........to break through commercially in the US in the 70's. 

1. Focus

2. PFM

3. Kansas

4. Rush

All four charted in the US (yes even PFM believe it or not).

Some people might say Nektar(who also charted but they were English so I don't really count them). Some might say Triumvirat but I don't think they had any real chart success in the US. Also, Eloy didn't break through in America and neither did Banco. Tangerine Dream might have but they were more electronic and probably not really considered progressive rock at the time. Also, I don't really count Styx since they were closer to art rock/pomp rock or even arena rock.

I would be curious to know if there any from the 80's or 90's(or even later)but I doubt it.

I know Styx had prog or proggy tracks back then but I had a hard time justifying their inclusion so I figured I would leave them off. 

I see that Ambrosia's first album charted so there's at least one already that I missed. However, that could be more art rockish also imo. 

Bo Hansson 

From wikipedia: " It was also moderately successful in America, where it reached number 154 on the  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_200" rel="nofollow - Billboard Top LPs & Tapes  chart. ^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Inspired_by_Lord_of_the_Rings_%28Bo_Hansson_album%29#cite_note-7" rel="nofollow - [7]}  ." 

Imo, Journey are on the bubble like Styx. Styx are crossover prog on here but Journey are only prog related. The early Journey albums were very proggish at least. A bit jazz rockish also.

Unfortunately not everyone agrees with that. I remember telling my brother I thought Chicago were prog and he has seen them in concert and told me that nothing he heard sounded like prog. Maybe they cut the prog stuff from their set I don't know. Someone on here got on my case because I didn't make a distinction between prog and progressive rock. A band like Chicago is a good case for his point though. They were progressive rock but I have a hard time thinking of them as prog. Ultimately I will pass since I don't consider Chicago to be a prog band. They are kind of the same as Journey in that they started in that direction but ultimately became something different. 

Anyway, according to wikipedia only the first two and the seventh one are progressive rock and even those have other categories as well. They are crossover on here though.

A case could be made for Zappa but Santana, Mahavishnu, RTF, Weather Report, etc are all jazz rock/fusion imo. May as well mention Steely Dan.  Yes, they are all on here but I think this site has a defintion of prog that goes way beyond what could normally be considered prog by most.

I think that was me haha. Thanks for giving my point some credit. Though I think your view on it is valid as well.

As for Chicago, I would take a listen to get a better sense of them, particularly the first five albums (well, the fourth is a triple live album, but it's between III and V, so they consider it four I guess). These ones have the most amount of prog moments. And yes, I mean Prog, with multi-track suites, extended fusion solos, and some modernist classical compositional techniques, almost Zappa-esque (particularly II and III). VI is ok, shows where they were going, which was more commercial territory; the first disc of VII is very fusion-oriented, while the second disc is more like VI. After that, they kind of lost the prog until maybe their comeback with XX. If we could ascribe multiple genres here on PA, I'd say Chicago's first five albums live right in the sweet spot between Crossover and Fusion.

They were incredibly popular in the States and elsewhere, and if you can include Kansas, who are also mostly beloved on this site for their first five albums, I could see Chicago on that list. However, they certainly are not as influential in the prog realm as the four you have listed, so I could understand not including them. Especially if you're being strict on the fusion exclusion (that's a catchy phrase, "fusion exclusion" heh).

https://www.kayakonline.info/biography" rel="nofollow - https://www.kayakonline.info/biography

I don't think any of their albums charted in the US though and that song is rather disco sounding. May as well suggest ABBA. :P  Actually I wish I could include them since I like Kayak quite a bit.

Hi,

Ohhhh ... so now Wiki is the boss in ideas and comments!

They are often just as reliable as this site. 

Anyway, it turns out Chicago are jazz rock/fusion on here so if I include them I also have to include all the other jazz rock/fusion bands including the ones that were mentioned already. 

Fireballet (first album "Night On Bald Mountain" produced by Ian McDonald).  The first album had limited but respectable success earning them a lot of air play in the Ney City area.  Their second album ('Two, too...') tanked. (possibly because of the hideous cover).  They eventually changed it.

I was just about to mention Supertramp and add them to the list until I realized they are from the UK. Doh! 

The Dixie Dregs are worth mentioning but they are more jazz rock/fusion plus not sure they charted anyway. 

I thought of the band Zebra but although they had one song I personally consider to be a prog classic("who's behind the door")over all they were more hard rock and I don't even think they are on this site as prog related. Nonetheless they somehow managed to headline one year at Rosfest and they were great. So they are imo at least worth mentioning(since they did chart) even though they don't quite hit the mark in the prog department.

I did find another one that does fit the bill though and that is the band Art in America. They are on here as symphonic prog although maybe crossover might be more accurate imo. Their debut made it to number 176.

Two more bands who charted:

TD may not have been included under the prog rock label (yet) but they were quite popular in the record stores.  

They are maybe worth mentioning but if we mention them we also have to mention the Grateful Dead and then also the Doors and then things will just snowball from there. Of course Spirit would have to be mentioned too and it just gets to be one big proto psycho-delic rabbit hole.  So anyway, JA are on here as proto prog but JS aren't on here at all I don't think. Maybe prog related would be appropriate but they didn't even pop up for that in a search. 

