Blondie, 1977. (Image via Wikimedia Commons; used under Creative Commons)
A musician's career path can be pretty mercurial: bands sometimes drastically shift in style between albums, artists often leave bands to adopt an unexpected new sound or launch solo careers, occasionally in a different medium altogether.
Every so often, those changes result in huge breaks in their careers, often leaving the former projects behind in relative obscurity to their newfound fanbase. Just because they didn't make them famous, though, doesn't mean those initial endeavors aren't notable. For these five famous artists, their lesser-known first gigs were, in fact, pretty damn awesome.
1. RuPaul's New Wave-punk beginnings
Before becoming the Supermodel of the World, RuPaul was serving New Wave realness as the lead singer of a band called Wee Wee Pole. They'd already played in New York City, but the group's Atlanta debut, from the pre-show jitters to mid-show costume change, was documented as part of a cable access TV program, The American Music Show.
Ten years later, RuPaul delivered his first solo work. While he's very much famous as the creator and host of RuPaul's Drag Race, his music career continues to thrive. RuPaul's most recent album, Butch Queen, released in March, was his tenth to date, and a handful of its tracks have already hit the single digits on the Billboard dance charts.
2. Sista, Missy Elliott's first musical family
In the early '90s, now-famous hip-hop artist and producer Missy Elliot was a member of the R&B group Sista, helmed by Devante Swing of Jodeci. The group only released one album, 1994's 4 All the Sistas Around Da World, produced by Devante and Timbaland. One track, "Feel of Your Lips," included a cameo from Mary J. Blige and K-Ci Hailey of Jodeci, too. They dropped only one video: "Brand New," in which, of course, Missy Elliot is featured.
It wasn't long after the group dissolved that she teamed up with Timbaland to pen hits for Aaliyah; form her own label, Goldmind, a subsidiary of Elektra; then ultimately establish herself as a solo performer. Her first record, 1997's Supa Dupa Fly, went platinum and earned her the title of hip-hop artist of the year from Rolling Stone. From 2002 onward, she's been collecting Grammys and other prestigious awards. Career highlights in the past couple years include the Super Bowl halftime show, judging on The Voice, and recording a collaborative track with First Lady Michelle Obama and a slew of other women artists. Plus, duh, that amazing still-fresh jam featuring Pharrell Williams.
3. Mike D. of the Beastie Boys' hardcore punk past
Mike Diamond, aka Mike D., was only 15 years old when he formed the punk band Young Aborigines in 1978 with guitarist John Berry, bassist Jeremy Shatan, and percussionist Kate Schellenbach (who went on to form Luscious Jackson). Shatan was eventually replaced by Adam Yauch (MCA) who took the lead on a few songs, then Berry was replaced by Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock). That's when they switched to a new moniker and ventured on as a trio, The Beastie Boys. Hip-hop became their dedicated genre, obviously, but punk remained an underlying influence until their final eighth studio album, 2011's Hot Sauce Committee Part 2.
4. Before fun., there was the Format
A decade before dominating the mainstream with “We Are Young” in 2012, fun. frontman Nate Ruess was already churning out pop-minded rock tunes as the Format, albeit to a smaller audience than that of fun. Formed in 2001 with his grade-school bud Sam Means, Ruess' first band delivered scores of should-be hits that never quite caught on, despite deals with Elektra and Atlantic Records, performances on Last Call with Carson Daly, and extensive tours. They amassed plenty of fans, of course, before disbanding in 2008, but the Format's reach to date still doesn't compare to the pervasiveness of that one song. A recent Facebook post on their official page, however, hinted at a possible reunion – so there's still some chance they'll one day get their due.
5. Debbie Harry's '60s folk roots
It's not uncommon to hear Debbie Harry referred to simply as Blondie, despite that actually being the name of the entire famed New Wave band, which she formed with Chris Stein in 1974 and has included a cast of members throughout its lengthy trajectory. We get it, though – she's obviously the group's most prominent figurehead. But in the late '60s, no such misnomer could have been fathomed: Back then, Harry was a back-up singer, not a frontwoman, for a short-lived folk group called the Wind in the Willows. She ventured into punk when she joined the Stilettos a few years later, then Stein signed up. The pair left pretty quickly and enlisted an ex-Stilettos member, the late Billy O'Connor, and Fred Smith, who later went on to replace Richard Hell in Television, to form the Angel and the Snake – and within two months, they renamed the outfit Blondie.
Jhoni Jackson is an Atlanta-bred music journalist currently based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she juggles owning a venue called Club 77, freelance writing and, of course, going to the beach as often as possible.
