Oops, left out U2 and REM! I could name a hundred others if pushed. In my youth in San Jose, it was the groups who had singing that were considered the best. Stained Glass had a couple of albums on RCA, but never broke nationally. I saw them first as The Trolls in the summer of ’65 (around the time I saw The Beatles at The Cow Palace in San Francisco), when they were doing Beatles songs. Bassist/lead singer Jim McPherson left the group to join Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist John Cipollina in Copperhead.
Then there was the group People, who had a national hit with a cover of The Zombies "I Love You". They had two lead singers (and two harmony singers), Larry Norman later becoming a star in the Christian Music field. We also had The Chocolate Watchband, who were just a glorified Rolling Stones impersonation. You can see them in the Roger Corman movie Riot On Sunset Strip. Drummer Gary Andrijesivich was a couple of years ahead of me at Cupertino High School, whose marching band and orchestra he played in. I would see him on the football field in the afternoon, and on stage that night ;-) .
The Syndicate Of Sound hit nationally in ’66 with "Little Girl" (Hey little girl, you don’t hafta hide nothin’ no more), but by 1968 were back playing at my Senior Year All Night Party at a San Jose bowling alley. One singer, no harmony. Not one of favorite local bands, and neither were The Count Five, whose "Psychotic Reaction" was an obvious imitation of The Yardbirds version of Bo Diddleys "I’m A Man". A lot of imitation going on in San Jose!
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham played on the same San Jose High School stages as I and all the other local garage band members did in the mid-60’s, in their group Fritz. There is a picture somewhere of Stevie on stage at Mother Butler (a catholic Girls School) in a chiffon gown ;-) . When The Doobie Brothers got their Warner Brothers deal, their gig as the house band at The Chateau, a biker bar up in the Santa Cruz mountains, came up for grabs. My band auditioned, but I guess we weren’t biker enough. One of our guitarists/singers/songwriters (Lance Libby) had been in the final version of Stained Glass, who had by that time again changed their name, this time to Christian Rapid. They disbanded when McPherson left to join Copperhead. Ancient history.