thesexofit said:

I still can't fathom why Diana Ross "Chain reaction" was such a big hit in UK (with great video to boot) and did nothing twice in USA? Was it the tepid reception to her first single "Eatin' alive" that put radio off? Or no MTV play? WTH happened LOL. Its still played all the time in UK.

I swear Clive Davis blocked the US release of Jennifer Rush's "Power of love", which again was huge in Europe and UK but was given to his own artist Air Supply so not to perhaps spoil their own cover version? Celine did a tepid cover in the 90's so it became a hit in USA eventually...

Because there was sill an anti bee gees thing in america. The same thing happened to Queen after "Radio GaGa" when they did the "I want to break free" video and were in drag, that was it, America was done with Queen till after died, despite still charting with albums like "Kind of Magic" "the Miracle" and "Innuendo" it was debut and gone pretty much. Barry Gibb wrote "Chain Reaction" and anything with Gibb attached to it during that time was not played whether they wrote it or if they were performing it. "you win again" was one the Bee Gees huge hits worldwide, did nothing here. I remember Barry being pissed about that.

SolaceAHA said:

thesexofit said:

I still can't fathom why Diana Ross "Chain reaction" was such a big hit in UK (with great video to boot) and did nothing twice in USA? Was it the tepid reception to her first single "Eatin' alive" that put radio off? Or no MTV play? WTH happened LOL. Its still played all the time in UK.

I swear Clive Davis blocked the US release of Jennifer Rush's "Power of love", which again was huge in Europe and UK but was given to his own artist Air Supply so not to perhaps spoil their own cover version? Celine did a tepid cover in the 90's so it became a hit in USA eventually...

Because there was sill an anti bee gees thing in america. The same thing happened to Queen after "Radio GaGa" when they did the "I want to break free" video and were in drag, that was it, America was done with Queen till after died, despite still charting with albums like "Kind of Magic" "the Miracle" and "Innuendo" it was debut and gone pretty much. Barry Gibb wrote "Chain Reaction" and anything with Gibb attached to it during that time was not played whether they wrote it or if they were performing it. "you win again" was one the Bee Gees huge hits worldwide, did nothing here. I remember Barry being pissed about that.

Reading through this threat, a big part of the US is just way more conservative than Europe,

big artists stopped selling in the US because of a nude cover (whch was not even completely nude), a video in drag, showing a breast on tv or for trying to have sex in a toilet....all those artists kept selling at Europe in the same time

nextedition said:

SolaceAHA said:

Because there was sill an anti bee gees thing in america. The same thing happened to Queen after "Radio GaGa" when they did the "I want to break free" video and were in drag, that was it, America was done with Queen till after died, despite still charting with albums like "Kind of Magic" "the Miracle" and "Innuendo" it was debut and gone pretty much. Barry Gibb wrote "Chain Reaction" and anything with Gibb attached to it during that time was not played whether they wrote it or if they were performing it. "you win again" was one the Bee Gees huge hits worldwide, did nothing here. I remember Barry being pissed about that.

Reading through this threat, a big part of the US is just way more conservative than Europe,

big artists stopped selling in the US because of a nude cover (whch was not even completely nude), a video in drag, showing a breast on tv or for trying to have sex in a toilet....all those artists kept selling at Europe in the same time

Sadly all true, I remember back in 1984 when the Band BERLIN was on American Bandstand they were talking about a song they did in 1982 called SEX which was banned in america on the radio, but when they went overseas they were on prime time tv shows performing, and on one show in Germany there was a topless dancer behind them that was part of the TV show. Dick Clark was shocked but it showed the difference then in america and overseas for sure with sex for sure. And the whole BEE GEES thing was nonsense, it was a backlash to there popularity from mid 70s up till 80,81, once the disco backlash happened (which they were sucked into) there was a huge issue at radio and djs (because they picked what they wanted to play then) it was a united keep them off radio movement.

