Is Deep Purple A-List?

[Love_Industry]

With Ritchie ....Yes.....without Ritchie no.. and Ritchie could give 2 shits and a fuck as he does what he wants. The other members cannot.

My understanding is that Deep Purple split the proceeds up 5 ways, at least during their most successful eras, so…I’m not sure why Richie would be any more well-off financially than the others.

Between 70s and 80s Purple he had Rainbow which was a successful band and it was all him and hired hands. Much bigger than Gillan or pre-Slide It In Whitesnake worldwide. Jon Lord and Ian Paice were only salaried musos for Cov and Gary Moore. I'm not even sure what Roger Glover did before joining Rainbow except producing Judas Priest and MSG.

[Bono Nettencourt]

In what way do you feel Zeppelin were the "biggest band of the seventies" ? Like what's your criteria? Album sales? Tickets? Visibility?

Yes.

[Sleek]

WTH does this even mean... Led Zeppelin were big business throughout the 70s. Every album except I, IV and Coda was #1, and the tours were huge, with either multiple arena dates or stadiums, all sold-out. They even had a movie for God's sake, and that crummy record of theirs that you bought in 1979 came out with 6 different covers because their fans were rabid enough to buy'em all. You were right about that they didn't appear to get the hype other bands got because the rock press hated them from the beginning and the feeling was mutual. If they weren't the biggest rock band in the 70s then who was?

Yeah they were big, but not A list.

Especially at the time, hard-rock/heavy metal was sort of a countercultural ghetto where bands could flourish commercially, but never get taken seriously by the press and media. Zeppelin was one of those bands.

...it's like, they could fill a stadium, but nobody was fucking inviting them to the Met Gala or whatever. They weren't getting a guest spot on Cher's TV show, and the Muppets were not calling.

They were just dirtbags that the kids liked.

Even the highest visibility hard rock was just kind of shit upon by polite society. Kiss was legitimately everywhere, but nobody over the age of 12 took them seriously or even knew much about them.

There were a few people who ALMOST crossed over, like Alice Cooper, who played his horror-movie show biz boogeyman in a traditional enough way that old Hollywood embraced him, and he became a legit celebrity for a while.

Aerosmith had enough crossover hits that they were verging on that breakthrough. If they hadn't turned to druggy shit after ROCKS, they may have hit that level, but they did and they didn't. (At least in that decade)

But you look at contemporaries who broke out of genre into the mainstream, you got people like the Bee Gees, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, The Beatles, The Stones, Diana Ross...they came from anywhere EXCEPT hard rock.

So yeah, LZ was not on the A list amongst anyone but teenage rock fans, and Deep Purple were several steps down from even that.

[Bono Nettencourt]

Nice goalpost relocation.

[FreddyFender]

I think this is a pretty difficult topic to get a consensus on because a bands popularity isn't gonna be at one level for a decade.

When we're talking about Zeppelin, Sabbath, Deep Purple... I'm talking early 70ss, like 1970-1973, because that's when those bands were at their peak.

It's like Hall and Oates. Were they huge throughout the 80's? Yes. Would I call them A-list in the 80's? Yes. Were they as big in 1988 as they were in 1983? Fuck no. And they were still going platinum and playing huge shows at the time, but they were definitely not the force they were before.

In the early 70's, Zeppelin were the biggest band in America and the UK. From II though Physical Graffitti, every album was a billboard #1 except IV which hit the #2 spot. Broke the Beatles attendance record at Shea Stadium. They were bigger than the Stones - I don't think it's possible to get bigger than that as a rock band.

I'd call that A-list.

But by 1979? Their albums were still going to #1, unlike Hall and Oates were in 1988. But it was a whole different era by then. Doobie Brothers were everywhere, Van Halen was on the scene. Lotta room for opinions there.

[Sleek]

Here's what google's AI says:

The 1970s was a golden age for music, with a diverse range of artists achieving significant success. Some of the most prominent A-list acts included pop groups like the Bee Gees, ABBA, and Fleetwood Mac, as well as male soloists like Paul McCartney, Elton John, and Stevie Wonder, and female soloists like Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, and Donna Summer. Additionally, rock bands like Aerosmith, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and the Rolling Stones, and country artists like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash also dominated the charts.

Which, with the notable exception of ELP tracks with what I've been saying, so it must be correct.

[Bono Nettencourt]

I think this is a pretty difficult topic to get a consensus on because a bands popularity isn't gonna be at one level for a decade.

When we're talking about Zeppelin, Sabbath, Deep Purple... I'm talking early 70ss, like 1970-1973, because that's when those bands were at their peak.

