Deep cut. Nice.
The band had so much drama. Eddie and his brother were both a part of it though. They had success with multiple lead vocalists though, that’s rare.
Going through this today has me wanting to find my CDs, but Spotify appears to have a pretty good collection of the albums.
Ah fuck. RIP.
RIP.
I was able to see him at the 5150 tour stop in Detroit at Joe Louis Arena in 1986. I was a pretty big Sammy fan before he joined Van Halen, and I always respected and liked Eddie as a guitar player and what Van Halen had done before, so it was a pretty awesome experience for me when I was 19 at the time.
Wow, I never knew that. I guess I just assumed he was a white American dude, born and raised.
I knew he was from Holland, but never knew about the Indonesian heritage.
I was trying to think of bands that were huge, changed lead singers, then remained popular, and the only other I can think of off the top of my head are the Doobies, who incidentally, had the same long-time producer as VH, Ted Templeman.
Fun fact: Because of this, Michael McDonald’s name appears on the writing credits for “I’ll Wait”
Themoreyouknow.gif
Black Sabbath
AC/DC after Bon Scott died.
Deep Purple
Does Genesis qualify? I’m not sure how big they were with Peter Gabriel as I never really followed them.
They got a lot bigger with Phil, but it was because they managed to have a hit with Follow You Follow Me in 1978, a few years and 3 albums after Peter Gabriel left. Though their fan base was increasing a bit each time up until then.
Their success also had to do with Phil already being a member of the band (and a fantastic drummer) and not an outsider.
Journey
Alice in Chains ?
Survivor
King Crimson.
Though the last two weren’t really huge.
I suppose I should’ve added that I was coming at this from a US perspective. Genesis under Gabriel was pretty popular in the UK, but had only middling success in the states. Ditto Black Sabbath, who were a bit more popular in the US, but that started evaporating even before RJD took over.
One other I just thought of: Jefferson Starship. Lotta big hits under Marty Balin and mostly continued it under Mickey Thomas.
Plus they go back to Jefferson Airplane, right? And Grace Slick was back in the band at some point with Starship. I guess Airplane wouldn’t count though since Starship evolved out of it.
Fleetwood Mac? Popular before Nicks joined the band but afterwards they became one of the biggest acts in rocks in the 70’s.
I will mention that with Van Halen, the situation was unique. David Lee was definitely a front man as singer but it was always really Eddie who drove the band and the shows. They replaced David with a bonafide rock star in Sammy Hagar. So, there was no real drop off for the band. Eddie was still Eddie and Sammy was a very accomplished front man and singer. I was happy to hear they nabbed Sammy as lead singer and I would have been surprised if it had failed.
I was only counting the “Jefferson Starship” years, which run from 1974 to 1984. Slick, Balin, and Paul Kantner were the only holdovers from the JA days, Slick would leave, then come back (while they were still Jefferson Starship), and at the end, Kantner left the band mid-tour and took the “Jefferson” name with him (he was the only original JA member left).
Deep Purple absolutely fits the bill. “Hush” and “Kentucky Woman” were massive hits in the US and UK alike.
And then Ian Gillan joined and “Smoke on the Water”, heavy-metal Deep Purple was born.
Moody Blues changed their lead singer as I recall.
In fact, there are a few from the various waves of the British Invasion.
The Moody Blues had a top ten smash hit with “Go Now!” in 1964-1965 with Denny Laine on lead vocals and lead guitar. He left the band to go solo, and they recruited in Justin Heyward and John Lodge to replace him and bazinga.
Manfred Mann had Paul Jones on lead vocals for the #1 hit “Do Wah Diddy”. In 1966 Mike D’Abo replaced Jones, and they had a hit covering Bob Dylan’s “Quinn The Eskimo”. And then when Manfred Mann replaced much of the band and re-dubbed them “Manfred Mann’s Earth Band” they had another hit covering Springsteen’s “Blinded By The Light” with Chris Thompson on lead vocals.