The Best One-Off Reunions in Rock History, Ranked: ABBA, Led Zeppelin

The Police reformed in 1986 for three Amnesty International concerts, their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, and then again in 2007/08 for a highly lucrative, 152-date tour they somehow got through without killing one another. These were all planned way in advance. On Aug. 22, 1992, however, they were coaxed onstage at Sting’s wedding to Trudie Styler, which was held at a chapel in Wiltshire, England. It was sloppy, totally unrehearsed, and ended after they stumbled their way through “Roxanne” and “Message in a Bottle” using equipment they borrowed from the Troggs, who served as the house band. “I had a few drinks by that time,” Sting said in his VH1 Behind the Music. “And within four bars, I was scowling at Stewart. Andy’s guitar was out of tune. I was scowling at him. He’d forgotten the riff a little bit. We were back! It was like putting on an old suit.”

British mod revival trio the Jam didn’t make any significant inroads into the U.S. music scene, but they were absolutely enormous throughout England. Once they disbanded in 1982, however, bandleader Paul Weller made it very clear he wasn’t interested in any sort of reformation, no matter how much money was placed on the table. He was too focused on his solo work, and allergic to nostalgia. In 2006, drummer Rick Buckler and bassist Bruce Foxton grew so frustrated by the impasse that they began gigging as From The Jam. Around that same time, Weller and Foxton made peace backstage at a Who concert in Hyde Park, paving the way for them to play together on a few songs on Weller’s 2010 solo LP, Wake Up the Nation. While playing a solo show at the Royal Albert Hall that year, Weller invited Foxton out to play Jam classics “The Eton Rifles” and “The Butterfly Collector.” It’s the closest thing we’ll ever get to a Jam reunion: Buckler died in 2025.

Bon Jovi parted ways with original bassist Alec John Such in 1994, and guitarist Richie Sambora followed in 2013. Despite intense fan demand to see Sambora return to the fold, spurred on by the guitarist’s own very public wishes to rejoin, Jon Bon Jovi has seemingly refused. He made a one-night-only exception on April 14, 2018, when Bon Jovi were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Cleveland. The lineup that evening was the current lineup of the band with Richie Sambora and Alec John Such sitting in. They played “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “It’s My Life,” “When We Were Us,” and, of course, “Livin’ on a Prayer.” Four years later, Alec John Such died. That means a complete reunion of the original Bon Jovi is now impossible. Even a partial one with Sambora feels extraordinarily unlikely at this point. For whatever reason, the guy who put the “Bon Jovi” in Bon Jovi is unwilling to bend on the matter, even though he’s been a Mick without his Keith for the past 13 years.

Buffalo Springfield were in a state of chaos from almost the day they formed in 1966, all the way through their final concert a little over two years later. A major factor was Neil Young’s almost complete inability to function in a democratic unit, but bassist Bruce Palmer’s frequent drug busts and immigration problems didn’t help matters either. The complete five-man lineup never played in public again, but they did gather privately for a jam session at Stephen Stills’ house in the summer of 1986 that someone had the foresight to capture on a camcorder. Thanks to the miracle of YouTube, it lives forever. It’s a sad glance into a future that could have been had Young agreed to at least a few shows. By the time he finally folded in 2010, Palmer and drummer Dewey Martin were already dead. And that reunion tour imploded when one member walked away after just nine concerts. We’ll let you guess who that person is. (Hint: It’s not Stephen Stills or Richie Furay.)

With the exception of a brief period in the early 1980s when bassist Tom Petersson took some time off, the classic four-man lineup of Cheap Trick survived from 1974 all the way to 2010, when drummer Bun E. Carlos left the group. It wasn’t a pleasant parting of ways. “Me and the singer don’t get along very good,” Carlos told Rolling Stone in 2015. “A couple of days before Austin City Limits in 2010, we had a big argument on the phone about scheduling for the summer and all this kind of stuff. We’d argued before over 40 years; all of us had. In the middle of the night, he called the office and said, ‘[Whiny voice] I can’t work with this guy. He hates me.’ He didn’t want me at Austin City Limits. I said, ‘OK, if you don’t want me there, we need to work out some kind of arrangement since I’m a quarter member of the band.’” A legal battle followed that was eventually settled. For the past 16 years, Daxx Nielsen — son of guitarist Rick Nielsen — has been their drummer. But when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, they let Carlos back behind the kit for three songs. Everyone smiled and was very professional, but it’s unlikely to ever happen again.

