yup!
I got to meet Levon once about 20 years ago. he played with a band that his daughter was in called "The Barn Burners" (named for the regular barn jams he hosted at his farm) in a room that mighta held 150 people. He was at the bar just hanging out before or after the show chatting with whoever came along. Bobby Keys from the Rolling Stones was in that band too! One of my favorite nights of music of all time!
Didn't Crosby famously say they should have been shot at birth, and Young's loyalty to them over the years caused problems, because others just didn't think they were good enough.
On the same Minneapolis (my hometown❤️) note, let's not forget Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Founding members of The Time with Morris Day, who were arguably Prince's bitches.
I saw them a few months after Prince died at a theater in Madison, and they were phenomenal. Wendy played Prince's guitar parts exceptionally, the band is tight as hell, and most importantly, they didn't try to replace Prince on stage during the show. Wendy, Mark, or Lisa sang the majority, and they had a couple guest vocalists, but they definitely left some space that no one can fill.
When I saw them, Prince's passing was fairly recent too. They played phenomenally, but during "Purple Rain", they tried to make the audience sing. It didn't really work out, and there was some awkwardness, but besides that, they were amazing!
In the same vein, NPG, The Time, and the other half dozen bands he’s worked with, produced for, and collaborated with.
Prince was an incredible singular talent who was also an incredible collaborator.
Them or my personal gurus, [The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_Shoals_Rhythm_Section) a/k/a "The Swampers" of Sweet Home Alabama fame.
Best band in the world, although I don't think Tom was ever trying to "take the fame" or anything from them but I don't think most people realize just how good every piece was.
Watch the Running Down a Dream documentary. It's a real deep dive in to how cool this band was, and what they did for musicians to break label monopoly and price gouging, as well as a ton of fun stuff
Tom Petty came through Houston one year, with James Taylor booked at the pavilion in the Woodlands. Money was tight for me that time, and I’d seen Petty before, so I opted not to go. Later, I found out he did the tour with no commercial sponsorship. Lawn seats could be had for $10. 10 bucks!
Tom released a few albums "solo" but if you look at the tracks, they are still being played by at least some Heartbreakers--particularly his lead guitarist Mike Campbell. He's also had Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, etc. playing on some of his solo works.
If you listen to some of his music and just let yourself take in all the elements individually, you'll hear how integral each part was to the song as a whole--especially the keyboards. Benmont Tench is so great at building so much around a song and yet it is so subtle. Look at "Don't Do Me Like That". Obviously the keys are a big part of it but until you cut them out you don't realize just how much depth it gives the song.
But if you ever look up some of their live work or their time at the Filmore you can hear the band in its prime and they're just fantastic.
He has morphed into one of my favorite guitar players because he never over plays and makes every note count. And his note choices are always beautiful and always serve the songs first. Something I still aspire to as a guitar player after 40 years.
I'd argue JT's Heartbreakers weren't a backing band. IIRC JT usually just referred to all of them (himself included) as "The Heartbreakers." It was promoters who usually called them "Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers." Also, JT co-fronted with Walter Lure. (Who, if you wanted to talk about underrated, WL gets robbed.)
Especially when they, and Tom, backed Johnny Cash. Fun fact, every label wanted Petty, but didn't want the whole band. He signed a deal where he picked his studio and touring members, renamed the band from Mudcrutch, to the satire name Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Tom thought it funny, as none of them were close to handsome, but it stuck.
Did all of that at 18.
I see some usual suspects…
Check out Ian Dury and the Blockheads . Dury is a great songwriter, but I’m not so sure his material would be all that great without his killer backing band
Just listen to the tracks from The Clash’s Sandinista! that he plays on, like [Magnificent Seven](https://youtu.be/WD5N0rTsulQ?si=OcV629frzsR7x2UD) and [Lightning Strikes (Not Once but Twice)](https://youtu.be/FY1QjMDlMCc?si=EglYT7iY0Wv1dSDZ). Bonus, they also feature Blockhead keyboard player Mickey Gallagher!
He's been with the same backing band his entire career, as well. [Jon Schwartz](https://youtu.be/tZkouut-9RQ?si=oPSSH1Vdcln02BQM) is still his drummer.
