Posted March 7, 20196 yr There was a brief discussion of this over in the Indie forum for The National's new album - Bjork suggested they are 'probably the most popular band who have never had a top 40 single in the UK'. I also suggested Tame Impala, any ideas? (obviously how 'famous' an artist is, is quite opinion-based).
March 7, 20196 yr Author Figure It Out definitely went top 40. Catfish are definitely bigger than Blossoms and Royal Blood, but now they have Longshot. EDIT: Figure It Out got to #43 :P Edited March 7, 20196 yr by WhoOdyssey
March 7, 20196 yr Figure It Out definitely went top 40.It didn't! 30/08/2014 Royal Blood Figure It Out 43 50-58-60-69-{43}R(24)-54->6
March 7, 20196 yr Author Just realised that, oops Hopefully they'll do it with the lead from their next album.
March 7, 20196 yr Another two possible suggestions include James Last, who sold over 200 million albums of his easy-listening orchestral tunes without ever troubling the UK Top 40 (although he did get a #48 hit in 1980), and Andre Rieu, who's sold out arenas around the world and had considerable album success, without any hit singles to his name. Admittedly neither are Buzzjack-friendly artists, but both definitely fit the bill of famous without singles success.
March 7, 20196 yr The Velvet Underground may be the most famous act to never have a top 40 hit in either the singles chart or the albums chart. Tame Impala is a great call, slightly surprising that they've never even had a top 100 single (even if they're obviously more of an albums act).
March 7, 20196 yr The Velvet Underground may be the most famous act to never have a top 40 hit in either the singles chart or the albums chart. That's actually a really great shout, which it probably owes to the fact that they didn't become famous until long after they'd split up. Their only top 75 hit single was a live version of "Venus in Furs" in the mid 90s.
March 7, 20196 yr Tangerine Dream and Rick Wakeman are the most well known that I can think of. Rick Wakeman has been in the top forty as part of Yes.
March 7, 20196 yr Rick Wakeman has been in the top forty as part of Yes. Yes indeed. I wasn't sure if that disqualified him from this thread.
March 7, 20196 yr Another two possible suggestions include James Last, who sold over 200 million albums of his easy-listening orchestral tunes without ever troubling the UK Top 40 (although he did get a #48 hit in 1980), and Andre Rieu, who's sold out arenas around the world and had considerable album success, without any hit singles to his name. Admittedly neither are Buzzjack-friendly artists, but both definitely fit the bill of famous without singles success. Most of James Last’s output has been tripe, but his one (almost) hit single was actually rather good.
March 7, 20196 yr Until 1997 it would have been Led Zeppelin who famously didn't release any singles in their heyday.
March 7, 20196 yr Wolf Alice? Bombay Bicycle Club? Grimes? Quite a lot of big 2010s indie/alternative acts to choose from. Edited March 7, 20196 yr by Hiyaluv
March 7, 20196 yr Leonard Cohen would've been a good answer here if it weren't for X Factor's cover of Hallelujah in 2008! (God, how depressing does that sound).
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