Favorite "next Beatles"

[Bossy Monkey]

meaning bands that were at some time ballyhooed as the next Beatles. I think this day has finally passed, not that the Beatles are forgotten, but that the companies that control popular music have learned how to manufacture mania on demand (remember the boy band boom of the '90s) that nobody is even looking for a next Beatles anymore.

Feel free to come forward with better suggestions, and I'll add them. Heck, I never would have thought of Duran Duran; they were the result of a Google search of "next Beatles."

Edit: Added some nominees from replies as well as Squeeze and Cheap Trick from my rapidly failing memory

[Coventina]

1. I seem to recall XTC being ballyhooed as such.

And even Echo & the Bunnymen, because they were from Liverpool.

I like both of those bands a lot.

[Bossy Monkey]

3. Somehow your mention of XTC reminds me of Squeeze

whom I also forgot. Not sure if I ever heard the Bunnymen mentioned in this regard, but if no more nominees turn up I'll put them on as well.

[mikeytherat]

2. You missed "Jellyfish"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellyfish_(band)

mikey_the_rat

[Bossy Monkey]

5. Or the Plimsouls. Or the Smithereens. But I don't think I can put on

everybody who sort of sounded like they wanted to be the Beatles. (Though I might go with the Smithereens, 'cause I like 'em.)

[mikeytherat]

12. I love 'em all, but Jellyfish so CLEARLY wanted to be The Beatles

Nothing by either The Plimsoles nor The Smithereens is even vaguely like Jellyfish (and I have a complete Smithereens collection).

On a FAR more important note, though: how the bloody hell did Duran Duran make the list? I like Duran Duran, but no Beatles wannabees are they!

mikey_the_rat

[Bossy Monkey]

14. As I said, Duran Duran turned up in a Google search of "next Beatles"

Then again, so did the Ramones, but I had a feeling folks might take that suggestion even less seriously. (Also, Duran Duran's winning the poll. Go figure.)

[MissMillie]

4. I love Crowded House

good stuff.

[Bossy Monkey]

6. Aw c'mon, somebody break the tie

:)

[DS1]

7. Is this poll in the spirit of bands I liked the most, or bands which I

took the greatest amount of joy watching their inevitable nosedive into irrelevance?

[Bossy Monkey]

9. I meant the former, but feel free to go with the latter

Whatever gives the reader, pollvoter, whatever the greatest joy...:P

[DS1]

11. Sorry, my only option is Oasis, in the spirit of the latter option

and I cannot vote in a poll where the latter option is inherently obvious.

[Radical Activist]

8. The Redwalls

I'm not a big fan but they're the latest band to do their best imitation of the Beatles sound. They even try to sound British in some of their songs, despite being from Chicago. Fakers.

[Servotron]

15. They're damn good fakers though.

To me, the Redwalls album sounds like what the Beatles probably would have done if they reunited about 1973, possibly with David Bowie producing them.

As far as the bands actually hyped as "the next Beatles" though, I'd have to go with The Knack. Unfortunately the comparison itself probably destroyed the band's credibility. "Get The Knack" is probably the second best album of 1979. ("London Calling" is the first, of course)

[donheld]

10. The Supremes

[kwassa]

13. Frankie Goes to Hollywood billed themselves as bigger than ....

the Beatles. Famous piece of hyperbole.

[mikeytherat]

16. So did Milli Vanilli (famous piece of irony)

mikey_the_rat