As the group’s name suggest, the band was made up of Messrs Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Keith Emerson had been with The Nice while Greg Lake was in King Crimson. The two met when The Nice and King Crimson were touring together and they were both looking for new opportunities. They first played together at a soundcheck when their respective bands were performing at Fillmore West in San Francisco and they felt that they clicked. They then set out to find a drummer and ended up taking on Carl Palmer who was with the up and coming band Atomic Rooster at the time. They considered calling themselves Triton, Triumvirate or Seahorse but eventually settled on Emerson Lake & Palmer, mainly to remove the emphasis on Emerson and having the band being referred to as ‘the new Nice’. Due to the fact that the three members were already well known, their early gigs were well attended and their first 7 albums would go top 10 in the UK. Not really being a singles band, they have only seen 1 UK hit on the singles chart with ‘Fanfare For The Common Man’ which went to number 2. In the US they have seen 3 Hot 100 hits with a best peak of 39 with ‘From The Beginning’ They have managed 12 charting albums in the US. Emerson and Lake would also team with Cozy Powell and released material as Emerson, Lake & Powell while Carl Palmer would join Asia. Both Emerson and Lake would die in 2016.
SA Singles Charts 