Drummer Dave Krusen was in Pearl Jam only long enough to play on Ten and join them for a handful of club gigs, just a matter of months between late 1990 and early 1991. But he rejoined them for one very memorable night in 2017 when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and received a stunning call five years later when drummer Matt Cameron came down with Covid and Pearl Jam had a date booked at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California. Krusen parachuted in to back them on the songs from Ten, while Josh Klinghoffer and Richard Stuverud handled the latter material. It was like he temporarily entered an alternative universe where he’d remained part of the band. For hardcore fans, it was a dream come true.

Heart were formed in 1967 by Seattle musicians Steve Fossen and Roger Fisher, though they didn’t gain any real traction until the early Seventies, when singer Ann Wilson joined, followed by her sister Nancy on guitar. The Wilson sisters wrote and sang nearly every song on the band’s 1975 debut LP, Dreamboat Annie, and they appear on the cover without the others, creating the impression the group was essentially a female duo. The public perception became reality by the late 1990s, when the last classic-era male member, keyboardist Howard Leese, left the group. Since that time, the Wilson sisters have toured and recorded as Heart with a rotating crew of hired hands. Things got slightly messy at Heart’s Hall of Fame induction in 2013 when Heart found themselves in a room with the original lineup for the first time in decades. They initially didn’t want to play with them, but compromised by allowing them onstage for a single song during their set: “Crazy on You.” Barring a miracle, it’ll be the last time something like that happens.

Talking Heads didn’t formally break up until 1991, but their last record was 1988’s underwhelming Naked, and they stopped touring after the 1983/84 Speaking in Tongues run that gave the world Stop Making Sense. This gave spinoff group Tom Tom Club, featuring drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth, plenty of time to play their own shows. When they performed at the Ritz in New York City on July 17, 1989, Talking Heads guitarist Jerry Harrison came out for a cover of Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale,” Byrne joined them for a cover of the Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk,” and all four members of Talking Heads closed out the night with “Psycho Killer.” (It’s a very odd version with Weymouth on lead vocal and Byrne as a guitarist and background vocalist.) It might seem like we’re breaking the rules by including a performance by a band that was technically still together, but they were a group in name only by 1989. For all intents and purposes, this was a reunion. It was also the second-to-last time they ever played together. The actual last time will appear later on this list.

Rod Stewart was near the pinnacle of his fame when he played a headlining show at London’s Wembley Stadium on July 5, 1986. The Faces were long in the rearview mirror, and a reunion seemed unlikely since guitarist Ron Wood had his hands full in the Rolling Stones, and bassist Ronnie Lane was battling multiple sclerosis. But Stewart stunned the Wembley audience by inviting the entire band onto the stage for a four-song encore, wrapping up with a prophetic cover of Vera Lynn’s “We’ll Meet Again.” Lane sat in a wheelchair and was unable to play bass, so Bill Wyman stepped in to help. But Lane still contributed background vocals. There have been other partial Faces reunions over the years, but this was the final time all five of them appeared together.

If the Kinks had acted rationally, they would have reformed sometime around 2001 and spent the last quarter century playing concerts to delighted fans all across the globe. But the Davies brothers could never quite get on the same page, and Dave’s stroke in 2004 took him out of commission for many years. By the time he recovered, Ray was winding down his own touring career. He hasn’t been on the road since 2015. Luckily, on Dec. 18, 2015, at one of his last shows, Ray invited Dave onto the stage at London’s Islington Assembly Hall for “You Really Got Me.” The reunion lasted a mere three minutes, and it’s likely the last three minutes they’ll ever share together on a concert stage, no matter how many times they tell fans a reunion is just a year or so away. (It’s been a year away for well over a decade at this point. It’s about time we gave up on this one.)

