Dixie Chicks
TLC (Found out about this one from the VH1 TLC movie)
Beatles
Spinal Tap (okay, the drummers died)
Metallica booted Dave Mustaine shortly before completion of “Kill Em’ All” and long before they made it big.
Def Leppard fired Pete Willis during the recording of “Pyromania”.
Duran Duran booted out Steven Duffy and replaced him with Simon Le Bon.
Deep Purple took off when the original singer was replaced with Ian Gillan. ( also, Roger Glover was not the original bass player. )
Fleetwood Mac took a while before they got to their mega-popular lineup in the '70s, but I don’t know if anyone was specifically booted.
The Beatles changed drummers.
Rush’s original drummer, John Rutsey, was fired shortly before their first American tour.
Creative differences? Its hard to say if there was a firing because they are all just damn polite when talking about it. There were problems with him delivering the music he was supposed to. But he also had health issues including diabetes that hindered him from being in a touring band. Geddy Lee was the original bass player either.
Nirvana went through a series of drummers before settling on Dave Grohl.
The Who’s original drummer was Harry Wilson. He was replaced by Doug Sandom, who was in turn replaced by Keith Moon.
The Rolling Stones’ original drummer was Tony Chapman, who was replaced by Charlie Watts.
The pattern appears to be drummers are the guys who get replaced.
Dave Mason left and rejoined Traffic several times. I don’t know if this counts here.
Yes, Pete Best is the Trope Namer.
The Youngbloods – with an asterisk. Their big hit, “Get Together,” came out after original member Jerry Corbitt had left. However, it had been recorded two years before, so Corbitt performed on it.
Renaissance changed all their personnel between their first album and their first hit.
Pink Floyd became big after Syd Barrett was kicked out.
An interesting choice. Mason was with them when they recorded “Paper Sun,” their first hit, and their first album, Mr. Fantasy, but left soon after it was recorded. His name was left off the US version of Mr. Fantasy and three of his songs were cut out. However, he was back for their second album and stayed with the group until Steve Winwood broke it up, so he did play on their first four records. When the group was reformed, it was without Mason, but he returned for the Welcome to the Canteen tour.
The Goo Goo Dolls booted their original drummer.
They had already hit it big by then.
Blood Sweat and Tears booted founding member Al Kooper and hired David Clayton Thomas.
Well, Ian Stewart may qualify- he was an original member of the Rolling Stones. But while he continued to perform with them regularly, he was removed as an official member of the band by manager Andrew Loog Oldham before they hit it big… ostensibly because he didn’t look mean or tough enough to fit the image Oldham was trying to sell.
Glen Matlock was kicked out of the Sex Pistols and replaced by Sid Vicious before they hit it big (Matlock has played with the band in more recent reunions).
People rarely remember this, but the original lead guitarist of the Yardbirds was… no, not Jeff Beck. No, not even Eric Clapton. Their first lead guitarist was Anthony “Top” Topham. He left the band before they achieved any success.
And the original lead guitarist of Roxy Music was Davy O’List (who had earlier been in the Nice with Keith Emerson). He left the band before they made any records.
I’m not sure WHEN King Crimson started using the name King Crimson, so I this may not be accurate. But the band started out as a trio called Giles, Giles and Fripp- it consisted of bassist Peter Giles, drummer Mike Giles, and guitarist Robert Fripp. Later, Ian McDonald joined the trio. Eventually Peter Giles was ousted and replaced by Greg Lake. So… MAYBE Peter Giles was the original bassist of King Crimson. If so, he was booted before they became successful.
They were originally TALC, but they decided that they wanted to project a harder image.