Well no, but I absolutely will now. Thanks!
More in the realm of one-hit wonders than what the OP was after.
I think that if we bring sports into this, we’d get overwhelmed in no time flat. Examples just pile on top of one another. Tim Tebow in 2011, Brady Anderson’s 50-homer year, Vida Blue’s rookie season, Mark Fidrych’s one big year, Mark Rypien in 1991, tons of them. It’s not my thread, but IMHO we should keep the Game Room stuff out of it.
Dunno about that. Unbreakable was pretty slick too.
**King Crimson **never managed to come close to topping their debut, In the Court of the Crimson King. Ian McDonald and Michael Giles left the band around their sophomore effort, and the loss of McDonald’s fantastic woodwinds and Michael Giles’ incredibly tasteful drums meant that they could never replicate that ethereal magic in my view.
Well, there was Sylvie and Bruno, but yeah – still not enough output. (I was kind of thinking that when I posted, but figured I’d try to sneak it in anyway.)
Yes and no. I’d say they never did anything similar that matched that debut LP (although there are people who prefer In the Wake of Poseidon to ItCotCK), but many people would rate their later stuff (e.g., Larks’ Tongues in Aspic) as superior… it’s just so different (both the music and personnel) that it’s really comparing apples and oranges. A bit like the Syd Barrett Pink Floyd (debut LP only) vs. post-Barrett.
Actually, the Syd-era song Apples and Oranges wasn’t on Piper at the Gates of Dawn 
They split up and David Baerwald (one of the Davids) put out a bunch of really good albums and has done a lot of songwriting/producing too. Check out his first solo release “Bedtime Stories” especially the following songs: “The Best Inside You”, “Liberties, Lies, and Refugees” and “Stranger”. Some of his co-writing credits you’ve probably heard of like Sheryl Crow’s “Strong Enough” and “All I Wanna Do”.
You’re right. I forgot about Sylvie and Bruno.
I really like Boomtown. When I worked at the radio station in college, someone had retitled it “what’s that on the floor.”
I guess it could be argued that Marcel Proust would fall into this category, with his one monumental work, In Search of Lost Time receiving far more notice, fame and notoriety than anything else he wrote. It also took him fourteen years to write and had to be finished posthumously by his brother.
Also, Margaret Mitchell only wrote one novel, Gone With the Wind.
I love Typee. Better than Moby Dick.
James Fennimore Cooper with Last of the Mohicans, which does suffer from typical James Fennimore Cooperness, but still rocks righteously.
The band It’s A Beautiful Day put out four studio albums. The first, eponymous album is gorgeous; the others just don’t have the same spark.
Margaret Mitchell also wrote another novel/novella called Lost Laysen.
It wasn’t published until many years after her death, however.
Really? Couldn’t stand it. Please don’t tell me you also liked “Billy Budd,” or else we can’t be friends anymore.
Big hit all right, but it sorta sucked, when you got right down to it.
More of a one-hit wonder than a single awesome work, in my estimation.
All of Madeline Engel’s many works are good reads. Then there’s A Wrinkle in Time…
This is a joke, right? If serious, please explain.
Meat Loaf, already mentioned in this thread in a 2ndary way, I think fits this. Bat Out Of Hell is just miles better than anything else he ever did. And I love Mr. Loaf quite a bit. But yeah, the first album is a timeless, huge, wondrous success. Everything else had a hit here or there but never compared to Bat Out Of Hell. And the titular track from the album is perhaps my favorite classic rock anthem of all time, and should be yours too!
I am forever BAFFLED at how good The Black Parade is.