100 Greatest Artists Of All Time
Yes, this is an ambitious list. In order to do it we took into consideration the importance, innovation, musicality, milestone and among several factors that make a great artist.
Honorable mentions: Billy Joel, John Coltrane, Run-D.M.C., Rod Stewart, Dire Straits, Dusty Springfield, Fleetwood Mac.
All the texts were taken from Rolling Stone magazine.
100. Radiohead
Radiohead were one of the most innovative and provocative bands of the 1990s and 2000s, five very serious Englishmen guys who developed their own sound and always tried really, really hard. The band, who were also the biggest art-rock act since Pink Floyd, began as purveyors of a swooning, from-the-gut sound that Alicia Silverstone aptly labeled as “complaint rock” in the film Clueless. But albums like 1997’s space-rock opera OK Computer and 2000’s slippery, is-this-even-rock? Kid A (which was Rolling Stone’s album of the decade for the 2000s) were game-changers—future-shock opuses that showed off shadowy, meticulously constructed electronic textures and inspired thousands of imitators, none of whom had Radiohead’s talents.
99. Earth, Wind & Fire
Innovative yet popular, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing, Earth, Wind & Fire changed the sound of black pop in the 1970s —their encyclopedic sound topping Latin-funk rhythms with gospel harmonies, unerring horns, Philip Bailey's sweet falsetto, and various exotic ingredients chosen by leader and producer Maurice White. Unlike their ideological rivals, the down and dirty but equally eclectic Parliament/Funkadelic, EW&F have always preached clean, uplifting messages.
98. Roxy Music
Roxy Music defined the tone of 1970s art rock by coupling Bryan Ferry's elegant, wistful romantic irony with initially anarchic and later subdued, lush rock. The band was never as popular in America as it was in Europe, perhaps because its detachment and understatement baffled American tastes. But Ferry's witty hoping-against-hopelessness persona and Brian Eno's happy amateurism filtered into the late-1970s new wave while Roxy Music itself was in suspension.
97. Howlin' Wolf
Delta bluesman Howlin' Wolf was one of the most influential and imposing musicians of the post-World War II era, and his later electric Chicago blues — featuring his deep, lupine voice — helped shape the sound of rock & roll. Numerous blues-based rock artists, from the Rolling Stones to Eric Clapton, sang his praises and helped sustain his career throughout the 1960s and beyond.
96. Talking Heads
Talking Heads were a band of smart, self-conscious white musicians intrigued by the rhythms and spirit of black music. They drew on funk, classical minimalism, and African rock to create some of the most adventurous, original, and danceable music to emerge from new wave — a movement Talking Heads outlasted and transcended in their accomplishment and influence.
95. Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson was one of the premier black vocalists and performers of the late 1950s and the 1960s. No other singer of his generation so perfectly combined James Brown's rough, sexy style and Sam Cooke's smooth, gospel-polished pop.
94. Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses shot to stardom with Appetite for Destruction, the biggest-selling debut in rock history. The album combined Seventies-derived hard rock and a hedonistic rebelliousness that simultaneously recalled the early Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Aerosmith, and the Sex Pistols; it also showed off the band's virtuoso technique and destroy-passersby attitude, as well as rock's funkiest rhythm section since before disco scared drummers and bassists straight. G N' R leavened their outrage with songs that bespoke the inchoate emotions of hard rock's primarily young, white audience.
93. Dr. Dre
Initially known to the world as an MC for gangsta godfathers N.W.A., Dr. Dre went on to become the single most influential producer in hip-hop history. With 1993's The Chronic, he married breezy funk samples to hardcore imagery, creating the G-Funk style and inspiring a host of imitators. He would later discover and nurture some of the best rappers ever, including Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and 50 Cent.
92. Public Enemy
In the late Eighties, Public Enemy introduced a hard, intense, hip-hop sound that changed the sound of hip-hop. PE's inventive production team, the Bomb Squad, tailored a unique, noisy, layered avant-garde-inspired sound that incorporated sirens, skittering turntable scratches, and cleverly juxtaposed musical and spoken samples. The group features two vocalists with wildly different styles: Lead rapper Chuck D, who delivers anti-establishment rhymes in a booming, authoritarian voice, and his sidekick/jester, Flavor Flav, who broke in with taunts, teases, and questions.
91. The Temptations
In addition to being the most consistently commercially successful and critically lauded male vocal group in rock history, the Temptations have been charting hits for 40 years. Yet unlike most other living institutions, the Temptations remain a vital, hitmaking group, with the double-platinum Phoenix Rising from 1998 living up to its name. In their early "classic" lineup —with alternating lead singers Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin, and Paul Williams, with Melvin Franklin, and group founder Otis Williams —the Tempts, as they were known, were simply untouchable. Through the years, the group's trademark razor-sharp choreography, finely tuned vocal harmonies, and a number of compelling lead singers (Ruffin, Kendricks, the little known Paul Williams, and later, Dennis Edwards) made them the exemplars of the Motown style. The Temptations have been distinguished among their Motown stable mates (with the exception of the Four Tops) for their ability to move comfortably from smooth pop and standards to provocative, politically charged rock soul, from the Apollo to the Copacabana (and back). Despite personnel changes and conflicts, through countless triumphs and setbacks, the Temptations, with Franklin and Otis Williams at the helm, forged ahead. Today, with Williams the sole surviving original member, the group continues.
