Are there any examples of what I’m terming “dad bands,” ie. Bands trending toward middle age, that would play covers at weddings or local beer tents and fish fries, that made it big?
Any middle aged accountant rockers that finally broke through?
Depends on how you define a “dad band.” Most bands toiled in obscurity before getting a break. Many started as cover bands playing weddings and backyard parties, including Van Halen and The Roots, Spandau Ballet and The Commodores.
Stranger
I’d say this group, composed primarily of writers, playing the grand opening of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame counts.
Here’s band member Dave Barry on the subject:
I belong to a rock band called the Rock Bottom Remainders, which consists mostly of authors. The other members include (in alphabetical order) sports columnist Mitch Albom, humor writer Roy Blount Jr., media escort and singer Kathi Goldmark, Simpsons creator Matt Groening, rock-book author Dave Marsh, thriller writer Ridley Pearson, one-person horror industry Stephen King, rock critic Joel Selvin and actual literary person Amy Tan.
I am still baffled by the fact that the Rock Bottom Remainders were invited to perform as part of the ceremonies surrounding the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. Specifically, we were asked to perform at the big gala Friday-night dinner party to benefit the Hall. This made no sense. Having the Rock Bottom Remainders perform on behalf of music is like having Mike Tyson teach a course on dating etiquette.
It doesn’t really fit what you’re looking for, but the thread title made me think of the Spanic Boys, a father-son duo who never really “made it big” (they apparently don’t have a Wikipedia page) but who had their 15 minutes of fame when they got to play on Saturday Night Live.
The Capitol Steps started out as a group of Congressional staffers performing at an office Christmas party.
Smithereens?
Those bands did all work their way up, but they all found success at a relatively young age.
I guess part of the criteria has to be either an atypical age that success was found, or an unusually long period of obscurity before success.
I had never heard of this group, but will give a listen. That is a wild lineup.
The closest act that I can think of to the OP’s conditions are Billy Vera and The Beaters. As a young man in the 1960s, Vera had recorded and released some singles as both a solo act and as part of a duo with Judy Clay. Some of Vera’s 1960s releases were regional hits that sold just enough to show up on the lower reaches of Billboard’s Hot 100.
Vera turned from performing to songwriting and producing by 1970. He got back on the horse to release a solo album in 1977 that largely went unnoticed. Still, the embers were stoked and Vera started performing regularly on the New York club scene in the late 1970s.
Vera was pulled back into songwriting when one of his songs, “I Really Got the Feeling”, was picked up by Dolly Parton in 1978 and became a #1 country hit. Vera was hired on by Warner Brothers as an in-house song writer and moved to L.A. in 1979.
Vera formed a new band in L.A. and began performing regularly in the local clubs. This band would become The Beaters. Billy Vera and The Beaters got noticed and were offered a recording contract with Alfa Records, which led to their 1981 debut album Billy & The Beaters. Two singles were released from this album and had cups of coffee on the Hot 100, the second of which was to become the band’s signature song “At This Moment”.
Vera recorded another solo album, Billy Vera, in 1982 that ended up never getting released, as Alfa Records shuttered their US operation. He cobbled together enough material to get an album released in 1983 (The Mystic Sound of Billy Vera) that again went unnoticed.
The rest of the story:
Vera returned to playing the clubs of Southern California, and resumed calling his backing band “The Beaters”, which featured an ever-shifting lineup of players. In 1985, a producer from the television show Family Ties was in the audience and heard the band play “At This Moment”. The song was subsequently featured in 1985 as a backdrop for romantic interludes between lead character Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) and his girlfriend Ellen (Tracy Pollan) … Viewers responded by clamoring for the song, and in 1986, Rhino Records released By Request: The Best of Billy Vera & the Beaters, which was essentially a reissue of most of the tracks from Billy & The Beaters, plus two tracks from Billy Vera. The single “At This Moment” became a number one hit [on the Hot 100] on its re-release, reaching the top in January 1987, and remained on the charts for 21 weeks.
The Rock Bottom Remainders? I vaguely remember reading about them. Their biggest best song was ‘96 Tears’ (well known hit - only hit by ‘? and the Mysterians’). A little ditty a band of monkeys could perform.
The band members wrote about the experience in the book Mid-Life Confidential
Just give me a few more years! I’ll make it big, I know it!
One of us didn’t understand the question. The Smithereens formed soon after high school and were first a Rutgers University area band then moved up to NYC clubs. They played original music.
The Traveling Wilburys
George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lyne (ELO)
Were (excluding Petty) middle aged and had hit records with the Willburys.
They (excluding Petty) were all separated from the bands and music that made them famous. It had been a decade since they were charting singles.
The Wilburys recharged their careers and the artists in the new band had hits on the radio.
If you’re willing to include solitary singers as bands, the longest after their birthdate that a musician had a hit album that I know of is thirty-eight years (born on February 2, 1963 and had a number one album on March 18, 2001). But she had already been dead for over four years and four months at the time she had that number one album. Yes, I’m talking about Eva Cassidy, who’s sold about a thousand times as many albums after her death as during her life.
Another example is Robert Johnson, who lived to be 27. His recordings became famous long after his death. I know less about him, so I find it harder to say how long after his birthdate he became famous.
Underlining added. What does “cups of coffee” mean in this context?
Borrowed from the sports world:
They presumably had a modicum of success toward the bottom of the Hot 100 before hitting it big.
How about Toni Basil? 39 years old when “Mickey” topped the charts in late 1982.
I was 11 at the time, and I remember that song being all over the place. How well known was she before then? Her wiki page isn’t clear on that.