Name some "regional" bands that made it big (albeit temporarily)!

[bbernardini]

I may be posting questions like this all day, as I'm working on a paper. I'm looking for bands and their hits that were big regionally before they hit it big across the country. Two examples would be The Kingsmen ("Louie Louie", regional success in the Northwest) and The Hooters ("And We Danced", HUGE in the Philadelphia area before having a national hit).

I'm thinking of the glory days of Philadelphia rock in the 80s, when radio stations seemed to be broadcasting a live concert by an independent artist every week (Tommy Conwell, Robert Hazard, The A's, Beru Revue, etc.). This all ties in to a section of the paper regarding Clear Channel limiting what kids listen to. Thoughts?

[shugh514]

1. Orleans

They probably played every club in the Mid-Hudson Valley.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orleans_%28band%29

Edited to fix link

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. I was going to say the Hooters as well...

you can always throw Springsteen in there. He was pretty big in the Philly/NJ area before he went mega-star in Born to Run, although there is nothing temporary about his fame

[livetohike]

3. Pgh. area

The Jaggerz (The Rapper was their big hit)

The Vogues (Five O'Clock World)

Jimmy Beaumont and the Skyliners (Since I Don't Have You)

Tommy James and the Shondells (Hanky Panky)

[doc03]

5. Wild Cherry from Steubenville "Play that Funky Music"

[bbernardini]

6. Ah, yes...Hanky Panky.

I remembered that being this sort of thing, but I couldn't remember the region.

[Beware the Beast Man]

17. Don't forget Busted Flute.

Ahem, Rusted Root. I heard "Send Me on My Way" for a good year before it broke somewhat nationally.


and of course, Donnie Iris. :)

on edit- And the B.E. Taylor Group had a very minor hit with "Vitamin L" in the 80's, but I don't know if that went nationwide or not.

[livetohike]

30. I knew there were more but I was too lazy to add them

How are you BeastMan? I'm ready for some football myself :-).

[Ravenseye]

39. The Clarks? Rusted Root?

Didn't they have a brief shot in the mainstream?

Rusted Root had that one album that everyone knew, and then dissapeared again didn't they?

[bbernardini]

4. I was just thinking...John Cafferty, maybe?

Cafferty and Beaver Brown were playing the New England region for years, doing radio broadcasts and whatnot before their big break with "On The Dark Side".

[Midlodemocrat]

28. I was going to say them also.

I remember seeing them in clubs when I lived in CT.

[Aiptasia]

7. Ween - "Push th' Little Daisies"

New Hope, PA's own late 80's / mid 90's band Ween. They gained the most fame by being made fun of by Beavis and Butthead on MTV. Recently, bands like Phish have covered some of their greatness, bringing a whole new trust-fund-hippie crowd to Ween shows.

[Nickster]

8. Zebra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_%28band%29

They had music playing on the radio locally before they had a contract with anyone. From what I understand, they eventually were selling records faster than Led Zeppelin at one point.

[MorningGlow]

9. Foreigner

:rofl:

...not proud of that, actually.

(Well, Lou Gramm to be specific. I don't know how many other band members are from around these parts.)

OTOH, 20 some-odd years on and the Chesterfield Kings are STILL kicking ass. FANTASTIC band--they can still wipe the floor with all these cheesy overproduced pop acts that call themselves "garage bands".

[diamondsndust]

10. Boston ........ n/t

[Squeech]

20. Wrong

Tom Scholz famously recorded in his basement, using oscilloscopes and homemade signal processing gear to get the guitar sounds he wanted. Then he put a band together. The band had never played out before Columbia agreed to put out the album, but then they hastily arranged some club dates and other local events to make it look like there was some local buzz. I saw their second gig ever-- and there were no hordes of devoted fans. Plus half the guitar amps broke down before the end of the show.

Did you hear different, or did you just assume that a band called Boston would be a strong local presence in the city of the same name-- a city that *can* boast such fine regional performing bands that made good in the wider world as Aerosmith, the J. Geils Band, and the Cars?

