Are solo efforts ever better?

Neil Young . . . by a mile.

@bdp24 - I think it’s another case of my not writing clearly enough in my OP. Obviously, there were many artists that broke away from bands and made it big. Hendrix was a backup guitarist for the Isley Bros as I recall. What I was thinking of were people who fronted monster bands already, that went solo. As I mentioned, Sting, Bruce, John Fogarty come to mind. Not really talking about sidemen that broke out like Frampton. But MJ killed it, of course. Speaking of Frampton, he has a solo acoustic double album out which is very good. Does the old hits, but just acoustic guitar and voice. Sometimes a bass in there as well. 

Very few famous groups then onto a famous solo career. Commodores Lionel Richie,  Cream Clapton, Beatles Mccartny that's it. 

@bdp24 

I'm not sure I understand your breakdown of solo artists, it doesn't follow @chayro 's original post.

Are you saying Debbie Harry was better solo than when she fronted Blondie? And Clapton, you don't mention Cream. Was his solo career better? 

Rockpile is a complicated one. Dave Edmonds is a great talent and is intertwined with Nick Lowe and Rockpile. IMO, solo Edmonds would be greater than the one-off Rockpile. I was lucky enough to see Rockpile live as headliners circa 1980. 

How 'bout if we clear up the Solo Artist vs. Group Artist to-do by looking at the album's front cover? Does the album cover have the band's name or the artist's name? If it's both, the group name still gets the chicken dinner. Even better, how 'bout we look at the album's edge and see whose name is there?