Bands who made the most from the least

[sadaist]

Sitting here trying to think of bands or musicians that have milked the very most from the very least. Saw a poster for Peter Frampton and it started making me think. That motherfucker has milked ONE album for an entire successful career. If not for 'Frampton Comes Alive' he would be a minor footnote to 70's rock and no one would even remember him (or maybe never even heard of him in the first place).

Don't get me wrong. I totally dig that album. But that's it. That's his career summed up on 1 piece of 2-sided vinyl. It's the only thing played on the radio & the only things he plays live. Still touring and selling tickets and making a living. Everyone knows those tunes.

I say Peter Frampton has milked that 1 album more than any other artist has milked a song or album before (or probably ever will).


What others have milked 1 song, album, event, etc... as badly to make an entire career from it? Are there any others that even come close to Frampton?

[Yount]

Billy Thorpe (R.I.P.) with Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy)

[sadaist]

Maybe Quiet Riot with Metal Health? Hard for me to say for sure cause I did like some of their other stuff. But not nearly the same ballpark as Frampton.

[sadaist]

OOOH I KNOW!


Golden Earring

Fuckers have 2 songs that everyone know. And that is it. Although they are both great tunes, but still qualifies them. Although they didn't really stretch out a long career from it.

[mohican]

Jimmy Buffett. He built an empire from Margaritaville.

[sadaist]

Jimmy Buffett. He built an empire from Margaritaville.

Oh fuck. Good call.

[mohican]

Bee Gees - saturday night fever soundtrack

[FORD]

The Sex Pistols still tour every few years or so, and to date have only released one studio album (in 1977)

But it's a damn good album.

[FORD]

Billy Thorpe (R.I.P.) with Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy)

Actually the only Billy Thorpe song that ever went anywhere in the States was "Children of the Sun".



KISW used to play that song so goddamn much, I got sick of it.

[mohican]

Top on this list is Bon Jovi for me. I know some will disagree. They have 2 catchy songs from Slippery When Wet.

[sadaist]

The Sex Pistols still tour every few years or so, and to date have only released one studio album (in 1977)

But it's a damn good album.

Ah. A terrific example. An entire career from 1 album. that's crazy! Might be worse then Frampton. At least he's done some other stuff....even though no one has heard it.

[sadaist]

Doesn't have to be music. Look at JD Salinger. Fucker wrote Catcher In The Rye & lived as a recluse the rest of his life. yeah he wrote a couple other books, but no one really knows of them in comparison. One hugely popular book and done.

[CoffeeJunkie]

Not really the Rock Genre, but didn't Modern English release "I Melt With You" like 3 times and had a hit each time?

[FORD]

Frampton's next album after his live record "I'm In You" was a decent seller, from what I remember. Still have that one on vinyl, I think. Lots of guest appearances from Mick Jagger, Stevie Wonder and others.....

[FORD]

Not really the Rock Genre, but didn't Modern English release "I Melt With You" like 3 times and had a hit each time?

I know they released it at least twice, but the second version pretty much sucked. Don't even know why they bothered re-recording it.

Of course now that the song has been used in a half dozen different commercials from Burger King to Taco Hell to Hershey's fucking chocolate, I can't stand to hear it any more at all.

[FORD]

Doesn't have to be music. Look at JD Salinger. Fucker wrote Catcher In The Rye & lived as a recluse the rest of his life. yeah he wrote a couple other books, but no one really knows of them in comparison. One hugely popular book and done.

Considering half the reason that book is famous, I can't blame Salinger for hiding away. (and by that, I mean the way that Catcher In The Rye always seems to turn up on the person of assassins like Mark Chapman and John Hinkley)

[ashstralia]

i tried to read that book once.

KISS!!!

[Dave's Bitch]

I was going to say Slade but they have 15 studio albums so i will say most band's with a Christmas song.Every year they get a big fat royalty cheque (especially Noddy Holder) so they can kinda do what they want 11 months of the year.His song has made the charts in 12 different years and was re-released almost annually in the 80's

[FORD]

You have to wonder if Noddy makes more money from the christmas song, or the Quiet Riot covers.

Because there's only one Slade album that ever went anywhere in the US, as far as I can recall.....



....which, as it turned out, wasn't even a real album at all, as the US label butchered it up, added some songs and dropped others and used completely different cover art and album title than the record that was available on the rest of the earth at the time.

Kinda like the labels had previously done to US albums by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Sweet, Ac/Dc, and others, so at least they were in good company.

[Dave's Bitch]

I would say the Christmas song,He refers to it as his pension plan.Did not know about the US label messing with the record

[Mushroom]

Allanis Morrisette can stuff that jagged little pill up hers!

[gbranton]

Allanis Morrisette can stuff that jagged little pill up hers!

Talking about making it with zero. I am glad Allanus' fifteen minute are up.

