Do you ever wonder?


Do you ever wonder why some artists (individuals or groups) attain success through critical acclaim and/or record (cd) sales?

Here is my list of those who have made it in the recording/entertainment industries and is completely puzzling to me.

Please list your own; it's irrelevant what you think of mine.

OK, here you go (in no particular order):

Sheryl Crow
Norah Jones
Michael Bolton
Celine Dion
Joe Cocker
Manhattan Transfer
Boston
Rickie Lee Jones
Pink
Phil Collins

That's enough to get started; show me what you got.
audiofeil
Not a big fan either but there are 4 or 5 albums that most folks will enjoy IMO.

I'm partial to American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, and In the Dark.

Garcia's solo work is very interesting as well.

YMMV
I'd toss "Mars Hotel" and at least side 2 off "Terrapin Station", the full side "Terrapin Station" suite, which is fabulous.
entire books should be (and probably have been) written about the whole grateful dead cult phenomenom. i've been subjected to their interminable live shows and bootleg tapes, which is my idea of hell. now, i don't think their whole ouevre is entirely worthless--workingman's and american beauty are good country rock lps--but seldom has more adulation been poured over less musical substance. some of my less drug-addled deadhead friends have theorized that (sorta like the rocky horror picture show)artistic merit isn't the point; rather the whole communal let's drop-acid-and-buy-the merchandise-together vibe is the draw; all in all they're a fairly benign place for like-minded aging white people to gather and avoid reality.
There is/was (may have gone under) a Radio Dead IO internet radio station that I tried a few times recently with my Roku Soundbridge's Internet radio source option thinking I will get to hear a lot of Dead stuff that I've never heard before and find some new gems. But everytime I turned it on, there was some pointless meandering live jam going on where I lost interest in seconds. Maybe I just have a short attention span these days....
>Shirley Bassey I do not get yet but then again I have been underexposed to-date.

I discovered her videos on YouTube about a year ago, and I love her!

from 1968: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KWT_a9g-II

from 1973: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Wg6k9cWhM

from 1991: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raQqGLPcHzg