Who were the headliners of the 20th century outside rock music?

Could you narrow down your time frame?

Michael Jackson

Madonna

Janet Jackson

Tina Turner (half her music is pop)


Tina, Janet and Michael toured harder and did more shows in less time than any act of the 20th century to my knowledge. The Spice Girls also did a hell of a lot of shows in record time during the late 90's but that was only one tour.

And of course Garth Brooks could get people to travel across the country just to see his backside.

Jimmy Buffett

Vicente Fernández

Yanni

Three Tenors

George Strait

Kenny Rogers

Selena

Celia Cruz

Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis

New Kids On The Block

Menudo

DC Talk

James Taylor

Stevie Wonder

Johnny Mathis

Fania All Stars

Richard Pryor

Michael W. Smith

John Denver

Barry Manilow

Daryl Hall & John Oates

Hudson said:

Tina, Janet and Michael toured harder and did more shows in less time than any act of the 20th century to my knowledge.

Not more than B.B. King. He toured just about his entire music career and did hundreds of shows a year, although he did less in his older age than he did when he was younger.

MickyDolenz said:

Hudson said:

Tina, Janet and Michael toured harder and did more shows in less time than any act of the 20th century to my knowledge.

Not more than B.B. King. He toured just about his entire music career and did hundreds of shows a year, although he did less in his older age than he did when he was younger.

There may have been a lot more examples like this. I only knew about highest grossing/biggest attendance tours.

Hudson said:

There may have been a lot more examples like this. I only knew about highest grossing/biggest attendance tours.

B.B. was performing before any of the Jackson 5 were born and before Tina had a career and continued up til just about his death at 89 years old. The average chitlin' circuit act probably performed more in a year (and for little money) than these modern superstar acts. Then they had to worry about the mafia or street gangsters, because a lot of clubs/theaters were mob run. Performers at the Apollo Theater had to do 2 or 3 shows a day.

purplethunder3121 said:

Could you narrow down your time frame?

1975 - 1999 in particular.

STEVIE WONDER

George Michael

Whitney Houston

MickyDolenz said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Chitlin Circuit performers did up to 2 shows a day for almost an entire week at one spot. That's if they play at the Apollo or Regal or Howard or one of those theaters on the East coast.

Ronnie DeVoe mentions New Edition doing 3-5 shows a night in NYC, and this was in the early 1980s. I think this was in different places though. The relevant part is around 1:40 of this video.

MickyDolenz said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

That was before NE fot with Streetwise right? I can see them doing every gig they got offered for some coin.

I think after, because Ronnie mentioned performing at the Copacabana. Does the Copa have amateur acts perform there?

MickyDolenz said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Theyd let a kid group sing Candy Girl at the Copa in 1983?

I guess so. I just watched the clip again and I think the Copa is different from the 3-5 performances Ronnie was talking about. He doesn't say exactly, but that might have been before their record came out, and the Copa was after. I guess the Copa had changed by the 1980s, because a few decades before, it was a upper class supper club type of place where the audience wore suits and fancy dresses. They had crooners and people singing show tunes on stage, not really Top 40 acts. The Copa was more for the types of acts that were on The Lawrence Welk Show. Listen to the live albums that singers like Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, & The Temptations made there. The songs they performed there weren't their usual radio hits, and they had a big band playing behind them. I was surprised that Ronnie said NE performed there, because that's what I thought of, easy listening music.

MickyDolenz said:

MickyDolenz said:

Jimmy Buffett

Three Tenors

Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis

Stevie Wonder
George Strait

Barry Manilow
[NKOTB]

I especially agree with these, and Garth Brooks and Sinatra.

Also, according to Billboard, the 25 biggest concert acts included the following non-rock acts:

Celene Dion
Neil Diamond
Toby Keith
Cher

LittleBLUECorvette said:

MickyDolenz said:

B.B. was performing before any of the Jackson 5 were born and before Tina had a career and continued up til just about his death at 89 years old. The average chitlin' circuit act probably performed more in a year (and for little money) than these modern superstar acts. Then they had to worry about the mafia or street gangsters, because a lot of clubs/theaters were mob run. Performers at the Apollo Theater had to do 2 or 3 shows a day.

Chitlin Circuit performers did up to 2 shows a day for almost an entire week at one spot. That's if they play at the Apollo or Regal or Howard or one of those theaters on the East coast.

Other than BB King, which of the Chitlin Circuit acts do you all think would be in the top tier of overall acts -- not on merit, but on gross revenues?

namepeace said:

206Michelle said:

STEVIE WONDER

George Michael

Whitney Houston

Never thought of her being a major touring act.

Prince forum and no one mentions Prince

NorthC said:

^ I think you overlooked the words "outside rock" in the title.

Yep sorry

LittleBLUECorvette said:

NE put out that oldies album. Maybe they played the Copa on the strength of that Little Anthony tune they covered?

It had to have been before that because Michael Bivins said they met Frankie Crocker when they first got to New York and then the first place they played after that was the Copa. I don't think Frankie would need to introduce them in 1986. They were already famous by then. I don't think the Copa book unknown acts either. They had a song on the Karate Kid soundtrack (Earth Angel) in 1986, which is mainstream. Also in that NE Soul Train special a couple of months ago, it was said that they sold out Madison Square Garden. That had to be after the 2nd album which had crossed over. New Edition wasn't popular enough with the Candy Girl album to do that. So the Copa must have been before MSG.

NorthC said:

^ I think you overlooked the words "outside rock" in the title.

I don't think Prince was considered a rock act though. He got little if any airplay on the AOR stations that were around in the 1980s. In the US, he's usually called R&B.