Most drastic personnel changes between albums

Cafe Society
1

OK, I have no doubt this has been done before, but what the heckity.

What I’m asking for is bands that have had the most drastic personnel changes between consecutive albums. It has to be a band, not an individual artist with backup musicians, and the band name has to remain the same or at least more or less the same, and I’m restricting this to personnel changes across consecutive albums to prevent the thread from devolving into an endless list of long-lived bands which have gradually changed personnel over the years.

I got the idea for the thread because I just listened to the first Renaissance album. Renaissance has got to be very close to the lead in this category. The band was founded by Keith Relf and Jim McCarty of the Yardbirds. They recruited John Hawken and Louis Cennamo, and had Keith’s sister Jane on vocals, and recorded two albums (Renaissance and Illusion). During the recording of the latter (which was originally released only in Germany, and did not receive wider release until several years later), all the original members left the group, and the third album (Prologue) was recorded by an entirely different lineup. However, one song on Illusion does feature one of the musicians who recorded Prologue – the guitarist, Michael Dunford. Thus, by the narrowest of margins, they just missed a 100% turnover. (Jim McCarty also had songwriting credits on Prologue but was not a member.)

It’s much easier to find bands which retained only one member between albums. One example is Be-Bop Deluxe. The lineup for its first album was Bill Nelson, Ian Parkin, Robert Bryan, and Nicholas Chatterton-Dew; Nelson then disbanded the group and reformed it with different personnel. Another is King Crimson, which in its early phases was beset by personnel changes – they had trouble keeping any lineup together long enough to record an album and tour behind it. After their fourth studio album, Islands, everybody but guitarist and leader Robert Fripp left the group; Fripp then recruited a new band which went on to make several excellent albums.

2

This really doesn’t add to the discussion, but it’s a thought that occurs to me from time to time:

Pete Willis got thrown out of Def Leppard because he drank too much.

Cheezus H. Rice, how much do you have to drink to get thrown out of Def F&cking Leppard? Did he enjoy banging groupies too much, too?

3

Yes, which has been fairly infamous for shifting line-ups over the years, changed two of its five members between the albums Tormato and Drama…and then changed three members between Drama and 90125

Tormato
Jon Anderson (vocals)
Steve Howe (guitar)
Chris Squire (bass)
Rick Wakeman (keyboards)
Alan White (drums)

Drama
Trevor Horn (vocals)
Steve Howe (guitar)
Chris Squire (bass)
Geoff Downes (keyboards)
Alan White (drums

90125
Jon Anderson (vocals)
Trevor Rabin (guitar)
Chris Squire (bass)
Tony Kaye (keyboards)
Alan White (drums)

4

The band Love (which had already been through a lot of personnel changes before) changed all its members except Arthur Lee between their classic third album Forever Changes (1967) and Four Sail of 1969 (4 out of 5 members left and were replaced). Whether one regards that as being the ‘same’ band is, I guess, a matter of choice, but, last I heard, there is still a Love performing, doing their old songs and fronted by original member (from the first three albums) John Echols.

5

Renaissance is clearly the champion here.

Blood Sweat and Tears lost four of nine members from their first album to their second, including their main composer and lead singer, Al Kooper.

Spirit lost three of their five members between “Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus” and “Feedback.”

John Mayall probably did something simlar; he constantly changed lineups from album to album.

6

Between The Spaghetti Incident and Chinese Democracy, Guns 'N Roses lost everyone except Axl Rose and Dizzy Reed.

Including all musical credibility.

7

Captain Beefheart. After “Unconditionally Guaranteed,” his entire band left, and he recorded “Bluejeans and Moonbeams” with entirely different personal. He then fired that band and added another for “Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)”

8

In between the first and second album Be-Bop Deluxe lineups there was yet another short-lived lineup including bassist Paul Jeffreys and keyboardist Milton Reame-James, plus drummer Simon Fox. Jeffreys and Reame-James came to the band from Cockney Rebel, which they and two other members had deserted, leaving Steve Harley as the only member in common between the second and third albums. (Although there’s the technicality that the band name changed from Cockney Rebel to Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel.)