Five prog bands that ventured into AOR & POP

[Rick Robson]

How about Kayak? A goup I still like, no matter what they do.

Indeed a band that I look forward to exploring further some day, the few songs I heard sounded beautiful, enjoyable, and catchy melodies

[Vic2012]

Vinyl Confessions is one of my top five Kansas records. Call it what you want. It's a good sounding ablum. I like it more than Monolith, Audiovisions, Power, etc., etc.

[Rarebird]

Indeed a band that I look forward to exploring further some day, the few songs I heard sounded beautiful, enjoyable, and catchy melodies

Ton Scherpenzeel released a nice solo-album some years ago, which has some renaissance flavor. Currently he seems to be working on a new one.

[Svetonio]

(...)
I also wouldn’t consider Todd, since he was always an eclectic artist. He also pretty much started out as a pop musician, basically boosted by critics back in the day as the second coming of Brian Wilson, with Something/Anything? as his personal Pet Sounds. Todd resisted being pigeonholed, so went on to flirt with blue-eyed soul, country-rock, prog, fusion, ambient, power-pop, etc.

+1

[Rick Robson]

Ton Scherpenzeel released a nice solo-album some years ago, which has some renaissance flavor. Currently he seems to be working on a new one.

Cool, is his '78 debut based on C. Saint Saens "Le Carnaval Des Animaux"? I was just looking forward to that Saens work.

[bamamusicfan]

Chicago. By the way congrats to them on their Rock & Roll HOF induction.

[Rarebird]

Cool, is his '78 debut based on C. Saint Saens "Le Carnaval Des Animaux"? I was just looking forward to that Saens work.

His debut is indeed Le Carnaval Des Animux, but it ain't available on CD. I have it on vinyl.

[Facelift]

Can I suggest you really relisten to Supertramp's debut album?? (the one with the man-flower)

I understand, but i look at this more like a mainstream band that had a very brief start as a prog band, not an established prog band that ventured into AOR.

[Rarebird]

Cool, is his '78 debut based on C. Saint Saens "Le Carnaval Des Animaux"? I was just looking forward to that Saens work.

Here is a part of it.

And the second part.

[gingernut]

Why stop there, the 80's had a whole lot more progressive and fusion artists dabbling into the popular market, far too many to mention. Here are a few more:
Ambrosia
Gino Vannelli
Jethro Tull
ELP
Rush
Brand X
Todd Rundgren

RUSH !!! Just when did Rush dabble in the dark side?

[Yellow Jester]

Why stop there, the 80's had a whole lot more progressive and fusion artists dabbling into the popular market, far too many to mention. Here are a few more:
Ambrosia
Gino Vannelli
Jethro Tull
ELP
Rush
Brand X
Todd Rundgren

I've gotta add one more to that list; Gentle Giant tried to score AOR & Pop hits with their final three albums "The Missing Piece", "Giant For A Day" & "Civilian").

[Onomatopoeic]

Rush was a hard rock band that dabbled in prog for a time. Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin -- ditto. There were many others like this.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

Stanley Clarke - Find Out

and the Clarke Duke Project

yeesh

[bob_32_116]

Even Alice Cooper "dabbled" in prog.

Well, that's what he says, and I'm pretty sure I could tell his tongue was in his cheek, even via the medium of radio.

He played the song in question, and although I would hardly call it "prog", at least it wasn't straight out boring formulaic rock. He had a go - but I guess he did a reality check and realised he was more of a hair metal type guy.

[Progbear]

Indeed a band that I look forward to exploring further some day, the few songs I heard sounded beautiful, enjoyable, and catchy melodies

They always had their pop side (for example, “Lyrics” and “Mammoth” off of their debut), but started out as kind of a Dutch answer to Genesis. They eventually settled into an orchestrated symphonic pop sound. I like all of their “main sequence” albums (up to the original Merlin) to varying degrees. Admittedly, Periscope Life is the least of these, but apart from a few sucky tracks (“If You Really Need Me Now” = cringe!), it’s still pretty listenable.

[pb2015]

Even Alice Cooper "dabbled" in prog.

Well, that's what he says, and I'm pretty sure I could tell his tongue was in his cheek, even via the medium of radio.

He played the song in question, and although I would hardly call it "prog", at least it wasn't straight out boring formulaic rock. He had a go - but I guess he did a reality check and realised he was more of a hair metal type guy.

Alice Cooper were a Zappa/Beefheart style weird group on the first two albums.

[No Pride]

it would be a more difficult task to list 5 who did not

looking at every style of Prog music, nearly every first gen Prog artist (if they lasted until the end of the 70s) tried their hand at Pop music.
Even the Jazz Rockers did! Even Chick Corea and Jonny Mac

Well, if smooth jazz is pop, The Chick Corea Elektric Band's "Light Years" qualifies, but that's one album out of a large discography. And when did McLaughlin do a pop album? Granted, he's put out some less than stellar albums in his long career, but I can't recall any deliberate attempts to be commercial.

But the most bizarre attempt to do pop, and one that I gather was somewhat successful, is Dave Stewart. From Hatfield & National Health to Stewart and Gaskin.

Yeah, Stewart was definitely trying to put out something much more commercial than he had previously, but within the realm of pop, the Stewart/Gaskin stuff was littered with more proggy elements than most. I think "The Big Idea" is a great album! And "Spin" had a "hidden" track that wouldn't have been out of place on a National Health album:

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

Well, if smooth jazz is pop, The Chick Corea Elektric Band's "Light Years" qualifies, but that's one album out of a large discography. And when did McLaughlin do a pop album? Granted, he's put out some less than stellar albums in his long career, but I can't recall any deliberate attempts to be commercial.

Chick - Secret Agent and Mad Hatter and RTF - Musicmagic

Mac - Music Spoken Here and the 2 before it were pretty lame and Pop-ish

[pb2015]

Of the McLaughlin albums I've heard only Adventures In Radioland comes close to pop.

[Svetonio]

Rush was a hard rock band that dabbled in prog for a time. Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin -- ditto. There were many others like this.

+1

[Rarebird]

Rush was a hard rock band that dabbled in prog for a time. Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin -- ditto. There were many others like this.

Like Birth Control.

[Rick Robson]

Here is a part of it.

And the second part.

Pretty cool stuff , and found it interesting to hear his variations from the Saint-Saens original composition. Tough having listened to it just one time on YouTube I found Scherpenzeel's lighter atmosphere w/ jazzy bits a beautiful alternative version. Will sure listen to both more times, the classical felt sometimes darker and more intense to me

[Rarebird]

Pretty cool stuff , and found it interesting to hear his variations from the Saint-Saens original composition. Tough having listened to it just one time on YouTube I found Scherpenzeel's lighter atmosphere w/ jazzy bits a beautiful alternative version. Will sure listen to both more times, the classical felt sometimes darker and more intense to me

It's a Ton Scherpenzeel album I still love. To bad it has never been released on CD. I prefer it over his second solo-album with Chris Rainbow.

[MJBrady]

RUSH !!! Just when did Rush dabble in the dark side?

You are not being serious here are you?

This is a band that went from recording side long epics, using Ayn Rand for occasional inspiration, delving into long and intricate instrumental stuff, using temple blocks, taurus pedals, and wrap around drum kits, to cheap single finger synth lines, and short paint by numbers songs with little or no adventurous spirit. Call me what you will, but after Moving Pictures, Rush seemed to become uninspired when it came to creativity. Just an opinion from a fan of their older more daring output.