Pub Rock

How many genuine Pub Rockers had top 40 hits in the US?

I'm thinking:

Ace - "How Long"
Ian Gomm - "Hold On"
Nick Lowe - "Cruel to Be Kind"
Sniff n the Tears - "Driver's Seat"
Bram Tchaikovsky - "Girl of My Dreams"

The Clash, Costello, Squeeze and Dire Straits all had roots in the pub rock scene but I don't know if they were ever considered pub rockers. (Well, I know the Clash never were, but Strummer was definitely a pub alum.)

Did "Starry Eyes" or "Teenarama" by the Records make it onto the US charts? I remember hearing "Teenarama" on the radio quite a bit, but maybe it was a rare case of there being a hip programmer in the STL.

Did Graham Parker ever broken the top 40 in the US?



Post Edited (09-06-07 23:31)

Dave Edmunds had some chart success to - gotta consider him a pub rocker I'd think.

"Squeezing Out Sparks" got to number 40 - for some reason I always remember that number in my head. If I'm not mistaken GP's biggest US single was "Wake Up Next To You" which is kind of surprising.

Rockpile cracked the top 30 with their (great) album.

I always consider NRBQ pub rockers - spiritually anyway.

Not being from the US I don't know but...

The Motors - Dancing The Night Away(?)

Actually, "Love and Loneliness" was probably the closest the Motors ever came to a US hit. And that's just sad.

pARKERS WAke up next to you made the top 40 at either 40 or 39 but oddly enough was his only hit.

is there a term for the opposite of a one hit wonder?
a lot of people would be in that genre. here are a few
1. nick lowe- cruel to be kind
2, grateful dead- touch of gray. hit the top 10 as a single
3. chris issakk- wicked game
4. steve forbert- romeos tune
5. loudon wainwrght-dead skunk
6.devo- whip it

the idea of these artists who had one hit but their careers would be at the same point if they never had the hit and had great albums for years but their hits didnt help or hinder them much.

I disagree about the "help or hinder" theory regarding Chris Isaak and Steve Forbert. Isaak--an artist I loved and followed from his first album, long before "Wicked Game"--would have never had the career he had (esp. as an actor) if that song hadn't broken.

Forbert wouldn't even be on our radar without "Romeo's Tune." I appreciate his recent albums, love his contemporary songwriting, have seen him a bunch of times and have written about him for a magazine. . . but these guys were both "helped" by quintessential tracks.

i stand corrected possibly the point i would have liked to make was these guys would still have a career in the music field and would still be putting out cds and prob playing the same venues.
they were helped by these songs but yet it didnt kill their careers in the respect that most fans can appreciate their full cds and see their concerts

It is kind of a shame when artists with long and respectable careers who happened to have one brush with the Top 40 get tagged with the One Hit Wonder label. There's a huge difference between Nick Lowe and someone like Lou Bega, yet (in the US, anyway) they both will turn up as "One Hit Wonders".

Bega truly did have a career that was exactly one song long, while Nick has had a great career in which one song just happened to drop at the right time to make it on the radio.

Interesting footnote to Ace's "How Long" is that Alan "Bam" King, member of The Action--one of the great lost mod groups of the early to mid-60s--was also a member of that group (Ace). You all seem like the only people on the planet who would appreciate such minutiae.

"Starry Eyes" hit #56 on the Billboard charts, hell they were even on "Midnight Special". I actually liked the Kuursal Flyers and "Television Generation" still pops up in rotation on the Zune.
The whole pub rock thing was hit on in my group at school based soley on Dave and Ira's articles in TP.
I never could understand why Dr. Feelgood never hit the charts. Same with Ducks Deluxe, the Yachts, Eddie and the Hot Rods.....etc.

You could stretch it a bit and call Squeeze a pub rock band...........

Well I know what playist I'm putting together for tonight's musical interlude....

>You could stretch it a bit and call Squeeze a pub rock band...........

I like that sentence. Perhaps you could squeeze it a bit and call Stretch a pub rock band?

Paul Carrack was in Ace and Squeeze, right? I'm going to leave Mike & the Mechanics out of the discussion for the moment.

Having mulled this topic over for a few days, I wonder if pub rock relocated to Australia in the late '70s?

Here's a couple of more to add to rebelwithoutaclue's list from the fab 60s:

1. Jimi Hendrix-All Along The Watchtower (#17 1968)
2. Love-7&7 Is (#33, 1966)

Squeezing Out Sparks did not reach the Billboard Top 40 but Ray Parker Jr. had 10 hits so, close enough?
By far the majority of artists have been one-hit-only. Those are definitely the odds in the business today, too. Does it really mean much that you have a Top 40 radio hit? After FM became more popular, AOR was more highly respected anyway and singles were only bought by the very young (with less allowance to spend).

more tokes on the one hitter:
Small Faces - Itchycoo Park (what did you do there?)
Patti Smith - Because the Night
Style Council - Everchanging Moods
UB40
Zevon
Mouth & MacNeal
Mott the Hoople
Randy Newman
The Nuge, dude
Gary Numan
Hendrix
Dire Straits
Bo Diddley
Dexys MR
Cockburn
Jimmy Cliff
b-52s?

The B-52s had more than one top 40 hit, I think.

"Love Shack"
"Roam"
"Good Stuff"
"Deadbeat Club"

I remember all of those getting pretty extensive airplay on the top-40 station I had to listen to at work back in 90-91 or thereabouts.

Dire Straits likewise:

"Sultans of Swing"
"Money for Nothing"
"Walk of Life"
"So Far Away"
and I think maybe even "Calling Elvis", but I'm not sure about that one

forgot to turn the page for the later Dire Straits

also, you can count the Flinstones song although it was released as the BC-52s; crazy that Channel Z wasn't the hit
they're actually touring this fall, don't know how they got Kate away from her motel.


more-
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Love - 7 and 7 is
Nick Lowe - Cruel to be Kind



Post Edited (09-10-07 13:21)