# Any Successful Super Groups (Music)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2006, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291 "2006-09-11T14:44:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/21 "2006-09-12T04:40:31Z")
Fleetwood Mac was arguably a supergroup, combining members of the moderately successful Buckingham-Nicks and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. There was a one-off country music band, Outlaws (not to be confused with the country rockers “The Outlaws”) comprised of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Tompall Glaser and Jessie Colter. My guess is that their album sold on par with any of Waylon and Willie’s individual efforts, and accounts for most of the listeners of Glaser and Colter. Folk music has had at least two relatively successful supergroups: HARP and Four Bitchin’ Babes! ---
**Author:** ![2lazy2pee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/4bbf92/32.png) [@2lazy2pee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2lazy2pee)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/22 "2006-09-12T06:18:32Z")
Does anyone recall the Million-Dollar Quartet? It was an impromptu jam session at the Sun Records Studios between Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, on December 4, 1956. Although they came together by chance, not design, and didn’t release any finished tracks, you might call them the first super group. In 1986, the three surviving members of the MDQ, Cash, Perkins, and Lewis were joined in the studio by Roy Orbison, another Sun alumnus, and recorded [The Class Of '55](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_of_%2755), which was partly in tribute to Presley, and partly a commemoration of the original MDQ get-together in '56. ---
**Author:** ![Foldup\_Rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df788c/32.png) [@Foldup\_Rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foldup_Rabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/23 "2006-09-12T07:28:43Z")
[QUOTE=Autumn Almanac] The New Pornographers have had more success than Destroyer, Zumpano, or Neko Case’s solo career had on their own. [/QUOTE] Not to mention Fancey, Immaculate Machine or AC Newman. If there’s one habit those folks all share, it’s prolific songwriting. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/24 "2006-09-12T11:22:39Z")
[QUOTE=Shadowfyre] I thought **Velvet Revolver** (Most of what used to be **Guns N Roses** and the lead singer of **Stone Temple Pilots** ) was really good. I haven’t kept up with them for too much so I’m not sure if they broke up. Their album did pretty well, though. [/QUOTE] According to Wikipedia, Velvet Revolver had a #1 album in both the US and Canada, and their song Slither was #1 on two charts (US modern and US mainstream), with "Fall to Pieces"reaching #2 and #1 on them, respectively. I’d say that’s highly successful. Their website says they are currently working on new songs for their next album. I expect it will also be quite good, or at least, sell well from the anticipation! > **[Velvet Revolver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolver)** > > Velvet Revolver was an American hard rock supergroup consisting of Guns N' Roses members Slash (lead guitar), Duff McKagan (bass, backing vocals) and Matt Sorum (drums, backing vocals), alongside Dave Kushner (rhythm guitar) formerly of punk band Wasted Youth, and Scott Weiland (lead vocalist) formerly of Stone Temple Pilots. The band formed in 2002 and was active until 2008, when Weiland was fired from the band and subsequently rejoined Stone Temple Pilots. In 2004, the band achieved commerci... ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/25 "2006-09-12T12:54:35Z")
**ABBA** has to be THE most successful supergroup. Formed from members of The Hep Stars and The Hootenanny Singers, both of whole were big in Europe, plus two young women who had successful solo careers at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/26 "2006-09-12T13:55:30Z")
[QUOTE=Krokodil] Fleetwood Mac was arguably a supergroup, combining members of the moderately successful Buckingham-Nicks and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. [/QUOTE] Not really. Fleetwood Mac was a semi-popular group for quite awhile before Nicks and Buckingham joined. Very few people ever listened to the Buckingham Nicks LP until after _Rumours_ was released, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/27 "2006-09-12T14:05:02Z")
While they hide behind animated alter-egos, the singing voices of the Gorrilaz are pretty well-known on their own rights. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/28 "2006-09-12T14:48:23Z")
[QUOTE=blondebear] I get what you mean, but King Crimson could actually be considered “Robert Fripp’s Supergroup”,couldn’t it? I think it’s debatable that Bad Co. has “done better” than Crimso, though. Over their respective careers, I wonder how their record and ticket sales stack up against each other. [/QUOTE] Well, “done better” cannot be determined objectively. Bad Company had four albums and one single in the Billboard Top five; King Crimson has had none (highest chart position: 28; all of Bad Company’s first six albums did better than that). King Crimson put out many more albums, though, so it’s hard to tell who sold the most. And it’s clear that Bad Company did better than Free or Mott the Hoople; both groups had minor hits and successful albums, none were up to Bad Company. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/29 "2006-09-12T23:23:41Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] Well, “done better” cannot be determined objectively. Bad Company had four albums and one single in the Billboard Top five; King Crimson has had none (highest chart position: 28; all of Bad Company’s first six albums did better than that). King Crimson put out many more albums, though, so it’s hard to tell who sold the most. [/QUOTE] [fanboy]And **Crimson** is still putting out the occasional new album… [/fanboy] I’m probably one of the three or four most overt **King Crimson** fans on this board (Hi, Biffy!), and even I don’t consider them a supergroup. IMHO, a supergroup is comprised of people who had notably successful runs in prior groups first. That isn’t even remotely true of the original 1969 King Crimson lineup. However, it could be argued that they became a supergroup in their 1974-vintage lineup, since Bill Bruford of **Yes** and John Wetton of **Family** joined the group then. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/30 "2006-09-12T23:32:46Z")
[QUOTE=Menocchio] While they hide behind animated alter-egos, the singing voices of the Gorrilaz are pretty well-known on their own rights. [/QUOTE] Damon Albarn is the only permanent Gorillaz member, though. The others rotate in and out. It’s not a supergroup, so much as a Damon Albarn side-project that his peers get in on. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/31 "2006-09-13T00:13:14Z")
My own personal favorite supergroup is the [Lost Dogs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Dogs), which was formed in 1991 when the lead singers/songwriters/guitarists from four great Christian Alternative Rock bands (Terry Taylor of Daniel Amos, Mike Roe of The 77s, Derri Daugherty of The Choir, and Gene Eugene of Adam Again) got together to record an album’s worth of songs (of various styles: blues, folk, rock, country, gospel) that didn’t really fit their regular bands’ styles. The group started as a one-off side project but somehow kept going, and to this day they have released 9 studio albums and still tour (though without Gene Eugene, who died in 1999). During the group’s existence it got more commercial success and attention than its members’ original bands (which continued to exist and release new material, at least on an off-and-on basis), though not as much as it deserves. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/32 "2006-09-13T04:00:59Z")
Oh.My.Gosh. Someone knows the Lost Dogs. You Rule. I saw Terry and Mike in a cafe in Orange County a couple years ago. They made sure to make fun of “Fairy Derry”, just because he wasn’t there. I finally got to tell Mike that I’d liked his work since “Ping Pong Over the Abyss.” ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291/33 "2006-09-13T12:08:58Z")
Temple of the Dog was a pretty impressive group with members from Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-successful-super-groups-music/372291.md?page=1)