I forgot to mention Temple of the Dog, a band that formed to put together one album.
True, but the Steam story is really odd. “Na Na Hey Hey …” was credited to a non-existant band called “Steam,” as a B-Side for one of Paul Leka’s singles. He didn’t expect the song to go anywhere. When it hit number 1, all of a sudden a real band called “Steam” was hastily thrown together to tour, appear on TV, and cut a new album. So, the song existed before the band itself did.
Sure. The album was cut by the thrown-together group, and listed Leka as “special guest vocalist” on the hit. I remember thinking it was odd that they had to get a guest for that one.
Procul Harum was founded in similar circumstances, though the members of the band had played together as the Paramounts, whose single demo album, “A Whiter Shade of R&B,” was released years later.
Andy Newman of Thunderclap Newman released only one album, so he was a single-album artist twice, both as a group and solo.
Emerson, Lake, and Powell – an attempt to recreate the success of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer – only got one album out.
The Quill appeared at Woodstock, but could not translate that to success – only one album was released.
I did not know that! Thanks for the enlightenment, Biffy!
And these are the Electric Angels I’m thinking of. (Sorry, no photo in link, just a quick bio of them.)
I’d throw in the Fine Young Cannibals whose only albulm (I believe), the raw and the cooked, was a very good pop albulm.
They had a self-titled album as well, released before “The Raw and the Cooked.”
And it was actually a pretty good album - it just wasn’t enough to rekindle many fires.
Ditto the group “3”, which was Emerson, Barry & Palmer. The only good thing about 3 is that they played in such small shitty venues that it was easy to shoot the breeze with Emerson before/after the show.
I’m not positive about all these. Any additional information would be appreciated.
Abraxas Pool ; essentially the band that recorded “Abraxas” without Carlos. 1997
Bellaphon - “Firefly” ; Japanese progressive rock from 1987
Bloodline ; sons of Berry Oakley (Berry, Jr), Robbie Krieger (Waylon) and Miles Davis (Erin) with “Smokin’ Joe” Bonamassa on guitar. Check out “Since You’re Gone” and “The Storm”
Dreams ; Billy Cobham, John Abercrombie and the Brecker brothers. I like “15 Miles To Provo”
Electromagnets ; Eric Johnson’s first(?) band
Endangered Species ; guitar and keys from Jazz Is Dead (Jimmy Herring and T Lavitz) with rhythm section from Little Feat (Kenny Gradney and Richie Hayward)
Hughes-Thrall ; Glynn Hughes (Trapeze, Deep Purple) and Pat Thrall (Pat Travers, Stomu Yamashta’s Go) Well, I liked it.
the Indians - “Indianism” ; alternative pop from '93 (I just saw it available from Amazon marketplace for $0.01)
Leviathan ; the American progressive rock band from '74, not the current metal band with the same name. Kinda reminds me of the band Flash. I couldn’t say why.
and finally, Mad Season - “Above” or did I miss seeing this posted already?
I was thinking Derek and the Dominos, but I’d disqualify both. It’s not like any of those guys disappeared from the recording industry. Clapton’s super-group one-offs are pretty much extnsions of his solo career.
I think the recording entity named on the album jacket is less relevant than the actual recording artists behind it. Between John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Fleetwood Mac, about a dozen British recording artists have been featured in about thirty of the most popular bands of the seventies. Many of these bands were one-shots, but their members are all prolific veterans.
I think the OP is more about groups like Coven (“One Tin Soldier”) or Dexy’s Midnight Runners, people with one album to their credit who promptly disappeared from the industry, voluntarily or not.
There’s a live album, as well as a tour rehearsal CD. Both are mail order only.
I would strongly object to Blind Faith’s being dismissed as “an extension of [Clapton’s] solo career.” The main songwriter, lead singer, and (at least marginally) dominant instrumentalist in that band was one Steve Winwood. Clappo was just the guitar player.
Zep-tastic melodic metal Seattle band Mother Love Bone, who predated most of the other “grunge” bands, released the fantastic album “Apple”, and then broke up when their lead singer died of an OD.
Dreams put out three albums. I saw them in concert in the early 70s – not bad.
Electric Indian put out a single album “Keemo Sabe,” then vanished.
Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band put out a single album “The Eggplant that Ate Chicago” (great song) and was where Norman “Spirit in the Sky” Greenbaum got his start.
Napoleon XIV seems to have put out only one album: “They’re Coming to Take Me Away.”
The World, a project of Neil Innes of Monty Python and the Bonzo Dog Band, put out a single album, “Lucky Planet.”
I believe Armageddon (Keith Relf, Martin Pugh and Louis Cennamo) only released one album.
Relf’s electocuting himself by playing guitar in a bathtub may have had something to do with that.
Whose death inspred the aforementioned one-off Temple of the Dog as a tribute to the dead lead singer.
Both albums are fantastic, by the way.
Can’t believe no one’s mentioned <B>Jeff Buckley</B> yet. One spectacular and distinctively soulful rock album (Grace) and then poof, he’s dead.
They were an AWESOME band live - the best gig I ever went to as a teenager.
mm
I’ll second that. I ignore everything after that album (Love Spreads isn’t bad, it’s just not great).
Other bands that come to mind:
Raw Youth: Hot Diggity. This is an odd band that had 3 lead female vocalists and did some interesting vocal acrobatics in a pop way.
Big Pig: Bonk. They had a small hit with “I Can’t Break Away” that was used in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (IIRC). A band that was very percussion heavy.
Zwan - Billy Corgan’s post-Smashing Pumpkins band lasted exactly one album before disbanding.