For every David Bowie or Diana Ross who catapulted into superstardom, there’ve been countless others who crashed just as spectacularly. Which isn’t to say they never had the potential to make it big. In fact, as the new book Lost Rockers makes clear, many of these would-be megastars looked and sounded the part.

But for for whatever reason, their efforts to achieve fame and glory fell flat. In some cases, they were robbed of their hit song and left with more dash than cash, as they say, or not even much dash. So let’s give a tip of the hat to those who never made it but looked great trying. You never know — an upcoming documentary (trailer below), on which the book is based, may finally give one of these almost-famous another chance.

Betty Davis

Rik Fox

Cherry Vanilla

Cherry Vanilla

Chris Robison

Chris Robison

Pat Briggs

Brett Smiley