Yes

Yes never originated progressive rock yet played a pivotal role in exposing its complexities to broad listeners while shaping how the style evolved and took shape. Their definitive configuration—Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, and Bill Bruford—coalesced around the 1971 album Fragile and thereby established every sonic and visual hallmark later identified with prog. Shifting through elaborate meters, pastoral folk elements, and Baroque classical passages within a vigorous rock framework, the group constructed tracks as compact suites and encased the results in Roger Dean’s otherworldly imagery. That configuration proved short-lived; when Yes reassembled in the late 1970s they adopted the polished sheen of album-oriented rock. Their MTV-era visibility rested on the 1983 release 90125 and its Trevor Horn-produced standout “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” which became the band’s first American chart-topper. Although their profile receded toward the decade’s close, Yes stayed active across subsequent years despite repeated personnel shifts and pauses, sustaining a devoted audience via concerts and occasional new recordings that included 2014’s Heaven & Earth and 2023’s Mirror to the Sky.

The band’s founders emerged from Britain’s 1960s beat circuit. Jon Anderson had performed with the Warriors, who issued a 1964 Decca single, later joined Gun in 1967, and already possessed two solo Parlophone 45s before meeting bassist Chris Squire, ex-member of the progressive outfit Syn. Their shared taste for vocal harmonies and progressive leanings guided the formation of the early Yes, which quickly added keyboardist Tony Kaye, drummer Bill Bruford, and guitarist Peter Banks, another Syn alumnus.

The group debuted live in October 1968 at London’s Speakeasy Club; the following month they opened Cream’s farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall, an engagement that secured a Marquee Club residency and a spot on John Peel’s Top Gear broadcast. Their first single, “Sweetness,” appeared in 1969, followed that November by the self-titled debut album. Those initial sides still leaned toward psychedelic-tinged pop, yet commercial breakthrough remained elusive.

During sessions for the second album Banks departed, replaced by Steve Howe, previously of Tomorrow, whose “My White Bicycle” defined British psych. Although Howe graces the cover of 1970’s Time and a Word, Banks actually played on the record; Howe’s first studio contribution arrived with The Yes Album in 1971, the point at which the band found its footing. Blending folk, space rock, and pop, the LP introduced signature pieces such as “Starship Trooper,” the album-rock staple “All Good People,” and “Your Move,” which reached the Billboard Top 40.

Strong transatlantic sales of The Yes Album prompted intensive touring and work on a fourth release. Kaye exited in August 1971 to join Banks in Flash, prompting the recruitment of Rick Wakeman, formerly of the Strawbs. Wakeman’s ornate, nearly Baroque keyboard textures—drawn from nearly a dozen instruments—joined Howe’s detailed guitar work, the supple Squire-Bruford rhythm section, and Anderson’s soaring vocals to create Yes’s singular sound, while Roger Dean’s artwork supplied a matching visual identity. That sound surfaced on Fragile, an album that spotlighted each member and contained two enduring tracks: the epic “Long Distance Runaround” and “Roundabout,” which climbed to number 13 on Billboard. The same lineup quickly released a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “America,” peaking at 46, though their focus remained on conceptually unified albums such as the 1972 opus Close to the Edge, built around two extended suites. The record climbed to number three in the U.S. and number four in the U.K.

Bruford left after Close to the Edge and was succeeded by Alan White, who had drummed with John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band. White’s first appearance came on the 1973 double-live set Yessongs, which also preserved Bruford-era performances and reached number seven in Britain and number 12 in America. Shortly afterward Yes unveiled their magnum opus, the late-1973 double album Tales from Topographic Oceans. Containing only four tracks, it sold briskly yet drew criticism as the epitome of prog excess; Wakeman, one of its vocal detractors, departed after the supporting tour. His replacement, Patrick Moraz, appeared on Relayer, which charted strongly following its November 1974 release, before the band again paused for solo work.

The mid-1970s yielded abundant Yes-related product: solo albums from Squire, Howe, White, Anderson, and Moraz; Atlantic’s March 1975 compilation Yesterdays; and a theatrical run for the Yessongs concert film. The group reconvened at the close of 1976, reinstating Wakeman in Moraz’s stead. The revived lineup delivered the sleek, concise Going for the One in August 1977, which spawned the hits “Wonderous Stories” and “Going for the One.” A year later Tormato reached the Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic; afterward the members scattered into solo projects, among them Jon Anderson’s successful collaboration with Vangelis that produced the British Top Ten single “I Hear You.”