The Last Waltz is the most famous farewell concert in rock history, but it didn’t actually mark the final time the classic five-man lineup of the Band played together. That took place in the very early morning hours of March 2, 1978, when Rick Danko called Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson onto the stage at the Roxy in L.A. during one of his solo shows. They played “Stage Fright,” “Shape I’m In” and “The Weight” with Dr. John on keys, in front of a packed audience that included Mick Fleetwood, Joe Cocker, Jack Nicholson, Alice Cooper, and Michelle Phillips. Martin Scorsese wasn’t on hand to film it, but a soundboard recording thankfully survived. There were many partial Band reunions in the years that followed, but never one with all five.

The Byrds practically invented the rock reunion when the classic “Mr. Tambourine Man” lineup reconvened in 1973 to record a new album. But they were way too busy with other projects, like CSN/CSNY, for any sort of tour. And once guitarist Gene Clark and drummer Michael Clarke put their own version of the group on the road in the 1980s, and it turned into a legal spat, any reunion seemed impossible, even though they briefly came together at the Hall of Fame in 1991 to play three songs through gritted teeth. Gene Clark died later that year, and Michael Clarke followed in 1993. The core lineup of Roger McGuinn, bassist Chris Hillman, and guitarist David Crosby could have easily toured as the Byrds, but McGuinn refused to entertain the idea. He relented very briefly on Aug. 8, 2000, when they came together at a tribute show for beloved L.A. music store owner Fred Waleck. They played “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season),” and then never performed together again. (No audio or video has surfaced from the show, so we’re featuring the 1991 Hall of Fame performance.)

When the Rolling Stones reunited for their 50th anniversary in 2012 following a long hiatus from touring, they decided to celebrate their past by inviting former members Mick Taylor and Bill Wyman back for a series of shows across Europe and America. Taylor was quite game to return in a very limited capacity, but Wyman bristled when he learned he’d only come out for two songs a night, even though he’s their OG bass player and the overwhelming majority of their live repertoire comes from his era with the band. “They wouldn’t let me do any more,” he told the BBC in 2013. “I think maybe they were punishing me for leaving. I thought I’d be playing a lot more. They said, ‘We only want two numbers.’ They wouldn’t even tell me what songs they were to the last minute. I said, ‘I haven’t done a soundcheck or anything.’ They were like, ‘You know ’em. You know ’em.’” Wyman played “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (but I Like It)” and “Honky Tonk Women” during two shows at London’s O2 Arena, but refused their offer to continue doing that in America. To this day, they are the only times he’s performed live with the band since 1990.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s hostility toward prog rock (King Crimson still aren’t in!) meant that Yes had to wait all the way until 2017 to finally get the nod. The timing couldn’t have been worse since they were touring in two competing camps that year, and hostilities were at an all-time high. But they somehow sucked it up and came together for “Roundabout” and “Owner of a Lonely Heart.” Rush’s Geddy Lee played bass on the first song, and Steve Howe handled that role on the second one. “I think everybody knew that it didn’t amount to much,” Howe told Rolling Stone in 2020, “not in terms of what Yes is capable of when you think of Close to the Edge or Relayer or Tales [From Topographic Oceans]. When you think of those albums or that music, it was a modicum offering of that era. If we got up and played ‘Close to the Edge,’ maybe that would have been saying something. But we didn’t. ‘Roundabout’ is nice and the other song is a nice song, although some people don’t want to play it anymore. Geddy didn’t, and I hear a couple of previous Yes members don’t want to play that song, either.” Howe is now the last remaining OG member in the touring entity of Yes, and he says that a reunion with former lead singer Jon Anderson remains “unthinkable.” Let’s just be thankful they didn’t pull a Blondie and squabble during their speeches.

The 1983 Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever concert is largely remembered today for Michael Jackson breaking away from his brothers to perform “Billie Jean” and unveil the Moonwalk dance. But it was the first time that Diana Ross appeared alongside Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong since leaving the group in 1970. In fairness to their massive importance to Motown and music history, this should have been an extended segment where the three of them ran through their most beloved songs. Instead, Ross called Wilson and Birdsong onto the stage after singing her solo hit “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” for “Someday We’ll Be Together.” But after less than 30 seconds, all of the other performers from the show flooded the stage. Nobody knew it would be the last time the Supremes appeared together, despite an ill-fated attempt to book a reunion tour in 2000.

