1966-1976

Seger began his musical career in 1961 in Detroit as a member of The Decibels, where he first met his future manager and record producer, Punch Andrews. Seger returned to Ann Arbor where he played with The Town Cryers and then Doug Brown and the Omens. With them, he released his first single in 1965 for the local Hideout Records label. In 1966 Seger sang on Doug Brown and the Omens' parody of Barry Sadler's song Ballad of the Green Berets which was re-titled Ballad of the Yellow Beret and mocked draft dodgers. Soon after its release Sadler and his record label threatened Brown and his band with a lawsuit and the recording was withdrawn from the market.

In 1966 Seger left Brown's group but retained him as a producer. As Bob Seger and the Last Heard, Seger had his first big Detroit hit with East Side Story, which sold 50,000 copies, mostly in the Detroit area and led to a contract with Cameo-Parkway Records. Another of Seger's biggest early hit singles locally was Heavy Music in 1967, which sold even more copies and had potential to break out nationally when Cameo-Parkway went out of business . Nevertheless, Heavy Music would stay in his live act for many years to come.

During these early Detroit years, Seger also acted as producer for the local band The Mushrooms. He became (and remained) friendly with the band's leader Glenn Frey, who would later become one of the founding members of the Eagles.

In 1968, Bob Seger signed with major label Capitol Records and formed The Bob Seger System. This group was essentially a Michigan proto-punk band not unlike the SRC or The Frost. Their first single was the anti-war message song 2+2=?, which reflected a marked change in Seger's political attitudes from The Ballad of the Yellow Beret. The single was again a hit in Detroit but went unnoticed almost everywhere else.

The second single from The Bob Seger System was Ramblin' Gamblin' Man. Predictably it was a smash hit in Detroit, but it also became Seger's first nationally charted hit, peaking at #17. The song's success led to the release of an album in 1969, and the Ramblin' Gamblin' Man album reached #62 on the Billboard pop albums chart.

Seger was unable to follow up this early moderate success; The Bob Seger System's follow-up album Noah failed to chart at all, leading Seger to briefly quit the music industry and attend college. Seger then returned the following year with the System's final album, 1970's Mongrel. In 1971, Seger released his first solo album, the all-acoustic Brand New Morning which he recorded to fullfill his Capitol Records contract.

Seger's next few albums, released on Punch Andrews' Palladium label and distributed by Reprise Records, were stylistically erratic and appeared in the low 100s on the Billboard albums chart, if at all. These albums included Smokin' O.P.'s (1972), which featured a minor hit (#76 US) with a cover of Tim Hardin's If I Were A Carpenter, and Back in '72 (1973) which featured a long list of known session musicians and work from J. J. Cale. It also has the studio version of Seger's live classic Turn the Page (later covered by Metallica and Waylon Jennings). Seger maintained his regional appeal in Detroit, and had built a modest following in Florida (necessitating many drives back and forth), but to the general music world was regarded as a one-hit wonder.

In 1974 Seger formed the Silver Bullet Band and released the album Seven, which contained the Detroit-area hard-rock hit Get Out of Denver. This track that was a modest success and charted at #80 nationally.

In 1975, Seger's returned to Capitol Records and released the album Beautiful Loser. The album's single Katmandu (in addition to being another substantial Detroit-area hit) was Seger's first real national break-out track since Ramblin' Gamblin' Man. Although it just missed the US top 40, peaking at #43, the song received strong airplay in a number of markets nationwide.

In April 1976 Seger and the Silver Bullet Band had an even bigger commercial breakthrough with the album Live Bullet, recorded over two nights in Detroit's Cobo Hall in September 1975. The album stayed on the Billboard charts for 168 weeks, peaking at #34 which was Seger's highest charting album at the time. It also contained Seger's hit rendition of Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits (#69 US) as well as Seger's own classic take on life on the road, Turn the Page, from Back in '72. It also included his late 1960's successful releases — Heavy Music and Ramblin' Gamblin' Man.

Critic Dave Marsh later wrote that Live Bullet is one of the best live albums ever made ... In spots, particularly during the medley of 'Travelin' Man'/'Beautiful Loser', Seger sounds like a man with one last shot at the top. An instant best-seller in Detroit, Live Bullet quickly began to get attention in other parts of the country. In June 1976 he was a featured performer at the Pontiac Silverdome outside Detroit in front of nearly 80,000 fans. Only three nights before in Chicago, Seger had played before 50 people in a bar.