I didn't know Glass Harp had any charting albums. So far I haven't seen anything saying they did. I've heard of them for sure especially since Phil Keaggy has made a name for himself in christian music circles and even collaborated with some prog guys(including Neal Morse but also Tony Levin & Jerry Marotta(both of whom played with Peter Gabriel).

To answer your question no Jefferson Starship would not make my list. However, you can add them to your list if you want but based on my knowledge of the genre I would not consider them prog over all. I understand they had some progressive material but so did Led Zeppelin and the Who and neither of them are typically considered prog either. 

Focus was one of the original four bands I mentioned on the first post of the first page. 

Well for US bands I can't think of many others. Starcastle is worth mentioning but I don't see any evidence they charted despite the fact that there albums sold pretty well at the time and they opened for a lot of bands. Also, Happy the Man are considered to be one of the best american prog bands of all time but I don't think they charted either. They were initially supposed to be Peter Gabriel's backing band but that fell through. Nonetheless it led to them being ona  major label and that helped but outside of the DC/Virginia area I don't think they became very well known(except in prog circles). Crack the Sky were similar in that they had local success in a few states and while I don't know if they charted in the 70's a couple of their later albums made it to the far end of the billboard charts which is why I included them. Someone mentioned Saga. It looks like they charted in the 80's in the US but not earlier. I'm not sure about Klaatu(also Canadian)but I don't think they charted. I do know they at least achieved some notoriety for fooling some people(inadvertently probably)into thinking they were really the Beatles. That kind of publicity while totally false probably did at least make some people wonder who they were. FM were an important Canadian band also but I don't think they charted either. Max Webster while not fully prog did achieve some pretty big success in Canada but I think they had very little if any real success in the US. 

Edit: Klaatu are prog related on here so they don't count. This is started to feel like a ping pong game. 

Psychedelic Paul wrote: There was only one Dutch prog band who were the Focus of attention in England in the 1970's, although I've since discovered many other great Dutch bands since I first visited ProgArchives back in 2010.

I just listened to MOVING WAVES (Focus II) the other day for the first time in years. Still one of the best prog albums to emerge from the Dutch world.

Awesoreno wrote: Would hesitate to call Steely Dan a fusion group. Same as Chicago. The Dan are like jazz-inflected art rock/pop. Suppose I'm splitting hairs here anyway hehe.

Agree

In my mind there's a difference between pure fusion and jazz rock. At one point the two terms were more or less synonymous(kind of like prog and art rock)but then later came to be known as two separate although related entities. Chicago were originally doing what was called horn rock(same thing with BS&T) but I think jazz rock applies. Scroll down to the jazz rock section here(about mid way through the page).   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_fusion#Jazz_rock" rel="nofollow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_fusion#Jazz_rock  They don't mention Steely Dan but I think they qualify also. I wouldn't necessarily put either of them in the same grouping as Mahavishnu Orchestra or Return to Forever either. 

Kraftwerk?

(OK, I see, you're not counting electronic...)

The first 4 Kayak albums (up to Encore in 1976) are excellent and then they went a bit AORish before returning to prog in 1983 for the well received Merlin album. Promptly they then split up before returning in 1999 and have been going ever since. The last album Seventeen was a very respectable effort. I recently purchased the live double album which is very good indeed and covers their history well. 

They were already mentioned. See first video on page 2.

Another one worth mentioning even though they were an 80's band is Planet P Project.  

http://www.musicvf.com/Starcastle.art" rel="nofollow - https://www.musicvf.com/Starcastle.art

How about Kraftwerk and "Autobahn"? According to Wikipedia "The radio edit of the title track became a surprise international hit, reaching number 11 in the UK, number 12 in both Canada and the Netherlands, number 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and number 30 in the Australian chart".

I kind of feel like if I add Kraftwerk to the list then I would have to add Tangerine Dream as well ( since a few of their albums showed up in the upper end of the charts). Also, I consider Kraftwerk more electronic (like TD)or electro pop(if there is such a thing) and not really prog but that's my own personal interpretation.

I'm aware that TMV had pretty big success(especially for a modern band who are often considered prog). My main focus here is the 70's stuff since that's when prog had the best chance of being "big." I know of some people who don't consider TMV to be prog. They see them more of a fringe band along the lines of Muse or C&C or maybe Tool. However, thanks for mentioning them. Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson also had albums in the pop charts(not quite as high as TMV but still pretty good). 

I looked them up and they didn't seem to have any albums that charted in the US but I could be wrong. They are nonetheless worth mentioning(I actually did mention them earlier). 

I like German and italian prog, so:

1. Birth Control

2. Amon Duul (II)

3. Jane

4. Banco del Mutuo Soccorso

5. Socrates Drank The Conium, let me mention a group from my country, too.

Thanks!  The link (above) indicated a position of 101 in the USA, not sure what that meant.  They were probably a mostly Chicago phenom, as they arose from the downstate college town of Champaign, Illinois.  

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