Rock Albums That Flopped Before They Became Iconic

Numerous rock albums over the years have been deemed classics. Yet there have also been records that were ignored, even derided when they came out, only to be recognized as iconic years later. This is a glaring contrast to LPs like the Beatles' "Abbey Road," the Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers," Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours," and so many more. In those cases, they were all huge hits at the time of their release, beloved by critics and fans alike. 

Whether the overlooked albums were ahead of their time or simply fell through the cracks, these works run the gamut, spanning from gentle folk to proto-punk to country rock and more. We've got everything from Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" to the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" to punk classics from the Ramones and the Stooges. Regardless of genre, though, these albums all sold poorly upon initial release, only to be hailed as musical masterpieces many years — in some cases, decades — later. With that in mind, read on for a rundown of some rock albums that flopped before they became iconic.

Nearly 50 years after its 1967 release, the self-titled debut of the Velvet Underground and Nico boasts an array of now-classic songs and an instantly recognizable album cover (a yellow banana on a white background) designed by its producer, pop art superstar Andy Warhol. The music itself is raw, rough, and ragged, with songs, vocals, and distorted guitar provided by Lou Reed (although a few are sung by German chanteuse Nico, added to the band by Warhol but ditched for subsequent albums). Meanwhile, Reed's lyrics tackle a variety of taboo topics, including sadomasochism ("Venus in Furs"), heroin abuse ("Heroin," "I'm Waiting for the Man"), and seduction ("Femme Fatale"). 

While the album is now heralded as a game-changing classic that paved the way for punk, sales at the time were dismal. "I was talking to Lou Reed the other day and he said that the first Velvet Underground record sold 30,000 copies in the first five years," Brian Eno told Musician Magazine in a 1982 interview, emphasizing the LP's subsequent influence. "The sales have picked up in the past few years, but I mean, that record was such an important record for so many people. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!" That audacious debut blazed trails that future generations of rockers are still following. Proof that the Velvet Underground was way ahead of its time can be seen in the album's ranking at No. 23 in Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums of all time.

The Byrds charted a No. 1 hit with the group's 1965 cover of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," and the band is widely considered to be the progenitor of folk rock. Yet with its 1968 album "Sweetheart of the Rodeo," the act also played the same role by setting the template for country rock. At that point in the band's evolution, a major lineup change had ousted David Crosby while bringing aboard Gram Parsons. While Parsons only remained with the band for a few months, his passion for country music led to a seismic stylistic shift toward Nashville. Before Parsons' tragic and bizarre 1973 death, he further defined country rock with the Flying Burrito Brothers — yet didn't live long enough to see the genre catch fire with the massive success of the Eagles. 

As Adam Sweeting wrote in The Guardian, "While critics and fans were bewildered by its Grand Ole Opry-ish banjos and steel guitars, today's alt-country brigade recognize it as a pivotal album in the development of country rock." At the time, though, it was seen as a commercial disaster, shunned by both rock and country fans while becoming the Byrds' worst-selling album to date, stalling at a dismal No. 77. Today, though, its legacy is undeniable. "You've gotta remember, there was no Poco, no Eagles," former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell told Rock Cellar, recounting the huge influence the album would come to have. "That came later. And that came in large part because of 'Sweetheart of the Rodeo.'"

In 1974, obscure British singer-songwriter Nick Drake died of an accidental overdose at age 26, sadly joining the ranks of musicians who died before their music became popular. His third and final studio album, 1972's "Pink Moon," barely left a mark. Over the course of the next quarter-century, sales reached a mere 6,000 copies, leaving Drake a forgotten footnote in music history.

That all changed in 1999, when the album's title track — a moody, melancholy song comprising only Drake's voice, inventive acoustic guitar, and a spare piano overdub — was used in a Volkswagen commercial. Suddenly, people began wondering where this beautiful, haunting song had been all their lives, leading to an explosion of renewed interest in the song and, by extension, the LP. "It's been a huge boost," Joe Boyd, founder of the album's label, Hannibal Records, told the Los Angeles Times in 2001.

Since the rediscovery of Drake, the "Pink Moon" album has come to be seen as a folk classic. Along with the title track, the record also contains several songs of lyrical complexity and sonic delicacy, most notably "Place to Be" and "Things Behind the Sun." A triumph of musical minimalism, the album is a seminal folk masterpiece that eventually went platinum — and in 2026, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

When the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" hit record stores in May 1966, it was deemed to be a disappointment. The album peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard albums chart — far lower than any of the band's previous albums had. Although singles "Sloop John B" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice" both cracked the Top 10 of the Hot 100, the LP was seen as a steep decline in comparison to the group's previous success. The other members of the band worried that Brian Wilson's studio experimentation was alienating the fans that had embraced the likes of "Surfin' USA" and "California Girls." 

