The Beatles were initially thought of something for teenage girls to scream at, but somehow bottled lightning and became the most respected pop group ever.
What’s the biggest fall from fame and fortune in the pop music business? Leif Garrett went from magazine covers every month to having very little and being a total footnote in pop. The Bee Gees definitely faded, but I think they kept their money, and you have to admit that some of those songs really are good, once you get past the disco style.
So: Most money/fame to least money/fame, with bonus points for being disrespected and having the back catalog ignored.
Backstreet Boys? New Kids on the Block? Dave Clark Five? Jonas Brothers in the future?
Disco style? The Bee Gees predated disco, and their early hits were basically rock ballads; they were considered washed up when they came up with “Jive Talking” and revitalized their career with disco.
From the top to being almost forgotten? I’d vote for the Animals, who were one of the five top British Invasion groups (with the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, and the Kinks), with 13 top forty hits in four years. Now, they’re only known as one-hit wonders (“The House of the Rising Sun”).
Worst off rock star is probably Gary Glitter, who had a monster hit, but who did time in jail for sex offenses (against minors), which probably means no record company will want to have anything to do with him. Jim Gordon (a well-regarded sessions drummer, best known for co-writing “Layla”) gets special note, since he’s currently in jail for murdering his mother.
You also can’t ignore the legendary tale of MC Hammer, who went from being the first rap star to sell 10 million albums to bankruptcy in a matter of months, who now runs a ministry and occasionally shills for payday loan outfits.
Zager & Evans are the only group in history who had a number-one hit single on both the US and UK charts - In the Year 2525 - and then never had another chart single for the entire remainder of their career.
Their song was so insanely popular that people said they were going to be the biggest American rock group, even comparing them to the Beatles. But then what happened? They disappeared.
MC Hammer was the first multi-platinum rapper. Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt 'Em was number one for 21 weeks. After a long string of giant hits, he went legendarily bankrupt. Plus those silly pants which no one will let him forget. He’s been the music industry joke for two decades.
In rock, or pop, or whatever they did, I’d nominate Bread. Thirteen top 100 hits in the 70s. Today, forgotten and despised. And mocked after leader David Gates did an interview with Rolling Stone that put his group over CSN.
Beaten on preview. But the story goes that Zager & Evans broke up because they couldn’t stand the thought of having to do “In the Year 2525” every night. Not the worst decision.
I dont know if this is good as an “all-time-low” example, but Blues Traveller was HUGE in the early 1990’s, opening for Rolling Stones in sold out stadiums and filling basketball arenas for thier own headlining shows; now one of the members is dead from an OD, and the others are lucky to play county fairs or a small club show in Des Moines on a tuesday night…
Quite a reversal of fortune, but in the music business, probably not particularly unusual.
PS—I dont know who is left of the original band members in the current “Blues Traveller” incarnation besides John Popper. It may just be him and whatever sidemen he throws together when there is a show to play.
I’ve read conflicting accounts of the cause of Zager & Evans’ breakup. Some sources, such as Wikipedia’s page, state that they “remain friends,” but other reviews and articles that I’ve read claim that they “never got along” with each other. I have been in contact with Dennis Zager Jr., the son of Denny Zager, and he told me that Zager has not spoken to Evans in a very long time. I did not press the matter but I assume that the two had a falling out.
Denny Zager wrote all the melodies and instrumentals and played the fingerstyle guitar, and Rick Evans wrote the lyrics and did most of the singing. (I think Reginald Ludwig is the only tune on which Zager sung the main part and not the harmony.) For what it’s worth, I always thought that the melodies were the strong point of Zager & Evans’ whole discography, and the lyrics, while sometimes very good, were usually the weakest link. Zager’s composition (and guitar playing) really shines on tracks like In My House,Fred,Bayoan, Cary Lynn Javes,Reginald Ludwig and others.
If you read reviews of the 2525 album, which are mostly negative, you will find that the vast majority of the criticism is directed very specifically towards the lyrics. I think that if Denny Zager had wound up in a different group with a different lyricist, he could have really been huge, because he has got a lot of talent.
Probably the winner would be the “easy listening” album acts of the early sixties like Ray Conniff or Herb Alpert. They sold millions of albums and were TV fixtures. For example, Alpert had three top 15 albums in a single week and outsold even the Beatles in 1966-67. Good luck finding anyone under 40 who’s even heard of these acts.
