Legendary Groups That Started As Somebody Else's Backup Band

Fans have long embraced solo rockers supported by backup bands. Whether or not the leading artist went on to lasting success, their often-anonymous musical sidekicks sometimes achieved legendary status in their own right. From house bands that stumbled on a winning formula to aspiring musicians who were noticed as they ground out another star's tunes, for some, the first step to fame and fortune began in the background. In time, a few one-time backup bands even ultimately eclipsed the fame of the artists they once supported.

Throughout the history of rock music, such a path to success was hardly an uncommon phenomenon. From the Beatles to bands that supported the Beatles, and a now-iconic band that was once fronted by the folk poet-turned-rock rebel Bob Dylan to another that changed the face of popular music, these are all legendary groups that once started, at least in part, as somebody else's backing band.

Bob Dylan famously went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, and to cap off a year that was among the best of Dylan's career, he planned a tour that would include his rock songs for the first time, but needed a band to do so. He was advised to check out a group called the Hawks, which would eventually be molded into the Band. 

Led by guitarist Robbie Robertson and drummer/vocalist Levon Helm, the Hawks had spent years on the road backing up rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins. Dylan was particularly impressed with Robertson and invited him to join him on tour, and as it progressed, the rest of the Hawks joined the fray. Helm, freaked out by the hearty booing that had become de rigeur from Dylan's folkie fans whenever he strapped on an electric guitar, eventually quit.

When Dylan was laid low after a motorcycle accident in 1966, he retreated to his home in Woodstock. Meanwhile, the Hawks (with Helm back in the fold) were ensconced in a house nearby, which they'd nicknamed Big Pink. While convalescing, Dylan would regularly join them for jam sessions, which were recorded and found their way onto a now-legendary bootleg dubbed "The Basement Tapes." That ultimately led to their own record deal, with the Hawks renamed as the Band and releasing its groundbreaking 1968 debut album, "Music from Big Pink." 

Among the myths you can stop believing about the Beatles is that it never backed up another artist. In fact, the boys from Liverpool had once been sidemen for singer Tony Sheridan. They'd met Sheridan while performing at the Kaiserkeller in Hamburg, and struck up a friendship. A popular performer on the Hamburg club circuit, Sheridan was tapped to record a single for Polydor, and he brought the Beatles into the studio as his backing band.

Together, they recorded "My Bonnie" as a single, with a rock version of "The Saints Go Marching In" for the B-side. Interestingly, the band's now-iconic name was not used in the single's credits. Because "Beatles" was phonetically similar to German slang for a particular part of the male anatomy, a decision was made to instead identify the group as the Beat Brothers on the disc.

Of course, the Beatles went on to become, well, the Beatles. Sheridan enjoyed a modestly successful music career, but is best remembered as a minor footnote in the Fab Four's sprawling history. "It was hard work, very hard work, for very little money," Sheridan recalled of those grueling nights in Hamburg when interviewed for Beatles Archives.

Looking back, it's clear the Eagles dominated the '70s with ease, and the band's five No. 1 hits are proof. Yet its status as one of the world's biggest rock bands can be traced back to singer Linda Ronstadt. Looking to assemble a band to accompany her on tour after the release of her third album, Ronstadt swung by hip Sunset Strip club the Troubadour and wound up catching a band called Shiloh. Impressed, Ronstadt approached the band's drummer, Don Henley, and offered him a spot on her tour. She then enlisted Glenn Frey — who was in a fracturing band with her then-boyfriend J.D. Souther — to play guitar.

"In those days we didn't have enough money to put people in separate rooms, so Glenn and Don were rooming together and they each discovered the other could sing and was a great songwriter," Ronstadt told Billboard in 2016. "Glenn used to call Don his secret weapon. He said, 'I'm gonna do a band with Don. We're gonna do a band together.' I said, 'That's a great idea.'"

Ronstadt's producer, John Boylan, offered his assistance in helping Frey and Henley put that band together, with the understanding that the new group would continue to back Ronstadt while he worked on getting them a record deal. "So I suggested they get Bernie Leadon to play guitar 'cause I liked Bernie and John suggested that they get Randy Meisner, and that's how the Eagles were formed," Ronstadt explained.

When Boz Scaggs entered the studio to record his 1976 album "Silk Degrees," he enlisted a cadre of young LA session musicians: keyboard player David Paich, bassist David Hungate, and drummer Jeff Porcaro. They contributed to the smooth sound of an album that yielded such hits as "Lowdown," among the songs that defined yacht rock (and one of several on the album that Paich co-wrote with Scaggs). The three musicians then accompanied Scaggs on tour as members of his backing band. 

"By recording with me and having the success that we had on that album and then touring with me, I think that it really solidified them," Scaggs told Noise11. "It gave them a clear path to what was to follow ..." The trio's success with Scaggs, both in the studio and on the road, laid the groundwork for a record deal when they later formed their own band, with the addition of guitar whiz Steve Lukather and other studio musicians. 

