listening to jerry riopelle made me think of this, acts that are big in their specific areas of the country but never made the big time.

jerry riopelle - phoenix - i heard him there in '75, but he never did make it nationwide, as far as i know.

michael stanley - cleveland - he still hold the attendance record at blossom music center (a rather large shed) and did have a minor MTV hit with 'he can't love you' (which, ironically,stanley didn't even sing, kevin raleigh did) stanley has released over 20+ albums.

venice - los angeles - from what i understand they are huge in L.A. but basically unheard in the rest of the country, even though they have about 10 albums, and sing some of the best harmonies i've ever heard.

Love to some extent. They were huge in LA but Arthur Lee never wanted to tour with the original group. They would later have a following - especially in England, post original group / Forever Changes...........but they should've been considered one of the best groups of the 60s.

Michael Stanley was the first thing that popped into my head. There were some acts in the past from the New England area that might not have had as big of a following as Stanley, but were fairly big in their own right.

The Stompers
The Atlantics
New England
Rubber Rodeo

Again, "huge" is a relative term, but these acts had a loyal following for a while, particularly the Stompers who still perform.

For me it's Zebra. They are rock stars here on LI and down in New Orleans but the rest of the country hardly knows them.

IMO Michael Stanley & Rubber Rodeo "made it", but only to mid level sales.

In Seattle:

Chinook (60's)
PK Dwyer, Annie Rose, The Jitters & a varying cast of characters (late 70's & 80's)
Jim Basnight (80's)
Randall-Rosberg (90's)

The Good Rats (Long Island)
The Hassles (Long Island) *although Billy Joel made it big on his own
The Shirts (New York)
The Remains (Boston)
The Pop (Los Angeles)
20/20 (Los Angeles)
The Heaters (Los Angeles)

There were probably more new wave era acts who could sell out any venue in LA but couldn't get arrested elsewhere.

Also -- but not music -- The Uncle Floyd Show from New Jersey.

Speaking of the Heaters, The Heats (originally also called the Heaters) were pretty big in Seattle.

Good one Linda, The Good Rats were a great local bar band that has two nice radio hits around here "Tasty" and "Taking It To Detroit",

The Neighborhoods were not GIGANTIC but they had an incredibly loyal following in Boston. Some of the best live shows I ever saw were performed by this band. That energy was never captured on their few records.

New England had a nice sound and I've enjoyed their s/t album.

Does NRBQ qualify?

before that Al Anderson had the Wildweeds - big in New England - not elsewhere.

Has there ever been a worthy compilation for The Pop? Kind of a hard name to search for.

There has never been a legitimate CD release of any kind for The Pop.

I didn't think so, since I don't own one.

Maybe a cassette somewhere out there.

Jon Butcher (Axis)

Black Happy were huge in the PNW in the early-to-mid '90s.

Jimmy's Chicken Shack, over here in MD.

Tuff Darts

How about a band that is huge down under but never made it stateside...Daddy Cool...is there a better rock n roll song than Eagle Rock?

The Cold:
New Orleans' resident New Wave band in the 80's. More famous now as Vance Degeneres' (Ellen Degeneres' brother, The Daily Show, etc.) band. Lead singer is Barbara Menendez who sometimes appears on Ellen.

Weren't the Radiators kind of a legendary New Orleans band as well?