It's like Hall and Oates. Were they huge throughout the 80's? Yes. Would I call them A-list in the 80's? Yes. Were they as big in 1988 as they were in 1983? Fuck no. And they were still going platinum and playing huge shows at the time, but they were definitely not the force they were before.

In the early 70's, Zeppelin were the biggest band in America and the UK. From II though Physical Graffitti, every album was a billboard #1 except IV which hit the #2 spot. Broke the Beatles attendance record at Shea Stadium. They were bigger than the Stones - I don't think it's possible to get bigger than that as a rock band.

I'd call that A-list.

But by 1979? Their albums were still going to #1, unlike Hall and Oates were in 1988. But it was a whole different era by then. Doobie Brothers were everywhere, Van Halen was on the scene. Lotta room for opinions there.

Good answer. And remember they had their US tour cut short when Plant's son died, and the 1980 US tour, we know what happened there. Page was deep into drugs after 75 too. But they were still huge.

[Sleek]

I meannn Grand Funk had the same attendance as the Beatles at Shea Stadium, but hit that sellout in 72 hours. (It took the Beatles weeks).

Were they A list?

Also the Zep stat is misleading. They never played Shea, they just sold more tickets at an unrelated event in Tampa.

[magnersman]

I meannn Grand Funk had the same attendance as the Beatles at Shea Stadium, but hit that sellout in 72 hours. (It took the Beatles weeks).

Were they A list?

Also the Zep stat is misleading. They never played Shea, they just sold more tickets at an unrelated event in Tampa.

Nothing A list about Zep? Well based on certified US sales they were. Is there any other band talked about here that can match this 8 album run?

Zep 1 x8 Platinum
Zep 2 x12 Platinum
Zep 3 x6 Platinum
Zep 4 x24 Platinum
Houses of Holy - x11 Platinum
Graffiti x16 Platinum
Presence x3 Platinum
Out Door x6 Platinum

[Sleek]

Simmer down, Pat. Those are aggregate sales after 55 years and don't reflect their popularity at the time those records were out.

It is hard to figure exactly what those sales were, because Zeppelin didn't really keep up on their certs after the records came out...Led Z 1, for instance, was certified gold 8 months after its release, but its next cert in in 1990 when it was certified both platinum and 4x platinum.

From that info tho, you can infer that in its first 21 years of release, it sold 4 million copies. It then sold 4 million more by 1999.

Led Zeppelin 4 sold 10 million in its first 20 years, about 1/3rd of its current sales.

...point being, they sold well, but about somewhere between 60-75% of those sales happened AFTER the band was broken up.

Anyway, here are the best-selling albums in the U.S. for each year of the seventies INCLUDING ONLY THE SALES FROM THAT YEAR:

1970 Simon and Garfunkel Bridge over Troubled Water
1971 Various Artists – Jesus Christ Superstar
1972 Neil Young Harvest
1973 War The World Is a Ghetto
1974 Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
1975 Elton John's Greatest Hits
1976 Peter Frampton Frampton Comes Alive
1977 Fleetwood Mac Rumours
1978 Soundtrack / Bee Gees – Saturday Night Fever
1979 Billy Joel United States 52nd Street

Interestingly, Ian Gillan was the lead on 1971's biggest seller, but not with DP.

...and this is how billboard ranked overall artists in the categories of albums or singles sold:

Year Top Artist of the year Top Album Artist Top Singles artist
1971 — Chicago Three Dog Night
1972 — Roberta Flack Al Green (tie) Michael Jackson (tie)
1973 — Deep Purple Gladys Knight & the Pips
1974 — Jim Croce Gladys Knight & the Pips
1975 — Elton John John Denver (male) Linda Ronstadt (female) America (group)
1976 — Aerosmith Diana Ross
1977 Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac Rod Stewart
1978 Bee Gees Bee Gees Bee Gees
1979 Bee Gees Billy Joel Donna Summer
1980 Pink Floyd Pink Floyd Michael Jackson


...interestingly, DP makes a brief appearance on that one for Machine Head.

[EzyRider]

I think I'm going to start calling Deep Purple 'Ritchie Blackmore's Side Project' instead

'RBSP' has a nice ring to it

[FreddyFender]

Like I said earlier - lotta room for opinions with this shit.

We can rattle off statistics one way or another. For example: Led Zeppelins chart positions:

Led Zeppelin I 1969 - #10 US #6 UK
Led Zeppelin II 1969 - #1 US #1 UK
Led Zeppelin III 1970 - #1 US #1 UK
Led Zeppelin IV 1971 - #2 US #1 UK
Houses of the Holy 1973 - #1 US #1 UK
Physical Graffiti 1975 - #1 US #1 UK
Presence - 1976 - #1 US #1 UK
In Through the Out Door 1979 - #1 US #1 UK

Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and even Grand Funk had moments where they were white-hot, but they were nowhere near Led Zeppelin. Only band that came close was the Stones.

