I'm guessing Styx got in by the skin of their fingernails? Toto (Hydra/ Turn Back) have a feint shout here, as do Journey (first 3), early Reo & early Chicago... but I know we're pushing it a bit.

Utopia would have been in with a shout, but its really all based on the strength of one album, so...

2. Styx

3. Steely Dan 

4. Utopia

Frank Zappa - Over-nite Sensation

Well, it's actually The Mothers album, but I reckon it's okay to include it here.

I'm obviously for Zappa, but he will likely win the poll so I vote for my second choice: Kansas

I'd include Zappa's Over-nite Sensation and the first two of Utopia's and Happy the Man's albums.

It's between these three:

Steely Dan

Zappa

Beefheart

All known to be quite difficult, unpleasant people - and musical dictators. I think both the first and the last option are closer to my heart than the guy in the middle. I think I'll go for Beefheart.

I can't think of any Zappa release that was Prog. Now, 'Prog' sort of fits. It's Avant-Garde, Experimental. In many ways what Zappa did was beyond Prog. 

As other significant works, also:

Yezda Urfa - Boris

Cathedral - Glass Stories

Kansas

Styx

            Known mainly for their one hit DOA-there is much more to them than that....

Captain Beefheart

There was also a rather short lived band called Fireballet that was quite good. 

Another short lived one was Babylon. Definitely worth checking out. 
 

Grumpyprogfan wrote: ^Ok so, name me the 70's Tull albums that are prog, besides Thick... Tull was more of a folk rock band. Is Bungle in the Jungle,Locomotive Breath, Too Old to Rock and Roll prog songs? For ELP, they were more classical influenced rock with the Lake penned guitar "hit". If Zappa isn't prog then...

I don't get it. Doesn't ELP's classically influenced rock qualify as Prog to you? That's what most people not into Prog think Prog is all about really (if they have an opinion at all that is). ELP y influenced a myriad of Progbands all over Europe with pretty much that exact approach.

I think of A Passion Play, Minstrel in the Gallery, Aqualung... as 1970's Folky Prog albums (as there's a lot of folk in a lot of Prog) and the way I see it; Songs From the Wood and Heavy Horses are Prog Folk albums.

Btw: Zappa is more than Prog enough for me (moreso than Zappa himself would care for), but I'm among the more - or even most inclusive in my Prog definition. And I include Jazz Fusion as "Progressive Rock" sort of. But many don't think that way.

Besides Over-nite Sensation, it may very well be that I'd find it okay to label a couple of other Zappa's '70s albums as Progressive Rock - besides other labels.

I've given Yezda Urfa's Boris a new listen, and that's surely some serious Prog stuff, one can get impressed by, which already coverart indicates.

Thank you for mentioning the vastly underrated Starcastle. Their first two albums are masterpieces, the third album is "really good", and the fourth album is In the Hot Seat/Calling All Stations awful. There was also a "reunion" album that had very little input from original members. Rhythm section Gary Strater (bass) and Stephen Tassler (drums) should be mentioned with the All-Time Greats!

I forgot all about Babylon. That was a great album too! I have the CD somewhere around here. I'm familiar with Fireballet, but will have to give them another listen. Thanks for the suggestions!

I agree. Boris is a great album. Their follow-up album Sacred Baboon is good too (recorded 1976, but not released until 1989). I wish they had had more opportunities to record more music. They certainly were a talented group.

It looks so, but to me, this poll may also look like something of a contest between serious business and the more poppy stuff. 

After some more listening to Yezda Urfa's Boris, it seems a bit derivative to me, and it doesn't really work for me.

I've also began with new listening to Happy the Man's debut album, and it looks to me as definitely high quality stuff, so at this point of time, I can find it as underrated - it may also look quite promising in relation to my tastes. 

Good for you, but I'm not sure, our tastes are quite the same. 

I reckon that Steely Dan is the least progressive of the included artists.

But if to make it short, I'd say that the US '70s Progressive Rock is peanuts when comparing to the British. USA went in other directions, even quantitatively not so little influenced by Progressive Rock in the late '70s (AOR).

