10 More Bands Who Had Huge Potential (But Wasted It)

The Cranberries. Bananarama. Blind Melon. There is a rich history of fruit-based musical acts, but one that often gets overlooked is the '70s pop rock band Raspberries.

Drawing influence from the British invasion bands that had dominated the previous decades, Raspberries quickly found favour with a younger audience, who saw them as a throwback to the teenybopper age. They put out four albums in five years, a couple of which were chart successes, but decided to call it a day in 1975 after interest in them petered out.

However, their legacy would continue in a number of surprising ways.

There was more to Raspberries than songs about holding hands and drinking milkshakes. Their melodies were far more intricate than anything their contemporaries were producing, with some scholars linking their work to the birth of power pop some years later.

Courtney Love is a big fan of these guys. Who saw that coming?

As with so many other visionary artists, Raspberries were ahead of their time. Whilst that’s a great thing to be in hindsight, it was probably of little comfort to them in the moment.