Rush

Since the release of its 1976 breakthrough, 2112, this Canadian progressive power trio has released nothing but gold or platinum albums. Rush's early critics cited vintage Yes when they first heard singer Geddy Lee's high-pitched vocals, Alex Lifeson's major-chord guitar heroics and Neil Peart's heavy but adroit drumming. Instruments wrapped themselves around intricate, often epic-length musical structures that carried Peart's often apocalyptic or mythological lyrics. The band has since won respect as an inventive thinking-man's hard-rock unit. Virtuosic instrumentalists, the three regularly place high in the readers polls of musicians' magazines.

Rush's initial success was based on diligent touring, as the group established itself first in Canada and then the northern U.S., then gradually expanded its following despite limited airplay. The futuristic concept album 2112 (Number 61, 1976) made Rush a late-Seventies force to be reckoned with. But Permanent Waves (Number Four, 1980) caused the trio's popularity to soar. The album, Rush's eighth, marked a departure with its shorter compositions, which characterized the band's work into the Nineties. The platinum Signals (Number Ten, 1982) introduced a refined sound: shimmering guitar similar to the Police's Andy Summers', warm synthesizer backdrops and, most notably, relatively subdued vocals from Lee, who by then sang in a lower register. That remained the blueprint for Rush's music throughout the Eighties and early Nineties. Each of Rush's five albums through 1985's Power Windows sold at least one million copies, with Moving Pictures (Number Three, 1981) moving more than four million. While Rush remained the antithesis of a singles band, Signals produced an actual hit, "New World Man" (Number 21, 1982).

The group lowered its profile somewhat later in the decade, scaling back on touring. Yet the albums, from 1987's Hold Your FireDifferent Stages—Live (Number 35) still sold either gold or platinum. Counterparts (Number Two, 1993) recalled Rush's earlier, earthier sound, with Lifeson once again the instrumental focus. The band then went on an eighteen-month hiatus. Peart worked on a tribute album to drummer Buddy Rich. With guest help from Primus' Les Claypool, Lifeson made an album under the name Victor. Nevertheless, Rush's next studio offering, Test for Echo, leaped to Number Five in 1996. In 1998 the trio went on sabbatical again. Peart had lost his nineteen-year-old daughter in an automobile accident and wife to cancer about a year later. The drummer coped with his grief by riding his motorcycle from Canada to Mexico. During that period, Lee recorded his solo debut, 2000's My Favorite Headache. In 2001 the trio reconvened to begin work on Vapor Trails (Number Six, 2002). Rush followed with a tour and live album from Rio, where the trio is massively popular. In 2007 the band released Snakes & Arrows, which rocketed to Number Three.

The Canadian trio has altered more than just music over the years. Once perceived as a rather dour bunch (due largely to Peart's often weighty lyrics), Rush has long since revealed a sly sense of humor. In 1982 Lee sang on the Top Twenty hit "Take Off," by Bob and Doug McKenzie, the Canadian-bumpkin satire roles of Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis of the Canadian-based comedy show SCTV. Another SCTV character, Joe Flaherty's Count Floyd, introduced Rush via video during the trio's 1984 tour. And in 2007, Rush introduced its most famous song, "Tom Sawyer," with a South Park parody on huge screens. Rush often takes the stage to such pre-recorded self-deprecating bits as the Three Stooges theme or Pavement's "Stereo," which pokes fun at Lee's high-pitched vocals.