The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown (GB)

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Also known as: Crazy World of Arther Brown, The Amazing World of Arthur Brown, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, The Crazy World of Artur Brown

Few bands have pulled off a debut quite like The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Their 1968 single "Fire" shifted over a million copies, hit number one in the UK and Canada, and only missed the top spot in the US because The Beatles' "Hey Jude" was in the way. The opening line, "I am the God of Hellfire", stuck around as a nickname for frontman Arthur Brown for decades. Brown's stage act was something else entirely: four octaves of operatic voice, extreme face paint, costume changes, and a literal burning metal helmet. That last element once went badly wrong at the Windsor Festival when methanol poured over his head mid set, and two bystanders had to douse the flames with beer. The band shared stages with Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, and The Mothers of Invention at their late 60s peak. Their influence quietly ran very deep, with Alice Cooper, Kiss, Marilyn Manson, Peter Gabriel, and David Bowie all taking notes from Brown's theatrical approach. The second album, Strangelands, was shelved by their label in 1969 for lacking commercial appeal, and did not surface until 1988. When the original lineup broke up in 1970, Carl Palmer went on to Atomic Rooster and then Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Brown has kept a version of the band alive, releasing new material as recently as 2019.