Greatest Band of All Time

Every act here is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a group. That is the entire entry rule, which is why the draw runs from doo-wop quartets to Wu-Tang Clan without stopping to explain itself. Solo inductees are out, so Elvis, Dylan, Aretha and Prince all miss a bracket about the greatest band.

The oldest entrants came in with the first classes of the eighties, when the Hall was still catching up on the fifties. The newest arrived in 2026, the year that finally brought in Iron Maiden, Oasis, Sade, Joy Division and Wu-Tang Clan. Bands the Hall never called are not here, and that is a real edge rather than an oversight: the voters' taste is this bracket's taste.

Backing bands count on their own, because the Hall counts them. The Crickets, the Comets, the Blue Caps, the Famous Flames and the Midnighters were all inducted separately from the singers whose names went on the label, and they draw the same as everyone else.

Every candidate plays a video, and the video is the song that band most likely hooked you with. Where an official one exists it is that. Where it does not, it is the label's own upload, so what you are judging is the record and not a photograph.