Davies placed an ad in Melody Maker Magazine and assembled a group originally slated to be called "Daddy", before settleing on a name taken from W.H. Davies' book, 'The Autobiography Of A Supertramp', published in 1910. With Sam's backing, the band issued their first album, "Supertramp", in 1970. The record was a collection of lengthy and uninteresting solos which made little impact on the record buying public. Dissolutioned, the band began to splinter and regrouped with two new members named Currie and Farrell while original bassist Roger Hodgson switched to lead guitar. Their second album "Indelibly Stamped" fared no better than the first and after their sponsor Sam paid off £60,000 worth of debts, all the band members quit except for Davies and Hodgson.

An extensive search for replacements brought aboard Dougie Thomson, Bob Siebenberg and John A Helliwell, completing a line-up that would create the group's defining albums. Recognizing the group's potential, A&M Records rented a farmhouse near Somerset, England for the band to rehearse and assigned producer Ken Scott to work with them. The resulting album, 1974's "Crime Of The Century", would become their breakthrough recording. The effort showcased the distinctive electric piano, rhythm-based sound epitomised by the single "Dreamer", which peaked at No 13 in the UK. In the US, "Bloody Well Right", the flip side to "Dreamer" made it to No 35. The following year, Supertramp released "Crisis? What Crisis", a similar styled album which achieved a comparable level of success. It also climbed to No 44 in the US.

In 1977, Supertramp engaged famed Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick for the LP "Even In The Quietest Moments", which produced a US Top Twenty hit, "Give A Little Bit" . But the best was yet to come.

During the late seventies, the band moved steadily from the progressive styles of their early albums towards a more song-oriented, pop sound. This trend reached its zenith on their most popular album, Breakfast in America (1980 ), which spawned four successful singles, "The Logical Song", "Take the Long Way Home", "Goodbye Stranger" and "Breakfast in America".

The string of hits was capped with 1980's "Paris", a 2-LP live album, in which the band stated its goal of improving on the studio versions of their songs. Interestingly, instead of focusing on songs from the hugely succcessful "Breakfast in America", it included nearly every song from "Crime of the Century", another testament to the importance of that album in the group's development.

Hodgson and Davies' different singing and song-writing styles provided these albums with an interesting counterpoint, contrasting Davies' determined rockers and songs of broken relationships, with Hodgson's wistful introspection. But Hodgson felt constrained by the arrangement and left the band after the tour for their next album, "Famous Last Words" in 1982.

Hodgson immediately began a solo career, with his biggest hit being "Had A Dream (Sleeping With the Enemy)" from his first solo effort In the "Eye of the Storm", in 1985.

The Davies-led Supertramp soldiered on, releasing "Brother Where You Bound" the same year. The album containe the hit single, "Cannonball", along with the title track, a 16-minute anti-Soviet diatribe highlighted by guitar solos by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour . 1987's "Free As A Bird" included more straightforward Davies rockers, including "I'm Begging You", which reached #1 on US dance charts, a curious accomplishment for an "art rock" band. Although their fan base rapidly declined, loyal followers continued to support the band's recordings, including 1988's "Live '88", after which Supertramp disbanded.

In 1997, Richard Davies reformed the band to tour and release a new LP called "Some Things Never Change", a polished effort which echoed the earlier Supertramp sound, featuring Davies, Helliwell, Siebenberg, and Crowded House's Mark Hart. That effort was followed by "Is Everybody Listening - Live" in 2001. Early 2002 saw the release of another album, "Slow Motion", backed by a year long tour.

In the end, one would be hard pressed to describe Supertramp as being in any way influential; although they readily fused sound effects, nursery rhymes and out-of-context radio footage, forcing the point to hail them as precursors of the sampling age. But, alongside the other top acts of their time, they serve as a good example of that curious hybrid of melodic progressive rock that flourished between the genuine heavyweights of the 60s and late 70s.