Music Trivia: Steve Howe's 3 charting bands...

**GuitarGeek** · 03-03-2017

Originally Posted by gojikranz

also if we wanna give steve howe some more props he is on Frankie goes to Hollywood welcome to the pleasuredome

But he wasn't on any of the singles, was he? He also played on one of Trevor Horn's other projects, Propaganda, though his commentary in his guitar collection book suggests he was buried under a ton of overdubs. I think his comment was something to the effect of, "There might actually be some guitar somewhere in that quagmire of a mix".

Steve is on Queen's Innuendo

According to Wiki, Innuendo reached number 17 on the Billboard Mainstream Charts. So much for "can't get arrested Stateside", huh?

Jeff Beck played on Heart Full Of Soul by The Yardbirds, and Rod Stewart's Infatuation, Tina Turner's Private Dancer, Mick Jagger's Just Another Night, and he also had a solo hit with People Get Ready. He's guested on dozens of albums by other people, but I'm not sure which ones produced any hits.

**gojikranz** · 03-06-2017

Originally Posted by GuitarGeek

But he wasn't on any of the singles, was he? He also played on one of Trevor Horn's other projects, Propaganda, though his commentary in his guitar collection book suggests he was buried under a ton of overdubs. I think his comment was something to the effect of, "There might actually be some guitar somewhere in that quagmire of a mix".

According to Wiki, Innuendo reached number 17 on the Billboard Mainstream Charts. So much for "can't get arrested Stateside", huh?

Jeff Beck played on Heart Full Of Soul by The Yardbirds, and Rod Stewart's Infatuation, Tina Turner's Private Dancer, Mick Jagger's Just Another Night, and he also had a solo hit with People Get Ready. He's guested on dozens of albums by other people, but I'm not sure which ones produced any hits.

he is most noticeable on the title track welcome to the pleasuredome where he is actually credited on the album though I think his bit was cut out of the single edit probably on some of the 12" mixes though.

can't say I have ever noticed him on propaganda tracks but who knows would be nice someday if detailed artists contributions for all that horn stuff could come out.

**3LockBox** · 03-07-2017

Tony Levin has gotta qualify somehow... I'm just too lazy to look it up

**GuitarGeek** · 03-08-2017

Originally Posted by 3LockBox

Tony Levin has gotta qualify somehow... I'm just too lazy to look it up

Duh! Of course! Yes, Tony's certainly played on more than a few hit singles. He's certainly on most (if not all) of Peter Gabriel's solo hits, and between all the other records he's played on, there's gotta be at least a couple different examples. But keep in mind, he's basically a studio musician in most such instances, not a full fledged band member.

At any rate, Tony played on number one hits for Paul Simon (50 Ways To Leave Your Lover) and John Lennon (Just Like Starting Over), and also played on a top 20 song for Alice Cooper (I Never Cried). Like I said, there's gotta be more, but those are just counting the handful of records that are listed on his Wikipedia page.

**JKL2000** · 03-08-2017

^ Was Crimson's Sleepless some kind of hit, or just a single?

**GuitarGeek** · 03-08-2017

Originally Posted by JKL2000

^ Was Crimson's Sleepless some kind of hit, or just a single?

King Crimson had several singles from the 80's trio of albums, but I'm not sure if any of them were "hits", as such. I know Belew said the reason he redid Heartbeat on one of his solo albums was because he felt the King Crimson version "wasn't given the chance it deserved". He then referenced what Bill Bruford called "the King Crimson Syndrome", which was that any song recorded by King Crimson would never be a hit, simply because it was recorded by King Crimson. I don't know how true that's actually proven to be, though.

Speaking of Belew, how big was Oh, Daddy? I know MTV and other video outlets played the video to death, and I gather it was successful, at least in comparison to his previous solo singles (and probably even the King Crimson singles). And what about the other sessions he did? I can't imagine something like DJ or Boys Keep Swinging topping the charts but maybe some of the other records he played on did something chartwise.

And what about Fripp? He played on a lot of stuff by other people? Was Heroes or Fashion chart hits, or were they just played a lot lby MTV (as per The Ramones early videos). Were any of the songs by The Roches, Gabriel, etc he played played on hits??

And for that matter, what about Eno? I know he regularly plays on the records that he produces, but did he play on any of the hits, say, by Talking Heads or U2 or Devo?

**pb2015** · 03-08-2017

In the U.S. David Bowie's last top 40 hit of the 70's was "Golden Years." He returned with the Queen collaboration "Under Pressure" in 1981.

I can't think of any chart hits here with Fripp playing.

**pb2015** · 03-08-2017

As far as the producer/artist types, I don't think Todd Rundgren has been mentioned yet. He has had his share of hits (several solo songs, "Set Me Free" with Utopia and songs he produced for Badfinger, Grand Funk and Meatloaf).

**Ten Thumbs** · 03-08-2017

As far as producer/artist types, Brian Eno for Roxy Music Virginia Plain #4UK, Talking Heads Take Me to the River and I Zimbra, U2 things, Bowie Boys Keep Swinging

**zravkapt** · 03-09-2017

Originally Posted by GuitarGeek

Speaking of Belew

I don't think he had any hits with Zappa, Bowie, T Heads, KC or solo but he certainly made a bit of money playing on the Tom Tom Club song "Genius Of Love." Hell, he even made more money from it when it was sampled in a Mariah Carey song.

