Cyndi Lauper and Tori Amos both hit it big around age 30 with solo albums, and Sheryl Crow did likewise at 32. All had fronted bands that almost cracked the big time for about five years prior. Natalie Merchant was a little older with her solo debut, but her previous band was quite successful, at least with her at the helm. She’s been a celebrity since her mid-20s, I’d say.
Joaquín Sabina made it when he was 38; at that point he’d been recording for ten years but was more succesful as a songwriter and people outside of the Madrid music circuit didn’t know his name. He’s been called “the Spanish Leonard Cohen”; still kicking, still sounding like shit, very much one of the best lyricists in Spanish, he’s published books of poems as well as his music. Both him and his friend Joan Manuel Serrat (who made it young) are frequently mentioned as possible candidates for the Academy of the Spanish Language.
Eva Cassidy would have been 38 when she broke through in 2001, but she had already been dead for four and a half years. I’m counting her breakthrough as being when she topped the charts with an album for the first time. Her releases before then had sold that much.
How about Moms Mabley? Famous comedian who came out at a young age.
She also did a little bit of singing but it was her cover version of Abraham, Martin and John that was her only major song. It reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969. “At 75 years old, Mabley became the oldest living person ever to have a US Top 40 hit.”
Mrs. Miller had her first song in the Hot 100 at the age of 60. A cover of Downtown. I strongly suggest you don’t ever listen to it.
John Mayall was 33 when “Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton” was released.
“Gallant Men” made the top 40 charts when Sen. Everett Dirksen was 71
Walter Brennan had a hit with “Mama Sang a Song” when he was 68.
Roger Whittaker has been active musically since his mid-20s. His only major hit in the US, “The :Last Farewell,” charted here when he was 39. He has always seemed kind of elderly, and was heavily vested in sea-shanty type music.
At a bowling alley somebody played a song I don’t like. The person did it on purpose to bother me. I retaliated by playing the Mrs. Miller/Downtown song.
FWIW Anton Bruckner started composing his first (of many) symphonies at age 41.
Mark Sandman is a good example of this, as he was 37 when he founded Morphine. That Wikipedia article says “Sandman was reported to have been particularly secretive about his age, becoming angry with any reporter who expressed an interest in revealing it publicly, perhaps because he was 10 to 20 years older than most of his indie-rock contemporaries.”
He died young, also, at age 46, of a heart attack.
Los Del Rio, gave us the one hit wonder Macarena when both band members were in their late 50s
Christopher Lee had his breakthrough album aged 87.
Shatner was 37 when he released The Transformed Man.
It … was … not … good.
Antonio Carlos Jobim did not become well known in Brazil until he was 30, and didn’t become a major international star until he teamed with Getz and Gilberto to produce Getz/Gilberto at age 37.
Seasick Steve had a long career as a studio musician before his breakthrough in the UK aged 55.
Didn’t remember to check Leonard Nimoy’s recording career when looking up Shatner’s.
He was 36 when Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock’s Music from Outer Space came out. Reached 83 on the album chart.
Shatner’s career seems better remembered, but probably not for a good reason.