Kinks!

Me,  2 years ago:

Whats lost in the usual Beatles vs. Stones argument is the fact that The Kinks were a better band than the Stones anyway, so at what point can we start doing a Beatles vs. Kinks thing?

The Kinks didn't reach the Beatles/Stones heights in the USA during the British Invasion, and the reason wasn't that their music didn't stack up, but they were blacklisted:

The upshot was the Federation blacklisted them–although they never gave a specific reason as to why–and the Kinks could not return to the States for over four years. Years later, Davies mused, “In many respects, that ridiculous ban took away the best years of the Kinks’ career when the original band was performing at its peak.”

Viva lá Kinks!