Lead vocalists who got ‘usurped’

Thinking of examples of the phenomenon where a group has a designated lead vocalist who is nominally the ‘face’ of the band, but due to other members becoming more dominant or the group having a breakout hit with a song sung by another member or similar, the original singer gets sidelined (whether temporarily or permanently) and the spotlight shines on others.

Examples I can think of:

The Beach Boys: Mike Love sang most of the early hits, but by the mid - late 60s, other members (most notably Carl) were taking the leads on singles more often that not, leaving Mike on bass b/v.

The Move - Carl Wayne’s lead vocal presence on their singles seemed to get eroded incrementally in favour of composer Roy Woods vox.

10cc - they were never meant to have a designated frontman, but more by circumstance that design, Lol Creme sang most of their early hits, with Eric Stewart dominating from 1975 on.

Any others?

EDIT TO ADD - to clarify, this isn’t about lead singers who got replaced with another lead singer, I’m more referring to cases where the other members start singing more of the hits/output but the original lead singer stays in the group, at least for a while.

 

Syd Barrett

Pigpen

 

The Guess Who - Chad Allan/Burton Cummings

Journey - Gregg Rolie/Steve Perry

 

already covered here:

Replacement lead singers who came in and took over the band

 

David Ruffin was not the lead vocalist when he joined the band.

 

I maybe should have explained better in my OP.. this isn’t about replacement singers, it’s about the spotlight turning from the bands designated singer onto other band members taking the lead.. while the original lead vocalist stays in the group.

 

The Searchers...Tony Jackson sang lead on all the earliest hits, but was ultimately nudged aside, apparently because Chris Curtis didn't like him.

 

steely dan springs to mind

 

Rare Earth - Peter Hoorelbeke and Peter Rivera

... oh wait...

 

Blue Oyster Cult (Buck Dharma/Eric Bloom)
The Dictators (Dick Manitoba/Andy Shernoff)
The Clash (Mick Jones/Joe Strummer)
(hm, a Sandy Pearlman connection here)

 

Not that they got far with it, but the non-John Fogerty members of Creedence Clearwater Revival did their best to assert themselves on the band's last record.

 

Deep Purple MK1

 

That's right,in the early days-Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks took most of the leads.

 

You could say that Joey got usurped by CJ n the Ramones.

Also, Shaun Murphy in Little Feat. She joined as the lead singer and was featured as such, but by the time she left she was pretty well sidelined.

 

Would Chicago be a good example? Terry Kath and Robert Lamm getting usurped by Peter Cetera?

NJB

 

Tages. Tommy Blom sang lead on most of their early material but as time went on, bass player and main composer Goran Lagerberg handled the majority of lead vocals.

 

XTC - Andy Partridge was the frontman and primary songwriter and vocalist, but it was bassist Colin Moulding whose songs gave the band their first proper hits (most notably "Making Plans for Nigel"), so to Andy's chagrin he became the "face" of the band for a while.

 

Possibly Neil Finn joining Split Enz and sharing the vocal duties with brother Tim.

Not sure about the situation elsewhere, but Neil's "I Got You" was a breakthrough track for the band in North America. By the time they released their final album, Tim had left and Neil remained.

 

And still Kevin Godley had the best voice of all of ‘em.

 

Brian Jones/Mick&Keith

In the beggining it was Brians band.

 

But he wasn't the lead singer, was he?

 

No.But he did everything else damn near.

 

Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks.

 

in the beginning of the Beatles/the quarryman it was mainly John but by the end it seemed to be Paul