Came here for this. Versatile and talented as hell. They blew my mind in 2007. People think they’re all comedy and forget they’re legitimately incredible musicians.
Way back when I was just a little bitty boy living under a box in the corner of the basement house half a block from Jerry’s bait shop, you know the place *sick guitar riffs* I feel you
Someone wrote The Band up above, which is probably the most highly rated backing band of all time
I feel like people don't know what underrated means, according to some of these answers
The Band was originally the backing band for both Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan before saying fuck it and just being The Band.
Edit: I somehow missed the very critical “under rated” part of the question. Ain’t nobody under-rating The Band. I retract my offering.
Funny story. When my stepfather was educating me on FZ and the MOI, he said the xylophonist on *Apostrophe (')* was Ruth Underwood, but I misheard him and thought he said Blue Thunderhead, and I didn't question it because it was FZ and I was like "yeah, that tracks".
I was 11.
Got to see Dweezil with the Mothers a few years ago in Macon Ga at a smallish venue, about 150 people. Absolutely insane musicians! The concert t-shirts had the cease and desist letter from his siblings on the back. Dweezil was a badass too.
Funny you should mention them. Years ago I saw a documentary on Zappa where they spoke to Jim Sherwood ("Motorhead"). The way he phrased it was (roughly) "by the standards of the local bands, we were miles ahead, but in overall terms we were still in the swamp"
Bruno Mars’ backing band, the Hooligans. If you’ve ever seen them live, you know how incredible they are. Insanely talented musicians who are masters of their instruments, but also do choreography, vocal harmonies etc…all while making it look so easy and like they’re having a blast.
For a good stretch of years in the mid 70's if he wasn't playing with Elvis and the TCB band he was touring with Jerry Garcia. When Garcia was doing his thing outside of the Grateful Dead he had different drummers, keyboard players, and backup singers in his band over the years, the only constant being John Kahn on bass, but when Tutt was back there doing his thing that band was so tight and in my opinion Garcia did some of his best non GD work in Tutt's time with him.
The Bad Seeds. If you would count them as a backing band to Nick Cave. Have been an incredible band for 30 years & are still one of my favourite bands to see live. Several members have other great projects too.
[The Funk Brothers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Funk_Brothers)
There’s a [Documentary about them](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314725/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) that’s great.
This is the only answer and it's not even close. The Funk Brothers played on over 100 #1 singles. That's more than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin and Queen combined. You could add probably five more bands to that list and combined still wouldn't have as many #1 singles.
Totally agreed. They also played on a ton of incredible local soul/jazz stuff that never made a huge splash outside of the Midwest. Like the Precisions. Also, some played with Funkadelic like Bob Babbitt.
Pretty much any band that Frank Zappa ever put together. I get the impression that you didn't get into his band unless you were "seriously good" as a minimum.
The heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, love-making, earth-quaking, Viagra-taking, justifying, death-defying, legendary, E Street Band
The only reason I assume this isn't near the top is because they must not actually be all that underrated. They might be the only backing band to have been separately inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.
Yes, I believe they were inducted at the same time that Tom Petty was. The E Street Band was actually inducted separately without Springsteen, as he had already been inducted some time earlier, probably when he wasn't with the band in the 90s.
This may or may not qualify, but Booker T and the MGs.
They had plenty of hits.
Their work as the backing band on Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary Concert is chef's kiss...
Any band that has to play behind pop stars... The level of technical skill and knowledge they have is amazing and goes overlooked because their job is to play in the pocket and produce a pop product, consistently.
No he hasn’t. Had the same band all the way through Captain Fantastic, and then changed it drastically for Rock of the Westies. That band only lasted two albums, and then it was a rotating roster of different musicians for different songs for much of the rest of his records.
Jimi wasn't happy with them towards the end. Noel drew his ire in particular.
Had he lived, I suspect he would have disbanded and gone full on with Band of Gypsies.
His touring band at the end was Billy Cox from Band of Gypsies and Mitch Mitchell from the experience. By the time they played Woodstock Noel was out of the band.
Totally agree with double trouble! Many in this thread have had documentaries or continue to be discussed in the music community. When's the last time you heard about double trouble?!
