Flashes in the pan by year, 1984-2009

Some of the Mercury Prize winners here were barely a flash, did Talvin Singh even sell that many records?

Talvin Singh's name still seems to get brought up now and again in my circle for some reason. Is he still releasing music?

Yeah, seemed unfair to say Talvin Singh because that felt like the Mercury judges really striking out on their own. Maybe ditto a bit with Roni Size.

it seems like a disproportionate amount of the UK names that come up are BME artists

This has occurred to me too, but it seems like it's a particular kind of BME artist that the record industry gets behind in these flashes, often ones that don't get much traction with BME audiences.

Talvin Singh seems like one of those people who stays busy with any number of projects, one or two of which occasionally intersect with the zeitgeist. Less of a flash in the pan than a slow bake.

(crap analogy time)

In any case I apologise re/to Talvin and will seriously consider listening to his second album 'Ha' someday.

Feel like, to count, you need one mega-selling album that was never really followed up.

Not sure if it there has to be a mega-selling album: even a clutch of top 20 singles would work for me. Tanita Tikaram is just the kind of thing in the pre-Britpop era. That kind of respectable artist who weren't cool in the NME's eyes, were probably available in the Britannia Music Club, might be one of the 12 CDs (or cassettes) the ILM proverbial 12 CD-owning person had, you know.

Can't get my head around Tanita Tikaram being only four years older than me.

I wouldn't say Apache Indian counts at all – he was more of a one-hit wonder

Yeah, you're right. Was swayed by him getting a Brits nomination for Best British Male.

Someone on Facebook suggested McAlmont and Butler for 1995.

"Some of the Mercury Prize winners here were barely a flash,"

maybe if Gaz Coombes had won it in '15 he wouldn't gone on to have a platinum selling hit album and become the global superstar he is now. Take note alt-J!

Tanita T was in the year above me in my sixth form college; I wish I had some scadalous anecdotes to share but I got nothing

iirc The Corrs still play arenas, they're prob more one for the thread that's words to the effect of 'you dgaf about them but they're actually as big as their heyday if not bigger'

I guess a lot of them still play to big crowds but on the basis of one album? It's not as if successive Corrs albums have gone top 10 and hung around all year is it?

yeah it is actually

four of their albums have gone top two in the UK apparently

The follow-up to Talk on Corners had 'Breathless' on it - a big hit!

1984 - Nik Kershaw
1985 - King

Absolutely yes to both of these. Although Kershaw became more of a back-room songwriter (he wrote 'The One and Only' for Chesney Hawkes) and we all know that Paul King became a VJ on MTV Europe...

Corrs have a new single out, their sounds hasn't evolved much in 20 years.

1993 has a trio of Brit soul divas; Des'ree, Dina Caroll and Shara Nelson. Most sad that Shara Nelson never capitalised on the success of Massive Attack.

1991 - Beverley Craven

1998 Cornershop, maybe?

Also 1991 - Shakespears Sister

Des'ree had a hit at the end of the nineties too with 'Life'. Think that album was quite big as well?

1994 - Stiltskin
1996 - Babylon Zoo

Also 1994/1995 - The Outhere Brothers

Shakespeare's Sister also had a bit of success in the 80s with 'You're History'

1988 - Inner City

1989 - Bonnie Raitt

1992 - Arrested Development, Helmet

1995 - Drugstore (didn't sell many records but the inkies were all over them for months on end)

Bonnie Raitt not even close to being a flash in the pan (at least in the US). All but one of the twelve albums she's released since 1977 landed in the top 40, and three went multi-platinum, along with numerous charting singles. In the UK she had a string of four albums that sold well. She's been popular with critics since her first album in 1971.

1998 - David Gray?

1998 - Lauryn Hill solo

1998 - David Gray?

― MarkoP, Wednesday, October 11, 2017 9:27 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh god... yes, absolutely!

1988 - Edie Brickell (unless you're Paul Simon)

franz ferdinand

You could basically put almost every UK indie band who released their debut album from 2004-2008 in this thread, tbh.

1998 - Air

2002 - Damien Rice

1988 - Edie Brickell (unless you're Paul Simon)

― Lee626, Wednesday, October 11, 2017 9:54 PM (thirty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They had a couple of hits between 'em in 2014 iirc.