The four members of ABBA have left an almost unimaginable fortune on the table by refusing to tour since breaking up in 1982, even though they cut the reunion LP Voyage in 2021 and created a digital avatar arena show that continues to play in London. The impasse largely boils down to singers Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog wanting the public to remember them in their prime and having more than enough money to stick by that pledge. But they made a very rare exception on Jan. 20, 2016, when all four members of the group came together in Stockholm, Sweden, to celebrate the group’s 50th anniversary. At a private party that night, Lyngstad and Fältskog sang the ABBA classic “The Way Old Friends Do” to a stunned crowd, before Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus joined them at the end. This may not have been the grand ABBA reunion fans have spent decades praying to see, but it’s the closest thing they’re ever going to get.

If Justin Timberlake’s solo music and acting career hadn’t taken off after ‘N Sync disbanded in 2002, they’d likely be trading off nights at Sphere right now with the Backstreet Boys. But thanks to “SexyBack,” “Cry Me a River,” “Rock Your Body,” “Can’t Stop the Feeling” and The Social Network, ‘N Sync has been mothballed for quite some time. But when MTV presented Timberlake with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in 2013, he brought out his former groupmates for quick renditions of “Girlfriend” and “Bye Bye Bye” during a mega medley of music from his entire career. They didn’t play together again until March 2024, when Timberlake again brought them out at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. They played four songs this time. It seems inevitable that they’ll tour one day.

Eighties prog band Marillion may not be remotely as well-known as some of the other groups on this list, but they have a fanatical cult following who have kept them afloat for five decades. Original singer Fish left in 1988 to pursue a solo career, and Steve Hogarth has fronted the group ever since. But on Aug. 26, 2007, when Fish played a solo show at Market Square in Aylesbury, England, the area that inspired Marillion’s 1983 debut single “Market Square Heroes,” he invited his former band members to join him for the song. To this day, it’s the only time they’ve performed together since Fish’s departure. And since the odds are very slim that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will ever induct them, it’s probably the last time too.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has seen some pretty amazing reunions over the years, but nobody quite knew what would happen when Cream were inducted in 1993. They hadn’t played even a note of music since breaking up in 1968, following two years marked by near-constant infighting, and time hadn’t exactly turned drummer Ginger Baker into a mellow person. But even during a peak moment of his solo career thanks to “Tears in Heaven” and Unplugged, Eric Clapton was still willing to reform the band to play “Sunshine of Your Love,” “Born Under a Bad Sign,” and “Crossroads.” “It seemed to me that rock & roll should never be respectable,” Clapton said at the podium. “And then a friend of mine, not so long ago, Robbie Robertson, pointed out minor and major miracles take place in here. It deeply moved me. I looked at this from a different point of view and learned that a lot can be gained by coming here tonight. A lot has been gained. I’ve been reunited with two people that I lover very dearly. It’s very moving. Yesterday, we played together for the first time in 25 years. It was pretty amazing.”

For several years after Steve Perry quit Journey in 1987, he vanished almost completely from public view. The only event that forced him out of hiding was a memorial concert for concert promoter Bill Graham staged in Golden Gate Park on Nov. 3, 1991. The stacked bill included the Grateful Dead, CSNY, Santana, Jackson Browne, John Fogerty, and Journey. This was a stripped-down version of the band featuring just Perry, guitarist Neal Schon, and keyboardist Jonathan Cain. Their brief set included “Faithfully,” a truncated version of “Lonely Road Without You,” and “Lights.” It didn’t receive a ton of attention at the time since there were so many bigger bands on the bill, and Journey were near the nadir of their coolness as the alt-rock wave was beginning to crest. But in hindsight, it was massively significant since it marked Perry’s last time performing onstage with Journey. When they hit the road again in 1998, they had a replacement singer. Perry pledged to never, ever come back. And all these years later, he’s stuck to it quite firmly. 

The Velvet Underground’s performance at the opening of an Andy Warhol retrospective in Jouy-en-Josas, France, on June 15, 1990, feels like somewhat of an edge case for this list since it sparked a reunion tour a couple years later, and we’re keeping off similar events, like Simon and Garfunkel at the 2003 Grammys. But that was a rehearsed, planned performance. Lou Reed showed up in France having no intention of reforming the Velvets, even though he teamed up with John Cale for the Songs for Drella LP and live show that same year. But with all four Velvets in the same place, and a Songs for Drella performance set up, Reed couldn’t resist inviting drummer Mo Tucker and guitarist Sterling Morrison onto the stage for an impromptu rendition of “Heroin.” It was their first performance as the original four-piece since 1968.