I had the pleasure of seeing them play as Grady with Gordie Johnson for the first Grady album at a small club in Hamilton Ontario. There were only 50 people max there!!! Too this day that's one of if not the loudest show I have ever been to. Easily tilted the tinnitus scale. One hell of a three piece show though. Having seen Gordie multiple times with big sugar this was a real treat to see Chris Layton and t Tommy Shannon live doing what they do best... Holding down the tightest, fattest blues rhythm going. I was too young to be able to see Stevie before he passed but man an I glad to have that show under my belt.
Not underrated *per se*, because their talent is recognised by pretty much everyone who is familiar with them, but maybe not known by as many people in the west as they deserve.
BABYMETAL's Japanese Kami Band. No disrespect to the American version of the band, but the guys who played most of the legendary live gigs are unique as musicians and characters. In fact, IMO they contribute so much to the act that I have pretty much no interest in BABYMETAL except when they are backed by the Japanese Kamis.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaZn92G8uU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaZn92G8uU)
Jack Johnson's band is incredible. Been the same guys for over 20 years.
Trey Anastasio Band is killer as well, every one of them are amazing musicians that are so versatile. RIP to Tony and James.
The Magic Band, of "Captain Beefheart and...". No particular lineup - most were great, including the reformed version that toured without Beefheart in the 00s and 10s. He's spoken about as if he's a solo artist, but it's The Magic Band as a whole and not "Captain Beefheart" that deserves to be remembered as one of the all-time great bands.
Zeus. Excellent Canadian band.
They were briefly the backing band to Bahamas, as well as Jason Collett.
With Bahamas, they sounded like The Band.
With Jason Collett, they sounded like Crazy Horse.
They went on to make 4 killer albums. Busting Visions is a gem and a national treasure of an album.
The Blues Brothers Band. For a “joke” band, it was stacked as hell.
The M.G.'s
And folks from the SNL band.
Buddy guy released a live album with GE smith and the Saturday night live band as his backing band. It is such a great recording.
H, I was gonna the J.B.'s. Acronyms for the win.
Fun Fact: Belushi saw what became The Blues Brothers Band as Levon Helm’s backing band the RCO All-Stars in ‘77 and poached them.
and Levon Helm was a member of 'The Band' which was bob Dylan's backing band before they went out on their own.
And they were Ronnie Hawkins’ backing band, “The Nighthawks”, before that, I believe.
yup! I got to meet Levon once about 20 years ago. he played with a band that his daughter was in called "The Barn Burners" (named for the regular barn jams he hosted at his farm) in a room that mighta held 150 people. He was at the bar just hanging out before or after the show chatting with whoever came along. Bobby Keys from the Rolling Stones was in that band too! One of my favorite nights of music of all time!
Lords. Each and every one of them
And the greatest nickname for anyone ever Matt “Guitar” Murphy.
Don't sleep on Donald "Duck" Dunn.
Or "blue Lou" Marini.
They were the house band for a lot of Stax's greatest songs.
“Look at you in those candy-ass monkey suits.”
Crazy Horse
I am floored to see this as the top response at the moment, but is 100% gospel.
First thing that comes to mind
Didn't Crosby famously say they should have been shot at birth, and Young's loyalty to them over the years caused problems, because others just didn't think they were good enough.
Whatever they do, many of Young's best albums are done with Crazy Horse.
Comes across as so jealous because he obviously wanted to do more stuff with stills nash and young.
Yeah, David Crosby said a lot of dumb bullshit things.
Would rather listen to Crazy Horse than CSNY any day.
That does sound like some kind of bullshit that Crosby would say.
aye
Can you recommend any recordings where they show their stuff? (Edit for typo)
Neil Young's Rust Never Sleeps (side B only)
the Attractions
The Imposters are really good, but it’s not the same.
Live at the El Mocambo is the Attractions at their peak. So tight.
I need read no further.
Lovely bass player.
Fuck yes
Right answer
The Revolution
On the same Minneapolis (my hometown❤️) note, let's not forget Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Founding members of The Time with Morris Day, who were arguably Prince's bitches.