It's of course something else when talking about progressive music.

Actually, I find it interesting why the US '70s Progressive Rock wasn't of a larger dimension than it was the case, considering how popular the genre was in USA.

I'm not saying that the genre was very popular in USA, I just seem to see a discrepancy between the degree of popularity and the dimensions of the American Progressive Rock scene, and wonder how come. 

Has it something to do with the traditions of the American music?

For Genesis, I think that depends on what you define as a stadium. They were gradually moving up to larger venues in the United States as the 1970s progressed. Regionally they were quite popular in Philadelphia and Cleveland. Back in 1974, they played at the Philadelphia Civic Center which has a 12,000-seat capacity. They regularly appeared at The Spectrum where the capacity was near 20,000. They appeared at Madison Square Garden in 1977; again capacity around 20,000. If you define stadium as an outdoor venue designed to hold football and baseball games, their first appearance in the U.S. appears to be at the Oakland Coliseum on April 14, 1978. 

You'll also find that ELP were also appearing at similar sized venues in the U.S. in the 10,000- to 20,000-seat capacity. Of course, there is Olympic Stadium in Montréal back in 1977 in neighboring Canada.

I do agree that King Crimson wasn't particularly popular in the States in the 1970s. Their concerts were generally at smaller theater-style venues. 

You can find a lot of this information about past concerts recorded here:  https://www.concertarchives.org/" rel="nofollow - https://www.concertarchives.org/

I find it difficult to argue that Genesis and ELP were not popular in the States in the 1970s. The Billboard album charts seem to show otherwise. ELP had 8 albums in the Top 40. Genesis had 3, plus 2 that fell just short of it. One can argue about the finer points of how accurate Billboard charts were, but if you make the top 40 of their main album chart, you're selling a good amount of albums and people at the time were interested enough to buy them. 

I also kind of doubt that Pink Floyd was "somewhat popular" as you state above. Their album sales in the 1970s in the U.S. say otherwise. Granted their music wasn't played on Top 40 radio stations (with the exception of an edited version of Money), but there were other radio stations (at least in the major cities) that did.

Having said all this, if you're defining popular a little more narrowly, like say the Bee Gees, Eagles, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, etc., etc., then yes. Other than Pink Floyd, prog bands were a notch below these in popularity. Nonetheless, I think at the time, if you could fill 20,000-seat arenas and have your albums reach the Billboard Top 40 from time to time, you were doing quite well and hence were popular. That really doesn't happen as much these days for prog bands, and that's a shame.

On that note McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra reached no. 15 (top 5. in Canada) in the Billboard chart with Birds of Fire. It has sold over 500,000 units (Gold) in the US alone. It's actually 37th in the year-end chart for 1973 (and above BoF you'll find albums by Moody Blues, Rick Wakeman and Focus).

mostly Pop-Rock  

-So ELP headlined along with Deep Purple and Black Sabbath in front of an audience of 200 000 people. I don't think that would have happened if they weren't popular.

Grumpyprogfan wrote: ^Neither prog nor fusion was "popular" in The States in the 70's. Genesis filled stadiums only when they changed to a more radio friendly format. King Crimson and ELP, weren't popular. Of the big six of prog only Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull were somewhat popular. Rush was an exception, but were more successful in the 80's.

After some more listenings to Happy the Man's debut, I've ordered it, even I'm not quite sure that I can become very fond of it.

I think that this album is some of the highest quality American Progressive Rock from the '70s.

Happy the man got the original record in like entirely new condition, and it's going to be interesting to see my perception of it after a couple of years of regular listening - but I surely like the coverart. 

Interesting listen to the Happy the Man's debut, as it seems to me being somehow different from the European '70s Prog, I'm familiar with, and definitely adding something new to my collection. Also, there's a cool 3D effect in the artwork of the right upper corner of the front cover, as the image of the butterfly looks like being on a round piece of cardboard glued on the cover. The whole round image has beautiful, warm, romantic colours, and the whole of it contrasts much with the mostly coldness and modernity of the rest of the front cover - I surely like that front coverart much.