Artists/bands that were once quite popular, yet nowadays are mostly ignored in canonical history books

There was recently a documentary about Chicago. They also have a dedicated Russian cover band.

http://leonidandf.com/

There seems to have been a chasm between UK and USA in the 70s.

Eagles, Chicago, Boston, Linda Ronstadt, Bob Seger all of only minor importance in UK

Glam rock, (UK-style) punk and weird cultural detritus like Showaddywaddy, Bay City Rollers and Brotherhood of Man all did very poor business or none at all in the USA.

US and UK charts were very different up until when? The 90s?

I would say the Eagles sold plenty of records in the UK, the others not so much.

Oddly, I remember hearing Chicago blasting in a pub in Liverpool in 09, I think bc I was with a bunch of pop music scholars who were commenting on it. "Hard to Say I'm Sorry", I think? But yeah, I thought silverfish was in Canada. I only heard of Brotherhood of Man bc of relatives in India, tbh. I still don't think I've heard them.

xxp later than that even, but there was at least agreement that madonna, prince, michael jackson, etc. were the biggest stars from the 80s onwards

I know eagles sold a reasonable amount of records, but can't remember hearing anything apart from hotel california being played anywhere

Bay City Rollers had a bunch of Top 40 hits in US and Canada, incl #1 in both countries with "Saturday Night", but you don't hear them much now.

Bay City Rollers had a #1 single in the US, which strangely wasn't even released as single in the UK, and seemed to have been pretty well known.

(xp)

Ha, "25 or 6 to 4" is in the same book. It was in I, Tonya as well and I think The Good Place? Surely Chicago still gets frequent airplay? I think they are generally discussed in American rock history books, at least for their jazz-rock period?

― No language just sound (Sund4r), Wednesday, October 30, 2019 10:28 AM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Those two placements -- I, Tonya and The Good Place -- are the only two times I've heard that song broadcast in the last decade. They've largely disappeared from "classic rock" radio, though something like "Saturday In The Park" might get play on an oldies station. They only really get discussed/namechecked alongside Blood, Sweat & Tears when the brief fad of rock-bands-with-big-horn-sections comes up.

Meanwhile, they've* been touring with Earth, Wind & Fire, whose songs never disappeared from the airwaves, and whose horn section was never as stupid and clumsy as Chicago's.

*Out of the original lineup, they're now down to two horn players and the keyboardist.

xp that is very strange, can't say I've ever heard Saturday Night, but interesting that they managed that at the tail end of their uk chart career

xxxxp

I am in Canada. I guess I just don't pay much attention to the music in supermarkets and dentists offices. I'm familiar with plenty of classic rock from the radio, but soft rock/adult contemporary stuff is kind of a blind spot I guess.

What's weird about this chicago album is that so far there have been two songs where at the start I'm pretty sure I've heard it before and then it turns into something else. For 25 or 6 to 4, there is a green day song that basically uses the opening riff, for saturday in the park there is another song that I can't place that sounds similar.

Wet Wet Wet
The Beautiful South

I’d wager exposure varies from province to province and from state to state.

Best thing Chicago ever did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ4eh2x2B1E

There seems to have been a chasm between UK and USA in the 70s.

this isn't just the 70s, it's every decade. The crossovers are the exceptions.

there is a green day song that basically uses the opening riff

"Brain Stew"

(xp) The chasm has narrowed considerably as the decades have passed.

Admittedly, I could just be recalling childhood overexposure to Chicago in commercial establishments.

xxxp There is, yes, but also there seems to be much more in the way of international stars in the 60s, 80s, etc.

I'm not sure if my theory that American rock bands have never been very popular in the UK quite holds up but...

rock and country of course! looking at this list

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-certified_music_artists_in_the_United_States

and I have no idea who George Strait at #11 is, don't know if I've even heard the name before

I'm not familiar with that name either.

And who are Alabama at #29?

one of our poorest states iirc

one of our poorest states iirc

Both financially and in terms of overall quality. (I can say that 'cause my brother lives there. He drags the whole state down.)

Most of the unfamiliar ones seem to be country of one sort or another, but wtf are these guys at #65?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannheim_Steamroller

UK radio was a very different beast to US radio back then, it was basically Radio 1 for pop plus the odd local station. So rock music was seen as this niche aberration, Led Zep and Pink Floyd et al were huge but their big songs weren't really known outside the fan bases.

xpost

Yes, we didn't have this classic rock music rubbish clogging up the airwaves.

Never heard of George Strait either. Or Alabama or Alan Jackson, for that matter.

No we had the Wurzels and Brotherhood of Man iirc

xpost

Tbh, based on anything I've seen/heard of commercial radio from the UK, I'd happily stick with classic rock.

Strait, Alabama, and Alan Jackson all got cursory mentions in Ken Burns' recent country music series, so they're canonical to that extent

There's very little country I can stomach, so my ignorance is partly willed.

peel used to mention, but not play, george strait from time to time so i know a few song titles but not songs. All My Ex's Live In Texas being the one i particularly remember.

Who needs classic rock when you've got this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0fC_HL2NL8

(This is the closest thing I can think of to a guilty pleasure, in that I quite enjoy it while simultaneously feeling mortified that it even existed)

Oh, so they were basically ABBA with native English speakers?

And without a modicum of talent? Yes.

Basically this, yes.

But with somehow genuinely classic tunes occasionally poking their noses out and being buried beneath shitheaps of end-of-the-pier tastelessness.

Most of the unfamiliar ones seem to be country of one sort or another, but wtf are these guys at #65?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannheim_Steamroller

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length)

lol, those guys are HUGE here every december, it's chip davis (who did "convoy") doing these kind of gaudy new-age christmas songs, do you know trans-siberian orchestra? kind of like them but mannheim steamroller were around first. my mom had all the mannheim steamroller tapes when i was a kid

it's not any worse than any other christmas music to be honest

I had a high school friend whose praise for Mannheim Steamroller somehow always worked in the descriptor "classically trained." Like, did you know all the guys in Mannheim Steamroller were classically trained?

Yawn, so's everybody in the New York Philharmonic. Ditto the local community orchestra; doesn't mean they don't suck.

Mannheim Steamroller sales are 98.5% people who donated to NPR fundraisers in the 80 and 90s. Post-Reagan equivalent of exotica records, Music to Stir Risotto to

do you know trans-siberian orchestra?

No.

George Strait has like 800 #1 Country songs, but he never tried for any pop crossover, so he's largely by non-Country fans for "Exes Live In Texas"

Yeah Mannheim Steamroller and Trans-Siberian Orchestra reliably sold hundreds of CDs every Christmas when I worked at a chain bookstore, no doubt they continue to do so. They're radically different in sound but equally unlistenable trash. Mannheim are saccharine while TSO are bombastic. When we got the in-store promo copies the music staff had an informal agreement to scratch the shit out of them on day one so they could never be played. It didn't always work - the store manager would just buy copies and make us play those.

TSO are basically a power metal band (formed by ex-members of Savatage; Alex Skolnick from Testament toured with them for years) playing Christmas music.

Trans-Mannheimian Steamrollerstra reliably sell out the US circuit of medium-to-smallish-city theaters (mostly season-subscription places that have whatever the town's local orchestra is, Livingston Taylor, and An Evening With Terry Gross).