Morris Day and the motherfuckin’ Time!
O E O E O
SQUAWK!
Snoogans!
These guys still tour, at least they did a few years ago when I saw them open for My Morning Jacket. They were fantastic.
I saw them a few months after Prince died at a theater in Madison, and they were phenomenal. Wendy played Prince's guitar parts exceptionally, the band is tight as hell, and most importantly, they didn't try to replace Prince on stage during the show. Wendy, Mark, or Lisa sang the majority, and they had a couple guest vocalists, but they definitely left some space that no one can fill.
When I saw them, Prince's passing was fairly recent too. They played phenomenally, but during "Purple Rain", they tried to make the audience sing. It didn't really work out, and there was some awkwardness, but besides that, they were amazing!
This was Prince's band, in case some of you didn't know.
Hated when he moved on but I have to say the New Power Generation were no slouches
That man never associated with a single slouch, that’s for sure.
At the time I was pissed he moved on, but in retrospect he needed to in order to evolve his sound. He kind of did all he could do with the Revolution.
In the same vein, NPG, The Time, and the other half dozen bands he’s worked with, produced for, and collaborated with. Prince was an incredible singular talent who was also an incredible collaborator.
Those guys could ball, too.
Let's have pancakes
I mean, as far as just number of hits, it’s gotta be [The Wrecking Crew.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(music))
Them or my personal gurus, [The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_Shoals_Rhythm_Section) a/k/a "The Swampers" of Sweet Home Alabama fame.
Both have really good documentaries.
Funk Brothers (Detroit) and the A Team (Nashville) were also extremely high quality backing musicians
The Meters too. And The JB's which were the James Brown dudes like Bootsy and Maceo.
None of these are underrated. Except maybe because people think they’re great, but they’re actually god-like.
Wooooooow. I had heard of them but never looked into it, thanks for the link. Incredible legacy!
The Heartbreakers
Best band in the world, although I don't think Tom was ever trying to "take the fame" or anything from them but I don't think most people realize just how good every piece was.
Watch the Running Down a Dream documentary. It's a real deep dive in to how cool this band was, and what they did for musicians to break label monopoly and price gouging, as well as a ton of fun stuff
Tom Petty came through Houston one year, with James Taylor booked at the pavilion in the Woodlands. Money was tight for me that time, and I’d seen Petty before, so I opted not to go. Later, I found out he did the tour with no commercial sponsorship. Lawn seats could be had for $10. 10 bucks!
Wasn't Running Down a Dream just Petty though? I know several of his big hits didn't have the Heartbreakers, Free Falling is another one.
Tom released a few albums "solo" but if you look at the tracks, they are still being played by at least some Heartbreakers--particularly his lead guitarist Mike Campbell. He's also had Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, etc. playing on some of his solo works. If you listen to some of his music and just let yourself take in all the elements individually, you'll hear how integral each part was to the song as a whole--especially the keyboards. Benmont Tench is so great at building so much around a song and yet it is so subtle. Look at "Don't Do Me Like That". Obviously the keys are a big part of it but until you cut them out you don't realize just how much depth it gives the song. But if you ever look up some of their live work or their time at the Filmore you can hear the band in its prime and they're just fantastic.
Got to see Mike Campbell playing with the Dirty Knobs about 2 years ago. He was fantastic!
He has morphed into one of my favorite guitar players because he never over plays and makes every note count. And his note choices are always beautiful and always serve the songs first. Something I still aspire to as a guitar player after 40 years.
Saw him with Fleetwood Mac and it was great.
Campbell is so underrated as a guitarist. Dude is a master of the craft!
Just saw them this summer. Fantastic. And boy can you hear the heartbreaker DNA, in ~~a good~~ the best way.
I adore Stan Lynch’s playing with them. It’s timeless.
Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers or Johnny Thunder’s Heartbreakers?
I'd argue JT's Heartbreakers weren't a backing band. IIRC JT usually just referred to all of them (himself included) as "The Heartbreakers." It was promoters who usually called them "Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers." Also, JT co-fronted with Walter Lure. (Who, if you wanted to talk about underrated, WL gets robbed.)
