Todd in the Shadow's dedicated subreddit! Watch Todd's One Hit Wonderland, where he takes a look at the full careers of bands and artists known for only one song, or watch Todd's Pop Song Reviews, where he takes one current smash hit song and take it apart, break it down line by line, see what parts work and what doesn't, and analyze where it fits within both current trends and the artists' body of work.
After a rough first half of the 80s (including his forgotten flop movie One-Trick Pony, which had the good fortune of coming out the same year as more notorious pop-star film debacles Can't Stop the Music, Xanadu and The Jazz Singer), Paul Simon made a triumphant comeback with Graceland, which sold millions, won Grammys, and exposed South African music to the world. After maintaining momentum with the double-platinum, Brazilian-influenced The Rhythm of the Saints, he decided to write a Broadway musical about a real-life Puerto Rican teenager who, while a member of a gang called The Vampires, killed two boys in Hells Kitchen in 1959, then became a poet while in prison. He would also record an accompanying album of his versions of songs from the show.
The production was very costly, the show went through three directors before opening, and Paul alienated the musical theatre community with derogatory comments in interviews.
The album came out first, and it bombed, peaking at a then career low of #42. The show came out a couple months later and got negative reviews, closing after 68 shows and losing millions. Simon bounced back a little with 2000s Grammy nominated You're the One, but he was now reduced to pretty much a legacy act who mostly got attention when he did reunion tours with Art Garfunkel.
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This would be interesting - Todd has discussed a few failed films on Trainwreckords, but hasn't yet discussed a failed stage musical...
Many 80s soft rock stars have created Broadway musicals with varying results, but The Capeman is one of the most unusual flops in that subgenre...
This would be a good pick because for two reasons.
Most people's exposure to Paul Simon's solo career begins and ends with "Graceland".
Simon's reputation as one of the biggest assholes in popular music deserves to be better known.
That’s a good one. I remember reading it cost him millions of his own money. I think he only did the Old Friends tour with Garfunkel because he needed the money.
Wait in the Wings hasn’t done a video on it yet, so it’s fair game.
It would make a cool crossover.
I’d love to see a video on it, but I don’t agree with your assessment that he was reduced to only being a legacy artist, although his career was probably diminished for a time. So Beautiful or So What and Stranger to Stranger were both top 5 albums in the 2000s/2010s and he was exploring new ideas on them.
Most artists from that era eventually age out of major chart success because of changes in pop music, but I don’t think there’s necessarily always an accompanying trainwreckord
So Beautiful or So What was also a huge critical success. I think it topped the Pazz and Jop critics’ list for that year.
Yeah, So Beautiful or So What is great, it’s probably my second or third favorite album of his
Honestly, that album has some really good songs. But the whole production was a mess.
There's an interesting trend of artists who attempt a dual film/album concept which usually fails.
Examples: Mariah Carey's Glitter, Garth Brooks' Chris Gaines/The Lamb, Kiss' Music from the Elder, Prince's Under a Cherry Moon, plus OP's mentions.
Prince might one of the elite few who had a film/album combo which was a major success (Purple Rain) and a major flop (Cherry Moon).
You could add Sia’s “Music”
Yep. I heard that one went real bad