Hang on to a Dream

The Nice were Keith Emerson's band prior to superstardom with Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Formed as a backing band for soul singer PP Arnold, The Nice went on to lay the foundations for what would become progressive rock. Their debut LP mixed rock with jazz and classical music, but it was their hard rock reinvention of Leonard Bernstein's "America" that took them into the U.S. and U.K. charts, and influenced their biggest fan, Jimi Hendrix, to reinterpret "The Star Spangled Banner."