of Hell years to going broke and back to playing clubs in the late 80’s and early 90’s. He then built it back from the ground up and Bat Out Of Hell II went back to being multi-platinum and he was headlining arenas again in the mid-90’s, and has been ever since.
Cheap Trick: Cheap Trick had fallen pretty far off the radar in the 80’s until they had their big comeback when Tom Peterson rejoined and they did the “Lap Of Luxury” album with it’s big hit “The Flame”. Personally I thought the album sucked for the most part, but it got them back on top.
The Moody Blues: Another band that had fallen on pretty hard times until Patrick Moraz joined and they came back with “Long Distance Voyager” in the 80’s.
Fleetwood Mac: They have gone up and down a lot over the many years, but I don’t think most people expected their re-union show and live album “The Dance” to go multi-platinum in the late 90’s. They have been selling out arenas ever since. Prior to that the “Time” lineup had been playing to half empty grandstands at County Fairs.
Jonny Cash: The Rick Ruben produced “American Recordings” with the MTV hit “Hurt” was a pretty unexpected success just before his death. One of the most effective videos ever made in my opinion.
Steve Sly
Too bad every record he's done since Bat II has been a flop. It's like he actually need Jim Steinman writing his songs for them to be hits (oddly, Steinman seems to be able to score hits regardless of who sings them).
Another short lived one, as the next album after Lap Of Luxury sunk without a trace, and I think they were dropped by Columbia soon afterwards. Also, didn't they have one album that came out on some indie label that went belly up just weeks later?
Roy Orbison
I agree and immediately thought of Yes - wasn't 90125 huge?
A great, IMO, new example is the Allman Brothers.
What can this strange device be? When I touch it, it brings forth a sound (2112)
Somebody already brought Santana's name into the mix.. Carlos' creative (or management) decision of bringing popular singers of the day into his songwriting was a stroke of genius.. he ended up winning a Grammy through this run as I recall..
Can't really call Genesis' run of commercial hits a "second coming" but they certainly had a "second career".. Did Asia's first album count as a second coming for various band members? I think the reconvening of the original band members gave them a "second coming" of sorts.. andI guess we should give The Beatles a nod for hitting the charts with Free as a Bird when they re-connected with the Anthology project..
Yes, the next album was “Busted” and it sunk like a stone. It is a really terrible album IMO. It seemed totally calculated to be “Lap Of Luxury” Part II, but the songwriting was incredibly lame and I think it just totally turned people off. The other album that you are referring to was the 1997 self titled “Cheap Trick” album. I can’t remember off the top of my head what label it was (Red Ant maybe?), but yea, they went belly up right after the album came out. It was a shame too, because it is a really really good album. In fact I think it ranks right up with their classics and is the highlight of their post 70’s output. It should have been the album that brought them back to massive success, but with the demise of the record company it went nowhere.
Steve Sly
Drama didn't sell as well as previous albums. It missed the top ten in the U.S(it went to #18). They did sell out MSG, but the U.K tour was not as successful because people were mad that Jon Anderson was replaced by Trevor Horn, whose voice suffered throughout the tour. So, I wouldn't call that a success. Yes seems to be doing well now with FFH and the touring.
In regards to Meat, I hear Hang Cool Teddy Bear was pretty good.
Last edited by JIF; 07-25-2013 at 10:00 PM.
The Cheap Trick Red Ant album is easily in my top four Trick albums. I hear it's worth $$ on eBay now...
Agreed, for me it also ranks right up near the top. Great overlooked album for sure. The vinyl version might be worth big bucks, but you can get it used on Amazon for a couple of bucks or new for under $6. For anyone out there into Cheap Trick it is definitely worth checking out.
Steve Sly
Seems like there was something rare associated with that album. Maybe it was the vinyl.
[Dont agree with Yes. Their last album Drama before the Rabin era still sold well & the supporting tour sold out . They just went away for a couple of years ! ]
I totally agree with YES being mentioned. They are a great example. Regardless of how you feel about 90125 it was a huge success for them. Drama didn't do much commercially. It didn't even go gold. Aside from that Yes broke up after it and weren't even around for a few years. 90125 was Yes's biggest selling album ever.
Deep Purple and Fleetwood Mac are other bands who could be said to have had comebacks in the eighties. Also, Heart with their self titled album in 1985(I think it was).
The Grateful Dead could fit this. They kind of lost their way in the '80s and Jerry had health problems. Then In the Dark came out, they were on MTV and they got a whole new generation of fans.
Neil Young? He didn't completely disappear in the '80s, but he was pretty irrelevant. Then he re-emerged from the Geffen fiasco with Rockin' in the Free World, then became the 'Godfather of Grunge' and was touring with Sonic Youth, hooking back up with Crazy Horse, and so on.
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