Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

I was thinking the other day how several of my favorite groups from my younger years all shared lead vocals with various members of the band. Obviously groups like the Beatles did this, but also KISS, Queen, Men At Work, Styx...it wasn't an extremely common practice, but I always thought it was pretty cool to experience several band members' songwriting and vocal styles on each album. I felt it made a group seem more like a group when they let each other up front, instead of it always being Lead Vocalist and the Backup Band.

Anyone have any other examples of other groups that did this, and why do you think you don't see it as much anymore, if at all?

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Beastie Boys
311
Linkin Park

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

The Band
The Who
The Small Faces

I have this theory (and I'm actually sure that I'm right about this) that one of the reasons so many Brit rock groups from the 60s and 70s had such good vocals, especially harmony vocals, is that all the guys in the band learned how to sing with other people from singing in church choirs, back when you pretty much had to go to church every day at school. Now this isn't the case and you don't see (well, hear) such good vocal arrangements.

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Huey Lewis did all the lead vocals, but I always thought he and The News sounded fantastic harmonizing. Pretty much the entire band sang, from what I remember.

EDIT: Oh! I guess The Eagles could be added to the list of multiple lead vocalists.

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Sleater-Kinney

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Damn I almost forgot, Bang Camaro.

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Sonic Youth has 3

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Blink 182 is another one....

If we're talking about any band that has ever had a song (or two) where someone other than the actual regular lead singer has taken over as lead vocals, than Pearl Jam would qualify as well....Stone sings lead on "Mankind" and "Don't Gimme No Lip", Jeff sings "Sweet Lew", and former drummer Jack Irons sang "Whale Song".....

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

KMFDM had two vocalists.

I guess they still do as Lucia does a ton of singing now, but on the pre-breakup albums there were songs sung by Sasha and then there were some songs that were sung by En Esch (and then there were songs sung by guests too).

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Off the top of my head:

Rolling Stones
Depeche Mode
Guns N' Roses
Pixies
The Clash
Sex Pistols (after Lydon left the band, the remaining members did some lead vocal work for the soundtrack for The Great Rock N' Roll Swindle)

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Lacuna Coil
3 Inches of Blood
Despised Icon

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

I don't think this counts considering every single rap group would fall into this category.

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

The Cars
Barenaked Ladies

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Here's a similar thread I started a couple years ago.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/music-talk/...few-proud.html

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Dude...The Eagles had everybody singing at some point.

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Blue Oyster Cult
Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Mott The Hoople
Fleetwood Mac
Firefall
Grand Funk Railroad
James Gang
Head East?
Journey
Doobie Brothers
Kansas
Kinks
Mountain
REO Speedwagon
Supertramp
Traffic
Wings
Edgar Winter Group
ZZ Top

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Drive By Truckers

I'm not sure I count bands like the Rolling Stones and Guns 'n Roses and Queen in this category. Sure, they all had guitarists/drummers that took the spotlight for an occasional song, but all three of these are the epitomes of bands with a single lead singer, not multiple leads...

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

The Beach Boys
The Monkees
Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship
Pink Floyd
38 Special
The B-52's
The Bangles
The Hooters
Arc Angles
The Posies
Oasis
Dada
Sloan
Guster

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Why wouldn't you count Queen?!? That's exactly the point of this thread! I asked about groups whose albums featured several members of the band on lead vocals.

The Beatles: John and Paul sang most, but George always had a couple songs on the album he sang, and eventually Ringo contributed lead vocals on his songs.

Queen: Freddie sang most, but Brian always had a couple tracks, and Roger always contributed at least one song he sang on.

KISS: Gene and Paul sang most, but Ace always had one or two songs, and Peter usually had a track he sang lead on.

Styx: Dennis sang the most, but Tommy and J.Y. contributed almost equally on additional lead vocal duties.

So, I'm not talking about groups whose members just sing in general. I'm talking about different members singing lead vocals on a regular basis, album per album. I don't think The Rolling Stones fit in this, nor do a lot of the groups people are listing. I think people are missing the point.

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Fleetwood Mac was the first that sprang to my mind, but someone beat me to it! Hillbilly Casino shares vocal duties between Nic Roulette & Ronnie Crutcher, but Nic easily sings the majority. (yeah, I'm pushing the HBC exposure thing again!)

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Mastodon

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

some I haven't seen listed

The Bangles (Susanna Hoffs always had the singles, but Vicki Petersen usually sang on as many tracks, and Debbi and Michael usually had a song too)
Scissor Sisters (Jake Shears does the lions share, but Ana Matronic gets at least one song per album)
Human League (Phil does most of the vox but the girls have their moments as well on the later albums)
Weezer (Rivers sang all the vocals on the earlier albums, but all four members took the mic on the Red Album)
Wings (Paul was the centerpiece for sure but Denny Laine sang quite a few songs as well, and on Wings At The Speed Of Sound, so did Linda and the other two members at the time)
Heart (Ann sings most of the time, but Nancy has had her share as well, and she gave them a #1 with These Dreams)
The Cars (a fairly even mixture of Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr)

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Well technically but...

On the band's fourth album, One of These Nights, Don Felder sang lead vocal on the song "Visions", which he co-wrote with Don Henley, and it was the only Eagles song that Felder ever sang lead vocal on.

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Dead Can Dance

Re: Bands with multiple lead vocalists
 

Belle and Sebastian