FAMOUS FOR: The “Bad Boys of Boston” were well known for songs like “Dream On” (1976) and “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)” (1987) but also helped pioneer the Rap-Rock genre when singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry agreed to play with Hip-Hop artists Run-D.M.C. their song “Walk This Way” in 1986. This contribution still makes many critics’ Top 100 list of Best Rap songs, making Aerosmith a true crossover act.

AND THEN:  By 1984 already needed a “reunion tour” to get them back. In the 90’s, they put Alicia Silverstone on the map. Also, in pure rock star fashion Steven Tyler dated model Bebe Buell and had a daughter named Liv Tyler (check out this creepy fan page) who not only has made cool movies but herself married Royston Langdon, leader of the 90’s glam rock band Spacehog. Talk about closing the circle.

FAMOUS FOR: Their 1980 release Back in Black is the best selling album by a band EVER with 49 million copies purchased.

AND THEN: Somehow, still popular enough in 2003 to head (with Rolling Stones and Rush) the continent’s largest paid event with a half million in the audience to watch a benefit again SARS in Toronto. For their biggest comeback in 2008, they teamed with producer Brendan O’Brien (who made hard-rock supergroup Velvet Revolver work and revived Pearl Jam’s career with Backspacer) to make Black Ice, which debuted #1 on album charts in 28 countries.

LAST SEEN:  Providing soundtrack to Iron Man 2 with latest release, a compilation chosen by AC/DC fan Jon Favreau.

YOU CAN PLAY THEM ON: Rock Band 2

FAMOUS FOR: Formerly known as The Polka Tulk Blues Band (seriously, look it up), BS switched gears in 1969 with the Boris Karloff movie-inspired moniker and songs with darker themes. With the hippie revolution still in bloom, Sabbath made waves with the anti-Vietnam War song “War Pigs.”

AND THEN: Ozzy left the band in 1979 but Sabbath went on to release ten albums. The MTV show “The Osbournes” made the mumbling brit Ozzy a household name in 2002. In 2006, they entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, praised as trailblazers by seemingly every hard-rock band from Metallica to Godsmack. In his biography, Ozzy compares the idea of a reunion to “going back to ex-girlfriends” which makes this unlikely.

LAST SEEN: Movie audiences’ first glimpses of Iron Man came with the Sabbath song of the same name blasting.

YOU CAN PLAY THEM ON: both Guitar Hero 2 and Rock Band feature Black Sabbath’s songs.

FAMOUS FOR: The band made solid glam-rock records but it was the whole package that did: the painted faces, the bare torsos and leather campy outfits, the pyrotechnics that gave them a reputation as a great live act. KISS made hits like “Detroit Rock City”, “Hard Luck Woman” and “Rock and Roll All Nite” for a decade starting in 1973.

AND THEN: In 1983, they made the decision to ditch the makeup and costume. While the subsequent album Lick It Up went gold, fewer fans were turning up at shows.

LAST SEEN: In recent years, they’ve had a rebirth, playing festival in full garbs. In 2009, they released Sonic Boom which has sold 250,000 and energized the band to release more. The 2008 movie Role Models, Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott and others dress up as KISS members and go LARPing (Live Action Role-Playing).

YOU CAN PLAY THEM ON: Guitar Hero offers a slew of KISS songs to play plus a band faceplate for the guitar-controller

FAMOUS FOR: Elton John is a bonafide rock star with tons of recognizable hits like “Your Song,” “Crocodile Rock,” “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” and, of course, the 37-million-copies-selling “Candle in the Wind.” He’s won just about everything you can in entertainment: Grammies, Academy Awards, Golden Globes and Tonys. A man he’s worked with countless time, Billy Joel called him a “Roman aristocratic rock star.”

AND THEN: Elton John has also been busy with his AIDS foundation. Since 1993, he’s put on benefit concerts to support a UK branch that assists programs in Africa, Asia and Europe and a US branch that grants funds to AIDS programs in the Americas and the Caribbeans to the tune of $175 million. Something to consider: Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch has been valued at $120 million. For his work, Elton Hercules John was knighted in 1998 by Queen Elizabeth II. MJ? He’s been handily ridiculed.

LAST SEEN: From 2003 on, he and Celine Dion took turns playing lavish shows at the Caesar Palace in Las Vegas. One would rest while the other performed. I guess this is what happens when you’ve already done everything else but, in 2006, John told Rolling Stone Magazine that he was considering doing a Hip-Hop record with anyone from Snoop Dogg to Eminem. “It may be a disaster, it could be fantastic,” he said, “but you don’t know until you try.”

YOU CAN PLAY HIM ON: Rock Band offers a number of Elton John songs but perhaps, more suitably, Karaoke Revolution has a version with songs often sung on American Idol, and you can bet Elton John is on there.

