Bands That Soldiered On

For some reason I was thinking of bands that continued after the main member died. I recall as a youngster trying a few times (and mostly failing) to listen to Full Circle, one of the two albums The Doors made after Jim Morrison died. These probably never made it to CD. All I remember about it now is that there was a song called "4 Billion Souls"; pretty astounding that another three billion have piled on since then, all in my lifetime.

Buddy Holly and the Crickets apparently never recorded as "Buddy Holly and the Crickets"--the music was released alternately under the name "Buddy Holly" and the name "The Crickets" (although they toured as "Buddy Holly and the Crickets"). Not only did the Crickets continue after Holly's death, but his replacement--Sonny Curtis--wrote and recorded a couple of songs with the band that many of us will still remember: "I Fought the Law," which more people probably know by Bobby Fuller or The Clash, and "More Than I Can Say," with which one Leo Sayer had a hit when I was a lad.

I think Bob Marley and the Wailers were just The Wailers until Bunny Livingston and Peter Tosh left the band, then after Bob Marley died they continued as The Wailers Band. But this wouldn't be too remarkable, were it not for the fact that at some point they recorded a song with John Denver, with a refrain that goes "Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Jah." I just found that out via Wikipedia, with a Youtube chaser: the song is called "World Game."

The remaining members of the Grateful Dead flirted with this when they toured as "The Dead," but it was at least somewhat of a name change, anyway.

There must be a lot more, but that's all I've got tonight. I feel like I forget that The Doors recorded two more albums before they broke up right after I remember it again every time, so it's always a little surprising. I'm not really a Doors fan, but it's hard to think of them as The Doors without Jim Morrison.

ADDENDUM: According to Wikipedia, Sonny Curtis also wrote The Everly Brothers' "Walk Right Back." Everyone should know that song, it is one of the great ones. The riff was later copped by Neil Young for his 90s song, "Harvest Moon."