[FORD]

Allanis Morrisette can stuff that jagged little pill up hers!

Still cracks me up that she sued to keep her first two albums from being released in the US. The ones where she was a Tiffany/Debbie Gibson type bubblegum singer as opposed to the angst-ridden queen of feminist anger that she cast herself as on the third album.

Kinda like the rapper "Drake" doesn't advertise the fact that his real name is Aubrey Graham, former star of the Canadian teen soap "Degrassi High"


Yeah, Straight Outta Toronto, muthaphuckas!!

[Golden AWe]

Well, in a way Nirvana and Alice In Chains really made it big with not that many albums...AIC made two great albums, Facelift and DIRT, and the self-titled was a pretty tired one...they mostly made it that because of MTV Unplugged.

Nirvana had some good songs on all of their albums...but still.

Jimi Hendrix...he was already running out of gas after two albums.

[Mr. Vengeance]

Tupac.

No one has used death to become prolific more than this fucker.

[chi-town324]

Buster Douglas... he knocked out Mike Tyson...then fell off the face of the earth...but everybody knows who he is

[Yount]

Tupac.

No one has used death to become prolific more than this fucker.

You mean fake death

[Yount]

BTW from these forums alone I can testify that Elvis is alive and morbidly obese

I'll never forget the great quote: "Elvis may or may not have faked his own death, but David Lee Roth faked his life instead!"

[DONNIEP]

A Flock Of Seagulls - still touring off that one damn record.

[Terry]

Bee Gees - saturday night fever soundtrack

Not so sure about that...

The Bee Gees had a lot of hits before Fever, quite a few after AND they wrote a shitload of tunes that were hits from other artists.

Fever is probably their commerical highwater mark, but hardly a case of that album being their only success.

[Terry]

Gary Numan and the track "Cars"

That tune has been remade, rereleased (and recharted) by Numan at least half a dozen times since the early 1980s.

[DLR Bridge]

Gary Numan and the track "Cars"

That tune has been remade, rereleased (and recharted) by Numan at least half a dozen times since the early 1980s.

Now that suits this threads topic ions more than Frampton. I get it, Frampton Comes Alive was as big as he got, but atleast he's always been a great guitarist with some great music (along with some bad) and an interesting voice. I've enjoyed studying the span of his career just as much as I have Cheap Trick's. Could never say the same for Gary Numan. Cars and the song the Foo's covered are all I know about that guy, and I ain't particularly interested to hear anything else.

My contribution to this thread? Magic by the band Pilot. Everybody knows it. Everybody loves it (ah yes you do). Many (including my old band) have redone it and it just won't ever go away. Those guys, where ever the fuck they are are still in shock that they won the Win for Life with that lil' nugget. Hats off to Pilot. Fucking Pilot.

[sadaist]

A Flock Of Seagulls - still touring off that one damn record.

HAHA! I loved that cassette way back when I was a youngster. But yeah.

Been thinking of a lot of 1-hit wonders, but really for the thread I'm staying away from those. Looking for more the ones that did 1 big thing & then stuck with that for the career.

Tommy Tutone still tours now & then. I kinda wish he'd just fuck Jenny & get it over with already.

[BITEYOASS]

Twisted Sister sure made a career from the album "Stay Hungry". Which kicks ass, but I prefer their earlier albums. The song "Shoot em' Down" would have sounded great if it was on the soundtrack for "First Blood".

[Tiki-Tom]

Meat fuckin'loaf! His whole career has pretty much been "Bat out of Hell" What part is he workin' on now,4"? Jeezus?

[sadaist]

Meat fuckin'loaf! His whole career has pretty much been "Bat out of Hell" What part is he workin' on now,4"? Jeezus?

HAHA!

There we go. That's a great one for the list.

[FORD]

Yeah, by now I doubt there are any bats left in Hell. Guess somebody should ask Satan about that?

[Coyote]

Mike Oldfield.

Has that guy done anything beyond "Tubular Bells"?

[Dave's Bitch]

Europe,"The Final Countdown".They have done 8 other albums but you cannot escape "da da da daaaa da da da da daaaa"

[Yount]

Europe,"The Final Countdown".They have done 8 other albums but you cannot escape "da da da daaaa da da da da daaaa"

I really REALLY like the first 2 albums "Self titled" and "Wings Of Tomorrow" and I've only met one other person in my whole entire life who has heard them and agrees. One!! So I guess people don't like. Some good tracks like Scream Of Anger, In The Future To Come, So Long Fare Well, Seven Doors Hotel, Paradize Bay, Memories (my fave), and Treated Bad Again.
1983-1984 with Tony Reno on drums.
This was before The Final Pay Cheque

BTW they cashed in again on that song in 1999-2000 New Year's Eve for obvious reasons