Jefferson Airplane

The Jefferson Airplane was perhaps the most well known of the psychedelic groups to come out of San Francisco. The group was first formed by Marty Balin (vocalist), in 1965. The group, however, did not achieve immediately success. Although popular in San Francisco, their first album Jefferson Airplane Takes Off would only reach 128th on the record chart, national. The group undergo more changes in their line-up before achieving success. The most significant change came with the addition of Grace Slick, who was previously a vocalist for The Great Society. Slick would bring, from her previous group, two songs "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love", which were included in the groups second album, Surrealistic Pillow. This album would make them one of the few psychedelic groups that would become popular with mainstream, pop music listeners. Somebody to Love and White Rabbit were also released as a singles, both became pop hits, despite or more likely because of the drug overtone of the latter. Unfortunately, Jefferson Airplane would continue to undergo personnel changes due to personal conflicts within the group, and would have a name change to Jefferson Starship, in 1971. However, there would be several more albums that would be released under Jefferson Airplane until 1973. The Starship would continue performing and would have several top ten hits in the 1970's and 80's.

Jefferson Airplane's second album: Surrealistic Pillow was both a critical and financial success