Prog rock certainly took a nosedive in the late Seventies, but neither punk rock nor disco nor hostile critics had much to do with that.
Absolutely NOBODY ever said, “I used to love Yes, but now I prefer KC and the Sunshine Band.” Nor did ANYBODY ever say, “Emerson Lake and Palmer used to rock my world, but you know, the Sex Pistols are just so much better!” Nor did ANYBODY ever say, “I used to love Genesis, but I was just reading Lester Bangs, and he convinced me I was wrong.”
Prog rock collapsed mainly because its best practitioners ran out of creative gas. Even those of us who worshipped ELP lost interest after “Love Beach” and “Works Volume 2.” And even Yes fanatics got bored with “Drama.”
Those of us who loved “Tarkus” or “Fragile” or “Court of the Crimson King” generally still do. But almost no band remains at its creative peak for more than a decade. By the late Seventies, the best prog bands had hit the wall, and there just weren’t any good new prog bands coming along.
Even so, there were still huge hits ahead for Genesis, Asia, the Moody Blues, Yes, et al. The genre never died out completely.
He’s still a very rich man today, so it wouldn’t be accurate to suggest he’s in rags. But do you know who the second best selling musical act of the 1950s was? Obviously, Elvis was #1, but the #2 recording act of the 1950s was…
Pat Boone.
Again, people forget just HOW big this man was, in his prime. He was just about the biggest star in music. Today? NONE of his records gets played on the radio, even on oldies stations. He’s widely regarded as a joke by the few people who remember him at all.
Well, there’s Mick Taylor… lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones from 1969 to 1974, whose career went nowhere after he left them and who is now apparently broke.
There are a number of riches-to-rags stories (some of which later turned around again) involving drug addiction and/or insanity: for example, Syd Barrett, Peter Green, Brian Wilson, David Crosby, and John Phillips. (What a supergroup that would have made…)
My sister went to a show at Red Rocks this past summer which was a tribute band to John Denver. She sent me a video clip of the entire audience singing along to Rocky Mountain High. Not my thing, but I think it was a sold out show and it convinced me that he’s still an influence. I don’t ever hear him on the radio, though.
I’d hardly put Herb Alpert in that category. He was the “A” in A&M Records. In addition to releasing his albums on his own label, he had such multiplatinum acts as Styx, Supertramp, the Carpenters, Bryan Adams, Peter Frampton, and the Police. Within a decade of its founding in 1962, A&M became the largest independent music label in the world. He and his partner, Jerry Moss, sold A&M to PolyGram in 1989, but continued to manage it until 1993. Hardly from riches to rags at all.
My “Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits” has a list of the top-selling recording artists from 1955 through the present. Pat Boone was 11th, making him by far the most successful recording artist who’s forgotten/disdained today.
But one name that surprised me (because I never knew she’d rank so high) was Connie Francis. She was rated as the 25th most successful recording artist ever, by Billboard. Of all the other names on that list, she’s is probably the most forgotten. She’s still alive and still performs, in Vegas and elsewhere, but she has fallen farther than anyone else on that list.
Milli Vanilli had multiple top-ten hits, but then the lip synching scandal broke, and they were forced to forfeit their Grammy for best new artist. One of the two “singers” (Rob, IIRC) quickly fell into drug addiction and died of a drug overdose about a decade later.
He had attempted suicide before, but the police ruled his death as an accidental overdose. This was even reported so in the Rolling Stone article announcing his death.
I was just looking through my “Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits” again, and saw their breakdown of the top-selling musical acts of each decade. I looked for artists who were in the top 25 for each decade, but who are now either mocked or completely forgotten, and whose songs rarely or never get played on oldies radio stations any more. Some notable names that hadn’t been mentioned yet:
Eighties: Air Supply
Seventies: Helen Reddy
Sixties:
Bobby Vinton and Brook Benton.
I swear, I had NO idea how popular these guys once were. I vaguely remember Vinton because of his brief Seventies comeback (“My Melody of Love”). But I’d never even heard of Brook Benton.
Fifties:
You know, a lot of HUGELY popular non-rock artists from the start of the rock & roll era are completely forgotten. I couldn’t name a single hit song by ANY of these acts, but the numbers say they were superstars in the Fifties.
The McGuire Sisters, The Four Lads, Teresa Brewer, The Fontane Sisters
For a couple years in the early 80s, this guy was HUGE (his eponymous debut won the Album of the Year Grammy in 1980). Then, he just fell off the face of the earth (unless you’re a Yacht Rock fan, of course).
Still, unlike Leif Garrett, I do occasionally hear his songs on he radio. I have to confess that I’ve never heard a Leif song, either.
As another data point, in Ireland today, “Country Roads” is still a very popular tune and is commonly requested at parties and also as a pub sing-along. No, I don’t understand it either.
Falling from fame and falling from fortune are two different things. Someone mentioned Herb Alpert who’s fortunes declined musically, but he was the “A” in “A&M” records so he managed quite nicely.
The Bee Gees after ruling the charts from the mid 76-79, just bombed out of sight, yet continued to have success as writers, with Barbra Steisand (“Guilty”), Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton (“Islands In The Stream”), Dionne Warwick (“Heartbreaker”)
You can’t compare success with chart data because the methodology has changed so much. Singles and #1 records are all too common now. Sales also can’t be compared, because there are so many more markets. Someone can sell 25 million records and that’s impressive, till you find out they had access to markets like China, where records can be bought and the market was closed prior to the mid 80s.
I don’t use the term “rags” literally. I have no way of knowing how prosperous the aforementioned “disappearing acts” are today.
Whenever I see a “Where are they now” TV retrospective on washed-up former stars, I find that some musical artist who had a dozen hits and a few platinum albums is living in squalor because he blew all his money on drugs, or because his agent screwed him over, or he had a bitter divorce, or (fill in sob story).
At the same time I’ll see some one-hit wonder who seems to be living in a luxurious mansion.
So, I make no claims about how rich or happy a formerly popular singer or band is. Maybe the Air Supply are still rolling in dough, all these years later (if so, more power to them!). Regardless, I just find it interesting that SOME megastars disappear completely, to be completely forgotten or to be regarded as a punch line.
Helen Reddy was extremely popular in the mid-Seventies. Mention her today, and people will either shrug “Helen Who?” or laugh hysterically while singing “I Am Woman.” Hardly anyone will admit liking her, even though she sold tens of millions of records in her day.
Tony Orlando and Dawn had a bunch of #1 hits (and a very popular TV variety show) in the Seventies. But who’ll admit ever buying “Say Has Anybody Seen my Sweet Gypsy Rose”?
Thing is, SOME of Reddy and Orlando’s equally cheesey contemporaries have made sort-of comebacks. The Carpenters were regarded as saccharine and maudlin and cheesy, too… but somehow, some ultra-cool people who’d never EVER admit liking “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” will cop to liking The Carpenters!
VH1 did a ‘where are they now’ type deal a few years ago. I remember they had the lead guitarist for an 80 hair-metal band who had done multiple world tours was down to painting over billboards in California. I can’t remember the name of guy or the band and google is not helping.
I remember when Garrett was being overhyped to teenage girls over and over some 30 years ago. He was marketed much like his contemporaries, Shaun Cassidy and Andy Gibb. (And Gibb was his own riches to rags story. But I digest.) His biggest hit was “I Was Made For Dancing”. He also did a cover of the Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ U.S.A.” I don’t recall him for much else.