FAMOUS FOR: Where would the rock world be without “Stairway to Heaven”? And what about that cool scene in the music store in Wayne’s World where the music store guy forbids Mike Myers to play the song? In just over ten years, the Zeppelins released nine albums, changing the rules when they called the first four Led Zeppelin I-IV. Shit, a member of the British Parliament had this to say about Led Zeppelin II (which includes the hit song “Whole Lotta Love”): “It’s the ultimate album for teenage boys–metal as art.”

AND THEN: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have continued to be prolific since the group disbanded in 1980 after drummer John Bonham’s death. That death is worth noting because its pure Rock and Roll spirit: a coroner found that Bonham drank close to 40 shots of vodka that day, including four quadruple vodkas for breakfast. There was a short reunion tour in 2007 that featured Jason Bonham, John’s son on drums, followed by years of start-and-stops about a full-on return by Led Zeppelin. Don’t bet on it.

LAST SEEN: Bassist John Paul Jones teamed up with Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) on drums and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) on guitar and vocals in the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures which released a very cool record in 2009. Funny: on the TCV bio page there’s a FAQ section and this is the first one (in case you were still unclear): “What does the band sound like? It sounds like the guy from Queens of the Stone Age singing and playing guitar with the bass player from Led Zeppelin and the drummer from Nirvana. Now that music is getting out there, this one is sort of unnecessary but still…”

YOU CAN PLAY THEM ON: You can’t because, like other mega-bands out there, it’s very difficult (and costly) to get the rights to songs. But then again, there’s a whole Beatles: Rock Band video game.

FAMOUS FOR: 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon is the penultimate progressive rock concept album. It also continued Pink Floyd’s mark on album cover artwork.

AND THEN: In 1979, they released the rock operaThe Wall, spawning the hit “Another Brick In The Wall” and, to this day, stoners everywhere believe that the album was meant to be a soundtrack to the animated movie Alice in Wonderland. The two can be synced to great effect. In the late 80’s, the band toured without founding bassist Roger Waters in support of new album A Momentary Lapse of Reason. No kidding. And they toured for three years on that “momentary lapse.”

YOU CAN PLAY THEM ON: PF has appeared on neither Guitar Hero or Rock Band, probably because they don’t like the idea. Drummer Nick Mason was quoted as saying, “It irritates me having watched my kids [play those video games]. If they spent as much time practicing the guitar as learning how to press the buttons they’d be damn good by now.”

FAMOUS FOR: Forever known for their hits “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” “Godzilla” and “Burnin’ For You,” BOC had a strong decade in the 70’s.

AND THEN: Once the 80’s kicked in their bio is rife with personnel changes (with Randy Jackson on bass for a spell). Through the 2000s they release eight albums, often full of their trademark umlautted Ös. Shout out to my dad here: cyperpunk author John Shirley wrote most of the lyrics for 1998’s Heaven Forbid and 2001’s Curse of the Hidden Mirror. It should be noted that bands such as Evanescence, Elliott Smith and Wilco have all covered their songs.

LAST SEEN: BOC cancelled their 2008 tour after lead guitarist Buck Dharma fell down a staircase at his home but expect to see them back on the road.

YOU CAN PLAY THEM ON: Rock Band features “The Reaper”

FAMOUS FOR: Canada’s most celebrated prog-rock band is well known for songs like “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight” which feature Geddy Lee’s high-register vocal style. Individually, the band members have been recognized for being musical vertuosos, especially drummer Neil Peart who uses a 360-degrees drum kit.

AND THEN: They seemed to “good guys” who are pationate about music and have an intense fan base. They’ve continuously given time and t-shirt sales proceeds to philanthropic causes and continued to tour. In 2007 they released “Snakes & Arrows” and then played on Steven Colbert’s show in 2008.

LAST SEEN: The Paul Rudd and Jason Segel movie “I Love You, Man” featured Rush as the band the pair bond over. A Rush concert, with the band brought on to play in between two tour dates, was even the backdrop to a climatic scene.

YOU CAN PLAY THEM ON: Rock Band, which has the benefit of featuring a drum set, features seven downloadable Rush songs on its catalog.

FAMOUS FOR: Gosh, what aren’t they famous for? In the 60’s, the Stones put out some of their most recognizable hits: “Satisfaction” (1965),  “Paint It Black” (1966), “Let’s Spend The Night Together’ (1967), “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Street Fighting Man” (1968). But it was during the 70’s that American audiences really paid attention: starting with 1971’s Sticky Fingers (famous also for Andy Warhols’ crotch shot record cover) through 1978’s Some Girls, the Stones went multi-Platinum in sales almost the whole decade in the country.