King Crimson had five different singers:
Greg Lake (1969-70)
Gordon Haskell (1970)
Boz Burrell (1971-72)
John Wetton (1972-74)
Adrian Belew (1981-present)
Lots of bands change lead vox several time throughout a night. The Beatles; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Traffic; Grateful Dead; Three Dog Night; The Eagles; the Jackson 5; even the Rolling Stones let Keef sing once in a while.
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Santana, Frank Zappa, Robin Trower, Ted Nugent, Montrose, Alan Parson Project and the Jeff Beck Group all changed singers throughout their history.
Kansas, Supertramp, Spock’s Beard and the aforementioned Genesis all soldiered on after losing a prominent voice by “promoting from within”.
Chicago, perhaps?
cjepson:
Chicago has always had several different members singing lead. In the early years, it was always Terry Kath, Robert Lamm, and Peter Cetera. I quit listening to them after Chicago XI, so I don’t know who the new guy are
The Goo Goo Dolls shifted from Robbie to Johnny, if that counts.
During their heyday, Petra were one of the most successful Christian rock bands, and this included the years when John Schlitt replaced Greg X. Volz as the band’s lead vocalist. More recently, the Newsboys have experienced substantial popularity in the world of Christian music with two or three different lead singers.
The Moody Blues are a borderline case: they experienced some success (including the minor hit “Go Now”) with Denny Laine (later of Wings) as lead singer, but only really made it big after Justin Hayward (and John Lodge) joined the band.
Marty Balin and Grace Slick left the Jefferson Starship in the late 1970s and were replaced by Mickey Thomas for “Freedom at Point Zero” album. Grace later came back.
Menudo
How in the hell could I have forgotten AC/DC??? :smack:
The Mothers of Invention had Ray Collins in the early years, and various other vocalists – including Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of the Turtles – over the years.
Boston. Brad Delp sang lead on their first three albums. He was replaced for the fourth album, Walk On, by Fran Cosmo because he wanted to concentrate on side projects with former Boston member Barry Goudreau, including recording with the band RTZ. He remained welcome in Boston, though, and continued to rejoin them off and on, including accompanying them on tour, until his death in 2007. He just didn’t continue to sing lead on all tracks any longer.
Akin to Genesis, Ultravox became much more mainstream and popular after Midge Ure took over though they were influential in other ways when John Foxx was leading.
The Beatles never changed lead singer as they didn’t have one.
It’s not like that wasn’t the situation with Queen, for example. Three of the four of them took lead at different times.
I’ll throw Survivor into the mix. A huge, monstrous hit with ‘Eye of the Tiger’ with the guy in the beret and then a series of large hits with the other guy. Not really my cup of tea but they seemed to be successful with the second guy.
It’s my understanding that Steely Dan enjoyed greater commercial success after Michael MacDonald jumped ship to the Doobie Brothers, but not for very long.
Tommy Dorsey was pretty successful before he hired Frank Sinatra, and certainly moreso afterwards.
Styx has changed a couple of times.
Should we even try to map Fairport Convention?
IIRC, Shalomar replaced the lead singer at least twice.
Faith No More had a minor hit (We Care A Lot) with their original lead singer Chuck Mosley, but became far better known when he was replaced by Mike Patton.
Well, the Small Faces were very successful with Steve Marriott on vocals, and remained successful (as the Faces) when Rod Stewart replaced him.
I know, some people might say it wasn’t the same band, but the only reason for the name change is that Rod Stewart is tall. The original Small Faces really WERE small; Mariott, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenny Jones were all little guys, averaging about 5 foot 5 inches. When the much taller Stewart joined, they weren’t Small any more.