Never mind. Dang it, Tanbarkie, you beat me to it.
Bluesology was the start of Elton John.
Alice Cooper released a very gracious statement when he was nominated, beginning “On behalf of Dennis (Dunaway), Neal (Smith), Michael (Bruce) and the late great Glen Buxton, we are honored to be nominated for induction in to the Hall.”
Going the opposite way, the Who was originally Roger Daltrey and his backups. He hired John Entwhistle, who brought in Townsend. Daltrey thought himself leader of the band until the rest gave him a ultimatum: Townsend is leader or Daltrey is kicked out. Daltrey decided to stay.
That’s not quite right, but that’s a discussion for another thread.
Or how about lead singers that think they are too good for the band, leave, they flop, but the band continues on without them?
VanHalen
And the Animals started out as the Alan Price Rhythm & Blues Combo. (Granted, Price’s organ work remained a key part of the band’s sound.)
The lead singer on the Kingsmen’s hit “Louie Louie” was Jack Ely. Drummer Lynn Easton’s mom had registered a trademark on the band’s name, and Easton used this as leverage to announce that he would be the singer from now on. Ely quit and tried touring as “Jack Ely & the Kingsmen.” After various lawsuits were filed, Ely was banned from using the name the Kingsmen, while Eaton was banned from lipsynching to Ely’s original “Louie Louie” vocals.
That was very classy of him- thanks for the quote.
Surprised there’s no mention of Chicago yet.
Started out as a phenomenally talented band with a mind-blowing horn section that put out songs like “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” and “25 or 6 to 4.” Their most famous fan was Jimi Hendrix!! Then at some point Peter Cetera decided he wanted to do nothing but cheesy love ballads and turned them into manufacturers of, well, cheesy love ballads.
They did experience a name change, but that was very early on, from Chicago Transit Authority to just Chicago. The CTA didn’t like being a band name.
Didn’t Beyonce start out as one-fourth of Destiny’s Child? Two of the original members were kicked out because they thought Beyonce would get preferential treatment because her father was the groups manager. Afterwords they brought in another singer (who they later kicked out and replaced with another another singer) and became a trio. Followed by Beyonce going solo and becoming a huge star pretty much proving the original members concerns.
(I’m only slightly embarassed that I know that.)
(see Post #20)
The Wailers---->Bob Marley & The Wailers---->Bob Marley
To her credit, though, Beyonce stuck to the pledge she made with her bandmates that they would do one more album/tour after everyone tried their hand at a solo career for two years. She could have very, very easily opted out of that after she went supernova.
Argh – you read every line of a thread but one, and that’s what happens.
Not really. The original band was The Wailers - Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer with a backing band. Tosh and Wailer later quit. Bob Marley kept the backing band and added the I-Threes as backup singers. From then on, the band was always Bob Marley & The Wailers. He was never credited as a solo artist.
10,000 Maniacs were a thriving bar band before Natalie Merchant pestered them to let her join. They rocketed to stardom with her as front woman. She outgrew them and had a (surprisingly brief) solo career. They got another singer and never quite recovered.
The Dixie Chicks had a few albums out before Natalie Maines joined, and she kind of eclipsed everybody else and dragged the band out of Country and into Pop. Ironically, Marty and Emily have a side project going, the Court Yard Hounds, and Natalie doesn’t have a real solo career. I’m sure none of them will starve anytime soon.
Correction: Natalie Merchant’s solo career is ongoing, and she released two or three albums since Ophelia. I just hadn’t heard of them until I looked them up on Wikipedia.
The way I heard it was that everybody else in the band decided to break up but Vice wanted to keep going, so he just kept the name to himself. And by that point everybody was calling him Alice anyway.
Roth did quiet well for a few years before flopping.