Supergroups: An Album a Day
Featuring Audioslave, Traveling Wilburys, boygenius, and others
My friend Ken and I decided to listen to an album every day this year. Each week is themed. At the end of each week, we rank what we listened to. To be clear, we aren’t ranking every album that fits the theme. We are only ranking what we chose to listen to during the last seven days.
This week’s theme is “supergroups,” meaning albums by groups where at least 50% of the members were already well known for either a previous group or solo career. The term is largely associated with rock music—the Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce outfit Cream often denoted as the first group of this ilk—so we largely stuck with that genre. Let us know your favorites.
#7 The Firm by The Firm (1985 - Paul Rodgers, Jimmy Page, Chris Slade, and Tony Franklin)
When I selected this album, Ken had no idea who was in The Firm. And he didn’t look it up until after he finished listening. “I can’t get past that being Jimmy Page on guitar,” he texted me after doing some research. “You start a band. You get Jimmy Page. Then he gives you that. It must have been a let down.”
He’s not being dramatic. This album is not good. Like many stars of the 1970s, Jimmy Page sounds lost amid the 1980s production. The only highlight is one moment on “Radioactive,” the album’s lead single. Just after the chorus, Page arpeggiates a run of diminished chords that remind you how inventive he can be.
#6 The Three Tenors in Concert, 1994 by The Three Tenors (1994 - José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti)
In celebration of the 1990 World Cup final, three of the world’s best regarded opera singers performed an internationally televised concert to over 800 million viewers. A recording of the concert quickly became the best-selling classical album of all time. As a result, those singers—José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti—decided to continue performing together. Their 1994 live album, also recorded on the eve of a World Cup finale, sold just as well as their debut.
Looking back, this whole situation seems almost fantastical. I can’t imagine a situation in 2026 where classical music, especially opera, would crossover into the mainstream. But before the internet fragmented media, it was much easier for something like this to happen. Put something a bit outside the pop culture sphere in front of hundreds of millions of people, and it’s possible the audience would connect.
At the same, it’s not that hard to understand why people enjoyed this. First, The Three Tenors are incredible singers. It doesn’t require much of an explanation to connect with Pavarotti singing “Nessun dorma” from Puccini’s Turandot. Second, these three classical music giants were also singing well known compositions. Breakfast at Tiffany’s “Moon River.” The Phantom of the Opera’s “All I Ask of You.” West Side Story’s “America.” And the audience loves it. When the group breaks into “Singin' in the Rain,” you can actually hear the audience laugh with surprise and giddiness.
To be clear, I don’t think many of these operatic versions of popular songs work very well. That’s why this album isn’t ranked higher. But they are fun. The one outlier is the trio’s rendition of “My Way.” Their version almost makes you not want to listen to the Frank Sinatra version ever again.
#5 Audioslave by Audioslave (2002 - Chris Cornell and Rage Against the Machine w/o Zack de la Rocha)
After Zack de la Rocha split from Rage Against the Machine in 2000, the three remaining members of the group went on the hunt for a new vocalist. At the suggestion of Rick Rubin, they tapped Chris Cornell, the former frontman of Soundgarden, and got to work.
Critics were not pleased. Pitchfork described the group’s self-titled debut as “the worst kind of studio rock album.” AllMusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that “many of the songs sound like they’re just on the verge of achieving liftoff, never quite reaching their potential.”
I understand some of this perspective. But I think most people’s view of Audioslave is influenced by their view of the earlier groups it evolved from. I don’t know much about Rage Against the Machine or Soundgarden beyond their hits. To my fresh ears, this was a worthwhile record. In fact, I might prefer Chris Cornell’s voice over Tom Morello’s riffs more than Zack de la Rocha.
#4 Them Crooked Vultures by Them Crooked Vultures (2009 - Josh Homme, John Paul Jones, and Dave Grohl)
Across his long life, John Paul Jones has only released original music with two groups: Led Zeppelin and Them Crooked Vultures. The former needs no introduction. The latter is a bit more obscure.
As early as 2005, Dave Grohl was hinting at recording with Josh Homme and John Paul Jones. But the group wouldn’t take the stage for another four years. When they did, they played almost 90 minutes of original music. That was a bold decision. Even if they had written some new songs, they could have peppered the set with songs by Foo Fighters and Led Zeppelin and Queens of the Stone Age and nobody would have complained. In fact, it probably would have led to lots of ticket sales. Their commitment to fully original music was worth it, though.