Part of the messed-up reality of the Beach Boys is that the band's label, Capitol Records, considered the album to be such a disaster that it quickly cobbled together a greatest hits compilation. "The Best of the Beach Boys," released just two months after "Pet Sounds," actually did achieve a slightly higher chart position, peaking at No. 9. Yet "Pet Sounds" is now revered as both the Beach Boys' magnum opus and one of the all-time most influential albums in rock history. In fact, Rolling Stone ranks "Pet Sounds" at No. 2 on its 500 best albums of all time, behind only Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On." It's also ahead of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," which was heavily influenced by "Pet Sounds. "Without 'Pet Sounds,' "Sgt. Pepper' would never have happened ... 'Pepper' was an attempt to equal 'Pet Sounds,'" Beatles' producer George Martin told Rolling Stone. Meanwhile, a classic "Pet Sounds" track just happens to be Paul McCartney's favorite song. 

Between 1964 and 1967, the Kinks racked up eight Top 40 singles, a string of hits including "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night." As the years passed, the band grew more adventurous, edging away from the riff-driven rockers on which the group had built its name. This evolution led to the 1968 release of "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society," a bold and inventive concept album about life in a small British town. 

For the band's fans, the album proved to be too far removed from its earlier sound, and it sold poorly. In fact, it didn't even chart in the U.S. — the only time, before or since, the act managed that ignominious feat. Matters were not helped when the album received zero promotion in America. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau complained that when he'd requested info on the new album from the label, he was sent a four-year-old bio of the band. 

Yet time has been kind to "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society." In 2009, Rolling Stone recognized it as one of its Top 500 albums. Then, in 2018, a deluxe 50th-anniversary edition was issued in recognition of the importance of the album in the band's canon. That release helped the album to finally crack the 100,000 mark in sales, earning gold record status in the U.K. a half-century after its release — better late than never, right?

Led by outrageous front man Iggy Pop, the Stooges' self-titled 1969 debut was a shambolic garage-rock masterpiece that laid the foundation for punk. The band's sophomore effort, however, expanded the territory significantly, a wildly experimental record that incorporates elements of jazz fusion into the proto-punk sound of the first album. That's particularly true in the cacophonous weirdness of "L.A. Blues" and the discordant saxophone that weaves through the title track, clocking in at nearly eight minutes, all punctuated with Pop's primal howling. Ultimately, "Fun House" feels less like a collection of songs than an abrasive assault on the eardrums. 

"Fun House" was a commercial flop that sold a measly 89,000 copies when it was first released. And, in an example of the messed-up truth about the 1970s music industry, it was no coincidence that the Stooges' label, Elektra Records, dropped the band shortly after the album's dead-on-arrival debut. The Stooges' third album, "Raw Power" didn't arrive until over three years later, on a different label, and was seen as a return to form that rocked harder and ditched the avant-garde elements that had defined "Fun House." However, as the years passed, the record took on the mantle of a cult classic, with The New York Times' Ben Sisario describing it as "one of my favorites and a pop music landmark in its own right." Meanwhile, the chaotic influence of "Fun House" can be heard in the music of such artists as Jack White, Sonic Youth, and Fugazi.

Alex Chilton first tasted fame at age 16, when his band, the Box Tops, hit No. 1 in 1967 with single "The Letter." In 1971, he formed a new band, Big Star, which released its debut album "#1 Record" the following year. A collection of catchy power pop, "#1 Record" had the misfortune of being distributed by the Stax label just as it was in the process of imploding, with distribution problems resulting in the album selling less than 10,000 copies. Big Star recorded two more albums before breaking up in 1974, success having eluded the band. Chilton eventually moved to New Orleans, washing dishes in a French Quarter restaurant during the 1980s after abandoning music for a few years. 

Yet as the years passed, the Box Tops' legend grew as "#1 Record" was discovered by future rock stars. Among the many bands to be influenced by Big Star are Counting Crows, Primal Scream, and the Replacements, with the latter even recording "Alex Chilton," a track written in tribute to the band's creative visionary. "Big Star served as a Rosetta Stone for a whole generation of musicians," R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck once said, via Classic Rock. That influence was also felt in Cheap Trick's cover of the "#1 Record" track "In the Street," which was used as the theme song for hit sitcom "That '70s Show." Sadly, the tragic story of Big Star came to an end in 2010 when Chilton died of a heart attack at age 59, just as he finally began reaping the financial rewards of being an unsung rock legend.

