Top 10 Rock Bands of All Time

[dtbach]

Roughly in this order:

Led Zep
Beatles
Stones
Pink Floyd
Doors
Yes
Creedence
Bob Seger
REM

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

Rolling Stones
Eagles
The Police
Scorpions
Boston
Beatles
UFO
Foreigner
Journey
Jimi Hendrix.

There is so many that it's hard to come up with just ten. But this is my list.

 

[MichaelB]

Surprised there's no mention of Dylan, Cream, Sex Pistols, The Band, Traveling Wilburys.

 

[MuirWannabe]

Also no mention of The Cars, Kinks, Heart, Bananarama , or ABBA ([emoji16])

Beatles
U2
Eagles
Rolling Stones
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Led Zeppelin
The Cars
Coldplay
CCR
Journey

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

The Cars and Led Zeppelin are two great rock bands for sure, I just couldn't fit them on my list. Certainly both of them are good bands. Queen was also hard to leave out.

 

[gauss]

+1 to those who have mentioned
Pink Floyd
U2
Rush

The sophisticated lyrics combined with complex music is probably the appeal to me.

 

[Amethyst]

The Wilburys were great! But only 3 albums

Surprised there's no mention of Dylan, Cream, Sex Pistols, The Band, Traveling Wilburys.

 

[MichaelB]

The Wilburys were great! But only 3 albums

I thought they only had two. Either way, I wasn't suggesting they were "top 10" - just wondering aloud at not being mentioned . So many really talented performers and groups over the years, no way could I choose only 10 to put above the others that have given me (and the world) such enjoyment.

 

[jim584672]

Spinal Tap

But then it would be the top 11 Rock Bands of All Time. 11 would be the top.

 

[GrayHare]

The Wilburys get an indirect mention via the Beatles, Petty, and ELO. They recorded several excellent songs but I can't rate them as original and/or influential enough to rank in top 10 as a group.

 

[FreeBear]

These are some of my favorites:

Beatles
Led Zepplin
Eagles
Steely Dan
Rolling Stones
Doobie Brothers - Like Midpack said before Michael McDonald
Chicago - before the death of Terry Kath
Tom Petty
Allman Brothers

Yes, CTA - Chicago with Terry!

 

[FreeBear]

Fun thread, love the picks!

Gen X'er here. So, I'm giving props to The Cure and New Order. Helped get me through the dark days of college.

Also, what about all the Motown greats?

 

[harley]

Beatles
Rolling Stones
The Who
Kraftwerk
The Ramones
The Beach Boys
Pink Floyd
Prince
The Allman Brothers
The Grateful Dead
James Brown
Deep Purple
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
The Velvet Underground
The Kinks
Van Morrison
Michael Jackson
Aretha Franklin
Chuck Berry


I think that's 10. Actually, with the exception of a few (the Beatles, James Brown, velvet Underground) these are the greatest bands I've ever seen personally. Every one of them was a life changer. I could add in a couple more like Hawkwind and BOC that blew me away in concert, but don't usually make the top of anything list. I love music. And Phish. And String Cheese Incident. And Avenged Sevenfold. You know, this is impossible.

 

[48Fire]

Fun thread, love the picks!

Gen X'er here. So, I'm giving props to The Cure and New Order. Helped get me through the dark days of college.

Also, what about all the Motown greats?

Great, thanks! I will give them a listen. I'm trying to update my musical listening resume

Not sure if Motown falls into the Rock category. Some great sound there for sure.

 

[48Fire]

Beatles
Rolling Stones
The Who
Kraftwerk
The Ramones
The Beach Boys
Pink Floyd
Prince
The Allman Brothers
The Grateful Dead
James Brown
Deep Purple
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
The Velvet Underground
The Kinks
Van Morrison
Michael Jackson
Aretha Franklin
Chuck Berry


I think that's 10. Actually, with the exception of a few (the Beatles, James Brown, velvet Underground) these are the greatest bands I've ever seen personally. Every one of them was a life changer. I could add in a couple more like Hawkwind and BOC that blew me away in concert, but don't usually make the top of anything list. I love music. And Phish. And String Cheese Incident. And Avenged Sevenfold. You know, this is impossible.

Great list. We were lucky to have some good floor seats for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert, so we were able to see The Allman Brothers, James Brown, The Kinks, Aretha Franklin, and Chuck Berry, as well as many others.

 

[IMATERP]

Given additional time, I could see where Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double trouble could have made it on this list.

+1 on Clapton (and his bands.). I'll replace him and his band over Heart.

Nobody has mentioned "the Moody Blues." I'm not a fan but they are very popular.