I’m not going to claim that the trio’s studio collaboration equals the efforts of any of their earlier groups. But it is a ton of fun. The riffs run for days, and John Paul Jones’ multi-instrument mastery brings great texture to the record. If they ever decided to get together again, I’d certainly listen.
#3 Highwayman by The Highwaymen (1985 - Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson)
There’s one perspective that this record is slight, four legendary country outlaws leaning toward then contemporary production to cash in on a handful of covers (e.g., “Against the Wind”). But that undersells what is going on here.
First, it’s a miracle that this album works at all. As Willie Nelson noted in his 2015 autobiography, “You wouldn’t think our four uneven voices would blend. But they did. They fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.”
This “jigsaw puzzle” is best illustrated by the title track, “Highwayman.” Originally written and recorded by Jimmy Webb, “Highwayman” tells the story of a soul reincarnated four times. Its first life is as a highwayman. Then it returns as a sailor, a a dam-builder, and starship captain in a faraway future. One member of the quartet vividly embodies each of these incarnations: Nelson the highwayman, Kristofferson the sailor, Jennings the dam-builder, and Cash the starship captain. Johnny Cash’s vocal here is particularly miraculous, a man whose voice sounds like it was pulled from the earth convincingly telling you how he’s flying a spaceship.
“Highwayman” is not only illustrative of how these distinctive voices work together, but it is also the best track on this record. And while none of the other songs manage to equal its magic, ever other track is such a joy because it’s clear that these men are having a good time. They’re singing lost verses on songs they’ve cut before (e.g., “Big River”). They’re breathing life into compositions by their heroes (e.g., “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)”). They’re also shining a light on the music of their friends (e.g., “The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over”).
#2 The Record by boygenius (2023 - Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus)
A few years before boygenius released their debut album, Phoebe Bridgers got in a fight on Twitter with another supergroup aficionado, David Crosby. Crosby’s problem was Bridgers recent performance on Saturday Night Live where the singer-songwriter smashed her guitar. “[I]t’s what you do when you can’t write,” the former Byrd opined about Bridgers’ antics. At the time, Bridgers was already respected as a songwriter, but if there were any remaining doubts, The Record put those to bed.
Of course, The Record is not only by Phoebe Bridgers. She’s paired up with fellow singer-songwriters Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus. And the trio prove that their vocal harmony and songwriting skills are on par with any other group, including many of David Crosby’s groups from the 1960s and 1970s. If “Emily I’m Sorry” is not considered grade-A songwriting, then I don’t know what is.
#1 The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3 by Traveling Wilburys (1990 - Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynn, and George Harrison)
I thought somebody was pulling a fast one on me when I first found out The Traveling Wilburys existed. My favorite singer (i.e., Roy Orbison) was in a band with my favorite songwriter (i.e., Bob Dylan), a Beatle (i.e., George Harrison), and one of the most inventive producers of the 1970s (i.e., Jeff Lynn). Oh, yeah, Tom Petty is there too. This can’t be real.
After realizing that it was real, my next thought was that there is no way it could work. No band needs five frontmen who play the guitar. The best I assumed this could go was like one of those disastrous Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts where they have 15 guys playing guitar and 8 playing drums. The Traveling Wilburys proved me wrong, though. They are real, and they are glorious.
Confusingly, The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3 is the transatlantic group’s second record. Their first, backed by singles like “Handle With Care” and “End of the Line,” was more successful than the second. But despite the tragic death of Roy Orbison, the second is just as much fun.
Every supergroup has a choice. They can either lean into contemporary production to try to make something with mass appeal or just do whatever they like because they’ve already found success. The Firm illustrates the perils of the former. The Traveling Wilburys—making a humorous, light-hearted record steeped in the rock tradition of the 1950s and 1960s—illustrate the joys of the latter.
Both “Cool Dry Place” and “Wilbury Twist” are exemplars of this joy. The former is three-minute meditation on how to properly store tons of musical gear, including “organs and trombones.” The latter is a group theme song of sorts that plays on the scores of twists that have been released. Their twist involves putting your hand on your head, foot in the air, and hopping around in your underwear.
If you are famous musician reading this and thinking about forming a supergroup, please put your ego aside and just have a good time. If Bob Dylan and George Harrison can do it, so can you.
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