Sometimes an audience just needs time to catch up with an artist. Sometimes that process takes 6 years.

The Waterboys formed in London in the early 1980s under the guiding hand of songwriter Mike Scott, newly arrived from Scotland and ready to rock. The band’s first two albums garnered the kind of critical acclaim which seemed likely to set them up for commercial success with their third record, 1985’s This Is The Sea. And indeed, the album had a better showing, but still moderately so, and it yielded a moderate hit, with “The Whole Of The Moon” just poking into the Top 30 in the UK. Not bad, but certainly not enough to make The Waterboys a household name.

In 1988, after spending their early career making epic, sweeping, Springsteen meets The Beatles rock music, the band’s next album, Fisherman’s Blues, took a hard turn into Celtic folk rock. It proved to be a surprise hit, and brought the band all kinds of new attention. In order to take advantage of this attention, and to help introduce newcomers to The Waterboys’ catalog, the band’s label released a Best Of collection in 1991. They preceded this album with a re-release of “The Whole Of The Moon.” And this time, the world was ready.

Okay, not so much the world, but the single rose to #3 on the UK charts and became the band’s signature song (one which began life as a few lines on the back of an envelope when Scott’s girlfriend asked him how difficult it was to write a song.) Without any over the top 80s-style production techniques, “The Whole Of The Moon” sounded relatively contemporary. Unfortunately the band didn’t stay together (keyboardist Karl Wallinger left to form World Party back in 1986), but Mike Scott has kept the name alive in the 21st century.

So picture a rainbow … with The Waterboys.