M

 

[48Fire]

I like the Moody Blues a lot, and I've seen them twice live. Great rock band, just not top ten IMO.

 

[48Fire]

And I agree with you on Stevie

 

[Amethyst]

And Thomas Dolby, and Duran Duran. Come on, Duran2 were pretty cool in their day.

Fun thread, love the picks!

Gen X'er here. So, I'm giving props to The Cure and New Order. Helped get me through the dark days of college.

Also, what about all the Motown greats?

 

[flintnational]

1 Stones
2 Allman Bros.
3 Floyd
4 Clapton anything, Blues Breakers, Cream
5 Beatles
6 LZ
7 Pearl Jam
8 Nirvana
9 Tie STP and Alice in Chains
10 Dire Straits

Man, my list is missing the Doors and Hendrix.

FN

 

[sengsational]

I always preferred to take the stairs, so I never became a Beatles aficionado.

But you had ZZ Top and AC/DC, so that makes up for it

 

[samclem]

Beatles
Stones
Led Zeppelin
Queen
AC/DC (I'm not proud of that, but there it is)
ZZ Top
Beach Boys
Aerosmith
Dire Straits
Eagles

I've always suspected that Boston, Journey, Genesis, and Foreigner were the same band.

 

[sengsational]

Although Eagles wouldn't hit with me, SamClems list looks good, but DW sez what about Black Sabbath?

Love the comment after your list SC, lol!

 

[sengsational]

4 Clapton anything, Blues Breakers, Cream

FN

I was all about looking for Cream! You kinda cheated by getting all of those bands under #4

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

Fun thread, love the picks!

Gen X'er here. So, I'm giving props to The Cure and New Order. Helped get me through the dark days of college.

Also, what about all the Motown greats?

Great Motown songs and singers, but apart from the superb and legendary Funk Brothers session players who played on virtually all the Motown hits of the 1960s, there really weren't any Motown rock bands ('cepting Rare Earth).

I'm not too fond of "Top" or "Best" of anything, because it's all too subjective and personal--like food, movies, and what-not. But if you ask for my Top 10 Favorite Rock Bands of All Time:

1. Beatles: hands-down, without question for me. For their musical catalog, massive cultural influence (music, hair, dress, coolness, change in just a handful of years, etc.). I put The Beatles miles above any other rock band in history to this day.
2. Rolling Stones: their catalog is also quite good (particularly after Jagger and Richards learned to write originals), up to circa 1982 for me. I gotta admit that they were more rock and blues than The Beatles. Their huge influence on rock 'n' roll history cannot be denied.
3. Eagles: song catalog alone. (They went thru a few players; I like the originals guys, and their LPs up to Hotel California.)(After these Top 3, for me, it's in "no particular order.")(I also like CSN/Y very, very much--but I consider them an amalgamation of great singer/songwriters and not a rock band per se. After The Beatles, Neil Young is my favorite musical act, but he is not a Rock Band.)
4. Genesis: I got into them circa 1973, just before lead singer Peter Gabriel left. I college dorm friend, also into music, introduced me to their catalog that had been released up to then. Bizarre, to me, at the time. Long songs, weird time signatures (I was just learning what that meant), odd lyrics, and what-not. But I couldn't help but recognize that these guys could really play. And the songs were interesting to me. Unlike other so-called Progressive Rock Bands at the time (those bands that had members seemingly raised on classical music lessons--like Yes, ELP, and Gentle Giant, etc.), Genesis leaned more to my musical taste. I just loved them up to their Wind & Wuthering album, before Steve Hackett left the band.
5. The Doors: their "sound" was, and is, just so distinctive. They also have a nice historic music catalog of songs and LPs.
6. Creedence Clearwater Revival: lots of basically simple, but outstanding rock 'n' roll songs, mostly written by singer/guitarist John Fogerty. They still ring out to this day.
7. Steely Dan: really just Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, with fantastic guest studio musicians. But I just loved, loved, loved listening to their records up to the "Hey Nineteen" era.
8. Beach Boys: OK, so much of their recordings had the Wrecking Crew studio musicians playing the instruments, but the Beach Boys did go out and play as a rock band. So, they count as a Rock Band. And their songs were SO fantastic. To this day I still remember learning to ride a bike as a little boy, with a transistor radio plugged into one ear, going down the sidewalk in the Long Beach/San Pedro area os Southern California, listening to what I later learned was "Girl Group" music, and The Beach Boys! Just a few months before The Beatles exploded all over America!
9. Led Zeppelin: when I first heard that "Whole Lotta Love" LP in 1969... well, need I say more? Led Zeppelin's stamp on rock music history is massive.
10. Crowded House: Hey! Now that I think about it, I'd like to place them higher on my list here! Dang it!