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

This is where I get to play an American “I’ve never heard those artists” card

I think the only reason I know The Beautiful South was from reading I think it was a Youngblood comic in the '90s, and it had one of the characters going on a fake-Letterman late night show where the mentioned but never seen musical guest was...The Beautiful South. I guess Liefeld was a fan?

Huh I always assumed Mannheim Steamroller was a reference to Mannheim Road in Chicago. Has nothing to do with roads!

TSO version of "Carol of the Bells" is all-time.

I actually know Beautiful South - MuchMusic played "Song for Whoever", which is hilarious, sort of like a cynical Chicago.

Engelbert Humperdinck, James Last, Barbra Streisand, Nana Mouskouri, Demis Roussos...who will pick them up from the scrapheap of history, now that their original fanbase have lost most of their hearing?

didn't know engelbert humperdink was a real name for a real person until i ended up with a bunch of my deceased aunt's LPs

Wasn't his real name iirc, but he did name himself after an old composer.

(He was #1 the day I was born, biggest selling artist that year)

(oh, your aunt could've had LP's by the composer...)

I always thoughtit was a weird coincidence that the easy listening singer had the same name as the composer.

The 1950s-70s easy listening audience is dying out now, even charity shops seem to be running dry of Andy Williams and Perry Como LPs. Not to mention the Black & White Minstrel Show. Can't see it being rehabilitated a la Martin Denny either, although you never know whether James Last might become collectable in future decades.

there's a non-ILXor in my Spotify feed listening to Wet Wet Wet right now!

Demis Roussos and Nana Mouskouri are both worth investigating imo.

there are good nana records? tell me more!

I don't know, I just like when she sings in Greek!

The Beautiful South. I guess Liefeld was a fan?

this is incomprehensible

ah ok! she's the one person you can still rely on finding in the charity shops, maybe one day i'll take the plunge. got some good demis over the years though! xp

She has thousands of albums and sings in about 50 different languages and also has an ILM thread

... with some awesome images in it.

I always wondered if Nana had a track or two in an Aphrodite's Child or Xenakis vein, research isn't turning up anything other than tourist ballads though

Nah, that would be Irene Pappas.

Imagine Nana doing that Aphrodite's Child "Infinity" track

Good one here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHDru5mxlzg

Another one of those: Julio Iglesias.

thanks josefa, kind of a skiffle thing going on in that song

Three ways Chicago left their footprint on the 1990s:

• “Saturday In The Park” was sampled in the De La Soul’s “Roller Skating Jam Named “Saturdays”” (I could swear the intro was sampled in some other well known track, but WhoSampled says no)

• Their 1979 track “Street Player” was transformed into the 1995 house classic “The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)” by the Bucketheads.

• The Babyface-produced Az Yet cover of “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” was a big international hit in 1997.

In conclusion: middlebrow is no way into the history books.

• Their 1979 track “Street Player” was transformed into the 1995 house classic “The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)” by the Bucketheads.

this is a tune

roger whittaker.

Kinda like Roger Whittaker too tbh.

Does Liberace get much historical coverage?

there is no excuse, in this day and age, to design a cover that is so catastrophically bad

― It is my great honor to post on this messageboard! (Karl Malone)

there's plenty of excuse - you're an untalented hack and you know the right people. isn't that how most things get done in 2019?

man that Brotherhood of Man "Angelo" clip is a real abomination

My favourite bit is where they cheerfully sing about a double suicide, just a year before Jonestown

There was a parody track by unfunny 70s Brit comedy troupe The Barron Knights called "Ann & Joe", can't bear tracking it down to link it though. I haven't read any canonical history books but would guess that the Knights aren't mentioned in any of them.

I'm sure they're a footnote..

I'm only familiar with Nana Mouskouri from this duet she did with Michel Legrand that gets me every time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuKR-MR-g-4

The above mention of The Beautiful South made me think of Erasure. Both bands had a run of hit singles followed by a popular compilation album that had all the singles, then they both seemed to deflate and vanish. I learn from the internet that Beautiful South's Blue is the Colour and Quench both came out after Carry on Up the Charts, and Erasure's I Say, I Say, I Etc came out after Pop: The First 20 Hits, so my recollection isn't quite 100%, but the two bands went fairly abruptly from being major chart acts to has-beens.