**pb2015** · 03-09-2017

"Bobby Brown" by Zappa with Belew was a big hit in some European countries, although you can't hear Belew on it much. If Wiki is right, Belew also played on "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon.

**zravkapt** · 03-09-2017

^I forgot about his work with Simon. "Bobby Brown" was #1 in Norway but I don't know how well it did in other countries.

**Guitarplyrjvb** · 03-09-2017

Speaking of Maestro Zappa, didn't he chart in three different genres? Classical (Yellow Shark), Rock (Apostrophe, Sheik Yerbouti, Dancin' Fool, Valley Girl), Jazz (Hot Rats?).

**JKL2000** · 03-09-2017

Didn't this album chart?

**GuitarGeek** · 03-09-2017

Originally Posted by zravkapt

I don't think he had any hits with Zappa, Bowie, T Heads, KC or solo but he certainly made a bit of money playing on the Tom Tom Club song "Genius Of Love." Hell, he even made more money from it when it was sampled in a Mariah Carey song.

Belew most definitely had a solo hit, with Oh Daddy, the duet he did with his daughter Audie.

And I forgot about Genius Of Love, though I'm not sure if he sees any money from it. I remember reading an interview with him back around the time of Twang Bar King where he talked about how he kinda got shafted by some of the Talking Head people, vis-a-viz his contributions to their solo recordings. Apparently, he felt he made contributions to some of the songwriting that wasn't appropriately heralded in the bylines.

If Wiki is right, Belew also played on "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon.

That's weird. I knew Belew had played on the Graceland album, but I didn't think he was on that song, in particular.

**pb2015** · 03-09-2017

Found a scan online of the Graceland credits and yes, Belew is credited for guitar synth on "Al" (although I don't know offhand where he plays on that song).

**GuitarGeek** · 03-09-2017

Originally Posted by pb2015

Found a scan online of the Graceland credits and yes, Belew is credited for guitar synth on "Al" (although I don't know offhand where he plays on that song).

Maybe the album version is different, but the version that appeared in the video, there's nothing that obviously sounds like Belew. I always assumed that was one of the tracks where he used those South African musicians, that the UN chastised him for using (ya know, because you weren't supposed to "do business" with South Africa during the apartheid years).

Speaking of Maestro Zappa, didn't he chart in three different genres? Classical (Yellow Shark), Rock (Apostrophe, Sheik Yerbouti, Dancin' Fool, Valley Girl), Jazz (Hot Rats?).

In which country? I know he said once that Hot Rats was a huge hit in Europe, but it was a massive flop Stateside. I thikn the only real hit he had in the US was Valley Girl, though imagine some of those others songs were big in other countries.

At any rate, I wouldn't call Hot Rats "jazz". It feels more like a classical/rock crossover to me. To my ears, it's only jazz in the same way that Jethro Tull is "heavy metal".

**JKL2000** · 03-10-2017

Originally Posted by zravkapt

I don't think he had any hits with Zappa, Bowie, T Heads, KC or solo but he certainly made a bit of money playing on the Tom Tom Club song "Genius Of Love." Hell, he even made more money from it when it was sampled in a Mariah Carey song.

Is he on Once In A Lifetime? Was that a hit?

**zravkapt** · 03-10-2017

I keep thinking he was on Fear Of Music; he does play guitar on it. However, it didn't chart in the US but made the Top 20 in the UK.

So he is on at least three different hits, although all three were probably not as big as hits as the ones in the OP.

**pb2015** · 03-10-2017

Originally Posted by GuitarGeek

Maybe the album version is different, but the version that appeared in the video, there's nothing that obviously sounds like Belew. I always assumed that was one of the tracks where he used those South African musicians, that the UN chastised him for using (ya know, because you weren't supposed to "do business" with South Africa during the apartheid years).

The South African musicians played on it, and so did Belew, apparently.

**Rune Blackwings** · 03-10-2017

Originally Posted by zravkapt

I don't think he had any hits with Zappa, Bowie, T Heads, KC or solo but he certainly made a bit of money playing on the Tom Tom Club song "Genius Of Love." Hell, he even made more money from it when it was sampled in a Mariah Carey song.

not sure of his contribution on Jars of Clay's biggest hit "Flood"

**gojikranz** · 03-10-2017

Originally Posted by Rune Blackwings

not sure of his contribution on Jars of Clay's biggest hit "Flood"

he is on the recent Nine Inch Nails album that charted though he was not on the single if that is all we are considering.

**GuitarGeek** · 03-10-2017

Originally Posted by gojikranz

he is on the recent Nine Inch Nails album that charted though he was not on the single if that is all we are considering.

If we're talking about Belew, he played on a couple of their big albums in the mid 90's, but there again, I don't think he was on any of the singles. I remember an article in Guitar Player, where he talked about how they recorded the record using Pro-Tools (just when that was becoming commonplace), and one of the things they did was feed a guitar solo through some algorithm on the computer that allowed them to put a different EQ curve on each note.