Are there many bands who dwelled in relative obscurity for quite a while until they one day managed to break the mainstream and stay up there?

They were always reasonably popular (hell, Murmur was Rolling Stone's album of 1983).

I do remember, in 1991 or so, finding an old issue of Guitar Musician or smth. with a review of Document that began, "This talented minor band..."

Guided by Voices dwelled in complete obscurity for years and then became "indie popular".

Or Modest Mouse dwelled in indie popular (which is relative obscurity for most) before becoming mainstream popular (although who knows if they will stay there or be considered one hit wonders five years from now).

xpost yeah, what about BLADE?

They were always reasonably popular (hell, Murmur was Rolling Stone's album of 1983).

REM was my first choice ... also, Mark Eitzel was Rolling Stone's songwriter of the year twice, and AMC were hardly "popular" in a mainstream sense. REM didn't get appreciable mainstream recognition until "Green".

Mary-Chapin Carpenter -- Played around a lot around Washington DC, released two major label albums before having a minor hit on her third and then really breaking through on the fourth.

Los Lobos -- had been a working band in L.A. for at least 5 years before Will The Wolf Survive, had their biggest success with Kiko maybe 7 years after that.

Parliament -- yes, absolutely.

Dave Carter -- depends what you mean by "success," but finally began to connect with a (limited) national audience in his mid-40s. Same with Olu Dara and, on a larger scale, Mark Sandman of Morphine.

Jill Scott was performing a lot in Philadelphia and back-up singing The Roots for 6-7 years before getting to make her first album.

Blackalicious -- guys have been around for a long time, seem to be still on the upswing.

Fountains of Wayne -- maybe will qualify as a one-hit wonder, but got a lot of attention for a band whose principals have been playing around for a decade or more.

Jon Brion -- any doubt his next record will sell a lot more than The Grays?

My man Rachid Taha had been a working rock musician since the late 70s, but didn't start to find a real following until the early 90s and only began to hit it big (in Europe, not here) in the late 90s.

Lucinda Williams -- Always had a decent profile as a songwriter, but hit it semi-big as a performer 20+ years into her career.

Willy Nelson, ditto. Bonnie Raitt, too (except her rep was as a guitarist).

Then there's Eva Cassidy, who played around D.C. for years before dying and becoming wildly successful. And Nick Drake, who was dead for 20 years before achieving success.

Fleetwood Mac hardly labored in obscurity. They were well-known in both the Peter Green and Bob Welch eras.

Springsteen was a "next Dylan" practically out of the box. He was getting played on the radio from the get-go. I don't know how the bizarre myth that Springsteen was not successful before Born To Run got started. It's true that he was LESS successful commercially before Born To Run, but from my vantage point the flight-path of his career looked a lot like that of U2 or REM, except a lot quicker.

Tom Waits had actual hits (Heart of Saturday Night) early in his career when he was still semi-conventional, and he always got covered.

EBTG is a great example, though.

I believe Waits was on radio in the 70s, but for some reason his songs didn't have the staying power as far as radio was concerned. Never made it into the "Classic Rock" canon.

REM were more or less obscure in the UK until the release of 'The One I Love'.

The Divine Comedy...wait, the last album didn't really hit big. (Hit big? who am I, kid jensen?)

Beck?

Pavement never had a top 20 single. Indeed, their only single after "Shady Lane" to chart was "Carrot Rope", which got to #27.

In American terms, Barenaked Ladies first big hit was "One Week" though it came from their 4th album and after long relative success in Canada.

I am not American, if that helps to explain my ignorance.

There was a lot of this in the 70s, when label bloat, freeform FM radio and a strong touring scene allowed acts to mature in the minor leagues before eventually going mega: Boz Scaggs, Peter Frampton, Steve Miller. Heck, Pink Floyd.

Sugar Ray were one hit wonders, no?

Incidentally, I get irked by groups being labelled one hit wonders when they actually had follow-up hits ie. New Radicals, White Town.

Ummm, neither New Radicals or White Town's follow-up singles went top 40, and thus they're textbook "one hit wonders".

