The Bee Gees had had a solid career from 1967-1977, including three U.S. #1 hits. But then Saturday Night Fever came out, and they had 6 #1 hits in a row.
In 2002 Virgin records thought so little of Maria Carey’s furture that they paid her $28 million to go away. She later signed with Island, and her The Emancipation of Mimi was the biggest U.S. album of 2005, with the single “we Belong Together” staying at #1 for 14 weeks.
Ozzy.
Black Sabbath, solo career, Ozzfest and The Osbournes. His last album debuted in the top 10 in 11 countries and spawned his first #1 active rock track.
Slee
Elvis Presley hit #1 on the country charts with his last Sun Records recording, which I think counts as having hit it big. Then he signed with RCA and his first recording (Heartbreak Hotel) went to #1 on the pop and country charts AND #2 on the R&B charts. So he hit it bigger. Then he signed a three-picture deal with Paramount and got even bigger.
And that’s just the period BEFORE he got drafted and lost two years of his career to the Army.
David Letterman – struggling standup comedian, a couple of failed TV shows, hits it big with Late Night and then hits VERY big with The Late Show. A similar example is Jerry Seinfeld.
Plenty of authors have – Stephen King, J. K Rowling, Helen Hoover Santmeyer, Nora Roberts, Isaac Asimov, etc. – signed big book contracts and came up with best sellers that did very nicely for the publishers. Best selling authors tend to have solid careers once they establish themselves.
Katherine Hepburn was a big Hollywood star (and Oscar winner) in the early 30s, then was deemed “box office poison” in 1938. She went back to Broadway to star in The Philadelphia Story, which was a smash hit, and she was smart enough buy the movie rights, and demanded she star in any film. It was a smash, and she was able to continue her career even more successfully than before.
Several other of the people on the “box office poison” list – Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, and Marlene Dietrich – managed to make major comebacks afterward.
Stevie Wonder. He negotiated a very lucrative, and very independence-granting, deal with Motown just before releasing a string of five of the best albums of the 1970s - Music of my Mind. Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life. You will have a lot of trouble showing me an artist who put out a similarly brilliant body of music in such a short period of time. The latter four albums all went #1; “Songs in the Key of Life” has sold 15, maybe 20 million copies. There were hit singles, Grammy awards, and lots and lots and lots of money.
It’s really the ultimate example; Stevie was already a highly regarded musician, he stubbornly held out for a good deal, and he then delivered the goods to a level he never had before. Everyone made a ridiculous fortune.
Everyone was a winner here, including the listeners and the fans. Songs In the Key of Life is one of those albums that inspired a whole generation of artists, truly a classic.
Tavares had the hit with She’s Gone.
Hall & Oates to the song to #4 (Pop) & #93(R&B) while Tavares went to #1 (R&B) and #50 on the pop charts
It’s always been hard to judge artist’s successes because each label will do things differently. Many artists have had brief “second careers” Aretha Franklin, had a big pop album in the 80s. After her song “Jump To It,” failed to make much of an impression in the pop charts, they thought she was dead. She came back with “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?” (Album).
Lots of other examples including Neil Sedaka, who had two spans of success.
When a label drops an act what it does is wake the artist up and then they can take control over their own careers again. For instance, in the 80s Juice Newton (a solid country artist) had more success on the pop charts. When Capital dropped her, RCA picked her back up and she came out with “Old Flame,” her biggest album which was solid country and promoted as such.
Captain & Tenille were dropped by their label (I believe A&M) after declining sales only to come back with the #1 song, “Do That To Me One More Time.”
No one thought Jackson could beat “Off The Wall,” but he did. No one thought any album would surpass “Saturday Night Fever,” but “Thriller,” did. No one thought any album would ever outsell “Thriller,” But the Eagle’s “Greatest Hits,” passed it.
In the 90s as the rock era came to a close and the R&B era took over mainstream pop, (Indeed by 2004 all the #1 songs were R&B, thus the death of the rock era), it became harder, because you can’t compare one song to another.
The real measure of a song is its sales, not the number of weeks it is at number 1 or gold status etc, 'cause they way they compute that has changed. For example “Physical” or “Bette Davis Eyes,” went to #1 for 10 weeks and 9 weeks respectively. But if you were to use the same methodology they use today, both songs would easily pass 30 weeks at #1.
I remember Lotus 1-2-3 and how I LOVED it. Now who uses it? (OK a few). Remember Altavista, the “Google,” of its day?
I’ve seen this a few times, and it’s not quite accurate. I believe regarding US sales, the Eagles (recently) had one or two million more sold than Jackson. But worldwide, it’s not even close. Jackson’s total is around 100 million, and the Eagles are at 42 million.
Interesting replies, thanks. Somehow the failures had stuck in my memory more. George Michael got into a big kerfuffle, didn’t he? I do like some of his later work.
How about Labelle? In the mid-60’s, they were called “Patti Labelle & the Blue Belles” and while pretty successful, they were just one of the scores of “Supremes” type, R&B girl groups. Then, in the 70s, they trimmed their name to just “Labelle”, whole-heartedly embraced disco (several years before the genre really took off), wore outlandishly flashy outfits, and scored a #1 hit “Lady Marmalade.”