# Most influential band of the British Invasion



## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

10 Choices here for the most influential band from the British Invasion


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## Guitar-n00b (Jul 17, 2010)

I may be primitive but I just don't see how it can't be The Beatles.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

the 2 most influential that i can think of aren't on the list


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

I don't understand how this isn't unanimous Beatles. Certainly the Stones (and The Kinks and The Who and The Yardbirds, probably in reverse order) were influential, but by far not MOST influential.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

cheezyridr said:


> the 2 most influential that i can think of aren't on the list
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

cheezyridr said:


> the 2 most influential that i can think of aren't on the list


Haha...the Second wave of the Brit invasions 

I think the Beatles are a shoe-in, but for me personally I was most influenced by The Who, tho I'm sure I'm in the minority (most would prob pick Beatles first, Stones 2nd).


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Sorry... but 

[YOUTUBE]HQ8AcEYTEFY[/YOUTUBE]


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## Accept2 (Jan 1, 2006)

Im picking the Animals. The Beatles were the definitive influence on popular music, but the Animals left an impression on other, less mainstream, branches of rock...........


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

*HELL YEAH man..*



cheezyridr said:


> the 2 most influential that i can think of aren't on the list


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## bobb (Jan 4, 2007)

Tough call...If there were no Beatles, there probably would have been no British Invasion. The bands that followed on the Beatles coattails would have probably languished in the local bar scene then faded away. The resurgence of American blues would probably not have happened, which leads to another question, what would all those fat old guys with ponytails be doing today if they never started playing the blues?


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

cheezyridr said:


> the 2 most influential that i can think of aren't on the list


Glad the days of those skin tight leather pants are over

[video=youtube;VTok_CKPOCs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTok_CKPOCs[/video]



[video=youtube;wRpWnK6Rg3E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRpWnK6Rg3E[/video]


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

So Led Zeppelin is not considered an influential band? Nor Black Sabbath?


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Chito said:


> So Led Zeppelin is not considered an influential band? Nor Black Sabbath?


I don't know for sure what the 'accepted definition' is, but in my mind those are both post-invasion. I'd call 1963(or4) to 1967 the time in question, ending somewheres around Monterey Pop.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

keto said:


> I don't know for sure what the 'accepted definition' is, but in my mind those are both post-invasion. I'd call 1963(or4) to 1967 the time in question, ending somewheres around Monterey Pop.


Thanks. That makes sense now. I've never known nor thought of the exact timeline of the so-called British invasion. I just figured any band from the UK is part of it. 

Oh and for me, the Beatles is probably the most influential specially in terms of what we term as popular music.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Overall, I'd have to go with the Beatles as the most influential, and they were an early influence for me, even though they were broken up before I ever really got into them.
I remember seeing their cartoon as a kid, and that was my first exposure to their music.

but on a personal level, in terms of what I play and listen to etc, the most influential was the Yardbirds--but I take the question to be overall, not personally.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

I assume you stuck Herman's Hermits in there just to fill out the ten spots and/or you have a really riotous sense of humour Scott.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Robert1950 said:


> I assume you stuck Herman's Hermits in there just to fill out the ten spots and/or you have a really riotous sense of humour Scott.


Actually, they were on one of the lists I checked to form the poll. I was thinking it was a stretch, but put them on there.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

I picked the Who, even though I don't really dig them as a band all that much.

The reason I did so was because of their influence on music and how music is played. The Who were instrumental in terms of how a rock show should sound and their definition was LOUD. The use of stacks is generally credited to the Entwistle and Townsend and they were directly responsible for Marshall developing the first Superlead 100w amps. So yeah, they pretty much created the sound of rock music as well as it's visual aesthetic. I'd say that's a better legacy than Hey Jude.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

What counts as first-wave British Invasion is a judgment call. Certainly Def Leppard and Judas Priest can be counted as perhaps 5th or 6th wave. Many would consider the Who as 2nd wave.

1st wave obviously includes the Beatles and Stones, Animals, DC5, Hermits, but also Peter and Gordon, Chad and Jeremy, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, Freddy and the Dreamers, the Honeycombs.

Some might even consider *them* to be 2nd wave, preceded by things between 1961-63, like Joe Meek's assorted ventures, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Screaming Lord Sutch, Frank Ifield, and even Long John Baldry.

"Tougher" sounding bands like the Kinks, the Pretty Things, the Who, and Them, are more properly considered as the 2nd wave, along with jazzier acts like Georgie Fame (assuming the Beatles, et al are the 1st). Pink Floyd starts to fall into a 3rd wave, along with the Nice, the Small Faces, etc.

Given the scope of their influence, with respect to:

a) the manner in which they directed attention from North America towards England, and made "things English" of interest to North America and Europe,

b) their influence on songwriting and instrumentation,

c) their impact, with George Martin, on production,

d) their continuing impact on songwriting, and especially vocal harmony.

I think it is hard to consider any group/artist other than the Beatles. You don't have to like them for any of that to be true.


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## bobb (Jan 4, 2007)

And if it wasn't for Lonnie Donegan influencing all those young British kids to pick up guitars, there would have probably never been a British Invasion.


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## bobb (Jan 4, 2007)

mhammer said:


> Some might even consider *them* to be 2nd wave, preceded by things between 1961-63, like Joe Meek's assorted ventures, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, Screaming Lord Sutch, Frank Ifield, and even Long John Baldry.


Not really, those acts were influences on the Brits at the time, but none of them made much more than a ripple in North America. I Remember You by Frank Ifield(1962) was probably the only big hit at the time by any of those artists. Even though Cliff Richard is one of the biggest artists of all time in the UK, he was only slightly known in Canada and almost totally unknown in the US back in those days. Apache might be known as a big hit for the Shadows but once again that version was pretty much unknown in North America. The hit version of that song was by Jørgen Ingmann. Long John Baldry didn't have a North American hit until 1971.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

:bow: Absolutely cogent and fair points. It's not an "invasion" unless they leave where they are and go somewhere _else_, right?

According to legend, the harmonica intro to "Love Me Do" came about because of the popularity/sales of "I Remember You" (which started with a very similar harmonica line). Someone in the studio at Parlophone, or wherever insisted that the harmonica opening be inserted, so John played it.

Two films which sort of capture the entire era in British pop from about 1962-68 are "That'll Be the Day", and "Stardust", both featuring singer David Essex, as well as a bunch of British well-knowns like Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Adam Faith (whose song "It's Alright" is one of the singularly greatest British singles of the mid-1960's, and the sort of thing I'm surprised the Ramones never covered YouTube - It's Alright - Adam Faith and The Roulettes ), Dave Edmunds, and undoubtedly many others whose names I don't recognize.

Actually, "That'll Be the Day" and "Backbeat", the film about the Beatles' time in Hamburg, would make a nice double bill for a lazy Saturday afternoon.


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## snacker (Jun 26, 2008)

mine in sequential order

beatles
the jam & sex pistols
the smiths & the cure
radiohead & travis
elbow


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

The British Invasion ends with the beginning of th Pyschedelic era IMO. So, a band like Zep wouldn't count.


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