George Thorogood & The Destroyers

Thorogood was playing in the minor leagues when he gave up his baseball career, and formed a band with area musicians called the Delaware Destroyers in 1972. The Destroyers, as they soon became known, built a solid following in the bars, and in 1973, took the leap forward, moving to Boston where there was a thriving blues scene. A collection of demos was released on a small indie entitled, Better Than The Rest. (Through licensing agreements, the LP would later be released on MCA Records after Throgood became popular.)

The Destroyers gradually became one of the most popular Boston-based blues-rock acts. In 1977, Rounder Records, one of the biggest regional blues and folk indie labels, heard the group and signed them. The initial LP for Rounder made a little noise, but it was the bands second Rounder release, Move It On Over, featuring its blistering hard rockin' cover of the Hank Williams' classic, that firmly put the group on the international music scene.

By now, the band was called George Thorogood & the Destroyers and with Move It On Over, they had a gold record. Thorogood and the band then moved over to the bigger, international EMI label, who were determined to break the band worldwide. It did. With the release of Bad To The Bone, Thorogood and company saw platinum success. They continued a steady streak of blues rock albums through 1992 that all went gold. And by the end of the '80s, the group's large college/drinking crowd had morphed into solid cult following.