If I recall correctly, Spirit got the biggest label push of its career around the time of the band's second album, The Family That Plays Together. Fueled by the Top 30 success of the single, "I've Got A Line On You," the album was prominently featured on every album rack of nearly every store I frequented at the time (including old-line discount retailers like Grand-Way.) Unfortunately for Spirit, the roster at Columbia Records and its affiliate labels in 1968-69 was HUGE! With high-powered, high-profile acts like Simon & Garfunkel; Chicago; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Bob Dylan; etc, all demanding label attention, I think if you didn't have a hit single burning up the charts, you tended to fall off the CBS radar. As great and innovative as Spirit was musically, CBS never seemed to find a way to push them over the top to that mega-stardom-success level that other label acts achieved. To their credit, CBS did stick by the band and retained Spirit on the company's own Epic label through the "Feedback" album (after the original Ode distribution deal ended in late 1970.) Without question, Spirit is one of my favorite '60s bands and there is no denying they should have been more successful.
I think people who weren't around in the 60's and 70's have a hard time understanding how competitive and evolutionary pop music became, how music marketing was at that time. Throw in the dynamics of keeping a band together amidst a lack of money and you can see why the era unfolded as it did. These were the adolescent years of pop music - it was growing too fast to keep it’s attention focused on anything but a few key artists. There was a 'leading edge' of 'current' sound. Just one year could make a difference as to whether your sound was 'dated', whether you would get billed for a show, or recorded, or given airplay. There were only so many radio stations and so much time in a given month/year. Crowd this finite amount of time with the exponentially increasing sophistication of pop music, the numbers of artists and albums coming out, and its easy to see why a lot of great artists got shunted to the B and C tiers. It didn't necessarily have to do with talent. If you decided to have a rockabilly revival band in 1969 you were a goner. There would be no one stepping up with money to market you or your sound. If you decided to do this within the last twenty years or so - you could make a solid paying career out of it. As for Spirit - I remember them getting decent radio airplay around the turn of the 70's. The song Mr. Skin off of Dr. Sardonicus was a 'top 40' type radio hit in 1972. So it’s not like they were unknown. They, like a lot of other great bands then, just didn't get the same exposure as the biggies.
From: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/why-wasnt-the-group-spirit-a-bigger-success.187989/
