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

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.

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.

― Ashley Pomeroy

The Lemonheads also had a freakishly high number of covers among their best known tracks. At the risk of getting all Geir-ish, that might not be the best way of cementing a Serious Rock Music Legacy.

I think that was part of the Fat Boys' problem too.

The Lemonheads also had a freakishly high number of covers among their best known tracks. At the risk of getting all Geir-ish, that might not be the best way of cementing a Serious Rock Music Legacy.

hey that's not fai--

(I still like "Into Your Arms" fwiw!)

re Wet Wet Wet/Love Is All Around:

it’s one of the last things non fans remember from them and yet it was no 1 in the UK for weeks

??? it's the first thing I remember, it's what I think of when I see the name, and off the top of my head I can't remember anything else by them (I'd probably remember other songs if I saw the titles)

Yeah, the same, I don't think I've ever heard anything else by them besides "Love Is All Around".

"Angel Eyes" of course !

You lucky people

xp after I posted that I did actually think they had a song called Angel Eyes, but I can't remember how it goes

Wishing I Was Lucky u savages.

^ still like that one tbh

sweet little mystery was their other big tune, that was bloody awful though

They had another #1 in the 90s with 'Goodnight Girl' which was about as bad as LIAA.

xp sorry wasn’t clear, I meant “last” in the sense that LIAA came towards the end of their run of hits; obviously it’s one of first things anyone asked will remember from them

There was a whole run of these "soul music for white suburban Brits" bands - WWW, Simply Red, Lighthouse Family (yes I know they weren't all white but their audience was). Level 42 before that I suppose, and maybe Hot Chocolate in the 70s? All huge in their day.

the other big www song in the uk was 'with a little help from my friends', that charity single they did (originally for the nme sgt pepper lp)

I think it was the and yet it was no 1 in the UK for weeks that threw me off, thought it implied that people ought to remember that one in particular yet didn't

Hot Chocolate were good though

There was a whole run of these "soul music for white suburban Brits" bands - WWW, Simply Red, Lighthouse Family (yes I know they weren't all white but their audience was). Level 42 before that I suppose, and maybe Hot Chocolate in the 70s? All huge in their day.

At one time every second band in Glasgow was trying to do this - all with songs with sugar or candy in the title.

... or honey. Basically like JAMC but trying to be Al Green and not the Velvets.

Is there a thread for "acts who arrived with a couple of pretty good singles, then pumped out utter shit for the remainder of their careers"?

wet wet wet, ub40, cast, maybe status quo?

cast [citation needed]

That Quo talk is fightin' talk

first cast single was good, everything after was very not good.

knew I would be in trouble with the quo

At one time every second band in Glasgow was trying to do this

Somewhat amusingly Wet Wet Wet proved be better at it than the West End hipster crowd, despite being a bunch of Rangers' fans from Clydebank.

The Quo rule from Matchstick to Mystery Song. That's a lot of singles.

That Quo talk is fightin' talk

Bordering on FP territory.

shit I'm in trouble now

eheh regarding the "soul music for white suburban Brits", the video for "Sweet Little Mystery" is quite wtf : they go to an African country to spread the groove to the locals !

Hey, the Clydebank Groove might not be that well known in Africa.

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

and the lucky country is Gambia !

It's like the Beatles arriving in the US.

I have actually just watched the whole thing and... oh my...

worst scottish export since mcewans

I'm quite partial to McEwan's Champion Ale although the 7.3% ABV might have something to do with that

Wet Wet Wet were an absolute shocker of a band. And, as has been noted, were Rangers fans into the bargain.

Disgraceland is in Liverpool though

Disgraceland is a podcast about pop music and crime

had never heard of wet wet wet before, that song with the video in the Gambia sounded like Culture Club

Have never forgotten Mark E Smith talking about being on the same label as Wet Wet Wet:

"The worst fucking drummer I have even seen in my lifel He is so fucking shit!"

https://thefall.org/gigography/90jan25.html

just gonna chime in to join the earlier mentions of Three Dog Night, who surely have the biggest gulf between popularity and canonization of anyone mentioned. they also work as the avatar of the late 60s/early 70s harmonically-oriented pop-rock melange discussed upthread - Rascals, Lovin' Spoonful, Grass Roots, that whole thing, and frankly I suspect their original audience base may have resembled Blood Sweat and Tears's, Chicago's, and Neil Diamond's. huge huge huge acts, largely wiped out by the demise of oldies radio and/or its time shift forward into 70s Denver/Carpenters/Taylor lite-rock and 80s soft rock material (which obviously threw Chicago a lifeline). too rockin' for the while-you-work stations, not enough guitars or attitude for classic rock. these are also all "greatest hits" type bands - albums all look generic and thin on material, feels obvious you want the comp only, there has never been much work putting into gilding their real careers with arcs or narratives or creative journeys. wonder if there are some generational or factors here too (did Three Dog Night sell to boomers' parents and Silent Generation relations as much as to boomers themselves?).

fanbase gender balance is surely SUPER relevant here - rockism 101, right?

i've yammered on about this on ilx before, but my 90s equivalent for Three Dog Night has always been Matchbox 20 - not nearly as successful at their peak but similarly adrift in recurrent plays. first album crossed over so quickly from rock to pop radio that the rock songs didn't build permanent roots, and then pop radio stopped playing guitar bands and rock radio stopped playing melodic roots-informed hootie-esque bands anyway in the nu-metal years. i'll still hear "unwell" and "3 AM" around here and there but nothing in proportion to their actual success.

as a keeper of the billy joel flame i'll also put his name forward in the "mega-successful, hardly forgotten, hits played all the time, but still no place in the Story of Rock" column. there are a couple of critics who really stan for him, but if you pull up a big history of rock documentary or something, i feel like nobody would feel obliged to include him. he doesn't serve any narrative function.