Bands/Artists who were huge and now mostly forgotten

My sister just went to a Def Leppard/Journey show at the Rogers Centre in Toronto at the beginning of June. Attendance was reportedly around 31,000.

 

How big were Pure Prairie League in their day? I see their records in antique stores all the time. But I’m sure I never heard a note of theirs on all the classic-rock radio I listened to through the ‘80s up until about 2008, and no one I know has ever mentioned them to me in conversation, although people post about them in the Facebook vinyl groups I’m in.

 

Not sure. I used to hear "Amie" all the time on classic rock radio around late 90's.

 

The Beatles!

Sorry, just my absurd joke of the day. I couldn't resist...

 

A girl I dated in 2003 thought Kenny Loggins was the most brilliant songwriter in music. She’d mention him in the same breath as Leonard Cohen. Fortunately, that relationship didn’t last long.

 

I don't know if they qualify as huge, but The Babys (with John Waite) used to get a lot of airplay in the late '70s/early '80s.

 

What venue?

 

Babys had 2 songs that each peaked at #13, so they had some success but they were far from "huge"...

 

Yeah, I’m not a fan, but going by the informal t-shirt count from my work with the public, Def Leppard still has a lot of fans across a surprisingly huge demographic breadth.

 

R.E.M.'s stature has fallen among the young crowd, mainly because they broke up years ago and made ZERO push to get their music out there afterwards. No licensing, no songs in commercials, etc etc.

For those who came up in the 80s and 90s, R.E.M. is an important band. The 80s albums are what made their reputation. They're a band with a wide swath of well-loved songs (Radio Free Europe, So. Central Rain, Driver 8, Fall On Me, It's The End Of The World..) and the big MTV hits (Losing, Everybody Hurts, Man On The Moon, etc) are just part of that. My guess is the average R.E.M. listener is going for entire albums.... while the average Spin Doctors listener is definitely just looking for 2-3 songs.

 

I have made a point to introduce my kids to many of the “top of the mountain” acts (Beatles, Beach Boys. Stones, Who, Zep, etc...) over the years, just by playing that stuff in the car. However, I became obsessed with Nilsson a few years ago and played him constantly. As a consequence, “Coconut” became my daughter’s first favorite song, at age 5. The other night, I was in the car with my daughter (now 10) and her friend, and we decided to fire up “Coconut”. To my surprise, her 9 year old friend new the song as well. They both sang along.

 

Columbiahalle, Berlin.

 

Dire Straits, as has already been mentioned.
Level 42 - in the UK, they were HUGE from about 1987 until they broke up in the mid-1990s.

 

Since the time of my post, Def Leppard made tons of press over that tour with Journey....before that tour though I barely heard anyone chat about Def Leppard in at least a decade...which was a shame...it was a smart move to co-headline with Journey...

 

But that was true even in their prime!

True story: I was around for the entire heyday of the Waterboys, and never heard a single song until "Fisherman's Blues" appeared on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack in 1995. But honestly, how would I? None of their songs got any radio play in America, there was nothing on MTV, and I didn't have older friends or siblings with adventurous musical tastes. Short of blindly spending my weekly allowance on a random cassette, there would've been NO way to hear them.

Of course, decades later, I love those 80s albums, and it's been fun to "discover" this music that's been largely hidden from American ears. But I had to seek it out myself, and I can't fault anyone of a younger generation with literally MILLIONS of listening options for not doing the same.

 

Played a gig yesterday at a brewery.... There was a girl in her mid-20s wearing a "POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME" T-shirt.

I'm not saying there are huge swaths of millennials into deep cuts from High N' Dry & Pyromania. (That would be the aging white rock dudes my age...) But similar to Bon Jovi, Def Leppard have a couple songs that have never fallen out of public favor, and those will ALWAYS get a reaction if played at the right (drunken) moment, regardless of how young the crowd is. Which doesn't sound like much, but you can't say the same for, say, Frampton or the Moody Blues....

 

Quite the understatement.

 

Judging band popularity by the sight of young people in various T-shirts doesn't work. There are tons of younger people who wear the shirts because they look cool, not because they like the bands.

I don't say this as cheap Millennial bashing - I love cheap Millenials! - but I think it's true much of the time...

 

Sure, but this wasn't actually a Def Leppard T-shirt, per se.
It's like if someone is wearing a "SHEENA IS A PUNK ROCKER" T-shirt.... I'd assume she was an actual Ramones fan, as opposed to, you know, Justin Bieber wearing a Ramones shirt as a fashion statement.

It was also the ONLY music shirt I saw all day.... including plenty of old people. Take that for what it is.

 

Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins and Christopher Cross | Hollywood Bowl
This seemed to get a fair number of press write-ups in LA, mostly mentioning the yacht rock revival...

 

I started listening to the radio around 1981 and never knew a song by the Babys. Heard Waite's song "Missing You" all the time for a year or two there though.

 

Actually, the fact it wasn't a Def Lep shirt makes me feel it's even more likely the person didn't know the song.

If the shirt solely read "Pour Some Sugar On Me", I'm guessing the woman just liked the phrase and wasn't specifically endorsing the song...

 

I first heard of the Babys back in the 70s when Kiss still hid under makeup.

As a kid, the idea of seeing a member of Kiss without makeup was a BIG DEAL, and someone had a picture they claimed was Paul Stanley.

As it turned out, it was actually a member of the Babys!

Don't remember who it was, but the band's name stuck in my head!

I also don't remember ever hearing any of their songs on the radio but clearly heard "Missing You" a skillion times...

 

Yeah, like the H&M chain sells or at least sold cheap Ramones tees that were ubiquitous for a while; I highly doubt any of the young bearers knew much about the band beyond Sheena.

 

Not absurd....I'm sure there's a percentage of children who haven't a clue.