Status Quo Status Quo in the 2000s
 By 1967, the group discovered psychedelia and changed their name to Traffic (later Traffic Jam, to avoid confusion with Steve Winwood's Traffic). At this time the line-up also included organist Roy Lynes. They released another single 'Almost But Not Quite There' which was also a flop. Early in 1968, the band became The Status Quo and released the very successful Top 10 single Pictures of Matchstick Men. Rick Parfitt was invited to join the band just as this hit the charts. The single charted as high as Number 7. Unfortunately, the band followed it up with another flop, Black Veils Of Melancholy, then they hit again with Ice in The Sun, which was almost as successful as Matchstick Men, climbing to Number 8. Pictures of Matchstick Men remains the only Top 40 hit single the group has ever charted in the United States. Though the group's albums have been released in the United States throughout their career, they have never achieved the same level of success and fame there that they have enjoyed in their home country.
After their second album Spare Parts failed to impact commercially, the band decided to change musical direction, abandoning pop psychedelia and Carnaby Street fashions in favour of a hard rock sound, worn-out denims and T-shirts, which was to become their trademark throughout the 1970s. Lynes, apparently unhappy with the reduced emphasis on keyboards in the group’s heavier sound[citation needed], left in 1971, to be replaced (in the studio) by guests including keyboard studio player, Jimmy Horowitz and John Parker. By 1976, ex-The Herd and Judas Jump member Andy Bown was drafted in to cover keyboards, though as he was contracted as a solo artist with EMI, he was not credited as a full-time member until 1982.
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