My first thoughts are the classics like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Who and the Rolling Stones.
Then there are bands like Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Police, Queen, Black Sabbath, Chicago, Genesis, Journey, R.E.M. and Hall and Oates who churned out killer song after killer song. All of these bands spanned atleast two decades.
Then you have the modern bands like Pearl Jam, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Tool, Stone Temple Pilots, The Foo Fighters, The Beastie Boys etc. who have had numerous hits and still sell out arenas.
I don't wanna dismiss them with my little top five favorite band list.
1). The Legendary Miles Davis Quintet 1965-1968 (Miles, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams)
Probably the best group of musicians that ever played together.
2). The Weather Report Classic Line-Up (Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Alex Acuna and Manuel Badreno)
They changed the world with their blend of world music, rock, funk and jazz to refine the musical concept the world would later know as jazz/fusion.
3). Herbie Hancock's Headhunters (Bill Summers, Herbie, Wayne Shorter, Paul Jackson and Mike Clark)
Their album Thrust is one of the most intense musical tour de forces that jazz has ever unleashed.
4). The Ornette Coleman Quartet (Ornette, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins)
The breakthrough album "The Shape Of Jazz To Come" was like Stravinsky's" Rite of Spring" when it came to provoking discussion and breaking boundaries in the realm of jazz. Older more traditional musicians bemoaned the ridiculous tempos, chord changes and the loose harmonic structure that was to define what we would come to cherish as "free jazz". Check out the "Skies of America" to see what improvisation and the "movement of forms" sounds like in an impossibly complex harmoniuc structure.
5). Earth Wind and Fire
The Perfect Band... I don't know what else to say
Honorable mention goes out to The Ohio Players, The Commodores, The Gap Band, The Talking Heads and Parliament/Funkadelic, The JB's and The Isley Brothers
Sorry I left out the metal bands, there are plenty of amazing metal bands. | 