SolaceAHA said:

And the whole BEE GEES thing was nonsense, it was a backlash to there popularity from mid 70s up till 80,81, once the disco backlash happened (which they were sucked into) there was a huge issue at radio and djs (because they picked what they wanted to play then) it was a united keep them off radio movement.

Didn't they write Islands In The Stream? That was a big hit on country & pop radio in the US. But Kenny Rogers in particular was already getting Top 40 crossover and he did those popular Gambler TV movies. Although Dolly Parton didn't get the same amount of pop airplay, she was a well known TV personality who was in popular movies like Nine To Five.

nextedition said:

trying to have sex in a toilet

If you're talking about George Michael & Tevin Campbell, then George spent a lot of time fueding with Sony years before the restroom thing happened. That hurt his career in the US also. It also might not have been as big of a thing if George/Tevin were attempting to pick up a woman. Because back then the media didn't really make a big fuss about all of the rock acts & actors sleeping with groupies (in some cases jail bait) or trashing hotel rooms. There's even the slogan "sex, drugs, and rock & roll". It was widely reported the R. Kelly & Aaliyah was married, but it didn't hurt Kelly's career and neither did that sex tape that he said was his brother. It was only recently after "Me Too", that R. Kelly really got into trouble.

MickyDolenz said:

SolaceAHA said:

And the whole BEE GEES thing was nonsense, it was a backlash to there popularity from mid 70s up till 80,81, once the disco backlash happened (which they were sucked into) there was a huge issue at radio and djs (because they picked what they wanted to play then) it was a united keep them off radio movement.

Didn't they write Islands In The Stream? That was a big hit on country & pop radio in the US. But Kenny Rogers in particular was already getting Top 40 crossover and he did those popular Gambler TV movies. Although Dolly Parton didn't get the same amount of pop airplay, she was a well known TV personality who was in popular movies like Nine To Five.

Yes it was Barry alone writing that but Kenny Rogers was untouchable at that point always had radio support, people forget how huge Kenny Rogers was during those years. But to be honest Dolly made it a hit, maybe not so much for her star power at that time though she did have crossover hits, this song was going to be just Kenny and he hated it, and Barry said "Lets get Dolly", the song only works as a duet of two people that have history and those two always had a wonderful professional relationship, it wasnt like other pasted together duets

language?

U can bet Diana Ross will do "Chain Reaction" at UK's Glastonbury festival this weekend.

Another obvious 80's one is Alexander O'Neal's 80's classic "Criticize". Still played on commercial radio all the time in UK. Did not crossover to pop at all in USA.

joejoeneezi said:

language?

Yes, we are speaking in a language.

Not sure Americans know this either but Bobby Brown's "two can play that game", got remixed (and slightly sped up) and was a huge hit a few years later and is still constantly played on dance radio and clubs to this day. Track is legendary now and I doubt Bobby even knows it LOL.

He could tour off that one song in UK!

I love both versions. The remix just works wonders though....whats even more amazing was it was never a single in the first place anywhere to my knowledge?

[Edited 6/29/22 19:26pm]

TrivialPursuit said:

Minogue is' Europe's Madonna. She's huge everywhere, and while some of the gays love her here, she's not that big of a deal. I listened to Disco a few times, but it's fallen off my radar since then. So with so many hits, why isn't Minogue and Williams bigger here?

Not really, Minogue is maybe Australia's Madonna. Madonna is Madonna and huge over her ein Holland and Europe in general, Minogue has got nothing on her. Most Europan acts suck tho.

I remember Prince was pretty big when 1999 came out in Holland and even a show was planned here because of how well it did here (LRC was constant rotation for 2 years). The 1999 was everywhere in 1982/1983 here.
When Purple Rain dropped the album was pretty huge (especially When Doves Cry and I would Die 4 U) here but the movie flopped and got masacred in the papers and reviews. After that he wasn't that popular here until Parade came out (Mountains and Kiss were played everywhere that summer, good times!)
And then SOTT came and the amazing tour that cemented him as one of the greats over here and then he exploded with Lovesexy and became a Titan and even bigger than MJ critically.