[diamondsndust]

32. WOW!

You saw their second gig ever-- and there were no hordes of devoted fans. How freakin' shocking! :wow:

Have you heard different, or did you just assume that bands are formed with a screaming throng of devoted fans following them around by their second ever gig??

[unpossibles]

34. the other poster's point is pretty fair

that since Boston did not take the traditional route - and there is nothing wrong with that - they did not have the support of a crowd who had watched them grow, despite the media presentation as something that is already big.

[WeRQ4U]

11. Minneapolis area =

The Trashmen
Soul Asylum
Mason Jennings

I'm not really sure about whether they had hits BEFORE they moved, but they were all fairly "big".

[GirlinContempt]

12. The Guess Who

[underpants]

13. Dave Mathews, Skip Castro, uh..........

The "Sweet Virginia Breeze" guy.... that's about it.

[huskerlaw]

47. Dave Matthews wasn't exactly

"temporarily" popular. Have you tried getting tickets to a DMB concert recently? They're sold out in minutes.

[NewWaveChick1981]

14. REM, The B-52s, Let's Active

Let's Active had a hit in the early 80s with "Every Word Is No", but they didn't get as big as REM or The B-52s!

[Nickster]

15. Cheap Trick n/t

[Bridget Burke]

16. The 13th Floor Elevators had a hit with "You're Gonna Miss Me"....

But they were only Big in Texas. Certain behavioral issues had more to do with their limited career than The Music Biz. (Later, their 2 LP's became cult favorites.)

The Sir Douglas Quintet's "She's About a Mover" was a hit but the follow-ups didn't do well. However, Doug Sahm & his compadres had years of success in various combinations.

Back in 1972, Lenny Kaye released a 2-LP set reviewing regional bands from the 1960's. It's now a CD set called "Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968." Some of these groups went on to greater fame; others survived only in the record collections of the few, the rabid...

All of this happened before the 80's. But NONE of these bands would have had a chance to make it on ClearChannel.

[DancingBear]

38. Well, I liked "Mendocino" anyway

even if it only got to Billboard #27 in '69.

The original Nuggets double-album has been expanded to a 4-CD set, BTW. Still has "It's A-Happening" by The Magic Mushrooms. :)

And what about "The Smell Of Incense" by Southwest F.O.B. (later morphing into England Dan and John Ford Coley)?

Great record.

[CottonBear]

18. Pylon from Athens, GA.

I saw them play at a private party at the Fabulous 40 Watt Club last summer. They still ROCK! They were freaking awesome. My friend danced so much that she broke a heel and her purse strap! We had a blast! :)

[jpgray]

19. Husker Du was -the- Twin Cities band for a while

[Radical Activist]

21. The Urge

I guess they never did hit it big nationally but they had some big radio hits in the St. Louis area in the 90's and they're still around.

[BOSSHOG]

22. The Cate Brother's Band - Fayetteville, Arkansas

Their Big Hit "Union Man" 1976. Played at the Presidential Inaugural for the Big Dog 1992. Still together, still playing.

http://www.catebrothers.com/frameset/Cate_Brothers_Band_Official_Website.htm

[giant_robot]

23. Well, "local" keeps changing for me, but here goes...

When I went to college near Lancaster, PA: Live (from York, PA)

When I went to grad school in Buffalo: Goo Goo Dolls and Ani DiFranco

When I moved to Scranton, Pa: umm....we got nuthin'.

[jobycom]

24. Aaron Neville, the Neville Brothers, and Wet Willie were big on the Coast

Gulf Coast, I mean. The Nevilles were big in New Orleans long before Aaron Neville had his big surge with Linda Rondstadt (he had a hit in the 60s, too, but nothing else for 20 years.)

Wet Willie may not be big enough. They were a southern band popular on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Then they had some bigger hits (Weekend, Street Corner Serenade, Keep on Smilin'). I don't know how big they were off the coast, though.

[KamaAina]

46. Radiators

People were making bootleg Rads tapes inside Tipitina's in N.O. right around the time "Law of the Fish" came out and they "made it". I should know; one of them was right next to me one night.

Aside: Back in the day, at least at Tip's, a Rads show started at midnight. Good thing the streetcars ran all night back then...