I mean, in cases of people like Scatman John and Deep Blue Something, your argument is right. But there it's wrong wrong wrong.

Meat Puppets and Buttholes also had wierd fluke hits in the indie era after years of (relative mainstream) obscurity.

What about the Goo-Goo Dolls, speaking of 'Mats knock-offs?

Formed in early 1987 as a ska band inspired by Madness, the lineup of No Doubt initially comprised John Spence, Gwen Stefani, and her brother Eric. While playing the party-band circuit around Anaheim, the trio picked up bassist Tony Kanal, born in India but raised in Great Britain and the U.S. Hardened by the suicide of Spence in December 1987, No Doubt nevertheless continued; Gwen became the lone vocalist and the group added guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young.

I dn't remember SCatman/Deep Blue Something singles - what were they? Pretty sure Sugar Ray were 1HWs here but I may be wrong. Oh, and it wasn't an 'argument' it was an 'irk', although from these boards it seems as though everything's an argument to you.

Do you really think people who get to 75 say "Woo! We've had a hit record!"

PLAYING TONIGHT: HITMAKERS SUPREME A.R.E. WEAPONS

"Scatman" (the one that goes skee-bub-bob-badob-bob) and "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Scatman John had another hit with "Scatman's World", but I can't remember another Deep Blue Something hit. What was it?

HOW MANY #75 HITS DO YOU HAVE, DOM PASSANTINO

THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT YOU SAID

But I guess the real winners of this thread are the Buena Vista Social Club guys.

And so the idea for the photoshop thread is born.

Lifes Rich Pageant [I.R.S., 1986]
Musically, this talented minor band's fastest-breaking album represents no significant departure from the past, though just how many recapitulations of their lyricism one needs is clearly beginning to trouble those who took it too seriously in the first place. The players still make them and the singer-lyricist still refuses to define them, and while his projection has improved, it's hardly crystalline and wouldn't tell you anything you didn't know if it was. I mean, this is music for mushheads, and that it retains an undeniable if rather abstract charm only proves that there's a little mushhead in all of us. I give album four the nod over number three for its compelling snare sound and dynamic cover version. And insist that any normal person can make do with number one, when all this was a tad more spontaneous. B+

Mark McGrath = Sugar Ray? I would have said Rilo Kiley but this album is the first one they've released over here, I think.

75 is technically a hit record. Ask Norris McWhirter. It's a hit record if you've never been in the charts before...

As for Pulp, did anything pre His'n'Hers chart? O.U was once single of the week in Smash Hits :)

i bought beaucoup fish and dubnobasswithmyheadman both in the $10 bargain bin last year

Around for a few years as The Quarry Men, renaming themselves The Beatles in 1960, rejected multiple times by most record labels, minor success with Love me Do, before breaking through in '63.

Pulp second, granted.

Alison Goldfrapp had been a recording vocalist for around ten years prior to the 'Black Cherry' breakthrough.

I do think Outkast are a good example at least in the UK. When I first heard 'B.O.B.' and 'Miss Jackson' and saw they were gonna be massive hits (esp. the latter) I couldn't believe this was the same act I'd seen the video to 'Elevators' for on Yo MTV Raps six years previously.

(2) The fact that OutKast was being played on MTV six years before Ms. Jackson shows how much success they were having then. "Rosa Parks" off Aquemini was a hit, too, as well as a controversy-generator, and if I recall correctly Aquemini was top-10 in P&J the year it came out (which, of course, does not necessarily equal actual mainstream success, but in this case sorta did).

Yes, their debut was released on a major label. Yes, they were rather well known among the 80s metal community. However, it wasn't until their "black album" that they had a song which received RADIO AIRPLAY/a VIDEO on MTV. I don't know, I guess using Metallica as an example of this phenomenon relies entirely on one's definition of "relative obscurity", which I would say DEFINITELY applies to Metallica's career up until the "black album".

Actually here in the US "Underneath the Radar" reached #74 and the godawful "Stand Up" reached #67. They remain the only two Underworld songs that have ever made the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. How wrong is that?