There are a few rock bands from the grunge rock era that I feel should have ended up being bigger and more successful, but unfortunately they never made that leap.
 

Below are the three that really stick in my mind most. Were there any other notable ones like them from that period, either grunge rock or regular rock?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 20242 yr by ABCDBKK

OK not grunge by my answer to the query Atlanta Rhythm Section (ARS) great bass line:

 

 

Moby Grape, Poco, Tony Joe White, Chambers Brothers, Leslie West, JJ Cale, Mother's Finest, Saraya, Cult, Wishbone Ash

 

 

Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray, the Rolling Stones, Leadbelly, Blind Lemon, Blind Willie McTell etc etc

2 minutes ago, retarius said:

Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray, the Rolling Stones, Leadbelly, Blind Lemon, Blind Willie McTell etc etc

So you think Hendrix, Clapton, SRV and the Rolling Stones should have been bigger or did you not understand the op  ?

Not every band should make it big. Many times the music is great, but it only caters to a small audience. They are meant to be small and not sell many albums.

Edited April 6, 20242 yr by JimTripper

Prince was only 5 ft 2 ins. He could have been bigger.

Green on Red. Saw them live and they were great.

 

Amazing Rhythm Aces, The Shins.

Triumph. Yeah they were big in Canada and maybe USA, but they could (and should) have been bigger worldwide... Many of my friends who like rock never heard of them.

Anal Leakage was a popular local band where I come from. As far as gigs and big contracts, they never managed to solidify anything. 

5 minutes ago, ColeBOzbourne said:

Anal Leakage was a popular local band where I come from. As far as gigs and big contracts, they never managed to solidify anything. 

They had a good run though !!

2 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

So you think Hendrix, Clapton, SRV and the Rolling Stones should have been bigger or did you not understand the op  ?

Yes I think they should have been way bigger. The OP is easy to understand but has lamentable taste in music.

Moby Grape, derailed by legal troubles in their prime.

Bad Finger ruined by thieving management.  

Rory Gallagher was very underrated in my opinion, a far better guitarist than most and also the Icicle Works, a great 80s band from Liverpool.

17 minutes ago, Guitar God said:

Moby Grape, derailed by legal troubles in their prime.

Bad Finger ruined by thieving management.  

Badfinger wrote "Without You" which was a huge hit for Nilsson and later Mariah Carey. They were signed to Apple when the Beatles broke up and never saw a penny. Both writers committed suicide.

Edited April 6, 20242 yr by champers

Rock bands that should have been bigger: My old rock band in the late 1960s...

2 hours ago, maechanman said:

Rory Gallagher was very underrated in my opinion, a far better guitarist than most and also the Icicle Works, a great 80s band from Liverpool.

+ 1 for Rory, a real workhorse who wanted nothing more than to play his music to an appreciative audience.

Wishbone Ash, great guitar action.Critics always moaned the vocals were poor, but their music was 2 guitar driven.

6 hours ago, retarius said:

Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray, the Rolling Stones, Leadbelly, Blind Lemon, Blind Willie McTell etc etc

It doesn't get much bigger than the Stones.

King Crimson ,  Camel, Anathema, Marillion, The Winter Machine, Katatonia 

Thank you all for your input. I appreciate it. 
 

Yes, this isn't a thread about big rock bands that made it. That's why I didn't mention bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, or even some of the most successful grunge rock bands like Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, or Soundgarden. 
 

To be honest, the three that I did mention; Creed, Dishwalla, and Candlebox, might be considered alternative rock rather than grunge rock, but I guess genre is partly subjective opinion too. 
 

Anyway, thinking about the synthesized rock/pop era, there were a few in that genre that should've gone further too. Bands like Depeche Mode, The Cure, and Yazoo made it big, but there was Bronski Beat, Soft Cell, and A Flock of Seagulls that seemingly could have made it bigger. 
 

One more I should have had in my original post is Bush. Another great grunge rock band that didn't really make it very far past their album Sixteen Stone, which was excellent. 
 

 

Edited April 6, 20242 yr by ABCDBKK

I never understood how this Peruvian band never made it big

 

And possibly the best 'covers' album ever........

 

Status Quo!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sivblqJGN4

6 hours ago, maechanman said:

Rory Gallagher was very underrated in my opinion, a far better guitarist than most and also the Icicle Works, a great 80s band from Liverpool.

I would go with the Icicle Works, they biggest hit was Love is a wonderful color, something different from the Stock, Ake and Waterman crap from the 80's.

Living Blues, Creedence CLearwater Revival, Cream >>> can hear them again and again, but they didn't go that big as they should. 

Hendrix - sorry he left way too early, he was genius.
Clapton was just great. "Double Trouble" as an example, decades later he released Money and Cigarettes is a masterpiece.

Pink Floyd - Mr. Waters shouldn't pull his ego to the stratosphere - they were great together, why did they go solo? Pros and Cons of HitchHiking, Radio K.A.O.S., Amused to Death were great albums, but what Gilmore, Wright and Mason did were ____________ (sad words). Why Mr. Waters didn't do it with original Pink Floyd?

And at last Mike Oldfield. He should rise higher than reissuing Tubular Bells over and over again.

PS: Ian Anderson is huge!

Edited April 6, 20242 yr by NativeBob

2 hours ago, ABCDBKK said:

Thank you all for your input. I appreciate it. 
 

Yes, this isn't a thread about big rock bands that made it. That's why I didn't mention bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, or even some of the most successful grunge rock bands like Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, or Soundgarden. 
 

To be honest, the three that I did mention; Creed, Dishwalla, and Candlebox, might be considered alternative rock rather than grunge rock, but I guess genre is partly subjective opinion too. 
 

Anyway, thinking about the synthesized rock/pop era, there were a few in that genre that should've gone further too. Bands like Depeche Mode, The Cure, and Yazoo made it big, but there was Bronski Beat, Soft Cell, and A Flock of Seagulls that seemingly could have made it bigger. 
 

One more I should have had in my original post is Bush. Another great grunge rock band that didn't really make it very far past their album Sixteen Stone, which was excellent. 
 

 

I thought the four bands you talked about were all successful. 

 

The wiki for Creed says they were the 9th best selling act in the 2000s and they broke up in 2004.

 

I personally preferred the band Alter Bridge that was mostly Creed members forming in 2004 after Creed broke up. 

 

 

 

21 minutes ago, biervoormij said:

I thought the four bands you talked about were all successful. 

 

The wiki for Creed says they were the 9th best selling act in the 2000s and they broke up in 2004.

 

I personally preferred the band Alter Bridge that was mostly Creed members forming in 2004 after Creed broke up. 

 

Interesting. Thanks. I didn't know Creed had that much success. They really only had that one big album titled Weathered, which they released in 2001 and they broke up in 2004 as you said. 
 

Then they released another album in 2009 with material mostly written when they wrote Weatherhead, which was a bit strange. But, by then, Scott Stapp had come back to rebuild some version of the band in 2009 and they stayed together after that for another 5-6 years more it seems.
 

Here is Stapp back in the saddle in 2009. Not quite the vocalist he once was: