Acts who failed to break the UK

[curiousoranges]

You've heard them mentioned on American TV shows, but how many songs by Phish, Hootie and the Blowfish or even The Grateful Dead can the average Brit name?

[pigamus]

Cheap Trick

[The Culture Bunker]

It always seem weird when you find out about British bands who are total unknowns here but sold shitloads in the States ie the Fixx, the Outfield, Foghat...

[dontpaintyourteeth]

when I was about to move up a year in primary school the man who was supposed to our teacher for the next school year introduced himself to us all and he recommended we all listen to hootie and the blowfish. No idea what he thought he was doing recommending them to a bunch of eight year olds but anyway. never heard them to this day

[A Hat Like That]

Bush
which is odd as they were British

[jamiefairlie]

Modern English, cult 4AD post-punk band in the UK, Simple Minds level 80s pop band in the US

[Famous Mortimer]

You've heard them mentioned on American TV shows, but how many songs by Phish, Hootie and the Blowfish or even The Grateful Dead can the average Brit name?

Phish got one of their songs on the rotation of my local classic rock station and I quite liked it, but I'm not sure many people outside the jam-band circuit over here would be able to name any of their songs either.

Some of the 80s bands, like...Ratt? Were they a thing in the UK?

[JaDanketies]

I'm not sure that The Grateful Dead, at least, are really a band that has big songs. I think they're more about the albums.

There's a huge amount of music that is targeted at the Southern US that barely even touches our shores. Like almost all of Country and Western. Not just like The Dixie Chicks but even ones that appear on our radio stations - I bet the average American could name way more Kid Rock songs than you or I.

Was listening to ICP earlier and Stab Stab Slide - their Cha Cha slide knock-off - strongly implied that there would ever be a situation where more than one ICP fan would be in the same room as another one.  Can't picture it outside of the southern states

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

THE WEHRMACHT

[Norton Canes]

Nicola Salmon Dave

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I'm not sure that The Grateful Dead, at least, are really a band that has big songs. I think they're more about the albums.

There's a huge amount of music that is targeted at the Southern US that barely even touches our shores. Like almost all of Country and Western. Not just like The Dixie Chicks but even ones that appear on our radio stations - I bet the average American could name way more Kid Rock songs than you or I.

Was listening to ICP earlier and Stab Stab Slide - their Cha Cha slide knock-off - strongly implied that there would ever be a situation where more than one ICP fan would be in the same room as another one.  Can't picture it outside of the southern states

It's not even the albums with the Dead (or other jam bands). It's seemingly random live recordings. Fans somehow memorise all the dates.

[jamiefairlie]

Styx

[Brundle-Fly]

Not appearing tonight at Wembley Arena, The Dave Matthews Band supported by Counting Crows and Mark Farner's Grand Funk Railroad.

[The Mollusk]

Ween

[Brundle-Fly]

Did they even 'break' America?

[Natnar]

Linda Ronstadt must be one of the biggest US stars not to really make it over here. Her only top ten hits here were duets.

[Pseudopath]

Linda Ronstadt must be one of the biggest US stars not to really make it over here. Her only top ten hits here were duets.

Yep. I can think of quite a few female songstresses who are household names in the States, but barely made a dent in our charts. Sarah McLachlan? Brandi Carlile?

Considering how much we're bombarded with American media, it's weird finding out about someone like Selena, who was an absolutely gigantic popstar in her (sadly-curtailed) prime. She pretty much opened the door for Latino pop in the nineties (whether you think that's a good thing or not), but I've never met anyone in the UK who's even heard of her.

[bushwick]

Peter Frampton
KISS (they were known over here obviously but never a big deal, not much charting)

[BJBMK2]

Soul Coughing, who tbf, also diden't seem to break, beyond New York.

[Brundle-Fly]

The Doobie Brothers, and to a certain extent, Steely Dan who only had one top twenty hit in 1976, Haitian Divorce.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Yep. I can think of quite a few female songstresses who are household names in the States, but barely made a dent in our charts. Sarah McLachlan? Brandi Carlile?

Considering how much we're bombarded with American media, it's weird finding out about someone like Selena, who was an absolutely gigantic popstar in her (sadly-curtailed) prime. She pretty much opened the door for Latino pop in the nineties (whether you think that's a good thing or not), but I've never met anyone in the UK who's even heard of her.

Oh yeah I'd never heard of Selena until I went out with an American for a while but it turned out she was properly big over there. Sad story in the end though. J-Lo was in the biopic! It made a lot of money as well.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I could be wrong but didn't the Eagles only have like one top ten hit here as well? I think maybe just Hotel California. I know the Greatest Hits sold a bajillion copies worldwide but most of them weren't hits here.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's not even the albums with the Dead (or other jam bands). It's seemingly random live recordings. Fans somehow memorise all the dates.

I think that's understandable in The Grateful Dead's case as they didn't tend to use house systems and had an elaborate, huge custom-designed system called The Wall of Sound.

The Wall of Sound is the name some people gave to a super powerful, extremely accurate PA system that I designed and supervised the building of in 1973 for the Grateful Dead. It was a massive wall of speaker arrays set behind the musicians, which they themselves controlled without a front of house mixer. It did not need any delay towers to reach a distance of half a mile [800 m] from the stage without degradation.[9]

Obviously most live shows are different to studio albums, but it's likely this setup made their live recordings even more different.

[Memorex MP3]

Bootie and Blowfish didn't really break the US either did they? They just benefited massively from the whole Columbia records scheme in a manner that made them seem drastically more successful than they ever really were

[purlieu]

I was going to say John Mayer, but having checked Wikipedia, it seems his last few albums have all charted really highly here. He's one of those people I recall being hotly debated online in the '00s and never having a clue who the fuck he was.

[imitationleather]

There must be loads of American EDM shite that no one over here would listen to in a million years.

[The Culture Bunker]

Bootie and Blowfish didn't really break the US either did they? They just benefited massively from the whole Columbia records scheme in a manner that made them seem drastically more successful than they ever really were

Their first album made #1 in the US charts and has sold 21 milllion over there.

It seems it did go Gold over here too, which is better than many of the other acts mentioned so far on the thread.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I think that's understandable in The Grateful Dead's case as they didn't tend to use house systems and had an elaborate, huge custom-designed system called The Wall of Sound.





Obviously most live shows are different to studio albums, but it's likely this setup made their live recordings even more different.

their live recordings do tend to be better than their studio albums. I just have no idea how the hardcore fans can go "oh yeah the scarlet begonias from the ninth november 1974 is soooo good" or whatever. I can't remember my own birthday

[badaids]

I always think of Journey as the answer to this question. They were massive in the US and globally.

I was a UK kid gobbling up music from everywhere from about the age of 10, but I had never even heard of them until I was on my early 30s. And that was through the sopranos.

[Sebastian Cobb]

their live recordings do tend to be better than their studio albums. I just have no idea how the hardcore fans can go "oh yeah the scarlet begonias from the ninth november 1974 is soooo good" or whatever. I can't remember my own birthday

Ah yeah. I think Dr Feelgood are like that as well aren't they?