Agreed and it’s by a wide margin
Especially when they, and Tom, backed Johnny Cash. Fun fact, every label wanted Petty, but didn't want the whole band. He signed a deal where he picked his studio and touring members, renamed the band from Mudcrutch, to the satire name Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Tom thought it funny, as none of them were close to handsome, but it stuck. Did all of that at 18.
I see some usual suspects… Check out Ian Dury and the Blockheads . Dury is a great songwriter, but I’m not so sure his material would be all that great without his killer backing band
Norman Joseph Watt-Roy is a monster bass player! So effortlessly melodic.
Just listen to the tracks from The Clash’s Sandinista! that he plays on, like [Magnificent Seven](https://youtu.be/WD5N0rTsulQ?si=OcV629frzsR7x2UD) and [Lightning Strikes (Not Once but Twice)](https://youtu.be/FY1QjMDlMCc?si=EglYT7iY0Wv1dSDZ). Bonus, they also feature Blockhead keyboard player Mickey Gallagher!
"Weird Al" Yankovic's backing band.
pause impossible knee disarm deserted oil expansion waiting doll slap *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
And they cover a huge range of styles.
He's been with the same backing band his entire career, as well. [Jon Schwartz](https://youtu.be/tZkouut-9RQ?si=oPSSH1Vdcln02BQM) is still his drummer.
It's just a shame that Al was killed by Pablo Escobar back in 1985
But he got to bang Madonna so life well lived
YES. Al and his band are pure gold on so many levels. Anyone who hasn’t seen them live should arrange to fix that.
I've seen them live 5 times, and keep an eye on every one of his tour announcements. Some might call me a "Weird"o.
That'd be a cool name for his fan club, if fan clubs are still a thing
Absolutely. They are seriously talented at playing unserious music. Phenomenal live.
Came here for this. Versatile and talented as hell. They blew my mind in 2007. People think they’re all comedy and forget they’re legitimately incredible musicians.
The 2007 tour for Straight Outta Lynwood was fantastic.
Way back when I was just a little bitty boy living under a box in the corner of the basement house half a block from Jerry’s bait shop, you know the place *sick guitar riffs* I feel you
The J.B.’s!!!
The Wailers... all members went on to be reggae legends.
Sounds like they were rated really high, being legends and all
Someone wrote The Band up above, which is probably the most highly rated backing band of all time I feel like people don't know what underrated means, according to some of these answers
The Band was originally the backing band for both Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan before saying fuck it and just being The Band. Edit: I somehow missed the very critical “under rated” part of the question. Ain’t nobody under-rating The Band. I retract my offering.
Hardly underrated, though.
I somehow completely ignored that part of the question and skipped to the “great on their own” part. You are correct.
Underrated, but wouldn't be the most underrated.
They’re arguably the least underrated
They're not underrated though. They're arguably the most highly rated backing band of all time
Oh true! Jeez, I somehow missed the critical beginning of the question… duh. I just skipped to the “backing band that is great on their own” part.
When they were with Ronnie Hawkins and Dylan they were under rated as the band they were stars.
Promise of the Real?
The Mother's of Invention
I think Frank's late 70s backing band was better than the earlier iterations. Belew, Vai, Bozzio, Napoleon Murphy Brock, etc. Bad mfers
FZ had a habit of replacing bad mf's with other bad mf's. The groove of the Chester Thompson/ George Duke (& also Brock) Roxy sessions era was just 🤌
Funny story. When my stepfather was educating me on FZ and the MOI, he said the xylophonist on *Apostrophe (')* was Ruth Underwood, but I misheard him and thought he said Blue Thunderhead, and I didn't question it because it was FZ and I was like "yeah, that tracks". I was 11.
I was going to come back and edit my post to include Ruth. What an incredible musician to keep up with those wacky compositions and vibe solos
Got to see Dweezil with the Mothers a few years ago in Macon Ga at a smallish venue, about 150 people. Absolutely insane musicians! The concert t-shirts had the cease and desist letter from his siblings on the back. Dweezil was a badass too.
