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FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: ryansartor on October 22, 2011, 10:58:25 AM

Title: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: ryansartor on October 22, 2011, 10:58:25 AM
The only one I could think of was "Thriller" by Michael Jackson.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: cavorting with nudists on October 22, 2011, 11:11:23 AM
The Sex Pistols.

I don't know for a fact that Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights was their most popular album but it seems like it must have been (as a duo--some of Richard's albums may have outsold it), so that would count.

Magnetic Fields, 69 Love Songs--again I don't know for sure but can only assume.

This isn't as easy as it looks.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Christina on October 22, 2011, 11:18:31 AM
Amy Winehouse.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Kormod on October 22, 2011, 11:26:35 AM
The Clash - London Calling
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: cavorting with nudists on October 22, 2011, 11:33:18 AM
The Clash - London Calling

Two problems here: 1) I would guess that real Clash fans are fairly divided as to whether London Calling or the debut is the best; and 2) bizarrely enough, I am pretty sure that Combat Rock was their biggest seller.  Two hit singles, y'know.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Kormod on October 22, 2011, 11:46:33 AM
The Clash - London Calling

Two problems here: 1) I would guess that real Clash fans are fairly divided as to whether London Calling or the debut is the best; and 2) bizarrely enough, I am pretty sure that Combat Rock was their biggest seller.  Two hit singles, y'know.

You're right. I'll withdraw that contribution and replace it with "George Harrison - All Things Must Pass."
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: nec13 on October 22, 2011, 12:50:44 PM
A Love Supreme & Marquee Moon?
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Chris L on October 22, 2011, 12:55:57 PM
Violent Femmes

Radiohead - OK Computer
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: daveB from Oakland on October 22, 2011, 01:10:25 PM

Radiohead - OK Computer

I'm more of a Kid A/ Amnesiac guy, but maybe I'll give OK Computer another try.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: nec13 on October 22, 2011, 01:54:43 PM
How about Singles Going Steady?

Or would that not count since it's a compilation?
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: masterofsparks on October 22, 2011, 11:05:04 PM
Cheap Trick (At Budokan)
Allman Brothers (At Fillmore East)
Motorhead (Ace of Spades)
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Kormod on October 23, 2011, 03:34:58 AM
The Strokes - Is This It
ZZ Top - Eliminator
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: mackro on October 23, 2011, 06:25:03 AM
Agreed with GNR, George Harrison, Violent Femmes, Television & Amy Winehouse (which I assume was "Back To Black"?)

You're all mostly wrong about the 'best' part. My takes on those artists mentioned:
* Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
* The Sex Pistols - The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
* Magnetic Fields - Holiday
* The Clash - Give 'Em Enough Rope
* John Coltrane - Om
* Radiohead - Kid A
* Buzzcocks - Another Music In A Different Kitchen
* Cheap Trick - Dream Police
* Motorhead - Overkill
* The Strokes - Room On Fire
* ZZ Top - Tres Hombres

Don't know enough about Allman Brothers.

The answer is : 4th album by Led Zeppelin

(ok, there are a lot of answers. I just wanted to argue and stuff.)

Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Lawrence Orbach on October 23, 2011, 09:21:27 AM
Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Paul DeLouisiana on October 23, 2011, 10:45:52 AM
The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo? I think it's their most consistent record and Gram Parsons attracts a lot of people.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: nec13 on October 23, 2011, 11:20:57 AM
The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo? I think it's their most consistent record and Gram Parsons attracts a lot of people.

Is Sweetheart of the Rodeo their most popular album, though? I would think that Fifth Dimension and Mr. Tambourine Man are probably more well-known.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Paul DeLouisiana on October 23, 2011, 11:28:52 AM
The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo? I think it's their most consistent record and Gram Parsons attracts a lot of people.

Is Sweetheart of the Rodeo their most popular album, though? I would think that Fifth Dimension and Mr. Tambourine Man are probably more well-known.

Surely Sweetheart meant the most in terms of the development of country rock. I feel like it has the biggest cult following. Are we defining popularity by mainstream success?
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: daveB from Oakland on October 23, 2011, 11:40:14 AM
Are we defining popularity by mainstream success?

Seems like that's what the thread creator (ryansartor) was going for.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: cavorting with nudists on October 23, 2011, 12:35:12 PM
There isn't any way to check the sales figures on these things, is there?

