In terms of absolute star power, The Wilbury’s are unlikely to be topped. Dylan and one of The Beatles for starters , then an iconic singer, a current ( or soon to be) superstar and a well- respected musician/ songwriter with a track record of hits. Every generation — and decade—of rock history was covered too And the music, while loosely recorded in a spirit of spontaneity— was great. And twice as many albums as Blind Faith— who along with CSNY— is the next logical choice.
BBM ( Bruce, Baker, Moore )..Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Gary Moore. Love that, one and only, album that they put together 'Around the Next Dream.' Gary Moore's solo on the track 'Why Does Love (have to go wrong)? from that album has to be one of his greatest ever solo's.
Some of my faves are: 60s - Cream 70s - ELP, Hatfield & The North and UK 80s - Asia and Traveling Wilburys 90s - Liquid Tension Experiment 00s - Asia (reunion of original lineup) 10s - Flying Colors and my faves of all from 1998 to date Neal Morse (Spock's Beard), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings) and Pete Trewavas (Marillion) who collectively make up prog supergroup Transatlantic.
The four members of ABBA were already famous in their home country of Sweden, so they count as a supergroup. not sure if they were bigger than the Wilburys
Didn't they release the most commercially successful supergroup album ever? Probably not but I read it somewhere...
I wasn't aware that ABBA were individually famous prior to, well, ABBA. If so, that would have to qualify them for contention as one of the biggest supergroups of all time. They. Were. Huge.
ABBA in terms of success as a supergroup, Travelling Wilburys in terms of the status of its members when the band formed. In terms of supergroups eclipsing their previous work, after Abba I think ELP must be the biggest success as a supergroup.
As far as qualifying, they may have been seen as a super group in Sweden as opposed to writ large. By the same argument, the Beatles might be considered a “super group“ in Liverpool by adding the drummer from the hurricanes, but I think the qualifier of members already largely famous in the larger Western popular music industry may best serve the likely intention of the thread.
The Greedies. (Sex Pistols + Thin Lizzy) Or how about the short-lived, 1 EP, HeadGirl ( Motorhead + Girlschool)
I'll definitely vote for Bryndle, unknown to most here. As far as the most disappointing "supergroup", I nominate Little Village (Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner).
I have to agree on the definition. While none of them could have been considered "superstars" , they emerged at a time when fans knew the names of the members the bands they followed, so all four were famous in their own right. And coming from three countries, they were international, so automatically a supergroup in the US, Canada, and the UK, probably the three biggest markets. Whether they actually lived up to their billing is open for debate--and has been through many threads on this forum.
