Starship

The decades-spanning story of how a gaggle of acid-rock revolutionaries morphed into the band that made vital contributions to the Cocktail and Mannequin soundtracks is way too complex to tell in detail. It boils down to: The Jefferson Airplane > Paul Kantner / Jefferson Starship > Jefferson Starship > Starship > Mickey Thomas' Starship. The birth of Starship occurred in 1984 when Kantner, arguably the band's leader since the '60s, forced the remaining musicians to drop the "Jefferson" after calling it quits. With vocalists Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick assuming control, the band became even more popular. In the late '80s they flooded the charts with a deluge of synth-laced pop-rockers. In addition to the monster hits "We Built This City" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," there was "Sara," "It's Not Over ('Til It's Over)," "Beat Patrol," "Set the Night to Music," "Tomorrow Doesn't Matter Tonight" and more. Slick departed for a short-lived Jefferson Airplane reunion in 1988. Thomas and company carried on, releasing the album Love Among the Cannibals. Though it would be the band's last collection of new material, Thomas continues to use the Starship moniker for touring purposes.