Boston’s beginnings go back to 1969 and a band headed by guitarist Barry Goudreau called Mother’s Milk. Vocalist Brad Delp and drummer Jim Masdea were joined by a recent MIT graduate, Tom Scholz on keyboards. The band didn’t last, but its members spent time in a homemade recording studio in Scholz’s basement recording demo tapes in hopes of making a new start.
Those tapes eventually landed the group, now called Boston, a deal with Epic Records, and in 1976 they released what would become the biggest selling debut album in history, with sales exceeding 17-million. At a time when disco and punk were starting to emerge as influences, Boston’s traditional rock sound was embraced by radio stations and record buyers.
Like other bands of the era who achieved major commercial success in a short time, there was internal dissension and a tenuous relationship with a record label anxious to capitalize on the huge success of the band’s first album. It would be two years before the band’s second album, Don’t Look Back was released, selling four million copies the first month, but ultimately selling only half as many as the first album. The band has released just six albums, including a Greatest Hits compilation.
The legendary Rockman guitar amplifier was a product of Scholz’s own company, which he formed in the early ‘80s and later sold. Scholz and Delp were the only original members of Boston who were still with the band until March 2007 when Delp died at the age of 55.
The band resumed touring in 2008 with new vocalists Michael Sweet (from the Christian metal band Stryper) and Tommy DeCarlo, a Boston fan who was recruited after posting some of his covers of Boston songs on MySpace.
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