5 Rock Supergroups Best Remembered For One Massive Hit

A recurring phenomenon throughout the decades of classic rock, a supergroup was as much an event as it was a novelty. These star-studded collaborations gave famous musicians a chance to stretch beyond their usual creative circles. And while it's entertaining and fascinating to see a bunch of massive rock stars from different bands or solo careers all on stage at the same time, the supergroup concept can also signify much ado about nothing, what with the many supergroups that have come and gone quickly, registering just one huge hit for which they'll always be known and remembered.

But the lesson, as these supergroups from the '80s and '90s seem to want to impart, is to play for the sake of playing. All these musicians clearly had a great time collaborating with people outside of their primary groups, and that showed up on the songs themselves, some of which became major radio and record-store hits. It didn't provide much in the way of staying power, however. Here are five fondly recalled supergroups who are largely remembered today because of a single smash: the Power Station, Bad English, Damn Yankees, the Storm, and Temple of the Dog.

The Power Station emerged during a mid-'80s break for Duran Duran, when guitarist Andy Taylor and bassist John Taylor began exploring music outside the band. They teamed with Chic drummer Tony Thompson and singer Robert Palmer, whose solo career had already produced hits including "Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)." The resulting supergroup brought together Duran Duran's new wave pedigree, Chic's dance-floor rhythms, and Palmer's rock and soul influences. Chic co-founder Bernard Edwards, who had frequently worked alongside Nile Rodgers, produced the group's debut album.

The synth-loving supergroup released just one self-titled LP in its initial formation, which spawned two Top 10 hit singles, one significantly more impactful than the other. "Get It On (Bang a Gong)" was a remake of a 1972 T. Rex song that defined '70s glam rock, but it was outperformed by the No. 6 smash, "Some Like It Hot," an original composition. It's the one song by the Power Station that people still listen to today, with nearly double the lifetime streaming spins of the T. Rex cover.

Before they respectively launched a pop-rock solo career and joined Journey in its arena rock era, singer John Waite and keyboard player Jonathan Cain were part of the power pop band the Babys. After taking "Isn't it Time" and "Every Time I Think of You" into the Top 20 in the late 1970s, the Babys split up. After hitting No. 1 in 1984 with "Missing You," Waite's career was in a steep decline by 1987, the same year that Journey broke up. Soon after, Waite and Cain reconvened along with ex-Babys bassist Ricky Phillips. Cain additionally brought along Journey guitarist Neal Schon and drummer Deen Castronovo, at the time coming out of the indie metal band Wild Dogs. And thus, Bad English was formed, taking a direction that sounded more like Waite than it did the Babys, Journey, or Wild Dogs.

The public liked what it heard. Bad English's eponymous album hit stores in the summer of 1989, and it quickly sold a million copies on the strength of the single "When I See You Smile," a two-week No. 1 hit. The follow-up single "Price of Love" was a certified smash, reaching No. 5 on the Hot 100, but it's faded away while that chart-topping power ballad has not. "When I See You Smile" has racked up 145 million plays on Spotify, versus nine million for "Price of Love."

Perhaps the most disparate mishmash of rock figures to ever find each other and create a supergroup, Damn Yankees collected a bunch of '70s and '80s classic rock refugees and briefly became one of the most popular hard rock bands of the early '90s. Between 1990 and 1993, Damn Yankees charted five singles, of which the biggest far and away was the majestic and rocking power ballad "High Enough," a gold-certified No. 3 hit that gave many members of the supergroup a moment to show off their individual world-famous musical skills.

"High Enough," appropriately enough, is a soaring and inspirational song about the power of love and romantic reconciliation. It's a rare display of earnest emotion in the catalog of Damn Yankees' self-styled unhinged guitarist Ted Nugent. However, it's exactly in the wheelhouse of the two other major members of Damn Yankees: Tommy Shaw of Styx and Jack Blades of Night Ranger.

When singer Steve Perry left Journey for personal reasons, the band called it quits in 1987, leaving its members to head out in different musical directions. Bassist Ross Valory formed the studio project V.U., which included singer Kevin Chalfant, late of the bands 707 and Steel Breeze. Valory and Chalfant later connected with former Journey drummer Steve Smith and Journey's keyboard player and one-time Santana member Gregg Rolie for another supergroup known as the Storm. With Josh Ramos of the lesser-known '80s band Le Mans in the guitarist slot, the Storm released a self-titled album in 1991.

The Storm's LP peaked at No. 133, but it produced a considerably more successful single. The power ballad "I've Got a Lot to Learn About Love" cruised into the Top 30 of the Hot 100. Song rights tracker Broadcast Music Inc. gave songwriters Chalfant and Rolie an award because it was among the most-played songs on American radio stations in 1992. 

In 1990, Andrew Wood, the 24-year-old singer for the Seattle grunge band Mother Love Bone, died of a heroin overdose. The band had been gaining momentum in Seattle's emerging rock scene, a birthplace for others acts such as Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. Pearl Jam was formed by Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard after Mother Love Bone disbanded in the wake of Wood's death. Four months before Pearl Jam released its blockbuster 1991 debut album "Ten," Ament and Gossard appeared on the self-titled and only LP credited to the supergroup Temple of the Dog. Also part of the act: Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready, and Soundgarden's Matt Cameron and Chris Cornell — a close friend and once roommate of Wood, for whom the album was recorded in tribute.

Though its members weren't all famous yet, the lineup would make Temple of the Dog look like a supergroup in retrospect. The "Temple of the Dog" LP generated two Top 5 rock radio hits in "Say Hello 2 Heaven" and "Hunger Strike." The former didn't get an official music video, limiting its impact in the heyday of MTV, while "Hunger Strike" did. Featuring superstars-to-be Vedder and Cornell trading off on lead vocals, the heavy power ballad became part of grunge's early-'90s breakthrough and has since earned more than four times as many streams as "Say Hello 2 Heaven."