Last Updated on January 1, 2026 by Christian Adams
Great 1970s rock bands have a habit of falling through the cracks. For every Kiss and Led Zeppelin, thousands of overlooked artists were as good, if not better, than the superstars. The bands and artists on this list aren’t one-hit wonders or obscure local favorites. With one exception1, I’m talking about bands actively putting out records that few people bought. Likewise, I’m passing over a few bands like Big Star and Montrose because they’ve reached critical mass or cult status.
Colin Blunstone
| Genre: | Pop, chamber pop, baroque pop, rock |
| Years active: | 1961–present |
| Must-hear album: | One Year (1971) |
| Top tracks: | “Say You Don’t Mind”, “Caroline Goodbye”, “Smokey Day” |
You may recognize his voice from The Zombies’ biggest hits: “She’s Not There”, “Tell Her No”, and “Time of the Season”, but Colin Blunstone isn’t a household name among lead vocalists from 1960s rock bands that broke up too soon. It’s a shame because he’s got a sweet voice, giving off strong vibes of Nick Drake and a more disciplined Syd Barrett.
Blunstone recorded six solo albums in the 1970s. The debut, One Year (1971), is a velvety chamber pop masterpiece, co-produced by Rod Argent (The Zombies) and included “Say You Don’t Mind”, a modest hit on the U.K. charts (#15, 1972).
Following two more albums on Epic Records, Blunstone signed with Elton John’s record label, The Rocket Record Company, and put out three studio albums: Planes (1976), Never Even Thought (1978), and Late Nights in Soho (1979).
One Year is highly recommended, but you should really give Some Years: It’s the Time of Colin Blunstone (1995) a spin to appreciate his genius.
NRBQ
| Genre: | Rock, pop, blues, jazz, folk, etc. |
| Years active: | 1966–2004, 2011–present |
| Must-hear album: | Peek-A-Boo: The Best of NRBQ 1969-1989 (1990) |
| Top tracks: | “Ridin’ in My Car”, “Boys in the City”, “Me n’ the Boys”, “Get That Gasoline Blues” |
NRBQ (aka New Rhythm & Blues Quartet) is the premier American underground band that should have been huge, but never found a mainstream audience. Despite major label record deals, influential support from big-timers like R.E.M., Elvis Costello, and Keith Richards (to name a few), and several high-profile appearances on The Simpsons, “The Q” remained a cult favorite.
The quartet from Louisville, Kentucky, was primarily considered a ‘live act’, known for highly danceable, engaging, and chaotic performances, but their records were pretty cool, too. The band didn’t have a style per se; their sound was a Plinko game of rock, pop, jazz, soul, R&B, blues, folk, rockabilly, and country.
Led by founding members Terry Adams (keyboards, vocals) and Joey Spampinato (bass, vocals), NRBQ slowly developed a rabid cult following by touring, and ostensibly, releasing 50+ albums (23 studio, 14 live, and 15 compilations), and 28 singles; however, the closest they ever came to a ‘hit’ was “Get That Gasoline Blues”, which went to #70 on The Billboard Hot 100 in 1974.
In my opinion, their best song is “Ridin’ in My Car”, and the 1971–1993 lineup of Adams, Spampinato, Tom Ardolino (drums, vocals), and Al Anderson (guitar, vocals) is the only lineup worth talking about.
WXRT Radio (93.1 FM Chicago) played NRBQ regularly, but I only knew one song, “Me n’ the Boys” (1980), which featured Captain Lou Albano, who later managed Cyndi Lauper—another story altogether, but a sense of humor is a huge part of NRBQ’s identity. Dave Edmunds covered “Me n’ the Boys” in 1982.
I saw NRBQ once when they opened for R.E.M. at Alpine Valley on the Greenaka Acronym Tour (1989), and let’s put it this way: nobody was there to see NRBQ. I distinctly remembered Peter Buck and Mike Mills watching from the side of the stage, kind of making sure the crowd didn’t get out of line during NRBQ’s set.
Fun Fact: I also happened to see R.E.M. at the UIC Pavilion in 1985 (Reconstruction of the Fables Tour), and I was among the mostly male crowd who mercilessly booed The Three O’Clock off the stage. Sorry about that. My friend and I were on LSD and we wanted to see R.E.M., not a Paisley Underground band from L.A.
