Lead Singers for More Than One Famous Group

Many groups will stay together for quite a while, and the lead singer remains with the group.  If the group breaks up, in a large majority of cases, the lead singer never catches on with another act.  Quite often, a lead singer leaves a group for a solo career (there are many examples such as Phil Collins of Genesis, Lionel Richie of the Commodores and Peter Cetera of Chicago.)  That's what makes this situation all the more interesting.

These aren't all the famous lead singers that have gone on to have a successful career with more than one group, but just a few.  The most famous, of course, is Paul McCartney, who went from being one of the lead vocalists for the Beatles, to the lead for his new group Wings in the 70's.  George Harrison, who also sang lead for the Beatles, had a successful solo career before joining the supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. 

But certainly one of the most interesting is the story is Paul Carrack, who with the group Ace was a One-Hit Wonder in 1975 with "How Long".  He later was the lead vocalist for Squeeze on their biggest hit, "Tempted", then became the lead singer for Mike + the Mechanics, and also enjoyed a few solo hits.  So Carrack, as far as we know, was the only lead singer with three famous groups.

Joey Levine sang lead on several hits by different groups, but they were studio groups which never had the intent of staying together nor touring.  He deserves his own article, and we'll do that.

Here are a few lead singers that have sang lead for more than one group, with a few examples of their work for multiple groups:

Paul Carrack, Ace and Mike + the Mechanics

"How Long"

Ace

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Tempted"

Squeeze

 

 

  

 

 

 

"Silent Running"
Mike + the Mechanics





"The Living Years"
Mike + the Mechanics





"I Need You"
Paul Carrack (solo)






"Don't Shed A Tear"
Paul Carrack (solo)







Sonny Geraci, Outsiders and Climax


"Time Won't Let Me"
Outsiders





"Precious and Few"
Climax



 

 

George Harrison, Beatles, Solo and Traveling Wilburys



"Here Comes the Sun"
Beatles






"Something"
Beatles





"My Sweet Lord"
George Harrison (solo)






"What Is Life"
George Harrison (solo)






"Handle With Care"
Traveling Wilburys










Paul McCartney, Beatles, Wings, and Solo


"Can't Buy Me Love"
Beatles






"Yesterday"
Beatles






"Let It Be"
Beatles






"Band on the Run"
Wings






"Silly Love Songs"
Wings





Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin and Honeydrippers


"Stairway to Heaven"
Led Zeppelin





"Rock and Roll"
Led Zeppelin






"Sea of Love"
Honeydrippers






Paul Rodgers, Free and Bad Company



"All Right Now"
Free






"Can't Get Enough"
Bad Company






"Feel Like Makin' Love"
Bad Company






Eric Stewart, Mindbenders and 10cc


"Groovy Kind of Love"
Mindbenders






"I'm Not in Love"
10cc






"The Things We Do for Love"
10cc