11 Classic Bands Who Returned With New Music After A Long Gap

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There is nothing more frustrating for rock fans than when their favorite bands just stop putting out new music. Of course, there are many reasons for bands to stop putting out music. First and foremost, people pass away. However, with a few exceptions, many of these groups stopped putting records out for reasons other than losing band members. Some simply didn’t feel like it for whatever reason. Others broke up, members went their own way, pursued solo careers or families, or just got tired of the whole rock and roll scene. Nonetheless, the one commonality that every group on this list shares is that after a long period without releasing a full studio album of new material, these groups finally came back with one. Not all of them returned with the same original members, but they did return with new music.

Sadly, many older acts seem to assume that there’s no real demand for new music from them. Anyone who’s been to a classic rock concert knows that the words “This is from our new album” are typically met with collective groans, or even a Pavlovian response by which a good portion of the audience suddenly feels like they need to use the bathroom.

Thus, reunited bands, like long-running acts and even veteran solo artists, often forgo creating new studio material, believing that it’s not worth the trouble and expense when their target audience “just wants to hear the old stuff.” However, here’s a look at 11 classic bands that did take the plunge, coming back with a full album of new material after quite a few years, and how they fared.

# 11 – Van Halen (14 Years)

We’re already anticipating the comments insisting that Van Halen III (1998), featuring one-time frontman Gary Cherone, shouldn’t be considered a Van Halen album. We’re just as sure that at least a couple of people will try to make the same case even for the four multi-platinum albums that the band did with Sammy Hagar, but we’ll leave that topic for everyone’s next drunken bar argument. Strictly speaking, at least, we can say that Van Halen’s 2012 release A Different Kind of Truth, which marked the return of original lead singer David Lee Roth, was their first album of new material in 14 years.

New-ish, anyway. Many of the songs were reworkings of material that dated as far back as the band’s club days in the 1970s. The first single, “Tattoo,” for example, grew out of the older song “Down in Flames,” which was already familiar to Van Halen bootleg traders. In 2019, David Lee Roth deemed the band “finished,” a sentiment sadly clinched by the death of guitarist Eddie Van Halen the following year.

# 10 – Blondie (17 Years)

New York City new wave band Blondie was a major success in the early 1980s but disbanded in 1982 after the disappointing commercial results of an album and tour. In the mid-1990s, perhaps encouraged by the success of newer bands they’d clearly influenced, including No Doubt and Republica, four original members, including lead singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein, reformed the group.

The transition was not entirely smooth. Two former members who were not part of the reunion sued over the use of the band’s name, but in 1999 Blondie released a new full-length studio album, No Exit. The record reached the U.S. Top 20, while the single “Maria” went to No. 1 in the UK. No Exit proved to be no one-time reunion, as the band went on to release four more studio albums through 2017’s Pollinator.

# 9 – Jefferson Airplane (17 Years)

After Jefferson Airplane’s original run ended in 1972, several former members went on to form Jefferson Starship in the 1970s, while other members pursued Hot Tuna and additional projects. By 1989, enough former members of the original Jefferson Airplane, including Grace Slick, Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, and Jack Casady, had come back together to tour and release a self-titled album of all-new material, their first new recording together in 17 years.

Ironically, Starship was still active and released Love Among the Cannibals that same year. Anyone who’s read science fiction might have been concerned that Starship and Jefferson Airplane existing at the same time might have caused a rift in the space-time continuum. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, but Jefferson Airplane was grounded again after the reunion tour.

# 8 – The Rolling Stones (18 Years)

The Rolling Stones waited 18 years between albums of brand-new studio material. They released Hackney Diamonds in October 2023. Their previous studio album of new original material was 2005’s A Bigger Bang. Yes, we know that the Rolling Stones released an album in 2016 called Blue & Lonesome. However, that record was filled with blues covers and contained no newly written Rolling Stones material, so it doesn’t count in our logic. Nonetheless, even though we had to wait 18 years, Hackney Diamonds was spectacular and well worth the wait. We wish they had released more albums during that time, because who doesn’t love the Rolling Stones?

# 7 – Blue Öyster Cult (19 Years)

Unlike the other bands on this list, this one doesn’t represent any sort of reunion project. Blue Öyster Cult has remained an active band for most of its history, even as its studio output became increasingly sporadic after the mid-1980s. Guitarist and vocalist Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser and vocalist and guitarist Eric Bloom remained the central figures while the lineup around them evolved over the years.

In 2020, Blue Öyster Cult released The Symbol Remains, the band’s first studio album of new music since Curse of the Hidden Mirror in 2001. The 14-song record focused mainly on the group’s harder sound and included substantial contributions from guitarist Richie Castellano. Though hardly a simple throwback to the band’s glory days, The Symbol Remains became the first Blue Öyster Cult album to chart in the United States since 1988’s Imaginos.

