{"id":366646,"date":"2025-12-24T01:57:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T01:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/366646\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T01:57:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T01:57:17","slug":"3-lead-singer-changes-that-revitalized-and-reimagined-these-classic-rock-bands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/366646\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Lead Singer Changes that Revitalized and Reimagined These Classic Rock Bands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To a certain extent, bands are like businesses. If one piece isn\u2019t working, then the rest of the organization is dysfunctional. What do you do with that broken piece? Well, you replace it, of course. Bands aren\u2019t much different, and for them to execute their full potential, they need to have the right personnel. That being so, here are three lead singer changes that revitalized and reimagined these classic rock bands. <\/p>\n<p>Fleetwood Mac &amp; Stevie Nicks <\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve said it before, and we\u2019re going to say it again: following the lineage and unofficial family tree of <a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/stevie-nicks-had-an-icy-response-to-the-woman-who-briefly-replaced-her-in-fleetwood-mac\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fleetwood Mac<\/a> is like following the British Royal family\u2019s. However, we are going to break down part of it nicely and neatly for you. Prior to Stevie Nicks taking over as the lead singer, the lead singers of Fleetwood Mac from 1970 to 1974 were Bob Welch and Christine McVie. <\/p>\n<p>From 1970 to 1974, Fleetwood Mac was in a transitional phase and received moderate commercial success with their albums, Future Games\u00a0and\u00a0Bare Trees. However, when Stevie Nicks joined the picture, well, we all know what happened after that. <\/p>\n<p>Van Halen &amp; Sammy Hagar<\/p>\n<p>In 1985, David Lee Roth left <a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/the-guitarist-paul-mccartney-said-even-eddie-van-halen-couldnt-touch\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Van Halen<\/a> after consistent struggles over creative control with Eddie Van Halen. Nevertheless, in 1985, Van Halen was looking for someone to fill some incredibly large shoes, as they were in fact one of, if not the biggest, rock bands at the time. Well, they did find someone, and that someone was Sammy Hagar. <\/p>\n<p>When transitions and lineup changes such as this happen, it\u2019s difficult to believe that a band can get better. Well, Van Halen arguably did. After Roth\u2019s departure and Hagar\u2019s entry, Van Halen went on to score numerous No. 1 hits with Sammy Hagar behind the mic. <\/p>\n<p>Genesis &amp; Phil Collins <\/p>\n<p>Before Phil Collins was the lead singer of <a href=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/top-10-songs-by-genesis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Genesis<\/a>, fellow soft-rock smooth singing artist Peter Gabriel was. However, in 1975, Gabriel decided to leave the band for personal reasons. During Gabriel\u2019s time as the lead singer, Genesis was a more progressive rock band and did, in fact, achieve some major success. Although once Phil Collins stepped in, Genesis became a monster success. <\/p>\n<p>Of course, fans to this day still debate which rendition of Genesis is better. It is a fair question, but what they can\u2019t argue about are the facts. There is a lot of evidence pointing towards Collins\u2019 era as the more successful one, and the premier one is that Genesis had their only No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 during Collins\u2019 time. That No. 1 hit was their 1986 single, \u201cInvisible Touch\u201d.  <\/p>\n<p>Photo by Jeff Kravitz\/FilmMagic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To a certain extent, bands are like businesses. If one piece isn\u2019t working, then the rest of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[2617,88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-366646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-classic-rock","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}