Thirty greatest sibling acts in rock and roll history

4. VAN HALEN – EDDIE AND ALEX VAN HALEN

There are those who believe (and I should note that I’m one of them) that if Van Halen had continued on the trajectory established with their initial self-titled release, they might have become the greatest rock and roll band ever. In Eddie Van Halen, they had the visionary guitarist who elevates everything around him. His brother Alex played a formidable double bass on the drums. And they had the ideal counterpoint to the Van Halen high-octane rock in singer David Lee Roth.

It continued for several more albums, but the music began drifting a bit, until 1984, when the synthesizers of “Jump” turned things in a new, and not always welcome, direction. It’s not as if Eddie and Alex (along with new singer Sammy Hagar) forgot how to rock. They just didn’t seem to do it as relentlessly as before. They still had great success, but some of us missed those early days.

3. THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND – DUANE AND GREGG ALLMAN

The only band on this list that includes “brothers” in their name. (The Doobies weren’t brothers, or I would have found a spot for them). It’s true they had plenty of support from guitarist Dickie Betts, bass player Berry Oakley, and their twin drummers Jamoe Johanson and Butch Trucks. But for several glorious years, the Allmans were built on Duane's astonishing melodic slide guitar and Greg’s soulful vocals.

I mentioned in the intro that this list doesn’t include country rockers. The Allmans were Southern rockers – not country rockers. Hearing Gregg sing “Midnight Rider”  or Duane rocking “You Don’t Love Me” from the Fillmore East live album is about as good as rock and roll gets.

2. THE KINKS – RAY AND DAVE DAVIES

If Heart is underrated, what can I say about the Kinks? Ray Davies was the wittiest songwriter in the early days of rock. The band helped invent punk with “You Really Got Me,” then moved on to more pastoral songs in short order. They put out great sentimental ballads, great hard rock, and even fairly good disco-tinged dance music when that was a thing.

Ray wrote and sang the songs, and Dave could play anything on guitar. He rocked out sensationally on “Father Christmas.” A year after the Beatles supposedly invented the concept album, the Kinks released the greatest concept of the 1960s with The Kinks Are the Village Green Society. And to think – the recently-released Apple Music “100 Greatest Albums” list couldn’t find room for a single Kinks record.

1. THE BEACH BOYS – BRIAN, DENNIS AND CARL WILSON

I’ll be honest. I wasn’t going to include the Beach Boys on this list. In part because I just wrote about them in a “Multiple Lead Singers” piece, and in part because I wanted to put the Kinks at number one. But I eventually realized that I couldn’t do this kind of list without them and if they were going to be on it, they kind of had to be number one.

They were among the most inventive bands in rock’s formative years. They were the only American band rivaling the artistry coming from the UK in the early ‘60s. Brian may have been chiefly responsible, but Carl was extremely important as well. And if Dennis’ drumming wasn’t especially memorable, he was in fact, a surfer. With the Beach Boys, that counts for something.

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