Best British Band Never to "Break" America?

[liberalpragmatist]

We're all aware of the big British bands that gained a significant following the US:

The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Genesis, Queen, The Clash, The Police, The Smiths, and in the last 10 years, Oasis, Radiohead, The Prodigy, and now, Coldplay.

But what about the big British bands that never really made it in the U.S.? Bands that were for their time the most popular bands in the UK and in much of Europe but which got no response in the US? Which one was the best?

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. Slade

Okay... they weren't the "best," but I loved Noddy and the gang.

And I'm pissed that Quiet fucking Riot got recognized for two Slade songs. :grr:



Edit: I thought "Slade" before I opened the thread. Pleasantly surprised you had 'em in the poll. :thumbsup:

[liberalpragmatist]

2. Agreed. The Quiet Riot version of Cum on Feel the Noize is terrible

The Quiet Riot version is awful. Slade's version is great. Actually, the best cover is Oasis'. They did b-side version that's hard to come by in the US because the single it was on is out of print; but it wound up being a pretty big hit in the UK and it was really pretty good.

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. Noddy was Geddy before Geddy existed

But a hell of a lot goofier. Slade put on rather silly shows, and I loved that. Like when the downbeat came in too soon when Noddy was doing the "Let your hair down" line in the intro to "Get Down and Get With It," and he turned around and went, "WAIT for me!"

[liberalpragmatist]

4. I will have to check out more Slade

I've only heard a few songs - Cum on Feel the Noize, Get Down and Get With It, Mama Weer All Crazy Now, and a few others.

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. Their greatest hits is called 'Sladest'

That'd be a good start, I think.

A couple others come immediately to mind — "Squeeze Me Pleeze Me" and "Just Want a Little Bit." My gf at the time loved that second one.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. So Was "Mama Weer All Crazzee"!

They covered two Slade tunes and overglossed them. Slade was solid, but not pretty. QR overprettied the production and ruined the whole point of the songs!

One of my favorite Slade tunes: My Friend Stan
The Professor

[ProfessorGAC]

11. Repeated Post

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[ProfessorGAC]

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[ProfessorGAC]

12. Repeated Post

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[ProfessorGAC]

13. Repeated Post

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[driver8]

5. You bloody wankers...the correct answer is The Jam!!

Followed closely by XTC.

[rooboy]

7. I'd actually go for XTC followed by The Jam. n/t

[enigmatic]

8. Seconded

"In The City" is still one of my favorite songs of all-time; I get the whole "They were TOO British" line alot have used for their lack of success in the US, but it's still a pity..

[dipsydoodle]

9. Small Faces

who reformed with Rod Stewart and later Ronnie Lane became great in his own right - so tragic that he died of MS.

That's notwithstanding the fact that Pulp's Common People is generally accepted as being one of the best tracks ever recorded.

[liberalpragmatist]

47. Common People is fantastic

Too bad they didn't get the attention here they deserved. I still think they'd be more accessable to Americans than Blur.

[Ohio Joe]

14. T. Rex

Marc Bolan was awsome.

[meegbear]

15. XTC has NEVER gotten their due here ...

one of my favorite groups, bar none.

[Burma Jones]

16. You Mean......it's not the Bay City Rollers????

Or Status Quo?

[bbernardini]

17. STATUS QUO!!!

How can you have a list like this without the Quo? They packed Irving Plaza when they made one of their rare US appearances about 10 years ago.

[liberalpragmatist]

18. There's only ten spots for a poll

And fairly or not, Status Quo isn't usually seen as a "great" band, although from what I've heard of them, they are a lot better than critics give them credit for.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

19. Blur, hands down

Been one of my fave bands for a long, long while.

Upthread someone made the comment about these bands being a lot more "British" than others that have crossed over. I'd agree with that here. Most of their first few albums (Parklife in particular) are all about British life and social structure. It's hard to cross that over, methinks.

[liberalpragmatist]

39. And Damon Albarn's mockney accent...

... was probably a little off-putting. It initially turned me off Parklife, as I'd heard their self-titled album first. (I love Parklife and Modern Life is Rubbish now, though).

I find it odd though that all the big mid'90s Britpop groups besides Oasis had such a hard time breaking America when modern acts that are no less British like the Kaiser Chiefs are able to at least get some mainstream press and sell enough records to have a presence in record shops whereas so many of the groups named above aren't able to.

[Dukkha]

20. Queen

Though they had a couple hits in the US their popularity never matched their huge success in Europe

[liberalpragmatist]

33. Well, several of that did "break" America didn't become as big

Queen, David Bowie, The Smiths, The Kinks, The Animals, Genesis, Roxy Music - they were all much bigger in the UK than the US, although they had name recognition and some US presence. More recently, Radiohead, while a very big cult act in the US, doesn't have anywhere near the mainstream level of success they have in the UK (where OK Computer often tops "greatest albums of all time" polls) and while Oasis became pretty popular here for awhile in the mid-90s, in England they became the biggest band since The Beatles and their first album, which sold nothing here, is seen to have an impact comparable to that of Nirvana's Nevermind in the US. From the '90s, Elastica also became pretty popular for some time, but still didn't approach their popularity overseas.

