Oasis was pretty big in the mid-90s, I thought, here in the US. Maybe it’s because I was in college at the time, but it was everywhere. I don’t have a single album, and I could probably list off at least a half dozen of their songs. I suppose it depends on what music you were listening to at the time. “Wonderwall” was a #8 in the US (#1 on the alternative charts), “Champagne Supernova” was #10 (and #1 on the alternative charts),
That said, after What’s Your Story Morning Glory? I don’t remember hearing much of them. They just kind of disappeared. But songs from that first album are still played on the radio. I do remember there being a big buzz about them at the time that just fizzled away.
Yeah they were huge I went to university in Manchester (their home town) at their peak and you could literally hear constantly them as you walked across the campus, as one person playing them went out of earshot another would come into earshot.
Though for a good example of bands that were huge in the UK but unheard of in the US you need to consider the previous generation of Manchester bands like the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays, they were huge in the UK, but then self imploded with drugs, egos and bad management before cracking the states.
Stone Roses gets some play on alternative stations, but, yeah, nowhere near as recognized as Oasis, and nowhere near as their reputation in the UK. Manic Street Preachers are, I’d say, almost completely unknown. Pulp has “Common People.” Suede — I’m not sure I’ve heard th outside college stations. Happy Mondays I remember “Step On”, and WXRT here in Chicago will play that occasionally on regular radio. I couldn’t name another song by them off hand. Primal Scream, well lauded in the indie circles, but also absent from commercial radio.
I do remember Oasis being hoisted as the next coming of the Beatles here in the US, as well. Just the follow-up album didn’t deliver, and everything after that was completely forgotten. I was in the UK in 1996 and I remember someone asking me about how they were doing in the US, and my answer was that they were hotting up quite well. Once again, that may be because of my environment (college.)
I’d say “Teardrop” from the House theme, but I’m not sure that counts. We were more familiar with Portoisehead’s work at the time. I don’t think I heard “Angel” when it came out.
“Ugly Woman” (a.k.a. “If You Wanna Be Happy”) and “Zombie Jamboree” are also fairly well-known Calypso songs, although many people might not recognize them as being in the same genre.
Have there been any famous Jug-Band songs, other than Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime”?
My answer to the OP’s question would be Smells Like Teen Spirit as the main grunge-defining song but really, it’s Nirvana that defines grunge for most people.
But I’d bet folding green that the only song by Nirvana that your average non-Nirvana, non-grunge fan could identify would indeed be Smells Like Teen Spirit, so maybe?
Yeah, if you listened to the radio or MTV in the nineties, also “Alive” and “Jeremy” by Pearl Jam were unavoidable, as well as Temple Of The Dog’s “Hunger Strike” and Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”.
Agreed but, today, with the height of grunge 2 decades plus in the rearview mirror, Smells Like Teen Spirit is pretty much their defining song for non-fans and, by extension, the genre’s defining song – at least to me, who didn’t really follow grunge. So I think it fits the OP.
Yeah, I kind of figured I’d be pilloried for it. But among non-fans I still think Nirvana is the quintessential grunge band.
Does the expression Northern Soul mean anything at all in the US?
At the time this was a regional thing even within Britain, but the story has endured and flourished over the years, at least on this side of the Atlantic.
It would be a problematical inclusion as it’s a genre only by collection of disparate US examples to build a (fairly) coherent (British) whole. I don’t know if Tainted Love would count as a well known song from the canon. The wiki page makes a case for the inclusion of I Can’t Help Myself by The Four Tops - which is certainly well known.
(As a slightly weird aside I suspect the most well known example of Northern Soul is actually a sample taken from this classic: Just Brothers - Sliced Tomatoes - YouTube)
