The Biggest Comebacks in Music History

Eagles were one of the most successful bands of the 1970s, yet this didn’t stop them from announcing a breakup in 1982. Fortunately for fans, the breakup turned out to be a temporary hiatus, and the band returned in 1994, releasing a live album and the Top 40 hit “Get Over It,” their first Top 40 since “Seven Bridges Road” in 1981.

Grammy Award-winning song parodist Weird Al Yankovic has had a long and successful career fusing music and humor. After his 1992 hit “Smells Like Nirvana,” 14 years passed before he returned with “White & Nerdy.” He’s since scored yet another Top 40 hit with “Word Crimes” in 2014.

Despite their diehard fanbase, English rock band Radiohead have had limited pop success. In 1993, the band broke into the Top 40 with their song “Creep.” Mainstream audiences heard little from the band – aside from the minor hit “High And Dry” – until 2008, when they once again made the Top 40 with “Nude.”

The raspy British rocker, caricatured by John Belushi on “Saturday Night Live,” had almost 15 years between Top 40 hits until he scored with “When The Night Comes” in 1989. His previous solo Top 40 effort had been “You Are So Beautiful/It’s A Sin When You Love Somebody” in 1975.

The singer rose to fame with a hammy theatrical style marked by songs like “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” in the 1970s. Meat Loaf’s success ebbed in the 1980s, but he rebounded with the song “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” that became his first No. 1 in 1993, and led to a revival of his career in the 1990s. Meat Loaf’s previous Top 40 success had been “You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth” in 1979.