I asked ChatGPT to tell me what artists sold the most records when you limit sales to only the 1970s. Take it with a grain of salt because with AI or not, actually coming up with those numbers pre-Soundscan is gonna be an estimate, but they had Led Zeppelin at #2 with 35 million records sold, second only to Elton John. Again, if that's not A list.... what is?

[Sleek]

That's why I went with billboard year-end figures. It's not perfect, but it tells you who was actually big at the time as opposed to who was big over time.

[Bono Nettencourt]

That's why I went with billboard chart positions. They're not perfect, but they tell you who was actually big at the time as opposed to who was big over time.

[Sleek]

Chart positions are momentary tho, and don't always reflect sales.

If you want to go with chart positions, then you should add position to weeks at those positions...but then you just come up with the year-end charts.

[Wiseacre]

In what way do you feel Zeppelin were the "biggest band of the seventies" ? Like what's your criteria? Album sales? Tickets? Visibility?

All I can say is that being a midwestern kid listening to rock radio in '76, they were not in the conversation. Aerosmith and Fleetwood Mac Were huge, KISS, though they weren't on the radio were the most argued-about band on the playground and seemed like they were everywhere visibility-wise.

In '78, I remember hearing a lot of Queen and Nugent, but still no Zeppelin.

It really wasn't until I was liiiiike `15 and buying my own records I really heard them. Even then, there was a misfire. I bought the cheapest Zeppelin record I could find, which was In Through the Out Door and was like:"Why do people like this?"

Eventually, I bought the first couple albums and got it...but they were just that invisible to somebody outside of the rock world.

Hahaha. Not in the conversation?? Ridiculous. What rock did you live under? I grew up in the Midwest in the ‘70s also and never bought a single Zeppelin album because they were ALL OVER FM radio so I didn’t need to. TF are you talking about? Zeppelin were as big as any band for sure. Look at the INSANE number of albums they sold. what ‘70s rock band was bigger??? That Country band called Eagles maybe? FM weren’t even a rock band, really (and I was a big fan). Aerosmith had a few songs that were played constantly but Zeppelin had a shit load in regular rotation. Aerosmith seemed much bigger their 2nd time around, actually. As far as popularity, album sales and everything else. I wasn’t even a big Zeppelin fan, I was a KISS fan, but everyone else I knew definitely was. Hell, most of the other ‘70s bandS were Zeppelin fans and were influenced by them too including KISS. If Zeppelin weren’t A-list then no rock band was.

Google “top or best bands of the ‘70s” and you probably won’t find many (any?) that don’t have Zeppelin topping the list. There is a good reason for that.

[Wiseacre]

DP are A-listers. Or were anyway.

[Sleek]

If Zeppelin weren’t A-list then no rock band was.

See?

Now you're getting it.

[Wiseacre]

If Zeppelin weren’t A-list then no rock band was.

See?

Now you're getting it.

You sure aren’t. I’d say sold out arenas year after year, a song considered the “best rock song of all time” and tens of millions of albums sold would be considered A-list by ANY standard. They literally set the bar. Did you really grow up in the ‘70s or were you like a toddler in 1976?

[Sleek]

I was born in '66.

But I also collect radio airchecks from the seventies of top 40, rock and freeform radio. Zeppelin is not really well represented on those, and when a song does play, it is 90% gonna be Stairway.

[Love_Industry]

DP are A-listers. Or were anyway.

Agree. They may not have sold huge amounts of albums after Perfect Strangers or at least House of Blue Light, but they have been a consistent concert draw during all of their career and have some iconic songs in their catalog, Smoke on the Water being the most obvious but most rock fans should know at least Highway Star, Speed King and Burn. Maybe Strange Kind of Woman, Child in Time and Black Night too.

[Whatever Happened To…]

C-list band with a handful of A-list songs.

[HueyRamone]

But I also collect radio airchecks from the seventies of top 40, rock and freeform radio.

Well, duh. Who among us doesnt collect radio airchecks.

[Sleek]

Dullards.

[Wiseacre]

Dullards.

Says a guy who thinks Zeppelin were like an underground cult ‘70s band.

[gtrjay]

In eddie trunks world yes. And they should play the superbowl annually.

In reality mid - B level if not lower in 2025.