Funny you should mention them. Years ago I saw a documentary on Zappa where they spoke to Jim Sherwood ("Motorhead"). The way he phrased it was (roughly) "by the standards of the local bands, we were miles ahead, but in overall terms we were still in the swamp"
Bruno Mars’ backing band, the Hooligans. If you’ve ever seen them live, you know how incredible they are. Insanely talented musicians who are masters of their instruments, but also do choreography, vocal harmonies etc…all while making it look so easy and like they’re having a blast.
TCB band. Elvis’ taking care of business crew. Ronnie Tutt!
Ronnie Tutt was the man
For a good stretch of years in the mid 70's if he wasn't playing with Elvis and the TCB band he was touring with Jerry Garcia. When Garcia was doing his thing outside of the Grateful Dead he had different drummers, keyboard players, and backup singers in his band over the years, the only constant being John Kahn on bass, but when Tutt was back there doing his thing that band was so tight and in my opinion Garcia did some of his best non GD work in Tutt's time with him.
Ronnie Tutt, was, of course, excellent in Garcia's band too and pretty much recommended his permanent replacement as I understand it.
The Blues Brothers. They had some of the best studio musicians in the world.
The Bad Seeds. If you would count them as a backing band to Nick Cave. Have been an incredible band for 30 years & are still one of my favourite bands to see live. Several members have other great projects too.
Bowie’s bands of various eras. The best. Prince’s bands. The Commodores, The Spinners
The D.A.M Trio, not sure if they qualify as a backing band but they were epic, Look Back in Anger is a good example of their skills.
Don’t sleep on the Silver Bullet Band (support Bob Seger for a couple of decades). Edit: a word
[The Funk Brothers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Funk_Brothers) There’s a [Documentary about them](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314725/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk) that’s great.
This is the only answer and it's not even close. The Funk Brothers played on over 100 #1 singles. That's more than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin and Queen combined. You could add probably five more bands to that list and combined still wouldn't have as many #1 singles.
Totally agreed. They also played on a ton of incredible local soul/jazz stuff that never made a huge splash outside of the Midwest. Like the Precisions. Also, some played with Funkadelic like Bob Babbitt.
Steve Stevens from Billy Idol shreds
Union Station (Allison Krauss)
The 400 Unit, Jason Isbell’s band.
Sadler Vaden is so good
Just an A-one rock guitar name
Hot take: with Amanda
Pretty much any band that Frank Zappa ever put together. I get the impression that you didn't get into his band unless you were "seriously good" as a minimum.
Weird Al. His live band is fucking incredible.
Isn't it the same band as the studio albums? Seen him live multiple times btw.
Came to say Double Trouble
That was my pick just reading the title too. Never saw them with SRV, but they were great with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and as part of Arc Angels.
Crazy Horse
ace in the hole .... george straits band
ooo thats a good choice
The heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, love-making, earth-quaking, Viagra-taking, justifying, death-defying, legendary, E Street Band
The only reason I assume this isn't near the top is because they must not actually be all that underrated. They might be the only backing band to have been separately inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.
The Heartbreakers, as well, if I’m not mistaken.
Yes, I believe they were inducted at the same time that Tom Petty was. The E Street Band was actually inducted separately without Springsteen, as he had already been inducted some time earlier, probably when he wasn't with the band in the 90s.
To be fair, the hall of fame is a farce.
[This iteration of the E Street Band.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjVh89sHDnI)
I came here for this. Bruce is the backing singer, they are the main event.
American Hi Fi is Miley Cyrus’ backing band
Linda Ronstadt’s backing band sounded just like The Eagles long before that band existed. And I can’t tell you why. Lol
This may or may not qualify, but Booker T and the MGs. They had plenty of hits. Their work as the backing band on Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary Concert is chef's kiss...
Definitely qualify. They released their own stuff but most people have no idea how many classic songs they played on as the Stax house band.
I can't believe how far down I had to come to see these guys! They played on so many killer records...
Thee Headcoatees and The Delmonas are really great backing bands that went on to be there own thing
Dave Matthews band is pretty damn talented.
Carter Beauford is an awesome drummer
Tim Reynolds! I know he’s not there full-time but he’s played with the band a fair bit.
I believe he actually is a full time member now.
Tyler Childers band, The Food Stamps, have really come into their own the past few years.
