The J. Geils Band would count but The Steve Miller Band would not. I could go either way on Santana.
Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow definitely counts. Blackmore’s Night partially counts, since Ritchie Blackmore is not the singer but Candice Night is.
I assume we mean to exclude bands that don’t normally use a singer at all? Because there are plenty of those in jazz, and in the somewhat smaller genres of instrumental R&B or instrumental rock: The Glenn Miller Orchestra, the James Last Orchestra, Bert Kaempfert & his Orchestra, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass the Arthur Lyman Group, Booker T. and the M.G.'s, and so on.
Fleetwood Mac.
Van Halen.
Manfred Mann (keyboards) was the first band that came to my mind.
Not quite in this category, but similar, is Chichi Peralta, a Dominican percussionist who had a big hit across Latin America circa 1999 called “Procura,” Many assume he is the singer, but he is not.
Santana
Spencer Davis Group
Jeff Beck Group
The Alan Parsons Project
Kool and the Gang
As I understand it, Jefferson Airplane/Starship was based on a nickname of a band member.
Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods.
The Dave Clark Five
Mike & The Mechanics
Was (Not Was)
Bronski Beat
Paul Revere and the Raiders
(my first LP… I was surprised that Paul was the ordinary-looking guy in the back).
The blues band Little Charlie and the Nighthawks. Little Charle Baty was just playing guitar in the background. The flashy lead singer’s name was Rick Estrin.
The Thompson Twins
Thompson Twins are not named after ANY of the members.
Ted Nugent
According to wiki, Was (Not Was) was named after the way one of the member’s kids talked.
(That’s a lot of was)
Admittedly, I only know 2 Ted Nugent songs but the Motor City Mad Man sings both of them.
Sure, but the Was part of the construction is also the (stage) name of the two musicians who were neither the lead singer, at least of their biggest hits.
Not sure if the band name came first, like The Ramones, or if they adopted the stage names first.
According to Wikipedia:
Despite possessing a distinctive, wide-ranging singing voice, Nugent recorded and toured with other lead singers during much of his early solo career, including Derek St. Holmes, Charlie Huhn, Brian Howe and Meat Loaf, only taking on full lead vocal duties later on.[4] His biggest hit was 1977’s “Cat Scratch Fever”, on which he sang the lead vocals.