That group was Toto, which went on to chart numerous hits in the years that followed, including the No. 1 single "Africa." "I'm not sure if Toto would have happened as soon, or quite the same way, without 'Silk Degrees,'" Paich told Something Else! in 2013. "It was instrumental in launching Toto. So, I owe [Scaggs] a lot."

When Marcus Mumford received an offer to play drums for British singer Laura Marling on her debut album, then accompany her on U.K. and U.S. tours, he jumped at it. "And I went and did a year," Mumford told BBC Radio 2. "That was the best job in music, in London, in our minds at that time. So it was an offer I couldn't refuse." It was also the beginning of Mumford & Sons.

During this time, Mumford and Marling formed a romantic relationship. Meanwhile, he'd already formed a band with friends Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall, and Ted Dwane — which then became Marling's touring band, and played on her second album, 2010's "I Speak Because I Can. By then, Mumford & Sons had released its own debut album, 2009's "Sigh No More," with the lead single "Little Lion Man" generating enough heat to earn a Grammy nomination. 

In the midst of all this, Mumford and Marling split up, their breakup coinciding with the sudden success of Mumford & Sons — and a parting of the ways with Marling. Looking back on the experience and watching Marling's rise, Mumford recognized that he had received an education into the business side of music. "I think I sort of picked things up, the way things work, definitely," Mumford told Entertainment Weekly in late 2010. "We were quite lucky in that way really, because we had a bunch of friends going through that, the contracts and all that, so we got to learn a little bit more, get more experience before we even started."

Throughout the 1960s, Memphis-based Stax Records unleashed a string of hits from artists including Rufus Thomas, Sam & Dave, and Otis Redding. Many of those iconic tracks featured the backing of the Stax house band, — the future Booker T. & the M.G.'s — consisting of Booker T. Jones on keys, Steve Cropper on guitar, drummer Al Jackson Jr., and originally Lewie Steinberg on bass, who would be replaced by Donald Dunn. According to legend, the band had assembled in the Stax studio to record a session for a singer who ended up not performing. While waiting, they began jamming, locking into a funky groove led by Jones' Hammond organ.

The result was a song intended to be the still-unnamed group's debut single, "Behave Yourself," but the band had nothing to put on the B-side. Cropper flashed back to a jam he'd heard Jones playing a few weeks before, and within 20 minutes and just a few takes, they had it in the can. That song was "Green Onions," an instrumental that was ultimately released as the first single from Booker T. & the M.G.'s ("Behave Yourself" was relegated to the B-side), and a rock song from 1962 that sounds even cooler today. When "Green Onions" became a surprise hit, peaking at No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100, this crew of studio musicians was suddenly a bona fide band.

"There'd been absolutely no thought of being in a band," Cropper told Uncut in 2017. "We were forced into it by putting 'Green Onions' out. It was an all in-house accident. If the record hadn't of hit, we'd still just have been a backup band."

In 1963, Kingston teenagers Bob Marley, Neville Livingston, and Peter MacIntosh formed a vocal group they called the Wailers. After its 1964 single "Simmer Down" took off, the band's sound began to shift as Marley took control, evolving into what would become known as reggae. Marley's talent as a songwriter and front man emerged, and by the time the group broke through internationally in the 1970s, it'd become Bob Marley and the Wailers. Livingston (aka Bunny Wailer) and MacIntosh (Peter Tosh) quit the band after the release of the breakthrough "Catch a Fire" album, dissatisfied with being Marley's sidemen and eager to embark on solo careers. Marley then put together a new group under the name of the Wailers.

After the tragic real-life story of Bob Marley ended with his death in 1981, the Wailers continued successfully under the leadership of bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett, featuring guitarists Junior Marvin and Al Anderson. Over the years, a schism formed; in 2008, Marvin and Anderson split off to form another iteration of the band, the Original Wailers.  

Both bands have remained active. In 2023, the Original Wailers released a single, "Si Tu Me Lo Das." Meanwhile, the other band (now known simply as the Wailers) embarked on a European tour in the summer of 2026, following the release of the 2024 album "Evolution." Barrett died in 2024, with the Wailers now led by his son, Aston Barrett Jr.

The Rascals (initially the Young Rascals) experienced a solid run of success in the late 1960s with such hits as "Groovin'" and "People Got To Be Free." Yet before the quartet – consisting of Eddie Brigati, Felix Cavaliere, Dino Danelli, and Gene Cornish — launched out on their own, three of the four were already seasoned musicians, thanks to singer Joseph DiNicola. 

Under the stage name Joey Dee and the Starliters, he led the house band at NYC's famed Peppermint Lounge, with Brigati, Cavaliere, and Cornish members of the Starliters (although, at various points, the band included future "Goodfellas" star Joe Pesci and guitar god Jimi Hendrix). Dee cleverly cashed in on the dance craze started by Hank Ballard with "The Twist," which was popularized when Chubby Checker covered the song. Dee recorded his own variation, with "Peppermint Twist – Part I" knocking Checker's single off the No. 1 chart position.