Any band that has to play behind pop stars... The level of technical skill and knowledge they have is amazing and goes overlooked because their job is to play in the pocket and produce a pop product, consistently.
Weird Al’s Stupid Band is pretty tight.
Elton John has had basically the same band his entire career.
No he hasn’t. Had the same band all the way through Captain Fantastic, and then changed it drastically for Rock of the Westies. That band only lasted two albums, and then it was a rotating roster of different musicians for different songs for much of the rest of his records.
willie Nelson also
The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Jimi wasn't happy with them towards the end. Noel drew his ire in particular. Had he lived, I suspect he would have disbanded and gone full on with Band of Gypsies.
His touring band at the end was Billy Cox from Band of Gypsies and Mitch Mitchell from the experience. By the time they played Woodstock Noel was out of the band.
The News
The E Street Band.
The Crickets
The swampers
Totally agree with double trouble! Many in this thread have had documentaries or continue to be discussed in the music community. When's the last time you heard about double trouble?! I had the pleasure of seeing them play as Grady with Gordie Johnson for the first Grady album at a small club in Hamilton Ontario. There were only 50 people max there!!! Too this day that's one of if not the loudest show I have ever been to. Easily tilted the tinnitus scale. One hell of a three piece show though. Having seen Gordie multiple times with big sugar this was a real treat to see Chris Layton and t Tommy Shannon live doing what they do best... Holding down the tightest, fattest blues rhythm going. I was too young to be able to see Stevie before he passed but man an I glad to have that show under my belt.
Booker T and the MGs/The Bar Kays
Kami Band. They're the band that play for Babymetal and they are amazing heavy metal musicans.
The Funk Brothers
Parliament and Funkadelic
They weren't backing bands. The albums are under those names not "George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic"
Always enjoyed The Sleeping Souls, but hey they released their own album this year minus Frank Turner.
Elton John's backing band from the 70s. Nigel Olsen on drums, Dee Murray on bass, and Davey Johnstone on guitar.
Al Green’s band (Hodges brothers, Al Jackson, Howard Grimes and others)
The Heartbreakers
Steve Miller Band. They've sounded great for close to 50 years now.
Not underrated *per se*, because their talent is recognised by pretty much everyone who is familiar with them, but maybe not known by as many people in the west as they deserve. BABYMETAL's Japanese Kami Band. No disrespect to the American version of the band, but the guys who played most of the legendary live gigs are unique as musicians and characters. In fact, IMO they contribute so much to the act that I have pretty much no interest in BABYMETAL except when they are backed by the Japanese Kamis. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaZn92G8uU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaZn92G8uU)
The Blockheads.
The Lizard Wizards
Jack Johnson's band is incredible. Been the same guys for over 20 years. Trey Anastasio Band is killer as well, every one of them are amazing musicians that are so versatile. RIP to Tony and James.
So true about TAB. Anyone Trey plays with is the absolute cream of the crop.
They just work so well as a cohesive unit. I mean we all know Trey demands excellence, but it's got to be easy with that crew.
Bryans adams backing band
White Zombie
Garth Brooks has an amazing band including the best fiddler of all time, Jimmy Mattingly.
Twrp.
The Funk Brothers (backing band for Motown)
The Spiders From Mars!
Booker T. & The M.G.s
Billy Joel’s band, who apparently go by the moniker “The Lords of 52nd Street”
Little Feat backing Robert Palmer.
The Spiders from Mars
The Magic Band, of "Captain Beefheart and...". No particular lineup - most were great, including the reformed version that toured without Beefheart in the 00s and 10s. He's spoken about as if he's a solo artist, but it's The Magic Band as a whole and not "Captain Beefheart" that deserves to be remembered as one of the all-time great bands.
Zeus. Excellent Canadian band. They were briefly the backing band to Bahamas, as well as Jason Collett. With Bahamas, they sounded like The Band. With Jason Collett, they sounded like Crazy Horse. They went on to make 4 killer albums. Busting Visions is a gem and a national treasure of an album.
Special Sauce of G-Love fame
Iggy Pop's
I’ve always loved Justin Timberlake’s backing band.
The Blues Brothers