The reason I didn't list any of those acts, though, is because none of them were completely unknown in the US like the acts listed in the poll were.

[khashka]

21. KaTe Bush

I'm repeating myself and she did get some college radio play.


But never a hit in the US...... Ratfuck Bastard Americans!


And what about Blur? Baccarra? Nina Hagen?


Khash.

[liberalpragmatist]

22. Blur's listed in the poll - n/t

[smitty]

23. Two overlooked bands are the Strawbs and Jade Warrior.

[anarch]

24. the Pretty Things

and if we can count the bands that also never got any recognition in England either, the Creation. IMHO.

[Taverner]

25. The Stone Roses

That first album is as good as anything by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd or the Allman Brothers.

[liberalpragmatist]

34. Well then, vote for them!

As they're currently running at 0 (as of 4:29 EST)

[no name no slogan]

26. The Chameleons and The Comsat Angels

both are hugely influential yet sadly overlooked this side of the pond (the 'Sats are overlooked almost everywhere for that matter, except in the Netherlands).

[Magrittes Pipe]

27. Thee Mighty Caesars

Of course, they never exactly "broke" Britain, either. :shrug:

[johnnie]

28. The Kinks

They had a few hits in the US, but never really had the success they deserve. Ray is a phenominal songwriter and the band fucking rocked.

http://www.theage.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1073268009186_2004/01/06/kinks,0.jpg

[liberalpragmatist]

32. Yeah, I nearly included The Kinks

Their early stuff birthed a lot of US hits and they had success with their late-70s stuff, but their best stuff - all their "Brit-life" albums - was completely overlooked here.

[musiclawyer]

36. Disagree

Biggest fan here. They are in the Rock/ Roll Hall of fame for chrimeny sake. They sold out big rooms for a short time and are staples of classic rock. What I would say is thye are most underappeciated of the English bands, thought of as secondary to Beatles, Stones etc when in fact they are equals if not superior songwriting wise

[johnnie]

40. I'm not trying to be a dick here, but being in the Rock Hall...

.. doesn't mean much to a lot of people.

I have always wondered why The Kinks weren't regarded as one of the greatest rock bands in rock history. Yeah, they had a few hits in the mid 60s and "Superman" did really well here in the states, but in my opinion they never got the respect they should have here in the US.

Hell, Dave just played here in a small club not long ago and it didn't even sell out. I can't imagine one of the Stones or one of the Beatles playing in a club like that.

I'm not knocking on them at all, I just think that they never hit as big in the US as they should have.

[AngryAmish]

29. Cliff Richard!

[TheBaldyMan]

31. That's Sir Cliff :D

[Magrittes Pipe]

35. Cliff:

Oh, Cliff
Sometimes it must be difficult not to feel as if
You really are a Cliff
When fascists keep trying to push you over it
Are they the lemmings?
Or are you Cliff?
Or are you, Cliff?

[AngryAmish]

38. exactly

[Squeech]

30. Nobody could have predicted

that in spite of all these failures, America would still end up broken.

Seriously, however, I would like to mention Hatfield and the North-- who I now understand reconvened last year (with a new keyboard player) and have a new CD that I guess I have to buy now...

[DS1]

37. Madness

[kwassa]

41. Squeeze

[bbernardini]

52. What about "Tempted" and "Hourglass"?

Those were HUGE (believe it or not, I actually typed "HUGH" first) hits in America.

[asthmaticeog]

42. The Wedding Present (nt)

[JCMach1]

54. You are correct sir!

http://www.phespirit.info/theweddingpresent/

[KamaAina]

43. The Sex Pistols never "broke" America?

So who were those impostors who gave birth to punk rock, then?

[liberalpragmatist]

45. Fair point

I wasn't sure whether to include them or not; from what I've read, they were mostly cult figures in the US although they later got much more recognition.

[asthmaticeog]

48. They were called "The Ramones."

And they didn't need to cross the pond to give birth to punk.

[Pale Blue Dot]

44. Deacon Blue

Well, maybe not the best, but my sentimental choice.

[Catch22Dem]

46. Always loved The Jam

Was listening to "Absolute Beginners" on the way to work this morning as a matter of fact.

[liberalpragmatist]

49. Shamelessly kicking this for the Saturday night crowd

:kick:

[mitchum]

50. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick &Tich

[Floogeldy]

51. How am I to know which bands were, for their time, most popular in the UK?

?????????

[bbernardini]

53. Still STATUS QUO! nt