When Dee and the Starliters toured Europe, the band members sparked a friendship with their opening act, an up-and-coming Liverpool band called the Beatles. As Cavalieri recalled in a 2016 interview with Flower Power Cruise, the Beatles were instrumental in their decision to part ways with Dee and go out on their own. "After the Beatles made it here, I said to the guys in the band that we should start our own group. I said, 'Let's stop being sidemen,'" he said.

In the late 1960s, New Orleans keyboard player Art Neville formed a band. The group went through several iterations until a regular gig at a popular French Quarter nightclub with a small stage forced him to shed some members, ultimately emerging as a four-piece called the Meters. Producer Allen Toussaint heard the band playing and extended an offer for the Meters to be his in-house studio band. "Rumor had it that he was looking for a new rhythm section to work with, and we were approached as a band to come into the studio and record some tracks," Meters bassist George Porter Jr. told WaxPoetics in 2020.

After backing several singers in the studio, Toussaint suggested the band record a few of its own songs. The result was the Meters' 1969 eponymous debut album. In the years that followed, the Meters continued to put out its own records while also serving as the backing band for other artists' tracks, including Dr. John, Robert Palmer, and Labelle — most notably the iconic single "Lady Marmalade." 

According to drummer Zigaboo Modeliste, relentlessly playing together in clubs at night and in the studio during the day honed the band into an ultra-tight unit that developed its own unique brand of funk. "By us playing together all the time, it kept us sharp enough to have a sound," Modeliste added. "It was just something you develop after playing together and hanging with each other for a while." 

Rocker Roy Orbison's otherworldly operatic singing style was highlighted on several hit records, including "Only the Lonely." Over the course of his career, Orbison typically enlisted session musicians in the recording studio and hired bands to back him when he toured. One of these was a group that worked with Orbison in the late 1960s called the Candymen, whose name was taken from Orbison's 1961 hit "Candy Man." In addition to touring with Orbison, the Candymen performed as a standalone unit, even opening for Pink Floyd in 1967, and would form the core of the Atlanta Rhythm Section.

After the Candymen's tenure with Orbison ended, Buddy Buie — a songwriter who'd also been Orbison's road manager — had the idea to merge its members with musicians from another band, the Classics IV. "He calls me one day, and he says, 'I have an idea Rodney, and I'd like you to be a part of it,'" Rodney Justo, who'd been in the Candymen, told The Hollywood Reporter. "He said, 'I want to get all the top musicians in the South, put them together and build a super group.'"

He dubbed this new outfit the Atlanta Rhythm Section, which became the house band at Buie's Georgia recording studio, Studio One, in addition to recording its own albums. "Atlanta Rhythm Section was Buddy's dream," Justo continued. "He wanted a band that he could produce, manage, write songs for and to be a vehicle for his songs."

Initially a band before morphing into an ever-changing assemblage of studio musicians led by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan carved out a singular lane in 1970s rock by combining jazzy arrangements, slick production, and cynically witty lyrics. Yet before that, the duo were sidemen in somebody else's band: Jay and the Americans.

Interviewed for "Paul Shaffer Plus One," Fagen recalled how he and Becker had written some songs that they took to the Brill Building in New York, then the epicenter of the music publishing business. The songs they were writing, however, were not what the industry was clamoring for at that time. "We tried," Fagen said, "but we were terrible as pop songwriters." 

However, they attracted the attention of Jay and the Americans, fronted by Jay Black and purveyors of such pop hits as "Come a Little Bit Closer" and "This Magic Moment." Becker and Fagen were noticed more for their musicianship than their songs, and were hired to perform in the band. "We ended up playing," Fagen explained. "My partner and I were bass and piano respectively, for a couple of years."

In 1958, Cliff Richard and the Drifters released the group's first single, "Move It," followed by the debut 1959 album, "Cliff." Richards quickly became a teen idol, and after the Drifters faced legal action from an identically named U.S. band, it became the Shadows. During those early years, there was a sense of solidarity between singer and band. "Cliff was the star but it felt like a unit," rhythm guitarist Bruce Welch told The Telegraph in 2020. "It was more like a five-piece than the hierarchy of singer and backing band," added lead guitarist Hank Marvin. "Cliff was always one of us."

For the next decade, the Shadows did double duty as Richards' backing band while also releasing its own successful Richards-free instrumental tracks, specializing in the same kind of guitar-based surf rock as the Ventures. Starting with the 1960 No. 1 hit "Apache," the Shadows cranked out a stream of hits in the U.K., split almost evenly with Richard and without him. 

While Richards went on to become a household name in the U.K., his old backing band went on hiatus for a while after 1968, but reformed in 1973. The public's demand for its music endured, notably in 1977, when the band's greatest hits album, "20 Golden Greats," spent six weeks at No. 1 in the U.K. Solo projects put the band on ice again through the '90s, before the Shadows came roaring back in 2009 with a wildly successful 50th anniversary tour — and with Richards along for the ride.