90. Carlos Santana
Mexican-born Carlos Santana had just finished high school in San Francisco, in 1965, when the city's music scene exploded, exposing him to a wealth of revelations – electric blues, African rhythms and modern jazz; guitar mentors such as Jerry Garcia and Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green – that became key strands in the Latin-rhythm psychedelia of his namesake band. Santana's crystalline tone and clean arcing sustain make him the rare instrumentalist who can be identified in just one note.
89. The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds may not have been as famous as their British Invasion contemporaries the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who, but the pioneering blues-based combo introduced three of the most famous and influential guitarists of the rock era: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Their innovations — a revved-up instrumental attack, controlled use of feedback, distortion and fuzz; and live, improvisational jams they called "rave ups" — paved the way for psychedelic rock, progressive rock, heavy metal, Southern boogie and even punk.
88. Curtis Mayfield
If, in the late Fifties and early Sixties, you were drawn to that place on the AM radio dial where the rhythms, the grooves and the beautiful sounds of African-American soul were playing, you would have found Curtis Mayfield. Many of us first heard him as backing vocalist in the Impressions behind Jerry Butler, singing "For Your Precious Love." But he really came into focus in Butler's next big hit, "He Will Break Your Heart," which was written by Mayfield and features his strumming electric guitar to a saucy tango beat that you can hear echoing in Ben E. King's "Spanish Harlem."
87. R.E.M.
One of the best bands the American underground kicked up in the Eighties, R.E.M. were a group of arty Athens, Georgia guys who invented college rock and went on to huge mainstream success. They brought a cagey mix of attitude and poetry to an idiosyncratic sound built around jangling guitars and hazy vocals of frontman Michael Stipe. Relentlessly touring clubs around the country for the first few years, R.E.M. consistently refined their sound: They could be dreamy, abrasive, circumspect, mischievous, and eggheaded. Their 1988 signing with Warner. Bros. netted them $10 million dollars for five records. Fortunately for the band and their fans, the same kind of creative gambits that marked their early days were still in place during the 1990s.
86. Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur was one of the most dynamic, influential and self-destructive pop stars of the Nineties. The rapper's husky voice described his stark contradictions, setting misogyny against praise of strong women, hard-won wisdom against the violence of the "thug life" — words he had tattooed across his torso. The critical and commercial successes of his music (as well as his modest achievements as an actor) were continually overshadowed by his legal and personal entanglements. In Tupac's world, art and reality became tragically blurred, culminating with his 1996 murder in Las Vegas.
85. Metallica
In the Eighties — when big hair and small ideas dominated heavy metal — Metallica's blend of brains and brawn gave the genre a much-needed charge. As their career wore on, the band's lyrics took on war, censorship, and other political issues metal didn't typically address, and the group sharpened their focus as songwriters, with singles like the horror-movie stomper "Enter Sandman" becoming huge rock anthems. Fans responded to in droves, buying six million copies of the group's fifth full-length album, Metallica, and elevating their previous LPs to platinum. In the process, grim-faced guitarist-singer James Hetfield became not only a hero for the nation's largest fraternity of misfits — suburban metalheads — but also a critically respected songwriter and bandleader. Metallica ended the decade as the biggest-selling rock act of the Nineties.
84. Miles Davis
Miles Davis is the most revered jazz trumpeter of all time, not to mention one of the most important musicians of the 20th century. He was the first jazz musician of the post-hippie era to incorporate rock rhythms, and his immeasurable influence on others, in both jazz and rock, encouraged a wealth of subsequent experiments. From the bebop licks he initially played with saxophonist Charlie Parker to the wah-wah screeds he concocted to keep up with Jimi Hendrix, Davis was as restless as a performer could get.
83. Carl Perkins
One of the architects of rock & roll, Carl Perkins is best known as the writer and original singer of the rockabilly anthem "Blue Suede Shoes" (#2, 1956). Along with Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins was one of the seminal rockabilly artists on Sam Phillips' Sun label, but a series of bad breaks, followed by personal problems, undermined his solo career. Despite that, Perkins persevered, creating a body of work that has been both critically acclaimed and extremely influential on songwriters, guitar players, and singers alike.
82. Tom Petty
81. Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys were the first big white rap group, and they have stayed popular — at times hugely popular — for nearly a quarter century. After emerging from New York's hardcore punk underground in the early Eighties, the trio crossed over into the mainstream in 1986 with their first full-length album, Licensed to Ill, the first rap album to reach Number One. Featuring "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)" (Number 7) and "Brass Monkey" (Number 48 pop, Number 83 R&B, 1987), the album sold 720,000 copies in six weeks, becoming one of Columbia's fastest-selling debuts ever. In the late Eighties, Beastie Boys' take on hip-hop began maturing, and throughout the Nineties the group ventured into spaced-out funk, psychedelia and lounge music, yet retaining its adolescent charm and hit-making sensibility.
