13 regional bands who had a breakaway hit
1. Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels - Devil With A Blue Dress. These Michigan stalwarts broke through nationally with that song and still kept touring and cranking out hard hitting song after song. Ryder later formed Detroit and did one of the best Velvets covers ever, their version of Rock N Roll.
2. Chas & Dave - Snooker Loopy!! Dudes were a local cockney pub duo til they broke the charts with 'Rabbit' and then in 1986 reached number 6 on the UK pop charts with 'Snooker Loop'. They went from sitting around a piano in a London pub to touring the world and playing Glastonbury among other places.
3. Chas & Dave - Ain't No Pleasing You - Cockney Duo who reached #2 in 1982
@HughPhug
4. Head East - Never Been Any Reason. I don't think the band had much success beyond that song, but its still a staple of classic rock radio today. (There was a time when I dated the guitar player's niece so, you know, there's that)
5. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes - I Don't Want To Go Home. A staple of the Jersey shore bar scene, often collaborating with Steve Van Zandt, who wrote this song. Their third record Hearts of Stone is the best Bruce / E Street album not recorded by them.
6. Rick Santers - Time After Time
7. James Brown And The Famous Flames - Night Train (A funky staple here on the "Chitlin'" circuit.)
8. Spin Doctors - Two Princes
9. Blur - There's No Other Way - Local band from where I lived in the late 80's early 90's, used to watch them at the Essex Uni long before they blew. I think this was their breakout hit
10. Bob Seger - Night Moves. His first national hit. Prior to that he was only popular in the midwest.
11. Prodigy - Charly - another band local to me (Braintree), started out as a PA system on the rave scene, used to go see them at The Barn and local raves and nightclubs, then they dropped Charly and it reached number 3 or something. A true drug taking classic that normal people adopted because of the cute samples used from a TV infomercial at the time.
12, Ugly Kid Joe - Santa Barbara/ Isla Vista party band started as a spoof on Pretty Boy Floyd. Had a big hit with Everything About You and Later Cats in the Cradle.
13. Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hell. Local band in Chapel Hill had an odd hit with a calypso number.