# 6 – The Beach Boys (20 Years)

The Beach Boys have been a staple of summer concerts for what seems like, to quote one of their songs, “Forever.” By the 21st century, Mike Love and longtime member Bruce Johnston were carrying the touring version of the band with a group of touring musicians. In 2012, Love reunited with Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, Johnston, and early member David Marks for a major tour commemorating the group’s 50th anniversary.

During this period they also released an all-new studio album, That’s Why God Made the Radio. Under the same logic we’re using for the Rolling Stones, the 1996 country collaboration Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 doesn’t reset the clock because it consisted of new recordings of older Beach Boys songs. That makes That’s Why God Made the Radio the band’s first album of predominantly new original material since 1992’s Summer in Paradise, a 20-year gap. The 2012 album reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200, their highest-charting album of new material since 1965.

# 5 – Steely Dan (20 Years)

Steely Dan, comprised of vocalist and keyboardist Donald Fagen and guitarist Walter Becker, was not only unique for its smooth-but-potent jazz-influenced sound, but also for the fact that after its 1974 tour, the group stopped performing live and became one of rock’s few highly successful studio-centered bands. This served them well until the end of the 1970s, when a barrage of legal, creative, and personal troubles eventually prompted the duo to split.

Becker and Fagen reunited for live work in the early 1990s, but they did not release another new Steely Dan studio album until 2000’s Two Against Nature, 20 years after Gaucho. The comeback was anything but tentative: Two Against Nature won four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. It was followed by Everything Must Go three years later. Becker died in 2017, but Fagen has continued touring under the Steely Dan name.

# 4 – Pink Floyd (20 Years)

In 2014, 20 years after The Division Bell, Pink Floyd released The Endless River, a collection comprised almost entirely of instrumental and ambient music. Most of the material grew out of recordings made during the 1993 and 1994 sessions for The Division Bell, with additional work completed two decades later. Much of it included contributions from founding keyboardist Richard Wright, who died in 2008. Guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour described the project in large part as a tribute to Wright. Long-estranged vocalist and bassist Roger Waters did not participate.

Though some cynics dismissed the release as an afterthought or even a cash grab, it entered the UK chart at No. 1 and reached No. 3 in the United States. Gilmour said at the time that The Endless River closed the book on Pink Floyd’s album career. The band did return in 2022 for the standalone charity single “Hey, Hey, Rise Up!,” but no additional Pink Floyd studio album followed.

# 3 – The Cars (24 Years)

Quirky Boston rockers The Cars originally disbanded in 1988 after releasing Door to Door the previous year. Many years later, guitarist Elliot Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes became part of the New Cars with Todd Rundgren on vocals. That short-lived project toured and released It’s Alive! in 2006, a live album that also contained a few new studio tracks, but it never became a full continuation of the original Cars.

In 2010, Easton and Hawkes reunited with surviving original members Ric Ocasek and drummer David Robinson. Bassist and vocalist Benjamin Orr had died in 2000. The reunited Cars recorded Move Like This, released in 2011, their first full studio album since Door to Door 24 years earlier. The album debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and was followed by a short tour. Any real future the band might have had ended with Ocasek’s death in 2019.

# 2 – The Who (24 Years)

In 1982, The Who underwent what was billed as a “farewell tour,” and the following year guitarist and principal songwriter Pete Townshend announced that he was officially done with the band. However, he and lead singer Roger Daltrey would both later make clear that the farewell did not prevent them from periodically working together again. The Who played Live Aid just a couple of years later and resumed more regular touring by the end of the decade, even after the death of founding member John Entwistle in 2002.

Another full-length Who album of new material didn’t appear until 2006, when Endless Wire arrived 24 years after It’s Hard. That was followed by another extended gap before the band released Who in 2019, its first new studio album in 13 years.

# 1 – The Eagles (28 Years)

Highly successful Southern California band The Eagles disbanded in 1980 but returned in 1994 with a tour and live release both entitled Hell Freezes Over, a title inspired by Don Henley’s famous remark about when the band might reunite. The album opened with four newly recorded studio songs, but most of the record was live material. If we’re counting full studio albums of new material, the clock runs from 1979’s The Long Run to 2007’s Long Road Out of Eden, a remarkable 28 years.

Long Road Out of Eden was a sprawling 20-track double album and became another enormous success, reaching No. 1 in the United States and several other countries. The band’s extended dormancy hadn’t impeded its Midas touch in the slightest. Don Henley suggested at the time that it would most likely be the last new Eagles studio album, a scenario made even more likely by the death of vocalist and guitarist Glenn Frey in 2016, although the Eagles continued to tour.