[Tommy2Tone84]

WTH does this even mean... Led Zeppelin were big business throughout the 70s. Every album except I, IV and Coda was #1, and the tours were huge, with either multiple arena dates or stadiums, all sold-out. They even had a movie for God's sake, and that crummy record of theirs that you bought in 1979 came out with 6 different covers because their fans were rabid enough to buy'em all. You were right about that they didn't appear to get the hype other bands got because the rock press hated them from the beginning and the feeling was mutual. If they weren't the biggest rock band in the 70s then who was?

Yeah they were big, but not A list.

Especially at the time, hard-rock/heavy metal was sort of a countercultural ghetto where bands could flourish commercially, but never get taken seriously by the press and media. Zeppelin was one of those bands.

...it's like, they could fill a stadium, but nobody was fucking inviting them to the Met Gala or whatever. They weren't getting a guest spot on Cher's TV show, and the Muppets were not calling.

They were just dirtbags that the kids liked.

Even the highest visibility hard rock was just kind of shit upon by polite society. Kiss was legitimately everywhere, but nobody over the age of 12 took them seriously or even knew much about them.

There were a few people who ALMOST crossed over, like Alice Cooper, who played his horror-movie show biz boogeyman in a traditional enough way that old Hollywood embraced him, and he became a legit celebrity for a while.

Aerosmith had enough crossover hits that they were verging on that breakthrough. If they hadn't turned to druggy shit after ROCKS, they may have hit that level, but they did and they didn't. (At least in that decade)

But you look at contemporaries who broke out of genre into the mainstream, you got people like the Bee Gees, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, The Beatles, The Stones, Diana Ross...they came from anywhere EXCEPT hard rock.

So yeah, LZ was not on the A list amongst anyone but teenage rock fans, and Deep Purple were several steps down from even that.

Are you feeling alright, sleek? You’re not making any sense.

[Tommy2Tone84]

I meannn Grand Funk had the same attendance as the Beatles at Shea Stadium, but hit that sellout in 72 hours. (It took the Beatles weeks).

Were they A list?

Also the Zep stat is misleading. They never played Shea, they just sold more tickets at an unrelated event in Tampa.

Grand Funk? Seriously? I can name you maybe three GFR songs at best, I can’t even name you an album. Uriah Heep played some big shows too but they weren’t and never were Zeppelin. Same goes for Black Oak Arkansas, Skynyrd and even 8xs platinum Peter Frampton. Even with FCA, Pete was never in Zeppelin’s league.

While the press might’ve hated Zeppelin in the 70s, the rock press was kissing their ass in the 80s and 90s just rubbing their clits out at the thought of a reunion. Page and Plant reunited and everyone lost their minds. Half of the band wasn’t even there.

I have my criticism of Zeppelin but they were always the Mt.Rushmore of the 70s rock scene. Alice Cooper is Blackie Lawless by comparison

[Sleek]

Grand Funk? Seriously? I can name you maybe three GFR songs at best,

Your ignorance is irrelevant.

While the press might’ve hated Zeppelin in the 70s, the rock press was kissing their ass in the 80s and 90s just rubbing their clits out at the thought of a reunion.

Again, irrelevant. This whole thread is about who was "A list" in the seventies in music.

Alice Cooper is Blackie Lawless by comparison

Wut? I feel like your grasp on how analogy works may be a little weak.

Are you feeling alright, sleek? You’re not making any sense.

I feel like I have stated my case clearly and succinctly, but then my reading comprehension levels may be a bit high for sludge, so let me simplify it as a list.:

1. Hard rock was a musical ghetto in the seventies, not taken seriously by anyone over 18. This is a board for hard rock fans, and at the time, we were all under 18 and took it seriously, which makes y'all hella biased. and downright blind.

2. Being "A list" means more than just selling tickets and records. It requires an awareness in the popular culture and the old-school industry, not just among hip youngsters. Elvis crossed over. Mick Jagger crossed over. The Beatles crossed over...but if (for instance) you asked Mike Douglas in 1975 who the drummer in Led Zeppelin was, he'd be like: "Who?"

3. Any person's like or dislike of a band has no bearing on their pop cultural status 50 years ago. (For the record, I love Zeppelin and know more about them than you, regardless of who "you" is.)

4. Zeppelin is a non-entity when it comes to billboard year-end lists and hardly exists on seventies radio, of which I have over 1,000 recordings as a sample size. There is no year where they had the top selling album, and were just cockslayed AT THE TIME by shit nobody thinks about now, like Andy Gibb, The carpenters .

5. Much less worthy bands like Kiss and Alice Cooper were closer to "A list" in the states, but despite getting close, were never there. Aerosmith arguably had two years with enough top 40 crossover singles ('76-'77) where they COULD have crossed over but did not, probably because they were too busy imploding.

