History is written by the winners and the winners are the Beatles

Stephen Hayden of Grantland had a really great series last summer where he talked about 7 bands who were popular but not critically popular. Because they were not critically popular, when people wrote about the history of rock and roll, they tended to ignore these bands that moved tons of records and sold out stadiums. All of the bands he talked about were bands I had heard of: Led Zepplin, KISS, the Black Keys, etc.

I think I have a pretty good idea about the relative popularity of bands. When I hear that James has sold 15 million albums in their lifetime I think, "Yeah, that sounds about right." If you told me that U2 had sold 75 million albums (I have no idea the number), I would believe it. 

This brings me to Saturday night when I watched a PBS documentary/propaganda piece about the Dave Clark Five. I have heard of the DC5 only because my dad would mention them every once in a while. I thought they were one of these run-of-the-mill bands from the 1960s with a couple of hits like the Animals or the Zombies. But, in this documentary, I am watching thousands of girls welcoming them at JFK, people fainting at their concerts, appearing on Ed Sullivan and being drowned out by the screaming, selling out venue after venue after venue. And then came the kicker. They released something like 15 albums between 1964 and 1970...and sold 100 million albums. 100 million!! In the 1960s, when the population of the world was only 3.6 billion, when the population of the US was something like 150 million, when there were so many fewer foreign markets with populations interested in their music. 

I would guess that roughly 0.5 percent of people born after 1970 have heard of them. 100 million albums and then suddenly they are gone off the face of the earth, scrubbed clean out of the history of rock by the critics. This has thrown my musical world off of its axis. Who else is out there in the annals of rock that was enormously popular and also completely ignored? The obvious 1990s equivalent is Stone Temple Pilots who sold 40 million albums and who are only referenced in rock critic circles as being completely derivative of Pearl Jam. And, yeah, I thought Plush was a Pearl Jam song for a long time because Weiland was trying to sound like Vedder. And yeah, I thought Do You Love Me? by the Dave Clark Five was a Beatles song for a long time because the lead singer sounded like Lennon on Twist and Shout.

But I just don't think that a band that wrote this song and caused this reaction should be forgotten. Let them be critically savaged for all time, but don't forget them.