Grand Funk

Out of Flint, Michigan came one of the hardest-working rock machines of the early seventies, Grand Funk Railroad. The core trio of Mark Farner on guitar and vocals, Mel Schacher on bass, and Don Brewer on drums built a reputation as a live juggernaut before they ever had major radio support, famously selling out Shea Stadium faster than the Beatles had. Their sound was thick, blues-drenched hard rock with a working-class muscle to it, heavy riffs meeting soulful vocals in a way that connected immediately with blue-collar America.

The band churned out a string of platinum records in the early seventies, with albums like Closer to Home, Live Album, and We're an American Band becoming genuine commercial milestones. That title track, produced by Todd Rundgren, hit number one in 1973 and remains their signature song. Keyboardist Craig Frost joined the lineup around that time, filling out their sound as they pushed into more polished territory. Critics at the time largely dismissed them as populist noise, but that dismissal has aged poorly. Grand Funk Railroad delivered honest, unpretentious hard rock that influenced countless bands and helped define what arena rock would become throughout the decade.