1987 - Curiosity Killed the Cat

2016 - The 1975 (pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease)

1988 - Tracy Chapman
1998 - Asian Dub Foundation

1994 - Stiltskin
1996 - Babylon Zoo

one-hit wonders but never "big"

i was gonna say damien rice but i guess he had two more albums that did okay? huge uk-usa discrepancies here; let's hear what the mongrels have to say

1996 - Los Del Rio (best selling single ever?)

1984 - Thompson Twins

Tracy Chapman had a #3 hit in 1995.

I was surprised to find out it only went to #95 the UK. It won the Grammy for Best Rock Song and was nominated for Best Song and Best Record.

2000 - Sonique

1990 - Alannah Myles

To be fair, she probably is considered a national treasure in Canada.

G'night and good luck next year

1998 - B*Witched

I can't claim they got respect from the critics but them achieving four number one singles within 10 months to having it all be over less than a year later makes them one of the ultimate flash in the pan cases.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_singles

I think I actually did a poll of these at some point too...

POLL: The 11 best selling singles ever

re list of best selling singles - what a weird collection!

1990 : EMF - Unbelievable.

surely !?

1998 - Air

― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, October 11, 2017 11:18 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LOL WUT

The original post is pretty obviously about *album* artists not one-hit-wonders, so I don't like Los Del Rio really counts here. Then again if Asian Dub Foundation (two albums that reached #20) are being mentioned then I'm not sure what's even being discussed any more.

I was completely wrong about the Corrs though, I guess the all-consuming hugeness of Talk On Corners wiped everything else from my memory.

Yeah, in my head it's definitely about the act's status in that year, rather than being defined specifically by an album, but one-hit-single wonders are probably not fodder for this.

I think it's a whiff of respectability that links them: Brit and Mercury approval is a big indicator, the sense that this is an important new force in the music industry. Not sure EMF really had that.

point taken re albums vs singles.
the schubert dip' album was a hit, but didn't really dominate 1991 when it was released.

1997 - Natalie Imbruglia

Speaking of EMF - 1990: Jesus Jones (certainly in the UK, I recall much music press chin-stroking about their sampling and other modern wonders)

Stereo MCs and The Shamen maybe?

XP - I guess then The Wonder Stuff and PWEI too?

I wouldn't count PWEI or the Wonderstuff. They were just popular bands who were of their time. They had pretty big followings and released multiple albums and singles over a few years.

It's definitely about that thing where an act is all over the place, all over TV, talked about in ecstatic and revered tones, a huge amount of marketing and possibly a big hit single or album, but forgotten about within months with hardly a glimmer of a comeback.

in the US how about Hootie & The Blowfish?

Their flash sustained itself for four years at least, perhaps longer depending on who you ask.

Would the KLF had been mentioned already were it not for their late 80s years of relative obscurity? That would rule out several other 90s acts itt tho. Also I guess people tend to think of acts that had some sort of brief mainstream acclaim without being ILM-friendly.

didn't dwindle away so much as forcibly remove themselves from the picture

KLF don't count as their legacy never really went away

I don't think these one-three hit wonders really hit the bill. Was EMF really promoted as a "career" band, or taken seriously by critics? Some of these are puzzling, like Corinne Bailey Rae, who made great follow up records but was kind of forgotten by the industry, if not by all critics.

Lisa Stansfield?

I was thinking her, maybe, but her songs still get played all the time on commercial radio where I'm from.
Tracy Chapman? Sinead O'Connor?

I guess this thread throws into question exactly how long the popularity of an act should last. Some acts are just so right for their time and place that they naturally enjoy a short shelf life. Most continue to release a few more albums but they never sell as well as their debut and they never get the press they had at the start

Darius Rucker has a big career in country
I bet most of these "flashes in the pan" can still draw theater crowds that would be the envy of whatever indie rock bands are Pitchfork darlings these days

1984 - Thompson Twins

Their hit-making run started in 1983 in the UK and continued through 1985. They were still big enough in '85 to perform on the US Live Aid stage.

Some of these are puzzling, like Corinne Bailey Rae, who made great follow up records

Her husband died a while after the release of her debut, and her career seemed to lose all its momentum while she took time out.

I had no idea. Definitely strike her from the list.