After Deep Purple refused to reunite with Ritchie Blackmore for even a single song at their 2016 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, most fans essentially gave up hope it would ever happen. The odds seemed even slimmer when Blackmore suffered a heart attack last year and took a break from his own tours. But the day before Deep Purple were booked at the Jones Beach Amphitheater on Long Island on Aug. 12, Blackmore reached out to frontman Ian Gillan via his wife, Candice Night. “I said, ‘What do you think about me getting up for ‘Smoke [on the Water?’],” Blackmore told Guitar Player. “His exact words were, ‘It made me smile.’ He then put it to the band and it was thumbs-up all around.” One night later, every Deep Purple fan in the world was smiling when it actually went down.

Michael Jackson faced enormous family pressure to continue touring with his brothers when he launched his solo career, even after Thriller turned him into the most famous entertainer on the planet. But after the Jacksons’ Victory tour of 1984, Michael made it very clear his future tours would be the Jackson 1 as opposed to the Jackson 5/the Jacksons. When he attempted to relaunch his career in 2001 after some pretty rough years, he threw a massive, two-day 30th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden featuring performances by Britney Spears, Usher, Gladys Knight, ‘N Sync, Ray Charles, Destiny’s Child, and many others. The capstone event on both nights was a performance by all six Jackson brothers. Unlike many reunions on this list, it was choreographed down to the smallest detail. That didn’t make it any less satisfying. The shows took place on Sept. 7 and Sept. 10, 2001. The tragic event the day after the second show, just a few miles from MSG, put a huge damper on the festivities. But it still marked the final time that Michael and his brothers performed together.

Creedence Clearwater Revival didn’t dissolve on the most wonderful of terms in 1972, but things weren’t dire enough to prevent them from performing at the wedding of guitarist Tom Fogerty in 1980. Three years later, John Fogerty, drummer Stu Cook, and bassist Doug Clifford took the stage at their 20th high-school reunion, billing themselves as the Blue Velvets, which was their original name. Five years later, at the 25th reunion, Fogerty and Clifford again played a Blue Velvets set, but Cook wasn’t there for some reason. It’s the last time John Fogerty played with a member of Creedence, and we’re blessed that someone filmed it and posted the video to YouTube. The footage of their former high-school classmates dancing to “Born on the Bayou” and “Bad Moon Rising” is priceless. John Fogerty continues to tour, and Clifford and Cook are both still around, but we’re more likely to see the Smiths play their next high-school reunion than any version of Creedence.

R.E.M. like to keep their plans quiet. Nobody knew drummer Bill Berry was leaving the band after the 1995 Monster tour. Nobody knew they were going to break up after wrapping up the Accelerate tour in Mexico City on Nov. 18, 2008. And nobody knew what would happen when they were inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame on June 13, 2024. It remained a mystery until that night, when the classic lineup of R.E.M. walked onto the stage and played “Losing My Religion,” marking the first time all of them performed together since 2007. They could have grossed hundreds of millions if they kept it going and hit the arena circuit. But it was a one-shot deal. And if they ever plan on playing again, they certainly aren’t telling anyone in advance.

Peter Gabriel has been so unwilling to reform Genesis ever since walking away as their frontman in 1975 that it took threats of violence to bring him back. We don’t mean that as a bizarre figure of speech. We mean that he was so deep in debt after a financially disastrous WOMAD concert in 1982 that some creditors were threatening him with bodily harm. Seeing no other way to raise money quick, he reached out to his former Genesis bandmates to see if they’d stage a reunion show at the massive National Bowl in Milton Keynes, England. They didn’t have a ton of time to rehearse, and it rained buckets the entire day, which happened to be Mike Rutherford’s 32nd birthday, but few in the audience cared. They were euphoric they got to see Gabriel put the flower mask back on his head and sing “Supper’s Ready” one last time. If you’re not familiar, that’s the single greatest prog rock song ever written. And it’s been 44 years since Gabriel last sang it. This is a tragedy.