Come to think of it, all the N.O. acts that are huge down there but only occasionall "make it" could be a thread unto itself: Irma Thomas, for instance. (You did know that the Stones' "Time Is On My Side" is an Irma cover, right?)

[RetroLounge]

25. From Milwaukee Area

The Gufs
Da Bodeans
Violent Femmes

RL

[Maestro]

27. Love the BoDeans! -nt

[Maestro]

26. Pantera, The Toadies, The New Bohemians,

The Reverend Horton Heat just to name a few.

[Tikki]

29. The original NorthWest invasion...

The Kingsmen
The Sonics
The Wailers
Paul Revere and the Raiders
The Cascades
The Fleetwoods....



Tikki

[Pendrench]

31. Kix was big here in Baltimore - I think they had a few national hits. n/t

[unpossibles]

33. well, for the most part, this is the way it's been done

almost every band that's any good started out playing their hometown, then doing regional tours before being signed. And even after being signed, most bands back then were given a little time to develop and not dropped for low sales on their first albums.

Now a lot of companies won't give artists time to develop - if they don't do well first single, they get ignored and not marketed properly because they are not worth the effort.

Also, unless you have an "in" somewhere, it's unlikely you'll be signed without some extensive footwork. Newer bands like Incubus and No Doubt were around many years before their "overnight success." If your dad is a major producer or fashion mogul, it's unlikely you'll get much attention from the people who write the checks, unless you can show them your band has a HUGE draw at every show.

[NMDemDist2]

35. Credence Clearwater Revival (Stuck in Lodi Again) and the

Steve Miller band back in the 70's

Santana also was a local group in the Bay area for years

and IIRC Jimi Hendrix was a Seattle sensation long before he went national

[atomic-fly]

36. GWAR

[begin_within]

37. "Seafood Mama" became "Quarterflash" in the 1980s, then faded out.

[NightNurse]

40. Philly-Laura Mann & the Lifeboys

:bounce: Loved 'Em!:bounce:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

41. J. Geils? Georgia Satellites? Every band ever?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

42. Cake, Sacramento...

[Catch22Dem]

43. Hootie & the Blowfish were big along the VA/NC/SC coast

All around VA Beach, down through North Carolina, and South Carolina before hitting it big. We watched an early gig in Hampton, VA while sitting on jet skis out in the Chesapeake while they played on the back "porch" of this trendy motel.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

44. No Doubt and Sublime

Sublime used to open for No Doubt

[ghostsofgiants]

45. The only band I can think of that fits the bill is (ugh) Great Big Sea.

http://www.greatbigsea.com/

[Strawman]

48. The Romantics, Rhythm Corps, Sponge

all Detroit area bands with short lived fame in the 1980's and 1990's.

[Mutley]

49. Jimmy's Chicken Shack, Good Charlotte, SR71...

There are a few others, but I can't think of 'em right now.

[Flaxbee]

50. Concrete Blonde

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_Blonde

[pookieblue]

51. Drivin N Cryin

Little band from Atlanta fronted by Kevn Kinney.

I'm still a big fan of Kevn and in fact meet him last september when he did a solo gig at a local club.

DNC were on MTV and such with hits Fly Me Courageous and Honeysuckle Blue.
But he stepped down from the limelight when he got tired of the music biz trying to turn the band and him into something they weren't.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drivin_n_cryin
http://www.drivinncryin.com/history.html

Kevn now has a band called STAR. they have some great music IMO.

http://kevnkinney.com/

[Common Sense Party]

52. I wish someone would post Honeysuckle Blue on YouTube.

AWESOME song. I love that whole album.

[last_texas_dem]

53. ZZ Top

played the prom at my small town's high school while my parents were still in high school. Though their success was more than temporary...

My area also produced Janis Joplin, but she became successful after getting out of this place.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

54. The Boss. Of course, he didn't make it temporarily.

One of these days, I'll see him live.

[leftofthedial]

55. The Subdudes

Big Head Todd (and the Monsters)

Leftover Salmon



almost all bands started out regional

must be 1000 of them from Texas