Thirty-five years later, I was driving in my car on a particularly difficult day when NRBQ’s “Ridin’ in My Car” came up on random shuffle. Sometimes the universe will gift you the perfect song for the situation, and I got lucky.
At Yankee Stadium (1978) is probably their most well-known record, but I think All Hopped Up (1977) is the most entertaining record you never knew existed.
Sweet
| Genre: | Glam rock, hard rock, power pop, bubblegum |
| Years active: | 1968–1982, 1985–present |
| Must-hear album: | Desolation Boulevard (1974) |
| Top tracks: | “Ballroom Blitz”, “The Six Teens”, “Fox on the Run”, “Little Willy”, “Block Buster!” |
Granted, Sweet is lightweight, good-time party rock, but goddamn! It’s so infectious. They should have been huge.
Death
| Genre: | Punk, rock, proto-punk |
| Years active: | 1971–1977, 2009–present |
| Must-hear album: | …For the Whole World to See (1974, 2009 reissue) |
| Top tracks: | “Politicians in My Eyes”, “Keep on Knocking” |
Not to be confused with the “influential” 1980s metal band of the same name, Death is a proto-punk band from Detroit, Michigan, and one of the most obscure figures of mid-1970s hard rock.
Formed in 1971 by brothers Bobby (bass, vocals), David (guitar), and Dannis Hackney (drums, percussion), the group recorded a single and an album before disbanding in 1977. They’ve been called one of the first punk rock bands in America—I think that’s a tremendous stretch—but they were probably the first all-black punk rock band anywhere on the planet.
Despite several flirtations with major record labels and none other than Clive Davis, the band went nowhere, and it’s highly unlikely that anybody would have heard of Death if independent record label Drag City hadn’t released their unreleased studio recordings in 2009.
Gong
People talk about progressive and psychedelic rock in terms of Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Yes, but the true space rock pioneers were these fuckin’ lunatics from France. Led by former Soft Machine guitarist Daevid Allen, Gong released six albums in the 1970s, each more bizarre and spaced out than the previous.
A good entry point is Flying Teapot (1973), Subtitled Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 1, the first of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, followed by Angel’s Egg and You (1974).
Sparks
| Genre: | Art rock, art pop, glam rock, electronic rock, synthpop, new wave |
| Years active: | 1971–present |
| Must-hear album: | Kimono My House (1974) |
| Top tracks: | “Amateur Hour”, “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us” |
Watch the documentary.
I’m not sure if there was a better band on the planet than Sparks in 1974. I’m not sure because I was listening to AM radio every day. WLS Chicago AM 890. They didn’t play Sparks. They should have, but they didn’t.
The Soft Boys
| Origin: | Cambridge, England |
| Genre: | Post-punk, neo-psychedelia, alternative rock, new wave |
| Years active: | 1976–1981, 1994, 2001–2003 |
| Must-hear album: | Underwater Moonlight (1980) |
There’s just nothing else like them. They sound like the early Byrds meet Pink Floyd at Joy Division. It’s no wonder R.E.M. lifted their schtick. One listen to Underwater Moonlight. You’ll hear it.
Fanny
| Genre: | Rock, hard rock, R&B |
| Years active: | 1969–1975, 2007, 2023 |
| Must-hear albums: | Fanny (1970) and Mother’s Pride (1973) |
| Top tracks: | “Ain’t That Peculiar”, “Butter Boy”, “Blind Alley” |
In a 1999 interview with Rolling Stone, David Bowie said:
“One of the most important female bands in American rock has been buried without a trace. And that is Fanny. They were one of the finest rock bands of their time. They were extraordinary…they’re as important as anybody else who’s ever been, ever; it just wasn’t their time. Revivify Fanny. And I will feel that my work is done.”
Fanny was one of the first American all-female hard rock bands active in the early 1970s, and the first to release an album on a major label (Reprise, in 1970). They scored two top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and released five albums.
In 1969, Filipino-American sisters June (guitar, vocals) and Jean (bass, vocals) Millington formed a series of all-female bands with Alice de Buhr (drums) in Sacramento, CA, before moving to Los Angeles as Wild Honey, playing mostly Motown covers. Discouraged by the male-dominated rock scene, Wild Honeydisbanded in 1969, but not before impressing producer Richard Perry, who had been looking for an all-female rock band to mentor.