Formed in 1971, New York Dolls erupted in the New York City music scene, becoming a fixture at hot spot Max's Kansas City. Boasting an androgynous and trashy glam-rock look, hard-rock riffs, and powerful vocals of charismatic frontman David Johanssen, the band attracted some high-powered fans. "[David Bowie] would turn up at Dolls shows, like, you know, with a notebook!" rocker Jayne County recalled in a 2006 interview with Mojo, via Pitchfork. 

Eventually the band landed a record deal, resulting in the 1973 release of the Dolls' self-titled debut album. Recorded in eight days with producer Todd Rundgren, "New York Dolls" earned raves from critics. The Village Voice's Robert Christgau rated the album A-plus for melding "early-'60s popsong savvy with late-'60s fast-metal anarchy," while Rolling Stone's Tony Glover declared, "You can love them or hate them, but they're not gonna go away." Even though the album sold more than 100,000 copies, that was viewed as a disappointment given the critical acclaim and a relentless tsunami of next-big-thing hype. These days, "New York Dolls" is considered a true classic that has influenced generations of musicians. "Everyone from Joe Strummer, Gene Simmons to Bret Michaels all said they were influenced by the New York Dolls," rock photographer Bob Gruen told Rolling Stone in 2008.

When the debut from a New York quartet called the Ramones was released in 1976, the result was a gloriously raw punk classic that combined elements of British Invasion-era pop, garage rock, and surf music. The 14 tracks on the 29-minute album (which reportedly cost about $6,400 to record) are short and fast, three-chord songs about unusual topics, including a serial killer ("Chain Saw"), sniffing glue ("Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue"), and taking a baseball bat to an unruly child ("Beat on the Brat"). Reviews were largely positive. Rolling Stone described the band as "authentic American primitives whose work has to be heard to be understood," adding, "Let's hope these guys sell more records than Elton John has pennies." That decidedly did not come to pass — "Ramones" sold a miserable 6,000 copies upon its release.

Now considered a seminal and foundational punk album, "Ramones" was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2012. As Martin Popoff wrote, that wouldn't have happened "if it hadn't moved past critics' favorite status and into the iconic status it now enjoys." Meanwhile, it only took 38 years for "Ramones" to go gold with the RIAA, achieving that milestone when sales surpassed 500,000 in 2014. 

Years of commercial failure proved to be the real reason Lou Reed quit the Velvet Underground in 1970. Convinced that his music career was over, he took a job as a typist with his father's company for two years. And when he did return as a solo artist, his disjointed and disappointing self-titled album led Reed to become one of the music icons whose debut album flopped hard. Reed redeemed himself with his next offering, the David Bowie-produced smash "Transformer," yet his follow-up, "Berlin," divided critics and left fans cold. 

Produced by Bob Ezrin, "Berlin" is a bleak and depressing concept album about doomed couple Jim and Caroline, rife with images of drug addiction and spousal abuse. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau described the music as "only competent" and its themes as "horses***," while Rolling Stone's Steven Davis blasted the album as "a disaster" that he found "patently offensive." Reed was stung by the criticism. "Berlin was a big flop, and it made me very sad," Reed told author Victor Bockris in "Lou Reed: The Biography." "The way that album was overlooked was probably the biggest disappointment I ever faced." In retrospect, "Berlin" has come to be viewed as an artistic triumph that represents Reed's most defining work — even more so than the radio-friendly "Transformer." That was evident when Reed resurrected "Berlin" in 2006 to perform the album in its entirety as a stage musical, with artist Julian Schnabel filming it for a documentary.

In 1973, Bruce Springsteen was signed to Columbia Records by the legendary John Hammond Sr., who'd famously discovered Bob Dylan a decade earlier. That immediately sparked Columbia's hype machine as Springsteen began being routinely described as the next Dylan. Those sky-high expectations came crashing to the ground with the release of his debut album, 1973's "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J."

Despite Columbia putting the full force of its marketing efforts toward selling Springsteen as a superstar, the album sold a disappointing 25,000 copies. In fact, it spoke volumes that the album even stiffed in his hometown of Freehold, New Jersey. "I sold more Partridge Family albums than I did of Bruce that first day ['Greetings' was released]," Freehold record store owner Victor Wasylczenko told Peter Ames Carlin for his book, "Bruce."

The album is now considered a masterpiece. David Bowie was an early fan, even recording covers of two of the album's songs, "Growin' Up" and "It's Hard to be a Saint in the City." And while "Greetings" didn't deliver any hits for Springsteen, a few years later Manfred Mann's Earth Band hit No. 1 with a cover of "Blinded By the Light." Chockablock with Springsteen's street-poet wordplay and vividly painted imagery, Springsteen's debut remains an underrated classic highlighted by "Spirit in the Night," which has remained a staple of his concerts throughout the half-century since the album's release.

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