Ted, The STYX history is the main one I'd say is different from the rest. They switched band members before they had cemented their fame. They basically had one hit, Lady, before Tommy Shaw came on board. They only had a couple of minor hits after Shaw left and they didn't replace him, just went on with fewer members. Since Shaw came back and they replaced Dennis DeYoung, they've had no hits.

Journey is a band who was able to replace musicians and keep rolling after they made it big. They haven't had a lot of luck since they replaced Steve Perry. (From their "Behind the Music" interviews, I think Steve Perry and Dennis DeYoung should form a band. The came across as similar personalities to me.)

Back in the 80's...me and my friends would argue over who had the better voice...Perry or DeYoung. My pick was DeYoung and I would just put on Suite Madame Blue to prove my point. Normally shut them up.

Bon Jovi replaced their bassist and have had at leat one hit...It's My Life...since then.

Manfred Mann had 4 good-sized hits in the US (Doo Wah Diddy, Mighty Quinn, Blinded By The Light, and The Runner), each with a different lead singer, and usually only Mann himself as a consistent member.

The Hollies had some of their biggest hits (He Ain't Heavy, Long Cool Woman, Air That I Breathe) after Graham Nash left.

The Foundations had 2 big hits (Now That I've Found You and Build Me Up Buttercup) with 2 different singers.

I could go on....

The Alan Parsons Project was designed to have multiple singers.

The difference between the APP and many of the bands Hank mentioned is that they did not have nearly as much public identity with the lead singer as Queen did.

To look at this from a slightly different direction, Bad Company had some moderate success in the 80s without Paul Rodgers. It just never compared to the success (or IMO the quality) they had with him.

Freddy Mercury was/is the public image of Queen. Sure, Brian May is as much the sound of Queen as May was, but the face and vocals are very much Mercury.

KISS is another band where they've changed out key members, but if you take away Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons (instead of the other members), their identity completely changes.

Van Halen and Genesis are two bands that come to mind that had some success then switched lead vocalists with continued success.

Yeah! I forgot about Van Halen and Genesis.

Van Halen - Their image (and name) comes from their guitarist. They also didn't go too far away from the David Lee Roth sound when they got Sammy Hagar.

Genesis - I haven't heard much of their work with Peter Gabriel. From what I have heard, it was a lot different sound. With Phil Collins taking over more writing chores, they became more pop oriented. They probably lost a lot of their original fan base after that as well. They could've very well have changed the bands name and still had the same success under Collins that they did.

Genesis, by the measure of sales, did far better without Gabriel than with him.

I had also had that same thought too Neil, The Moondogs without Johny.

As for the Queen / Rodgers gig nothing against it in principal but they really should not call it Queen.

Your right, Mercury truly made them Queen.
(There's a off color joke in there somewhere )

Leo, you make a good point, however, Jason's original statement was:


Not about success or popularity - and by the time Curulewski left Styx had been together for 4 or 5 years. 6 of 1 half dozen of another I suppose. Besides, I'm sure there are people out there that despise Tommy Shaw and think Styx's old stuff was better

Oh and I suppose you could add Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, Anthrax, Pearl Jam and countless other bands to the list.

Remember the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert?

At one point Paul Young got up with the rest of the band and sang <i>Radio Ga Ga</i>.

I thought he was the next best thing.


I've been a Queen fan since Sheer Heart Attack. I just don't see Rogers having the voice to pull it off. But I do wish them the best of luck!

Hmmm.

There are a lot more bands out there than I thought of that had gone through this. Some way bigger music fans, too, because there's a lot of history here I wasn't aware of. Tunnel vision I guess;

Strange observation though, from everything listed above: only Bon Jovi and Van Halen are video age bands, and the people they lost were hardly the driving forces behind the music. Do you think video's making it harder for bands to make a change in personnel and keep going?

Jason

Man, I just realized that noone even mentioned Black Sabbath replacing Ozzy Osbourne! Ronnie James Dio (from Rainbow) took over for him, then was replaced by Ian Gillan (from Deep Purple) who was replaced by Ray Gillen, who was replaced by Tony Martin who was replaced by Ozzy! The British Hard Rock scene from the 70's/80's was pretty incestuous. I remember a friend of mine was trying to work on a "family tree" type project for all those bands and we finally gave up because it was just too complex. It's fun to trot out the trivia when drinking though - kinda like "6 degrees of Ritchie Blackmore" or something. ("what's the link between Blue Öyster Cult, Ozzy Osbourne, Thin Lizzy and Enrique Iglesias?")

Oh, and I just remembered something Leo - Tommy Shaw was replaced in Styx by Glen Burtnick! (don't ask me why I remember this stuff)

Reminds me of when David Gilmore and Roger Waters were fighting over who had the legal rights to the name Pink Floyd.

IIRC that fight was actually Nick Mason, Rick Wright and David Gilmour against Roger Waters. The 3 other members wanted to continue using the name. Roger Waters didn't want it, he just didn't want to let them use it.

Also...when Metallica lost tragically lost Cliff Burton they recovered nicely.

They started off well with the "Garage Days..." EP and "...And Justice For All," but I can only get in to part of the Black album or "Load." They lost me after that. Not sure what it says about their output or me that the majority of the material they've put out post-Cliff that I like is covers!

So is it boring on your side of the bay too, Ed?

I went to Biloxi yesterday to do some gambling...played the slots and came out about 60 bucks ahead....tonight is kinda slow though...have to work early tomorrow so can't really get into any fun tonight.

Yeah, I hear you. I'm on duty tomorrow morning at 6am (all the young Soldiers coming back from leave), so no "fun" for me tonight.

Only thing going on here is my freakin' neighbor with the fireworks. Same people were setting them off on Christmas Eve and Day. I'm just waiting for the accident.

I just pulled out my Edge of the Century CD and sure enough, Ted, you're right. Tells you how often I listen to that CD, 'cuz I often look through the booklets when I'm listening to them.

My favorite band member switch by an established band has to be Ron Blair leaving the Heartbreakers midway through Long After Dark (their fifth album), saying he didn't want to miss his kids growing up. Then, 18 years later, when Howie Epstein tragically self-destructed, there was Ron Blair, ready to take back his rightful place in the band, like he'd never left.

It's still sad about Howie, though.

ETA: Steve Ferrone did a pretty admirable job of replacing Stan Lynch, too. Especially since his previous gig was drumming for Duran Duran.