movieguru

Most of The Beatles.

mcnabb

I do remember he had a hit song in 1992 'Restless Heart' as that was the last time I heard of anything relevant from him.

I would say Susanna Hoffs after she left the Bangles as her solo career failed. If you watch the VH1 Documentary, the other Bangles even admit they were happy when she failed her solo career.

Paff

I don't know why artists even "go solo" in the first place. It's not like when they do, they play all the instruments themselves. Instead, they replace their bandmates with (usually) average studio musicians. I guess there's more creative freedom as a solo artist, but take Sting for example. If you look at the songs of The Police, I'd say a good 70-80% say "words and music by Sting". He always did lead vocals. What more control could he want? And you won't find better players than Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland. So there's bound to be a let down (although perhaps The Police is not the best example, as those guys were known to really despise one another; a breakup was inevitable).

Josh-da-man

I'd wager that going solo is more about money than control.

If you're someone like Sting or Rob Zombie in White Zombie or Courtney Love in Hole or Alice Cooper, when your band hits it big you're going to see youself as the draw and start to wonder why you're splitting the profits among several people when you can just bust up the band, hire salaried musicians to back you up, and continue on doing what you always did and pocket all of the loot.

Obi-Wanma

I see your other examples, but did Courtney Love ever make anything commercially viable without Hole?

hdnmickey

If you can believe what you read, it's usually to have more control or money/band ends disliking each other. To put in very generally: Same style of music tends to be money and/or disliking other band members. Radical change in style often comes from wanting more creative control.

inri222

Ego & greed.

Barth

Interesting topic. It made me think of Van Halen and their singers right away.

David Lee Roth who left/got fired from the band depending on who you talk to was kinda successful, Eat em and Smile was pretty great IMO. Then he was pretty much hit or miss after that and now he's back in the band.

Sammy Hagar had a great solo career before joining VH, had a successful run with the band, then was kind of hit or miss as well after leaving/getting fired depending on who you talk to.

Gary Cherone, successful with Extreme before joining VH, was a disaster with the band, left or got fired depending on who you talk to. I feel a lot of deja vu for some reason. Went solo for a while and flopped and then rejoined Extreme. Last I know of him. Not sure what he's up to now without searching the net.

So....not really sure where I was going with this, but this thread made me think of the circus that was and is Van Halen.

bd007h

Glenn Frey and Don Henley (other than The Boys of Summer)

Hazel Motes

I'd say none of the Beatles were disappointing as solo acts. None of them sustained the level of consistency the Beatles set forth. But John , Paul and George all released albums that were as good as most Beatles records. Ringo didn't really disappoint either, because that implies there were high expectations. Ringo was as good as a Beatle as he was as a solo artist.

All Things Must Pass
Imagine
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
Ram
McCartney

all great albums.

Decker

I went to a Robert Plant concert at the Las Vegas Hilton Showroom (where, he noted, he and Jimmy Page had once sat right there and watched Elvis perform). It was exceptionally cool seeing such an iconic Titan of Rock perform, up close like that.
I was very amused to note how the folks in the audience would move, like the tide, out to the bars and restrooms when he played his solo stuff and back into the Showroom when he started playing Zepplin again.

rw2516

A curious thing about the heyday of solo Beatles(1970-76). The first Ringo album, titled Ringo, was the biggest seller of them all at the time.

PerryD

I don't think you can place Don Henley in this list, unless disappointing only means less successful than the Eagles. Henley sold over ten million solo records, won a pair of grammys, had many top 40 hits, Building the Perfect Beast and End of the Innocence are still considered to be among the best rock albums

rw2516

Other reasons for going solo include: creative control of songs you wrote, band rejecting songs you bring in, and just having a lot of extra songs you wrote that you want to record.

There are several instances of solo and band careers successfully co-existing. Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac, Townsend/The Who, Phil Collins/Genesis.

One interesting one was Rod Stewart and The Faces. You would have a band album and a solo Stewart album. Rod used The Faces on his albums. After Rod hit it big with "Maggie May" they toured as Rod Stewart and The Faces. Rod did not do solo tours, there were only Faces tours with mix of band and solo songs.
Eventually The Faces quit recording, except for an occasional 45, yet the tours were still Faces tours.
Not until Wood joined The Stones did The Faces disband and everyone go their separate ways.

Josh-da-man

Not really. Her expiration date had passed by the mid 90s.

She put out a solo album after Celebrity Skin, and then another Hole album some years later which might as well have been a solo album since it didn't have any previous Hole members on it. (Of course, outside of Eric Erlandson and Love, Hole never had a stable line-up.)

hdnmickey

I'd go as far as those two Henley albums were better than some of the Eagles albums. Unless somebody disliked Henley of course, which many did.

I also think the list of great Beatles solo albums is much longer. Cloud Nine, Flowers in the Dirt, Double Fantasy...

mndtrp

I was disappointed in the direction Gwen Stefani went after leaving No Doubt, even though No Doubt was heading somewhat in that direction anyway. Her solo stuff is fine, I'm just not very into it.

Paff

Not quite the same thing, but your story reminds me of when I went to see Bow Wow Wow a few years ago at a club. I was enjoying the show (always been a fan), then when they started into "I Want Candy", I suddenly get overrun by a mob of middle-aged women with their cellphones up. Song ends, they go right back to the bar.

Franchot

Terry Hall. The Specials.

Bruce Foxton. (I'd say Paul Weller as well, but some may disagree.) The Jam.

Chris Stamey. The dBs.

Glenn Tilbrook. Squeeze.

Dave Davies. Ray Davies. The Kinks.

GuessWho

Sometimes, it's so they can try a different genre than the band is accustomed to (or wouldn't fit the band's "brand")

Current example: Steven Tyler is hyping a country album right now. When he wants to rock, he'll be back in Aerosmith.

Josh-da-man

Steven Tyler hasn't "rocked" in over twenty years.

The Infidel

Ky-Fi

And I wouldn't even necessarily condemn someone for that choice, either.

A few years ago, Mike Peters of The Alarm joined Big Country as the singer. They released an album (which was quite good), and toured together.

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I saw them at a venue in New Hampshire, and the place was sold out, and they sounded awesome. I think they were doing quite well touring the UK as well. A couple months later, it was announced that Mike Peters was leaving Big Country to focus on his solo career.

The next year, I saw Mike Peters (just him alone on stage) at the same New Hampshire venue, and it was sold out again. So for him, he could either split the check five ways with Big Country, or he could split the same check one way as a solo artist, and get to play exactly the music he wanted. Hey, he's trying to make a living and support a family---I think anyone would have made that choice.

wendersfan

You might as well ask why couples ever split up or divorce. Being in a working band with someone is like being in a relationship. You live together, you work together, you're constantly up in each other's grille; it can make enemies of the closest friends.

Cusm

Did she ever make anything commercially viable without Kurt writing the album for Hole?