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if the Gram Parsons cult has pushed Sweetheart's sales over time beyond the first few classics, which were released when, comparatively speaking, not all that many people bought LP's.  My guess is that since 1970 or so, the biggest sellers by the original lineup have been greatest-hits compilations.  But this is all pure speculation.

Oh yeah, there's also the question of whether it's the best.  I love Sweetheart, but I'd take Mr. Tambourine Man if I could only keep one.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Smelodies on October 23, 2011, 01:11:03 PM
Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue," but maybe not so much for the compositions as the tone and note choices he makes on the trumpet. 
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: dave from knoxville on October 23, 2011, 01:22:49 PM
Do total sales equate to most popular? I will think of a music example, but thinking about movies, The Big Lebowski didn't sell many tickets, but I bet it's the Coens "most popular" film. Hmmm, the best-selling Beatles record is Sgt Pepper's, but I am willing to bet Abbey Road is more popular. Same with Springsteen; Born in the USA is the biggest seller, but Born to Run is all I ever hear regular people talk about.

I dunno.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: JonFromMaplewood on October 23, 2011, 02:24:55 PM
Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon

Respectfully disagree. Animals.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Shaggy 2 Grote on October 23, 2011, 03:14:51 PM
Animals for Roger Waters Pink Floyd, yes, but it's all blown out of the water by anything Syd Barrett was on.
I'd add Lou Reed - Transformer.

Also, Love - Forever Changes, though I don't know that it was ever exactly huge.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: cavorting with nudists on October 23, 2011, 03:21:17 PM
Do total sales equate to most popular? I will think of a music example, but thinking about movies, The Big Lebowski didn't sell many tickets, but I bet it's the Coens "most popular" film. Hmmm, the best-selling Beatles record is Sgt Pepper's, but I am willing to bet Abbey Road is more popular. Same with Springsteen; Born in the USA is the biggest seller, but Born to Run is all I ever hear regular people talk about.

I dunno.

Yeah, I don't either.  I know what you mean, but it seems like pinning it to sales figures is the only guard against pure impressions and guesswork.  Which might lead to someone making incorrect statements on the Internet, which as we all know would be a disaster of catastrophic proportions.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: dave from knoxville on October 23, 2011, 03:39:27 PM
Do total sales equate to most popular? I will think of a music example, but thinking about movies, The Big Lebowski didn't sell many tickets, but I bet it's the Coens "most popular" film. Hmmm, the best-selling Beatles record is Sgt Pepper's, but I am willing to bet Abbey Road is more popular. Same with Springsteen; Born in the USA is the biggest seller, but Born to Run is all I ever hear regular people talk about.

I dunno.
That's the finest opinion I have ever heard.

Yeah, I don't either.  I know what you mean, but it seems like pinning it to sales figures is the only guard against pure impressions and guesswork.  Which might lead to someone making incorrect statements on the Internet, which as we all know would be a disaster of catastrophic proportions.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Shaggy 2 Grote on October 23, 2011, 04:50:07 PM
Also, I'd be hard-pressed to choose which of these was the best (and I don't know which was the most popular), but I'd add the four Neil Young & Crazy Horse albums that yielded the most classic rock radio standards: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Harvest, After The Gold Rush, and Rust Never Sleeps.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: JonFromMaplewood on October 23, 2011, 05:47:52 PM
Animals for Roger Waters Pink Floyd, yes, but it's all blown out of the water by anything Syd Barrett was on.


I love Syd Barrett's solo albums but am not a fan of his stuff with [The?] Pink Floyd. I suspect it is an issue with me, because I know a lot of great people who love those early albums. It may be that I always had horrible cassette versions of them and that on the right sound system, I would get it.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: cavorting with nudists on October 23, 2011, 07:22:05 PM
Also, I'd be hard-pressed to choose which of these was the best (and I don't know which was the most popular), but I'd add the four Neil Young & Crazy Horse albums that yielded the most classic rock radio standards: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Harvest, After The Gold Rush, and Rust Never Sleeps.

I believe Harvest is by far his best-selling album, or was for a long time. The story is that when Warner Brothers released it on CD--back in the days when it wasn't yet clear that every album ever made was going to be released on CD--he told them "OK, you've put my best-selling album on CD, now I want you to put my best album on CD"--by which he meant Tonight's the Night, of course.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Smelodies on October 23, 2011, 07:41:17 PM
Also, I'd be hard-pressed to choose which of these was the best (and I don't know which was the most popular), but I'd add the four Neil Young & Crazy Horse albums that yielded the most classic rock radio standards: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Harvest, After The Gold Rush, and Rust Never Sleeps.

