Mott the Hoople – Mott (1973):  Named after a 1966 novel by Willard Manus called Mott the Hoople, Mott the Hoople was a British hard rock band that hung around a long time without ever really breaking into the big time.  Four albums in and with minimal sales to show for it, David Bowie offered to produce their next album and gave them one of his songs as well, eventually settling on “All the Young Dudes”, a #3 U.K. hit that also made the Top 40 in the U.S.  “All the Young Dudes” became an anthem for the glam rock era and is still heard regularly on rock radio stations.  The associated album All the Young Dudes (1972) became a hit in both the U.K. and the U.S.  In the same time period, David Bowie was also working with Iggy and the Stooges, a top American proto–punk-rock band that was in the process of breaking up following years of slow album sales.  Under his aegis, Iggy and the Stooges released their third album, Raw Power (1973); and David Bowie also collaborated with Iggy Pop on his first two solo albums, both released in 1977, The Idiot and Lust for Life.  Mott is Mott the Hoople’s sixth album and the follow-up to All the Young Dudes, with many rock critics ranking Mott ahead of that album.  Mott is a concept album about a struggling rock band searching for success.  Despite the underlying elements of despair and failure, Mott is an upbeat album.  The songs include “Ballad of Mott the Hoople”, a wistful perspective on their band that serves as a commentary on how demoralizing being in a rock band can be.  As might be expected, the next studio album by Mott the Hoople was called The Hoople (1974).