[3] The band achieved wide popularity in the San Francisco Bay Area and, through their recordings,[4] with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe, and several of their albums ranked in the Top 30 of the Billboard Pop charts.

They were part of the new wave of album-oriented bands, achieving renown and popularity despite a lack of success with their singles (only one, "Fresh Air" charted, reaching number 49 in 1970).

With their jazz and classical influences and a strong folk background, the band attempted to create an individual, innovative sound.

[6] Music historian Colin Larkin wrote: "Of all the bands that came out of the San Francisco area during the late '60s, Quicksilver typified most of the style, attitude and sound of that era.

"[7] The band's members included John Cipollina, Gary Duncan, Greg Elmore, David Freiberg, Nicky Hopkins, and Dino Valenti.

The style he developed from these sources is evident in Quicksilver Messenger Service's swing rhythms and twanging guitar sounds.

Well, when his own career didn't do so well, he had more interest in playing in Quicksilver!Whether or not Quicksilver Messenger Service was what Valenti had in mind, it appears from Duncan's recollections that he had at least talked with Cipollina about forming a band; Cipollina remembered that: I was recommended to Dino, probably because I was the only guy playing an electric guitar, let alone lead, at the time…We talked about rehearsing one night and planned to rehearse the following night but it never happened.

He had previously been in a band with Paul Kantner and David Crosby but like Cipollina he had been arrested and briefly jailed for marijuana possession and had just been released.

To make up for poaching Spence, Balin suggested that they contact drummer Greg Elmore and guitarist–singer Gary Duncan, who had played together in a group called The Brogues.

At the same time, Capitol signed the Steve Miller Band, with whom Quicksilver Messenger Service had appeared on the movie and soundtrack album Revolution, together with the group Mother Earth.

[14] These albums, which have been hailed as "...two of the best examples of the San Francisco sound at its purest,"[12] emphasize extended arrangements and fluid twin-guitar improvisation.

189 in the Rolling Stone Top 500 albums survey, where it was described as "...the definitive live recording of the mid-Sixties San Francisco psychedelic-ballroom experience..."[15] Archetypal Quicksilver Messenger Service songs include the elongated rendition of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love?"

Duncan left the group not long after the recording of Happy Trails; according to David Freiberg, this was largely because of his escalating problems with opiates and amphetamines.

Gary Duncan and Dino Valenti both returned to Quicksilver Messenger Service at this time, expanding the group to a six-piece.

The albums are a departure from the group's earlier sound, with Valenti taking over as lead singer and, under the pseudonym of Jesse Oris Farrow, principal songwriter.

Hopkins apparently left during the Hawaii recording sessions, as founding Paul Butterfield Blues Band keyboardist Mark Naftalin takes his place for three cuts on What About Me.

Stanton remained with the band until 1974 when he was replaced by Bob Flurie, who was a well-known East Coast virtuoso guitar player.

While Freiberg elected not to rejoin the live group as a result of his Jefferson Starship commitments, Cipollina, keyboardist Michael Lewis and bassist Skip Olsen toured with the returning trio for a handful of concerts in 1975, culminating in an appearance at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom on December 28.

After leaving Quicksilver in October 1970, Cipollina formed Copperhead, which was initially a loose and variable aggregation before coalescing around the less transitory lineup of Cipollina, Gary Philippet (vocals, guitar, and organ), Jim McPherson (vocals, bass, and piano), Pete Sears (bass, piano)(Sears was to leave after a matter of months being replaced in 1972 by longtime Bonnie Raitt bassist James "Hutch" Hutchinson, who appeared on the album and played with the band until its demise), and David Weber (drums).

In 1974, Cipollina guested with Quicksilver-idolizing Welsh progressive rock group Man, playing with them at their 1974 Winterland concerts and on a subsequent UK tour; these efforts resulted in the 1975 live album Maximum Darkness.

[12] Unable to secure a major label contract in the aftermath of the 1975 Quicksilver reunion, Cipollina continued to perform regularly with many other Bay Area acts, including one billed as Thunder and Lightning, a joint venture with Nick Gravenites, who had co-produced Quicksilver's debut, and another billed as Fish and Chips, with Barry Melton; Greg Elmore played drums for the former, Spencer Dryden for the latter, with Peter Albin on bass; various bass players, including Albin and Roger Troy, played with the former.

In the 1980s, he joined the controversial Church of Scientology and credited the organization's Purification Rundown with vanquishing his long struggle with substance abuse.

Valenti underwent brain surgery for an arteriovenous malformation in the late 1980s; despite suffering from short-term memory loss and struggling with the adverse effects of anti-convulsive medications, he continued to write songs and perform with various Marin County musicians until his sudden death in November 1994.

The group also toured as Quicksilver '96, and after that on occasion through the early 2000s, with a lineup of Duncan, Michael Lewis (keyboards), Greg Errico (drums), Bobby Vega (bass), John Bird (guitar), and Tony Menjivar (percussion).