Perry arranged for Warner Bros. to sign the band, still known as Wild Honey, to Reprise Records. Before recording their first album, the band changed their name to Fanny and recruited keyboardist Nickey Barclay (Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour band).
Perry produced the band’s first three albums: Fanny (1970), Charity Ball (1971), and Fanny Hill (1972). The title track “Charity Ball” reached #40 on the Billboard Hot 100. The members of the band also worked as session musicians, most notably on Barbra Streisand’s 1971 album Barbra Joan Streisand.
Fanny’s fourth album, Mother’s Pride (1973), was produced by Todd Rundgren. The band toured worldwide, opening for Slade, Jethro Tull, and Humble Pie, finding their peak of popularity in the United Kingdom.
After Mother’s Pride, June Millington and Alice de Buhr left the band. Patti Quatro (sister of Suzi Quatro) joined on guitar, and Brie Brandt (who had played with the Millingtons in their early band The Svelts) returned on drums. This lineup signed with Casablanca Records and released the final Fanny album, Rock and Roll Survivors, in 1974. Brandt was briefly replaced by Cam Davis, but the band soon disintegrated even as “Butter Boy” became their biggest single, reaching #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1975.
The debut album is my favorite, but Fanny Hill and Mother’s Pride are just as listenable.
Dixie Dregs
| Genre: | Classical, bluegrass, jazz, rock, etc. |
| Origin: | Augusta, GA |
| Years active: | 1970–1983, 1988–present |
| Exemplary cut: | “Punk Sandwich” |
There’s something to be said for bands that are exceptionally good at what they do, even if what they do is anathema to our sensibilities.
Dixie Dregs is the first band on this list that I actively don’t like. I don’t appreciate their brand of instrumental classical-country-rock-jazz fusion, but goddamn if they aren’t so good—I mean remarkably good—at that they do. Every dude in the band is a virtuoso, which is weird. That’s a lot of ego to squeeze into a practice space.
That said, “Punk Sandwich” (1979) is a great cut that’s grown on me, and overall, if you like this kind of stuff, you’re gonna love Dixie Dregs.
Like much of jazz fusion music, Dixie Dregs don’t give you any room to breathe. So many fucking notes. That’s what turned people against Frank Zappa. Stop showing off. Nobody cares. Dixie Dregs are a case study in “stepping on your collective dicks”.
I remember Steve Morse used to win all the best guitar player polls in Guitar Player Magazine back in the day, and I’d think, “Who the fuck is this guy?” mainly because I’d never heard Dixie Dregs on the radio. You probably know him now as the guy in Deep Purple and Kansas, but there was a time when Steve Morse was probably the best guitar player on the planet, especially if Allan Holdsworth was on a moon mission.
Jim Croce
| Genre: | Folk rock, album-oriented rock (AOR) |
| Years active: | 1964–1973 |
| Must-hear tracks: | “Time in a Bottle”, “Operator”, “I Got a Name”, “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” |
Jim Croce was a popular staple of 1970s soft rock radio stations, but he did have a backup band that supported him in the studio and on tour. If you’re under the age of 40, you’ve probably heard Jim Croce’s music—you just didn’t know it was Jim Croce.
And on that subject, have you ever had an experience where you’ve heard a song on the radio at least a hundred times and it doesn’t make any impression at all, and 20 years later, you hear it and you think, “Goddamn, this song is fuckin’ tight!” That happened to me with Jim Croce’s “Operator”, less than a year ago. And that led to a Jim Croce rabbit hole.
Betty Davis
| Genre: | Funk rock, R&B, soul |
| Years active: | 1964–1979, 2019 |
| Must-hear album: | They Say I’m Different (1974) |
It’s not every day that you stumble upon the third album from one of Miles Davis’ ex-wives, so when you do find yourself nose-to-nose with an artist like Betty Davis (Mabry), you are going to sit up and take notice.
Brace yourself, what you are about to hear is some of the raunchiest, grungiest, nastiest funk rock ever made. Too Live Crew and Lil Kim got nothing on Betty Davis. Check it, and I do mean check it all the way through.
