How about the Academy of Country Music’s 1973 “Most Promising Female Vocalist” (Olivia Newton-John)?
No, the ultra-cool claim that Karen Carpenter was a brilliant singer who was trapped in the miserable songs and arrangements of her brother, and ended up as tragic a figure as Judy Garland.
I’m not even ultra-cool and I’ll go along with that.
Or Jethro Tull winning the Heavy Metal Grammy in the late 1980s?
Learning audio engineering in the late 70s, the Carpenters recordings were the pinnacle of the art form. They may be cheese, but it’s really great cheese.
Olivia’s earliest hits in the USA were definitely country-flavored. Listen to “Let Me Be There,” "If You Love Me, Let Me Know,"or “Please Mr. Please,” and tell me her music wasn’t legitimately country.
But she turned to MOR pop before long.
Heck, *most *of the big bands from that era have faded into obscurity. When’s the last time you heard a song by Paul Revere & the Raiders? And they’re (supposedly) still around.
Growing up, I remember when hair bands like Quiet Riot and Ratt would fill stadiums. Now they’re lucky to fill a corner bar. But as someone has already mentioned, these are not necessarily riches-to-rags stories, just once-famous artists who have faded into obscurity.
Last I heard, Mo Tucker of the Velvet Underground was working at a Walmart in Georgia and living in an old and very modest house. Not exactly rags, but quite surprising given VU’s influence.
I’ll nominate the Cowsills. They were huge in the late 60s, family band, very talented, made millions. They put out several albums, appeared on every variety show on TV (there were lots of them then) and had their own TV special. Mismanagement by their asshole father left them owing the record company and few people willing to work with them. After the fall, some of them stayed in the business and still make their living doing music but at just the local level. Others have regular jobs and play music on the side. The two who had the biggest problems after everything fell apart have died, one in a mysterious way after hurricane Katrina. I doubt you would hear any of their old music now except maybe “The Rain, the Park and Other Things”. They put out a DVD last year called Family Band. They seem to have dealt with their demons and are happy with their lives but can’t help but wonder what could have been. So not exactly “to rags” but definately not what they expected their lives to be.
Robbin Crosby of Ratt and Kevin DuBrow from Quiet Riot are both deceased. Ratt did perform in my city a couple weeks ago, on a bill with several other hair bands, and I heard the venue (ETA: 10,000 seats) did sell out. Crosby had AIDS, probably as a result of his drug addiction, and DuBrow died from a drug overdose. His death was especially tragic because nobody reported him missing for almost a week, and he was indeed determined to have been dead for about 6 days when his body was found. 
I had heard that Mo Tucker died too, but she didn’t; she’s retired now and Wikipedia said she babysits her grandchildren. And I had heard that she did work at Wal-Mart, but it was an office job. My Google-fu just now said that she was a Tea Party supporter. :eek:
p.s. Kevin DuBrow’s brother is a plastic surgeon, and was on a reality show for a while. They almost looked like twins, even though they weren’t, right down to their toupees. 
Doe Vanilla Ice count?
And what about the tragic career of Bill Hailley (of “The Comets”) fame?
Unless “rags” has taken a new meaning, many of these guys are/were not in any sort of rags.
They may have lost airplay and no longer pack stadiums, but I’m sure they are not counting pennies.
Bee Gees? C’mon
Ray Conniff? Still producing records two years before he died.
You can’t eat influence.
Mo Tucker at Tea Party rally.
Well, Paul Revere still tours with an ever-changing cast of musicians he calls the Raiders. My parents saw him on a cruise ship last year.
The real star of the band in their heyday was lead singer, pony-tailed Mark Lindsay.
He hasn’t been with them in decades, and from what I hear, he and Revere haven’t spoken in forever.
I was reading through this zombie and was happy to find that I had the original thread killing post!
That would be Barry. He used to hang out at one of my favorite bars on Decatur St. in New Orleans. Saw him play a few times before someone told me who he was.
I saw that Cowsills movie. Very good!
Looks like you might do it again!
D’oh! :smack:
Trivia aside - At the height of their fame, the Cowsills were slated to star in their very own “Monkees”-esque sitcom. The premise naturally enough would be about the wacky adventures of a singing group composed of a bunch of siblings and their mother. But some test reels were shot, and the producers decreed that that the RL mother could not act, so they wanted her recast with a more professional actress / singer - Shirley Jones. Of course, the kids balked at the idea. And so the network ditched the whole family and made up a new show called “The Partridge Family.” So the Cowsills DID have some lasting pop culture legacy afte all!
Anyway, one of the most curious rags-to-riches stories was discussed by none other than Cecil Adams - The Singing Nun, a Dominican nun who had a major international hit record “Dominique” You might know it as that chirpy record that Jessica Lange’s character played relentlessly on “American Horror Story: Asylum” The Singing Nun was quite a sensation for a short time during the early 60s, but was about $60,000 in debt when she died in 1965 (a suicide - with her lesbian lover!!!)
I’ll go with Rod Evans, the original singer in Deep Purple. He was replaced by Ian Gillan after three albums, then a few years after Deep Purple broke up, he toured as “Deep Purple” with a bunch of unknowns, and even had the balls to play songs the band did after he was fired, like “Smoke On The Water”. Jon Lord sued the pants off of him, and as a result, he lost any future royalties from the three records he sang on. This happened right before CDs hit big.
I don’t know if he’s in rags now. Actually, no one is really sure where he is or what he’s been doing since 1980. Even though the albums he was on didn’t sell that great at the time, I’m sure the back catalog started moving pretty well a few years later, and he flushed it all away for a tour that lasted two or three gigs.
I’m wanting to say The Edgar Winter Group. Their 1972 album “They Only Come Out at Night” was a monster, with a bunch of good hits, including Frankenstein, and they seemed to be a staple on the Midnight Special. Rick Derringer became a regular with the group, just in time to catch on with the fame, and he had a giant seller “All-American Boy.” Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo went platinum, I think.
Dan Hartman was a super talent as well. Then, their music just started to eat.
I saw Derringer in a crappy little hole in the wall club in 94, and there weren’t even 100 people there. IIRC, it was free admission, and he didn’t even have a stage. I just walked up while he was playing, and was about 1 foot from him.
And, on Youtube a few years ago, in an interview with Rick Derringer, if I heard correctly, he mentioned that he was doing stuff with Pre-paid Legal! (Having tracked Derringer over the years, it seemed that if anybody was star-crossed, it was he. IIRC, all of his equipment was stolen at least twice, on the night of big concerts, and other remarkably bad stuff.) His lot seems to be improving now, tho.