Why weren't Status Quo successful in America?

I'm talking about back in the seventies when they were absolutely on fire, and huge in Britain.

I don't own any Quo albums but i have a collection of my favourite songs, [probably around 8 or 9] of theirs on a cd i compiled. So i'm not what i call a fan, but can still recognize their greatness. Live, they must of been lethal!
They looked the part too, faded jeans, long hair, Francis and Rick, legs apart, pounding away at their Teles...bom, bom-bom, bom-bom, bom-bom-bom, etc.

I really would of thought America would of loved the band. So what happened?

Did they not tour in the States much? Rubbish promotion? Record company not think they were radio-friendly enough? Although back in Pommie Land and elsewhere, they did have lots of hit singles.

Yeah i know a lot of their stuff can sound alike, just like AC/DC, but what's wrong with that? I want my favourite bands to sound like my favourite bands!
Mind you, i like some of their less Quo sounding stuff like Margerita Time and In the Army Now.

The other day i was looking thru' an old Guitar Magazine from 2002 which had an article on Quo. At that time, they'd sold 112 million units worldwide, 31 hit albums, and a mind-boggling seven and a half years in the singles chart!

Rick Parfitt says in the article regarding the great Mystery Song.
"One morning i was making myself a cup of tea. Unbeknown to me, Francis had slipped a teaspoonful of neat speed into it. Ten minutes later, i could feel myself revving up like a hot-rod, faster and faster - i thought i was going to burst."
"I had to endure a whole day of just sitting there at 150 mph. I don't know what time it was, but sooner or later everyone went home and i was still sitting there, playing this riff, thoroughly enjoying myself.
The following morning, they all came in and i was still sitting there from the night before, playing this riff. I remember the first thing i said: 'I've done it!'
I'd finished this song, got the words, the lot. The only thing i couldn't find was a title - and that's why it's called The Mystery Song."

 

I love Down Down, Roll Over Lay Down, Paper Plane, Whatever You Want, amongst a few others.

 

This one actually got to Number One of the charts in Britain, great days indeed!

 

To be honest, I've kind of wondered the opposite. How did a band that sounds like that get so big.

Not that they're terrible or anything but just sort of unremarkable. To my ears anyway.

 

They did and Aquostic album a while back, and some of these versions of their songs are really good, imo. [I only discovered this album a couple of days back!]

 

Quo were really really "big in Japan", Australia, UK, Germany in the 70's - all the major markets - except the US.
They did tour the US as support act to ZZ-Top etc - but never seemed to make any impact.....
It's the US's loss I guess.....

 

Just the one top 10 hit in Australia surprisingly ,thought they were bigger here. Six more that cracked the top 30 though

 

Singles or albums? I thought of them more of an album band - There wasn't much filler, though the singles were killer....
every bikie I knew in the '70s had a copy of QUO, On The Level, and Piledriver.... mostly with mull-scars on the album cover....

 

Singles not sure how they did album wise

I'd say their mostly known these days for the dreadful Coles ads

 

Yeah - that brought my respect "Down Down Deeper and Down" a few notches......

 

I’ve read that Francis Rossi’s low-key vocals were a bit of a no-no for American listeners, who prefer their hard rock bands to have more ‘extrovert’ frontmen.

I was only familiar with the singles until last summer, when I picked up a cheap five album box set, which includes everything from Piledriver to Blue For You. All cut from the same cloth, but all good!

 

Actually i do recall one thing i wasn't keen on when i was checking them out in my teens, and that was i didn't like the vocals. I found the singing a bit on the the thin, weedy, side of things. Quo, imo, never had a decent strong voice out front. However their legends of fans obviously loved the singing.
Over the years i got used to their vocal sound and ended up having no problems with it at all.

 

Maybe their music was too American sounding for the American market? That's not as daft a comment as it sounds, what I mean is there were probably a lot of bands that sounded somewhat like Quo in the US, why import one from the UK? Plus I don't know if they were ever really interested in breaking the US, maybe after seeing how Slade and T. Rex were doing there they thought better of it?

 

I love Quo. Just a straight up, no BS boogie band. Piledriver to 1982 are all worth a listen, if you like that kind of stuff.
For some reasons most folks in the US just don't like it

 

That run of albums from Piledriver to Blue For You are still superb. They supposedly produced the Rockin' All Over The World album to sound better on radio and to get a decent chance of cracking America. It was the start of the decline really and they just went decidedly lightweight.

 

The niche for heads down no nonsense lumpenboogie was already ably filled by Grand Funk.

 

"Why weren't Status Quo successful in America?"

As an American, I can honestly say that there was nothing special or remarkable about their music. At all. Full stop.

Lot's of much, much better music here in America to choose from and to listen to. Then and now.

 

You really had to have a guy with a Les Paul knocking out solos. Plus, America likes nonsense hard rock better than no-nonsense Hard rock.

 

They are the peak albums for sure, but I still like the Rockin' to 1982 albums... I think Whatever You Want kinda rates up with the earlier albums though.
Torn on favourites though... Hello, On The Level and Quo probably

 

Assuming this is the mainstream American opinion, there's your answer.

I really like a couple of their songs but then it gets kind of repetitive with the boogie beat. Why didn't Uriah Heep become huge?

 

The comedy trio who came up with Spinal Tap were certainly paying attention.

 

I used to own Back To Back and that was pretty awful....

I think Piledriver is my favourite of those early albums.

 

I think Quo are being a bit underrated on this thread!

 

Wow, we've had this thread a couple of times in the last couple of years. Quo had a subculture thing in the UK they couldn't really replicate here in the US. They needed to be a harder rocking band, stronger lead vocals, more varied rhythms than one over and over, needed a serious lead player with chops, and then be willing to tour the US relentlessly ala Zep, Sabbath, Tull, Foghat, Trower, Nazareth, Lizzy, even Budgie.