What is the oldest band that could have a full reunion of its original members?

Cafe Society
1

The Davy Jones thread has me wondering this: The Monkees are now 3/4, the Beatles 2/4, and The Rolling Stones and the The Who and The Temptations and other bands that continue to tour periodically have lost members over the years.

How far back do you have to go to find a band whose original line-up had more than two members, all of whom are still alive? (They don’t have to be together anymore.) I can think of several from the '80s but off-hand I’m having trouble getting further back than that.

For original lineup, I’ll go with “were on the first major album the group had” in order to take out the Pete Bests and Stuart Sutcliffe “before they were famous” members.

2

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young?

3

Probably not the oldest but Kiss is from 1973 and still kickin’.

Same year for AC/DC, also alive.

4

Bon Scott died in 1980.

5

Simon and Garfunkel?

(I guess it depends on the definition of ‘band’).

6

CSN were not really a band on one view but in any event their first album was 1969. Cream put out their first in 1966. I’m sure there are much older bands with members all still alive though.

7

Just for fun, I looked at Doper aha’s band, The Five Americans. Their first single was in 1965, but alas, as I went to their website, the front page has an “In Memoriam” for their drummer, Jimmy Wright, who died just a few weeks ago.

P.S. As I look at Wikipedia, only Mike Rabon (aha) and keyboardist John Durrill are still with us.

8

Yes 1968
Jethro Tull 1967
Cream 1966

9

OP: “more than two members”

10

The Seekers formed in 1962 and are all alive and are still performing together! Someone might beat them, but it would be hard I’d think.

11

:smack:

12

Manfred Mann was formed in 1962 and had its first hit in 1964. As far as I can tell, all members still kicking.

13

Do vocal groups count? Because The Fleetwoods (formed 1958) seem to all be still among us.

14

Similarly The Hollies, formed in 1962 and had their first single in 1963.

15

They’re hardly the oldest, but U2 has been making music with the same line-up since sometime in the 70s.

16

I’ve mentioned this one before: ZZ Top. Not only is it the same line-up from 1969 but they don’t even have to reform - they’re still performing together.

17

All of the original Deep Purple are still with us, although the whereabouts of Rod Evans seems to be unknown.

18

Genesis (1967) is another one that still has all founding members alive and kicking.

19

I believe all the Four Lovers are still around. They began as the Variatones in 1954 and changed their name when they added Frankie Valli in 1956; they then changed their name again in 1960, to the Four Seasons. Later member Nick Massi has died, but I can’t find that any of the originals has passed. I will look more later.

20

Bachman and Cummings and Petersen are all still very much active, and I believe the original bassist is still going, and actually owns the Guess Who name. I think the Guess Who’s classic line-up first formed in the mid-sixties, when Cummings joined, but the band actually had its origins in the late fifties. It’s all in Randy Bachman’s book. So it’s tough to call the start, but mid-sixties at the very latest and possibly late-fifties.

I saw Cummings and Bachman in concert a few years ago. Man, Bachman lost a lot of weight. He actually looked great at sixty-something.