IMO, it would be hitting #1 (or nearby) many, many times and maybe in various genres - types of music, singles, albums, soundtracks etc.
BB - Maybe not number one specificity, but yeah, I would think some measure of sustained chart success is necessary (but not sufficient).
Maybe this is like the prestige debate - does legendary mean “among the general public, they have to at least know who you are” or does it mean “among musicians/those in the know musically.” Of course, someone can be both.
Has anyone mentioned Joe Cocker?
Cliff Richard is a legend in the UK but was a one-hit wonder in the US.
“So why do they have no single that ever hit above 14 in the US”
I was talking about their albums debuting at no. 1.
I really don’t care one way or another what anyone else listens to. I was just trying to defend myself against insults upthread.
I’m getting on a plane in a little bit, and I’ve downloaded a few of the artists from JHS’s list that I wasn’t previously familiar with. Part of what I like about music threads is learning about new music – especially music that people think have the potential to be the legends of the next generation. So, thanks, JHS!
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7350129/monkees-rivers-cuomo-she-makes-me-laugh-single
Well, here you go. I found this when I had clicked on your article about Arcade Fire. New music, 50 years old!! 
Enjoy your trip!
Ok…not on the rock list. But I think Julie Andrews is a true legend in vocal music.
I absolutely love Bruno Mars. But I’m not sure he will be a legend.
- Ummm, Phil Ramone, the producer, is not in any way related to The Ramones, the seminal punk band.
- Something that interests me: After I was 12 or so, I paid hardly any attention at all to the music my parents had listened to as teenagers and young adults (all of which was pre-Elvis, pre-rock). Later on, I developed something of an academic interest, and some nostalgia for the stuff I heard when I and they were younger, so I went back and listened to some of it, but it was hardly at the core of my taste, and only Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Tom Lehrer (his first mention on this thread, an incredible oversight) really stuck as artists I listen to regularly.
My children, on the other hand, have only the vaguest sense of a generational divide. My daughter’s hippest music friend went through a period in college when she wouldn’t listen to anything released during her lifetime. (i.e., 1986 or later). They can (and do) debate intelligently the relative merits of Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blood on the Tracks. They know Blue, Born To Run, London Calling, and Graceland by heart. They know the Gershwin songbook, and Tom Lehrer’s complete works, by heart, too. More than a quarter century of weddings and bar mitzvahs has given them complete familiarity with dance music of the 60s-80s. Not that they live in the past. My son’s taste runs to EDM – he is nuts about the bass drop in Jamie xx’s Gosh; my daughter likes quirky indie women, alt-country (still), and Beyonce.
Anyway, the point is that their idea of who is legendary isn’t far from ours. The work that artists produced 20-30 years before they were born is completely present to them.
Just like with Youtube and TV. I Love Lucy and someone who just started posting 10-minute DIY skits are right next to each other in their lives.
- For all the discussion of Prince recently, no one has mentioned the one -- out of a grand total of two, maybe, as far as I am concerned -- artist who is most clearly his musical progeny: Andre (3000) Benjamin, formerly (I think) of Outkast. (The other one I would propose is Janelle Monae.) Anyway, a decade ago Benjamin's genius was unquestioned, and now he's nearly irrelevant. Although he was superb playing Jimi Hendrix (and playing guitar) n the recent biopic All Is By My Side.
- Which leads to the question: What un-makes a legend most? Cher is another one, and Bette Midler, and Phil Collins. INXS. Sublime. Tammy Wynette. Herb Alpert. Rick James. Does anyone care about them any more? Why not?
When I think of a legend, I think of an artist who spans generations. I think Paul McCartney does this.
Any artist where my kids appropriated MY music would be under consideration.
“What un-makes a legend most? Cher is another one, and Bette Midler, and Phil Collins. INXS. Sublime. Tammy Wynette. Herb Alpert. Rick James. Does anyone care about them any more? Why not?”
This is interesting. Does the definition of a legend have to be someone who is still going strong right up until the very end? Can someone be a legend who will be acknowledged upon their death, but also not relevant? Frankly would we have said that about Prince - was he really relevant in January 2016?
Herb Alpert? Herb Alpert of A and M Records? Herb Alpert of http://www.herbalpertfoundation.org/foundation_home.shtml ?? Herb freaking Alpert who gave 44 million to UCLA School of Music and another 24 million to Cal Arts? His legend is hardly "unmade’ and yes I care greatly about him and even love his music. He is keeping the legend alive by funding new legends thru music education…
Besides, he used to frequent the restaurant I worked at as a grad student at UCLA. Quite the tipper and sweet as pie. :)>-
IIRC, Herb Alpert wrote “A Taste of Honey” which the Beatles then recorded, and the Beatles wrote “Fool on the Hill” which Herb Alpert then recorded as the trumpeter with Sergio Mendes. FWIW, I like the Beatles’ version of ATOH and the Sergio Mendes version of FOTH the best - meaning the non-originals of each!
Hunt made an earlier point that he hated to say this, but what about Linda Ronstadt - who at an earlier point in her career was headed in legendary direction, but seemed to have fallen off and not yet rediscovered. I would suggest Helen Reddy and Anne Murray fit in that category at one point - they loomed large for a while but then faded.
In the women-singer-songwriter category, Carole King and Carly Simon have stood that test of time.
Emmylou Harris is one whose “legend” seems to have grown over time, IMO.
And Herb was making videos way before there was such a thing:
Re: Arcade Fire
They have had singles chart on the Alternative and Rock charts, but only one has made it to the Billboard Hot 100, and that song made it to #99.
Now - if they sell out huge stadiums for the next 20 years and sell twenty million more records, they may make it to legend status. They’d be kind of like Phish – no mainstream top-10 singles, but plenty of a following.
We’re certainly giving them plenty of publicity here.
FWIW, I checked their singles stats on Wikipedia. They list the chart success in multiple countries and in multiple charts in the US. By mainstream I mean the Billboard Hot 100. The top 40 of those comprise the weekly Top 40 radio countdowns. In the Wikipedia table, the Hot 100 heading is abbreviated simply “US”.
Phish is another where I haven’t a clue what songs they have or even what they sound like. Add Frank Zappa to that list too. People accord then legendary status but they don’t have chart success.
Most people would agree that Tom Waits is a legend and he has no chart-toppers either. Not the criteria I look to.
Re tge Grateful Dead: I don’t really like them either but I heard something pretty incredible today: The National’s cover of the Grateful Dead song Morning Dew. To all The National fans out there, enjoy!
Herb Alpert at the Hollywood Bowl is one of the quintessential LA experiences. I think he plays a couple of dates there almost every summer. I’ve seen him a few times there and it is so much fun.
@nottelling --No kidding–Herb Alpert at the bowl IS LA. Did Lani sing with Herb? Those two are the music love story of the century. I adore them.
The Dead are another group – not a bunch of hits, but a very loyal and large following.
I just found out a song I remember from the 80s, Touch of Grey, was actually their biggest (peak position) hit – #9.
So – yes, for alternative groups, and metal, you can be legendary without a bunch of big hit songs in mainstream radio. That makes sense to me.