Wire
| Genre: | Post-punk, art punk, punk rock |
| Years active: | 1976–1980, 1985–1992, 1999–present |
| Must-hear albums: | Pink Flag (1977) and 154 (1979) |
You probably didn’t buy Pink Flag when it came out in 1977. I didn’t.
However, there’s no question that a massive amount of popular rock music was influenced by this record, and it never gets the credit. Like Jim Croce, you’ve heard Wire, you just weren’t aware of it.
Their third album 154 (1979), is the one that really does it for me.
Starcastle
| Genre: | Progressive rock |
| Years active: | 1969–1987, 1997–2007, 2018–present |
| Must-hear tracks: | “Lady of the Lake” |
If Yes was from Champaign, Illinois.
Dead Boys
| Genre: | Punk rock |
| Years active: | 1975–1980, 1987, 2004–2005, 2017–present |
| Must-hear album: | Young, Loud and Snotty (1977) and We Have Come For Your Children (1978) |
Cleveland’s answer to the Sex Pistols only stuck around long enough for two highly influential albums. Stiv Bators went on to form the Lords of the New Church and, unfortunately, died in a motorcycle accident in 1990.
Pere Ubu
| Genre: | Avant-garage, art punk, post-punk, art rock, experimental rock, new wave, proto-punk |
| Years active: | 1975–1982, 1897–present |
| Must-hear album: | The Modern Dance (1978) |
What’s up with Cleveland pumping out the jams? Another unsung giant of experimental art punk, Pere Ubu’s debut album, The Modern Dance (1978) was a massive influence on some of our favorite bands from the Pixies and Guided by Voices, to Hüsker Dü and R.E.M. Their second album (Dub Housing (1978)) made the Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list.
Gentle Giant
| Genre: | Progressive rock |
| Years active: | 1970–1980 |
| Must-hear tracks: | … |
Many bands can be defined by a single track. You hear “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and you know everything you need to know about Nirvana. They were never any more or less than that song. “Highway to Hell” tells you everything to know about AC/DC.
On the other hand, in British art and progressive rock circles, Yes can’t be defined by “Roundabout” or “Seen All Good People” because they eventually segued into “Owner of a Lonely Heart”. The King Crimson of today is nothing like the King Crimson of In the Court of the Crimson King.
Gentle Giant is one of those bands that can’t be defined by a single song, and frankly, several albums won’t do the trick, either.
It’s never a good sign when somebody says that something is “an acquired taste” because you’re usually discussing a horrible proposition that you’re probably not going to like, until you learn how to like it. In terms of food, fried liver and onions are an acquired taste. Foie gras is an acquired taste. Hell, even raw oysters are an acquired taste.
Further compounding the elusive nature of any progressive-slash-art rock band, Gentle Giant had several lineup changes that upended their musical direction. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think anybody slept on their eponymous debut (1970), but the next four albums, leading up to In A Glass House (1973), have a couple of astonishing moments of prog rock genius.
Octopus (1972) was remixed by Steven Wilson in 2015, and it’s as good a place to start as any with this band.
You’ll hear familiarities of Yes, Pink Floyd, The Beach Boys, and the Mahvinishu Orchestra in the same song. Jethro Tull meets The Turtles at a Zappa concert, and they all seem to get along…kind of? Gentle Giant was too intentionally complicated and jaunty for the art rock crowd, and it’s not really a surprise that they remained a cult favorite.
The Slits
| Genre: | Post-punk, punk rock, dub, experimental rock |
| Years active: | 1976–1982, 2005–2010 |
| Must-hear tracks: | “Instant Hit” |
Fans of angular white funk punk who love Talking Heads and Gang of Four will lose their minds over Cut (1979). [Raises hand.]
20/20
| Genre: | Power pop |
| Years active: | 1977–1983, 1995–2005 |
| Must-hear cuts: | “Nuclear Boy”, “Yellow Pills”, “Out of My Head” |
These kids from Tulsa, OK, love some Cheap Trick, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen.
- Jim Croce ↩︎
Did any of these unsung rock bands from the 1970s resonate with you? Let me know in the comments.
2 Comments
You’ve piqued my interest in Sparks. I’m going to have to look for that documentary. I didn’t recognize any of the people on your list except for Croce.
Thank you for reading and leaving a comment, Carol! Much appreciated. I hope you enjoy Sparks. I think they’re fantastic.