I believe Harvest is by far his best-selling album, or was for a long time. The story is that when Warner Brothers released it on CD--back in the days when it wasn't yet clear that every album ever made was going to be released on CD--he told them "OK, you've put my best-selling album on CD, now I want you to put my best album on CD"--by which he meant Tonight's the Night, of course.

When's the first time you learned about CDs, assuming you're near my age group or older?  For me, it was in an ad in a 1983 Playboy.  Mike, if you're reading this, feel free to use that.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: buffcoat on October 23, 2011, 07:43:49 PM
Boston - Boston - Boston
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: dave from knoxville on October 23, 2011, 07:58:41 PM
So which was more popular, Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel, or Peter Gabriel?
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: cavorting with nudists on October 23, 2011, 07:58:56 PM
When's the first time you learned about CDs, assuming you're near my age group or older?  For me, it was in an ad in a 1983 Playboy.  Mike, if you're reading this, feel free to use that.

Uh--I don't remember.  Early-mid 80's, certainly.  I remember being really pissed off about them, thinking it was going to be a way for the music industry to winnow out artists that didn't count by not releasing their product in the shiny expensive new medium and letting their catalog wither and die.  It seemed very Reaganite to me at the time--separating the Elect out of the common no-account herd.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Steeley Chris on October 24, 2011, 06:31:12 AM
I'd add Lou Reed - Transformer.
I would second that, though I'm sure there is a large faction of folks that would say "Berlin" was his best.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: nec13 on October 24, 2011, 09:36:08 AM
Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon

Respectfully disagree. Animals.

Yes. Piper is 1B.

Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue," but maybe not so much for the compositions as the tone and note choices he makes on the trumpet.

Miles made better, more innovative albums, IMO. On The Corner, Miles Smiles, In A Silent Way, just to name a few.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Smelodies on October 24, 2011, 10:19:30 AM
I'm familiar with them. Just haven't heard his trumpet playing or tone top what's on Kind of Blue.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Crusherkc on October 24, 2011, 10:21:04 AM
Zep IV aka untitled aka ZoSo

Sold 37 million worldwide.  The product of Jimmy Page's invocation of demons. Does Stairway still top those classic rock radio Memorial Day weekend countdowns?
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Crusherkc on October 24, 2011, 11:42:36 AM
My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless"- their best and pretty sure they're best-seller
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: dave from knoxville on October 24, 2011, 12:55:31 PM
Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: JonFromMaplewood on October 24, 2011, 02:43:21 PM
(http://chrishanaka.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/george-harrison-cloud-nine-seal-422480.jpg)
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: JonFromMaplewood on October 24, 2011, 03:18:11 PM
Well, that joke went well.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: nec13 on October 24, 2011, 03:37:54 PM
Well, that joke went well.

I think George's best album is Gone Troppo. But that's just me.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Matt on October 24, 2011, 05:49:14 PM
Arguably - ARGUABLY - Guided By Voices, BEE THOUSAND.

But I would disagree, since I always preferred ALIEN LANES.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: dave from knoxville on October 24, 2011, 07:26:49 PM
Arguably - ARGUABLY - Guided By Voices, BEE THOUSAND.

But I would disagree, since I always preferred ALIEN LANES.

I am not afraid of you, and I will beat your ass.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Shaggy 2 Grote on October 24, 2011, 08:04:15 PM
Except for a couple of tunes, Bee Thousand is my least favorite GbV (not counting the 1100 EPs and such I've only listened to once or not at all). Earthquake Glue is up there, as is Alien Lanes. The lasest Boston Spaceships is pretty fantastic too.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: masterofsparks on October 24, 2011, 08:33:40 PM
I think Bee Thousand is the best GBV by far, but I don't know if that's just because it's the first one I heard.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: Chris L on October 25, 2011, 06:53:36 PM
According to that NY Times interview the other day, that Orphans comp is Tom Waits' only gold album.
Title: Re: Bands/Artists Whose Best Album Is Also Their Most Popular
Post by: masterofsparks on October 25, 2011, 07:52:12 PM
According to that NY Times interview the other day, that Orphans comp is Tom Waits' only gold album.

Surprising. I though I remembered reading that Mule Variations went platinum.