If we’re talking only rock, how about the Jefferson Airplane? Rock critics of the time rated them equal to the Stones or the Who in both talent and popularity, which very few would claim these days. When’s the last time you heard anything on the radio from them besides “Somebody to Love” or “White Rabbit”? It’s a shame because albums like Crown of Creation, Volunteers, and Blows Against the Empire show they really were a great band. Unfortunately the cheesy music and constant turnover of bandmates in the Starship era have made people overlook their talent.
Or go back even earlier, when Pat Boone was possibly the biggest draw in the music industry not named Presley. He deserves mention because of the way his name became a punch line for lameness (especially after he did his Christian metal album). But almost everyone from that era took a nose dive shortly after the Beatles blew up rock.
Most people deservedly hate the Starship era band, but it never seemed to me that the Airplane are dissed because of it. That’s like downplaying the Beatles because of all the crap McCartney did as a solo artist. The Airplane were a very good group and I think are still thought of that way.
Maybe the whole group of progressive rock bands needs to be mentioned. Punk killed them dead critically and they’ve barely recovered any cred. Although it should have been the other way around.
It’s not true that prog rock never “recovered any cred.” On the contrary, most serious music people have a lot of respect for them. They have cred to burn, if not mainstream popularity. Maybe your average run of the mill college-freshman hipster who listens to Bright Eyes and Death Cab doesn’t know anything about King Crimson or Yes, but your true music snobs like Prince Vince Gallo or his many imitators will give this classic music its due and then some.
I’d just have to take exception to some of these choices. There’s a BIG difference between ‘hits to obscure’ and ‘riches to rags’. I’d be willing to bet that some of these mentioned have taken obscurity all the way to the bank.
Riches and fortune shouldn’t require a constant stream of unending high-profile success. It can, instead, consist of having your success, cashing in, and then properly managing your money and life to make sure you never NEED to be a success in public again.
Sure, Hammer screwed up famously, but does anyone think Pat Boone spent 40 years begging for nickels? Or Eric Burden of the Animals?
Punk may have been on the scene of the killing but I would say that Disco was the murderer of Prog Rock. A few prog rock bands actually went disco for an album or two and then gave it up. After that, I think the huge amount of effort needed to keep a Prog Rock band relevant in the rising MTV age spelled the end.
A lot of bands in the mid-seventies were praised as ‘The Next Beatles’. The Bay City Rollers come to mind right off the bat. It was almost a cliche as much as Madonna comparisons were in the late 80s.
I think Leif Garrett definitely. He slid into obscurity AND had an array of personal troubles. You at least still hear the Bee Gees, if you tune in to oldies radio anyway. Even Zager and Evans will get some play, if for nothing else the novelty of 2525.
I can’t recall ever hearing a Leif Garrett song on the radio. In fact outside of his “Behind the Music” episode, I don’t think I’ve ever heard any of his songs, period.
Badfingerwas the Next Big Thing, admired by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, with access to the best talent in music. They have to be music’s unluckiest artists,plagued with bad management, lawsuits, internal rivalries and multiple suicides.
Obviously, there have been countless “one hit wonders,” but I won’t waste time wondering “What ever happened to Zager and Evans or Terry Jacks?”
And just as obviously, there are countless teen idols who seemed to fall off the face of the earth after their fans grew up and moved on to other things. So, I won’t nominate the Partridge Family.
Nor will I consider guys like Peter Frampton, who were HUGE for just one year or one album, but never hit such heights again.
I want to stick to people who had at least a dozen hit singles or 5+ platinum albums, who were hugely popular for several years, but who are now forgotten or regarded with some embarrassment. The people and bands who used to get massive airplay on the radio, but who are now shunned even by oldies stations or the “Bob FM/Fred FM/Larry FM” stations that claim “we play ANYTHING.”
My best nominee: JOHN DENVER!
People forget just HOW big this guy was in the Seventies. He was as big a star as ANYBODY in the music business. Today? Well, I still love his music, but you’d be hard-pressed to find may people who’ll admit liking him or buying his records. NONE of his smash hits gets any radio airplay (TRY asking a Bob FM deejay to play “Sunshine on My Shoulders” and see what response you get!).