I'm surprised to learn that Erasure has been putting out an album every few years from 1995, but I can't name any of them. The most recent album debuted at number 6 and then fell out of the charts the next week. That's the Gary Numan fan-buying model, whereby the fans buy it in the first week and no-one buys it in the second week.

My hunch is that Erasure is just a footnote nowadays because there's a perception they were an inferior imitation of the Pet Shop Boys, and The Beautiful South tend to be overlooked because they feel like a Paul Heaton side project, essentially an extension of The Housemartins with other people, so it's hard to think of them as a distinct entity. Black Grape had the same problem. They were huge for one summer but they're generally written off as a footnote to the Happy Mondays. Who are themselves often written about in passing whenever The Guardian runs a feature on Factory Records, but apart from "Step On" none of their music is ever played on the radio.

One thing linking all these bands is that they didn't much of a commercial impact in the United States. The Beautiful South had two top twenty singles in the Billboard Modern Rock chart and nothing else. The internet is written in the United States. It's written by them, not us. The kids on Reddit, the Youtube commentators, the tastemakers, they're all American. They roll the nickels, they are lords of the game. It will be their future.

I think the millstone that was Love Is All Around has unconsciously dented Wet Wet Wet’s long term appeal beyond the many who followed them in the late 80s/90s....it’s one of the last things non fans remember from them and yet it was no 1 in the UK for weeks

(xp) People never thought Erasure were an inferior imitation of the Pet Shop Boys because they're nothing like the Pet Shop Boys - and let's not forget Vince Clarke is one of the main inventors of the whole synth pop genre. Also the Housemartins are a footnote to the Beautiful South not the other way round. The Housemartins are far more ignored than the Beautiful South, this in spite of having a drummer who turned out to be an axe-wielding homicidal maniac.

I learn from the internet that Beautiful South's Blue is the Colour and Quench both came out after Carry on Up the Charts, and Erasure's I Say, I Say, I Etc came out after Pop: The First 20 Hits, so my recollection isn't quite 100%,

The Beautiful South became much more successful on the charts, in raw sales, and as a touring act after Carry On Up The Charts. It having sold a copy to vastly more people than had ever bought any Heaton record before, a notable proportion of those now considered themselves part of the band's audience, rather than just recognising a song or two on the adverts.

but the (band) went fairly abruptly from being major chart acts to has-beens.

They went from top twenty to #1 and #2 placings. Their fortunes started to decline seven years later; their first single had only come out five years before Carry On.

in spite of having a drummer who turned out to be an axe-wielding homicidal maniac.

His later activity certainly adds a delightful frisson to the early videos after he left the band, in which he repeatedly stalks and attempts to kidnap his replacement.

"Blue Is The Colour" and "Quench" were the Beautiful South's biggest selling albums!

How's Billy Idol's stock these days?

The Lemonheads went from being talk of the town to whisper of the village

xp His 2014 album was well-received, and earned him his highest-ever Billboard 200 debut (#34). He also actively tours.

Evan Dando showed up in a Rick James story on Disgraceland where they were both stuck in a studio during the LARiots and went up on the roof to fire machine guns into the air

Disgraceland is in Liverpool though

Rick James Style is on Come On Feel The Lemonheads, right at the peak of their talk of the town days

Chicago’s “I’m A Man” is fucking awesome

Billy Idol is well-liked among women over 35 ime.

The Lemonheads were never that big of a mainstream phenomenon (although there was a lot of talk): they had two albums that went gold after a few years and no real chart activity outside the modern rock chart. Idk what kind of historical record one would expect. They probably get mentioned in histories of alt/indie rock of the time? (I still like "Into Your Arms" fwiw!)

XP Also, when the weather gets cooler, Facebook is flooded w/a meme baring his image.