Attempts to begin a new album in March 1980 quickly found Wakeman and Anderson departing. Howe, Squire, and White recruited Trevor Horn and Geoffrey Downes—the core of new-wave duo the Buggles, whose “Video Killed the Radio Star” inaugurated MTV—to complete Drama, which peaked at number two in the U.K. and number 18 in the U.S. Atlantic issued the live double album Yesshows in January 1981, yet months later Yes announced their dissolution. Howe and Downes subsequently formed Asia with John Wetton and Carl Palmer, scoring a major 1982 hit with the band’s self-titled debut.

In 1982 Squire and White launched Cinema, adding original Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye and guitarist Trevor Rabin. The project gained momentum only after Squire invited Anderson back; once the vocalist rejoined, Cinema became Yes. Horn returned to produce, and the revamped band scored its biggest success with the sleek, modern “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 while its parent album 90125 yielded further mainstream-rock hits “Leave It” and “It Can Happen.”

Despite 90125’s triumph, a follow-up proved slow to materialize. Big Generator, still partially produced by Horn, reached number 15 in the U.S. and number 17 in the U.K. yet spawned no major singles. Legal disputes over the Yes name erupted around its release. During this period Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe reunited, issuing an album under that collective name in 1989 and touring under the banner “An Evening of Yes Music” through 1990. The lawsuit’s resolution cleared the path for a sweeping 1991 reunion that encompassed Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe, Squire, Kaye, White, and Rabin; the expanded ensemble released Union and the retrospective box Yesyears, then embarked on an extensive tour.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Yes’s roster remained fluid, with members collaborating in various combinations. The 1994 album Talk featured Anderson, White, Kaye, Squire, and Trevor Rabin. The following year Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman, and White—the mid-1970s lineup—reconvened for a tour that yielded the live-and-studio hybrid Keys to Ascension series. Wakeman exited mid-project, leaving Billy Sherwood, who had joined early in the decade, to handle keyboards on 1997’s Open Your Eyes, originally conceived under the Conspiracy name shared by Squire and Sherwood. Keyboardist Igor Khoroshev appeared on 1999’s The Ladder.

Sherwood and Khoroshev both departed by 2000, by which point Howe was touring regularly with the band. Magnification, issued in 2001, incorporated orchestral arrangements. Wakeman returned in 2002 for the 35th-anniversary trek and remained through the mid-2000s. A second box set, In a Word, appeared in 2002, followed by the live collection The Word Is Live in 2005.

Howe, Squire, Downes, and White recorded the Trevor Horn-produced Fly from Here, released in 2011 and featuring vocalist Benoit David, previously known from a Yes tribute act. David soon gave way to Jon Davison, who remained through the mid-2010s and appeared on 2014’s Heaven & Earth, produced by Roy Thomas Baker.

Squire succumbed to leukemia in June 2015, yet the band continued at his urging. Their 2016 tour revisited half of Tales from Topographic Oceans and all of Drama; the performances were documented on the 2017 live album Topographic Drama: Live Across America. In April 2017 Yes entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame after multiple prior nominations, performing two songs at the ceremony, one with Rush’s Geddy Lee on bass.

A 50th-anniversary tour took place in 2018 and was captured on the 2019 release 50 Live. October 2019 brought the mini-album From a Page, assembling outtakes from the Fly from Here sessions. Pandemic restrictions curtailed touring plans for the next two years while the band completed The Quest, their 22nd studio album and first without any original members, issued in October 2021. Longtime drummer Alan White died in Seattle on May 26, 2022, at age 72. Touring percussionist Jay Schellen became a full-time member in February 2023. Work on Mirror to the Sky had already begun before The Quest’s release and prior to White’s passing. As with its predecessor, Howe produced, and the band collaborated with North Macedonia’s FAMES Orchestra on selected arrangements. Though Schellen had contributed percussion earlier, Mirror to the Sky marked his debut as the primary drummer; the album appeared in May 2023.