If Joe Strummer had lived just a few months longer, the Clash would almost certainly have reunited. They had just gotten word they’d been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and Joe Strummer had already reached out to his bandmates, saying he wanted to play. Bassist Paul Simonon was hesitant, but Strummer was reportedly ready to carry on without him when he dropped dead of a sudden heart attack on Dec. 22, 2002. Clash fans have spent the last 24 years imagining various “what if?” scenarios. Fortunately, they were able to witness a tiny glimpse into an alternate timeline of a Clash reunion on Nov. 15, 2002, when Strummer played a benefit concert for firefighters at London’s Acton Town Hall, and Mick Jones spontaneously joined him for “Bankrobber,” “White Riot,” and “London’s Burning.” It was the first time they’d performed together since the 1983 US Festival, and one of the last times Strummer performed anywhere.

We deliberately listed only one reunion per group on this list, but we’re making an exception for Talking Heads since their two one-off reunion gigs were so wildly different and noteworthy. The first one in 1989 was fantastically sloppy and didn’t even feature David Byrne on lead vocals. When they reconvened again in 2002 for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, they spent days rehearsing. The result was a very impressive three-song set that begins with the original four-person lineup for “Psycho Killer,” before bringing out auxiliary members for Stop Making Sense-style renditions of “Life During Wartime” and “Burning Down the House.” For a few brief minutes, all was right with the world. And then Byrne spent the next 24 years (and counting) denying the world so much joy by refusing to do it again.

Fate brought David Gilmour and Roger Waters into the same band back in 1967, but they’ve never particularly liked each other. That animosity was enough to break Waters away from the group in 1985, sparking a nasty legal spat. And today, the mutual loathing is so intense that, barring a miracle, they most likely will never speak again. But for a brief time in the first decade of the 2000s, things had calmed down to the point where they could, on very select occasions, stand to be in the same room together for short periods of time. That’s why Bob Geldof was able to rope Pink Floyd with Waters into participating in Live 8 in 2005 for an incredible set that included “Breathe,” “Money,” “Wish You Were Here,” and “Comfortably Numb.” It was their first show together since 1981, and also their last, since keyboardist Richard Wright died just two years later.

Black Sabbath toured heavily between 2013 and 2017, and even cut their first album with Ozzy Osbourne at the helm since 1978’s Never Say Die!, but these were somewhat bittersweet affairs since original drummer Bill Ward wasn’t involved due to an impasse over his contract and concerns about his health. But once Ozzy’s own medical condition matters made it impossible for him to tour, the massive Back to the Beginning farewell show was booked at a stadium in Birmingham, England. It assembled many of the biggest bands in hard rock and heavy metal, and wrapped up with the first Black Sabbath performance with Bill Ward since 2005. Ozzy wasn’t able to stand, and Bill’s drumming was far from perfect, but it didn’t matter one bit. Everyone in the stadium knew this was a major moment in music history. Incredibly, Ozzy died just 17 days later. It truly felt like he willed himself to keep living just to give his fans this concert, and wrap up Black Sabbath on a perfect note. 

If this was a list of the worst one-off reunions in rock history, Led Zeppelin would likely win it for their set at Live Aid in 1985, where Jimmy Page was out of tune and the whole thing was such a train wreck they’ve done everything possible to erase it from history. If this was a list of the best impromptu, one-off wedding reunions, Led Zeppelin’s set at Jason Bonham’s ceremony in 1990 would likely appear. And if this was a list of Hall of Fame reunions where Neil Young didn’t quite realize the magnitude of the occasion and took over the performance, Led Zeppelin would win for their sloppy 1995 set. But for our list of the overall best one-off reunions, there was really no other possible pick than Led Zeppelin’s triumphant concert at London’s O2 Arena on Dec. 10, 2007. They spent several months rehearsing for the show, which was organized as a tribute to Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. Page wasn’t only in tune this time, but he did everything possible to replicate his vintage guitar sounds. Tickets were virtually impossible to obtain, but they filmed the show and eventually released it in theaters as Celebration Day. There was talk of a tour at the time, but Robert Plant ultimately refused. It was a deeply frustrating situation for fans, not to mention Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham, but at least this one show happened. Looking back, it’s somewhat of a miracle we even got this.