6. All of these statements only concern the seventies. Many hard rock bands became bigger and attained legendary status over time and TO SOME EXTENT could be considered "A list" now, but only as legacy artists. AC/DC, Aerosmith or Zeppelin are legit huge in the backwards facing pop culture, but none of them are going to put anything out that knocks Taylor Swift or Lil' Jizzy D off the charts, and the average young person does not really know them.

7. Y'all greatly confuse "sales and reputation OVER time" with "sales AT the time". This is because you use suspect methodology (To put it kindly. I think the methodology is mostly: "WAaaaurgh! Me Love Zeppelin! ZeppElIn bIGgesT bAnD Ever!!!" but imma give y'all the benefit of the doubt, as you are not Kisstards).

Liiiike, if you google "best selling album OF 1971" you turn up Led Zeppelin 4, but if you look up "Best selling album IN 1971" it does not appear. I hear you say: "It came out in November tho, so it should be on the 1972 charts." It is. #14. Right behind Bread.

The top hard rock album of 1972 was Killer by Alice Cooper, at #6.

Source charts:

https://bestsellingalbums.org/year-end/ ... lbums_1971

https://bestsellingalbums.org/year-end/ ... lbums_1972

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_B ... ms_of_1971

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_B ... ms_of_1972

[Dyslexicheart]

Grand Funk? Seriously? I can name you maybe three GFR songs at best,

Your ignorance is irrelevant.

While the press might’ve hated Zeppelin in the 70s, the rock press was kissing their ass in the 80s and 90s just rubbing their clits out at the thought of a reunion.

Again, irrelevant. This whole thread is about who was "A list" in the seventies in music.

Alice Cooper is Blackie Lawless by comparison

Wut? I feel like your grasp on how analogy works may be a little weak.

Are you feeling alright, sleek? You’re not making any sense.

I feel like I have stated my case clearly and succinctly, but then my reading comprehension levels may be a bit high for sludge, so let me simplify it as a list.:

1. Hard rock was a musical ghetto in the seventies, not taken seriously by anyone over 18. This is a board for hard rock fans, and at the time, we were all under 18 and took it seriously, which makes y'all hella biased. and downright blind.

2. Being "A list" means more than just selling tickets and records. It requires an awareness in the popular culture and the old-school industry, not just among hip youngsters. Elvis crossed over. Mick Jagger crossed over. The Beatles crossed over...but if (for instance) you asked Mike Douglas in 1975 who the drummer in Led Zeppelin was, he'd be like: "Who?"

3. Any person's like or dislike of a band has no bearing on their pop cultural status 50 years ago. (For the record, I love Zeppelin and know more about them than you, regardless of who "you" is.)

4. Zeppelin is a non-entity when it comes to billboard year-end lists and hardly exists on seventies radio, of which I have over 1,000 recordings as a sample size. There is no year where they had the top selling album, and were just cockslayed AT THE TIME by shit nobody thinks about now, like Andy Gibb, The carpenters .

5. Much less worthy bands like Kiss and Alice Cooper were closer to "A list" in the states, but despite getting close, were never there. Aerosmith arguably had two years with enough top 40 crossover singles ('76-'77) where they COULD have crossed over but did not, probably because they were too busy imploding.

6. All of these statements only concern the seventies. Many hard rock bands became bigger and attained legendary status over time and TO SOME EXTENT could be considered "A list" now, but only as legacy artists. AC/DC, Aerosmith or Zeppelin are legit huge in the backwards facing pop culture, but none of them are going to put anything out that knocks Taylor Swift or Lil' Jizzy D off the charts, and the average young person does not really know them.

7. Y'all greatly confuse "sales and reputation OVER time" with "sales AT the time". This is because you use suspect methodology (To put it kindly. I think the methodology is mostly: "WAaaaurgh! Me Love Zeppelin! ZeppElIn bIGgesT bAnD Ever!!!" but imma give y'all the benefit of the doubt, as you are not Kisstards).

Liiiike, if you google "best selling album OF 1971" you turn up Led Zeppelin 4, but if you look up "Best selling album IN 1971" it does not appear. I hear you say: "It came out in November tho, so it should be on the 1972 charts." It is. #14. Right behind Bread.

The top hard rock album of 1972 was Killer by Alice Cooper, at #6.

Source charts:

https://bestsellingalbums.org/year-end/ ... lbums_1971

https://bestsellingalbums.org/year-end/ ... lbums_1972

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_B ... ms_of_1971

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_B ... ms_of_1972

That you think hard rock music was a "ghetto" in the 70's is funny. Your entire post is "not to be taken seriously".

As someone else said above "are you feeling all right? You're not making sense."