The Nice

The creators of some of the earliest experiments in combining classical music and progressive rock, the Nice started out in the mid-1960s as the U.K. backing band for the transplanted U.S. soul singer P.P. Arnold. Fronted by the show-stopping keyboard player Keith Emerson, whose onstage exploits frequently involved stabbing his Hammond organ with knives, the band’s blend of technically proficient musicianship and extroverted stage antics notably included a version of Leonard Bernstein’s “America” (complete with flag burning), and an exploration of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs to Me,” featuring excerpts from Tchaikovsky and Sibelius. After the band’s split in 1970, Emerson made further forays into the classical and rock music divide with the vaunted supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer.