Bands with three or more members who let everyone sing lead on at least one song

Cafe Society
1

The Beatles obviously

The Police have Stewart and Andy sing lead on 1-2 songs each.

The Who (Roger, Pete T., John E., Keith lineup) Barely.

Split Enz let everyone sing a song on the second side of their last album.

I’m sure there are a lot more I cant think of.

2

Queen:

  • Freddie Mercury, of course, sang lead most of the time
  • Guitarist Brian May sang lead on “'39,” “Good Company,” “All Dead, All Dead,” “Sail Away Sweet Sister,” and others
  • Drummer Roger Taylor sang lead on “I’m In Love With My Car,” “Drowse,” “Tenement Funster,” “Rock It (Prime Jive),” and others

Bassist John Deacon didn’t have a strong singing voice; he rarely even sang backup, and I don’t think he ever had a lead singing role.

3

All of the Beach Boys had leads. Pretty sure all the members of The Band did, too. And The Monkeys.

4

Did Ace Freely ever sing lead in a KISS song? All the others did in the original line-up.

5

The original members of Blue Oyster Cult each sang lead on at least one song (but not all of them played cowbell :wink:)

6

His Wikipedia entry indicates that he wasn’t confident in his singing voice at first, but then sang lead for the first time on the 1977 KISS song “Shock Me,” which he wrote (and may well have sung on other songs before leaving the band).

7

Um, The Monkees, perhaps?

8

The 1975- incarnation of Fleetwood Mac. Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham.

Teenage Fanclub: three songwriters, three lead singers.

The Jayhawks: all current and former band members sang lead.

The Clash: Joe Strummer, Mick Jones and sometimes Paul Simonon.

Even the Stones count: Mick, Keith and Bill (one time).

And Cream: all of them sang lead at least once, though Ginger Baker badly.

The Eagles: Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon, too, I think. Maybe even some more guys from their changing outfits.

Buffalo Springfield: also all of them, I think.

The Byrds: McGuinn, Clark, Crosby and Hillman, also Clarence White and Skip Battin in later incarnations.

9

The Grateful Dead. “Let Phil Sing” was a yell to get them to play Box of Rain

10

Glenn Frey and Don Henley were the primary lead vocalists for the Eagles, but Randy Meisner, Bernie Leadon, Don Felder, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit all also sang lead at least once on the band’s original run of albums.

Edit: mostly ninja’d by @EinsteinsHund because I was slow in composing this. :wink:

11

The Bangles

ETA: On Everything, listed as lead vocalist:

Susanna Hoffs: 4 songs
Michael Steele: 3 songs
Vicki Peterson: 4 songs
Debbi Peterson: 2 songs

12

Another one I forgot: Velvet Underground. Lou Reed, Nico, Moe Tucker and Doug Yule.

13

I was listening to Chicago when I read this thread so this one is easy.
Peter Cetera, Robert Lamm, Terry Kath. Maybe others.

14

Chicago let everyone in the band sing lead vocals? I somehow doubt that. They seem too big for that to be likely.

15

Another that comes to mind: The Moody Blues. Looking at their best-known lineup from the late '60s and '70s, Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Ray Thomas, and Mike Pinder all had turns as lead vocalist, and Graeme Edge contributed spoken-word vocals on a number of songs.

16

My mistake… I misread the subject.

17

I have to admit that at first, I misread the OP and thought that bands with at least three lead singers count, not only bands where everybody sang. So some of my examples don’t count, sorry.

ETA: I see I’m not alone.

18

I did, too, at least on my response mentioning Queen.

19

Wings
In an attempt to pretend Wings was a real band and not just Paul’s backing band, all 5 members took at least one lead vocal on the Wings at the Speed of Sound album.
Paul: 6
Linda: 1 + co-lead on 2 others
Denny Laine: 2
Jimmy McCulloch: 1
Joe English: 1

20

It could have been The Monkeys.