Bands/artists who went from riches to rags

By this I mean a band that was on fire and everything they touched turned to gold. Then almost overnight they couldn't write a tune to save their lives. A good example is Culture Club - first two albums are loaded with first class melodies. Even "The War Song" had a decent tune. By 1985 they were finished. Do some artists simply have a finite number of melodies in them while others can keep it up for decades?

 

Metallica after 'Master of Puppets' - even if they still enjoyed success afterwards, it feels like another band to me

 

Aaron Carter

 

Hasn't this been done before under different guises?

 

Christopher Cross would qualify for this category... and I find that to be quite sad.

I saw him perform -- and spoke with him -- at a private political event several years ago.

He was a super nice guy and his music and performance were great.

I think he was a victim of his early and quick success.

If he didn't win all of the zillions of awards, and had all of the zillions of hits he had right off the bat (which I think caused great backlash), I think he would've had a long career.

It made me feel sorry for the guy...

.

 

Stevie Wonder

 

Yes he had a string of great singles - his most well known being the theme from Arthur which was huge - then history.

 

About Christopher Cross and his sudden fame : There's more to singer-songwriter Christopher Cross than meets the eye

Actually, listening to a C Cross compilation (Crosswords) I was quite surprised since I found out that he maintained a high quality of songwriting through the years
I think that being dropped by WB after his 3rd album had a huge impact on his media presence, but obviously not in his songwriting/producer/singer/musician skills

 

Fact: actor-turned-singer Shane Ritchie's real name is Shane Rags, as evidenced in his autobiography entitled Rags To Ritchie.

 

I suspect the rise of MTV didn’t help him either.

 

Although not a songwriter/band, I think Sammy Davis, Jr. meets the OP's intent, circa post-1966. As much as I like and respect him, I think "The Candy Man" was a fluke.

 

David Crosby - sold a pre war Martin guitar, Mercedes, etc. for his habit. At the 5:13 mark he talks about giving up his guitar.

 

We debated the impact of MTV on less-than-handsome musicians in the past. Plenty of not-too-attractive musicians did just fine in the MTV era: ZZ Top, the Cars, etc.

As long as you had good videos and songs that appealed to people, you did fine...

 

I supposed The Smithereens. After 1999, they only had 1 album of original material (which was a great album - 2011). Otherwise it was Beatles and Who cover albums.

They were playing much smaller places as well.

 

We probably could use more specific criteria for this, because otherwise, you could simply name 95% of everyone who ever had a hit song or album, say, 10 or more years ago.

For the vast majority of artists, the gravy train is short-lived. The Rolling Stoneses, Michael Jacksons, etc. of the world are by far the minority.

The far more typical route is that you eventually wind up on the state fair/casino/club/after-the-baseball-game circuit, as one of those artists where most people would be surprised that you're still making albums/still touring--people say things like, "Bone Thugs-n-Harmony?? What is this, 1997? Wasn't their last album around 2000, and then they broke up or something?"

That's if people try to stay in the music business. It's at least as common for folks to give up after awhile and go into real estate, open a restaurant, whatever instead.

 

Most former members of Kiss, most notably Vinnie Vincent.

 

I remember an old "how grunge killed hair metal" article that quoted Janie Lane of Warrant saying (this is from memory), "I'm embarrassed to admit that I've worn a flannel shirt to some gigs. I didn't think I'd always be huge but I thought I would have a career."

 

Possibly Nik Kershaw but I'm happy to be corrected.

 

Most of the British beat groups disappeared after about 1966.

 

Don Henley...

A good example. Also Howard Jones.

Human League is another. Post Dare there were a couple of hits and then welcome to bland city

 

Sly Stone

 

Point taken. Although, whether or ZZ Top or the Cars were attractive or not, they certainly had a great look. Mr. Cross didn’t. Maybe if he wasn’t in his videos....

 

He's always been disproportionately popular here in Utah for some reason. (Also Oingo Boingo.)

It's some weird "big in Japan" thing, I guess.

 

NOT Tony Bennett.

 

Actually he was dropped after his 4th album (Back Of My Mind)

I agree, and it seems that somebody at WB was aware of that when I look at this video (which I find hilarious, it is cliché after cliché but I can not stop watching it every once a while)