10 Rock Bands Who Went Out on Top of Their Game (plus another 7 Honourable Mentions)

In this video I examine the very rare phenomenon of rock bands who managed to split up while still at the height of their powers, either creatively or commercially. For this list though, I am only looking at groups who released a minimum of three albums - so they must have had a substantial career in order to qualify. And as I state in the video, while this is a top-10 countdown style list, I'm not actually comparing the bands to each other. And also, this list is in no precise logical order, although the top two definitely picked themselves.

A surprising percentage (60% in fact) of the bands in this top-10 happen to be trios - often this is because two of the members aren't able get along with each other, and that ends up meaning that more than half of the group can't work together, and that is untenable. In larger groups it is easier for two people who loathe each other to put aside their disagreements and blend in, but in a three-piece there's nowhere to hide.

Why is it that so few bands split up while on top of their game? Well, most bands don't even make it in the first place. Then you have those who appear in a flurry of hype and fuss and have a killer first album and are just not able to repeat the success of that record. Others, who manage to build a substantial career over time, simply go on too long to be able to possibly maintain that high level of creative magic. It's interesting that only two bands in the top ten here had recording careers that lasted more than ten years and both of those (#10 and #8) took a substantial break before releasing their final studio albums.

I hope you enjoy this video. Interested to know if I've missed anyone out. There's probably some punk or metal band that I've forgotten, only because I don't follow those genres particularly closely. Let me know in the comments section below.

Cheers.

00:00 Introduction
00:37 Honourable mention #1
02:49 Honourable mention #2
03:49 Honourable mention #3
05:08 #10
06:30 #9
07:48 #8
09:02 #7
10:51 #6
12:27 Honourable mention #4
13:42 Honourable mention #5
14:57 #5
16:30 #4
19:11 #3
21:20 Honourable mention #6
23:25 Honourable mention #7
24:45 #2
27:19 #1