80. The Band
Even if they were only remembered as the group that backed Bob Dylan on some of his best work (including The Basement Tapes), the Band would be widely revered. But the four Canadians and one Southerner did classic work on their own, turning in earthy and mystical albums built on rock-ribbed, austerely precise arrangements and songs that linked American folklore to primal myths.
79. The Stooges
In the late Sixties and early Seventies, the Stooges helped invent punk rock. The band — singer Iggy Stooge (later Pop) guitarist Ron Asheton), his drummer brother Scott Asheton and bassist Dave Alexander — formed in Detroit, Michigan, and debuted in Ann Arbor on Halloween 1967.
78. Parliament-Funkadelic
Since 1955, George Clinton (a.k.a. Dr. Funkenstein, the Maggot Overlord, Uncle Jam) has headed a loose aggregation of musicians known variously as "The Mothership Connection," his "Parliafunkadelicment Thang," or "P-Funk All-Stars." Composed of members of two main groups, Parliament and Funkadelic, and various offshoot bands, the organization made some of pop's most adventurous (and sometimes popular) music of the Seventies. Since then, Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic have been felt in the music of a wide range of postdisco and postpunk artists, including Prince, Dr. Dre, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Clinton's music mixes funk polyrhythms, psychedelic guitar, jazzy horns, vocal-group harmonies, and often scatological imagery. His lengthy concerts are unpredictable, characterized by extended, improvised jams. One of his many quotable mottoes is: "Free your ass and your mind will follow."
77. Grateful Dead
From the 1960s until the 1995 death of guitarist, singer-songwriter Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead played roughly 2,300 long, freeform concerts that touched down on their own country-, blues and folk –tinged songs, and on a similarly wide range of cover versions. Along the way, they popularized the concept of the jam band, influencing thousands of songwriters and basement improvisers and earning themselves maybe the most loyal fans a rock band have ever had.
76. Sly & The Family Stone
In the late Sixties and early Seventies, Sly & the Family Stone fused R&B rhythms, radio-ready hooks and psychedelia to create a new pop/soul/rock hybrid. The band's bright, catchy songs artfully took on racism and other political issues and influenced pop artists like Prince to Rick James. From the Nineties forward, legions of artists — including Public Enemy, Fatboy Slim, Beck and many others — mined Sly's catalogue for samples.
75. Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello exploded onto the late 1970s new wave scene as a brash singer/songwriter who reinvigorated the literate, lyrical traditions of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison and paired them with the raw energy and ferocity that were principal ethics of punk.
74. James Taylor
James Taylor was the archetypal sensitive singer/songwriter of the Seventies. His songs, especially his early material, were tales of inner torment delivered in low-key tunes, with Taylor's understated tenor backed by intricate acoustic guitar parts that drew on folk and jazz. Taylor came across as relaxed, personable, and open; he was imitated by a horde of would-be confessionalists, although his best songs were as artful as they were emotional. They weren't folk songs; they were pop compositions with folk dynamics, and in them Taylor put across more bitterness and resignation than reassurance. As he continued to record, Taylor split his albums between cover singles that were hits ("Handy Man," "You've Got a Friend") and his own songs, maturing into a laid-back artist with a large and devoted following of baby boomers.
73. The Notorious B.I.G.
Mammoth-sized rapper (6 feet 3 inches and close to 300 pounds) the Notorious B.I.G., alternately known as Biggie Smalls but born Christopher Wallace, released just one album during his lifetime: 1994's Ready to Die. Written by Wallace and produced by Sean Combs, it was a remarkable debut, distinguished by Wallace's thick, commanding baritone and his slow, matter-of-fact rhymes about the hustler's life he left behind for rap. Wallace would not attain true iconic status until after his murder, on March 9, 1997. By the time his second album, the sprawling, double-CD Life After Death, hit stores three weeks later, Wallace —like his rival Tupac Shakur before him —had become a rap martyr.
72. Alice Cooper
Between 1950s showman Screamin' Jay Hawkins emerging from a coffin and Kiss' Gene Simmons spitting "blood" in the 1970s, no one defined shock rock like Alice Cooper. Cooper used violent (and vile) theatrics — simulated executions, the chopping up of baby dolls, and draping himself with a live boa constrictor —and explicit lyrics to become a controversial yet hugely popular figure in the early-and-mid 1970s. After a decade of fluctuating record sales, Cooper returned to platinum with the Number 20 1989 LP Trash. Though respected by a new generation of hard-rock fans, he never reached that kind of popularity again.
71. Aerosmith
Known for an aggressively rhythmic style as rooted in James Brown funk as in more traditional blues, Aerosmith were the top American hard-rock band of the mid-Seventies; if you set foot in a high school parking lot back then, the verbose back-alley numbers on 1975's Toys In The Attic and 1976's Rocks were inescapable. But the members' growing drug problems and internal dissension contributed to a commercial decline that accelerated through the late Seventies and early Eighties. Two crucial lineup changes and a few poorly received albums preceded a 1984 reunion of the original lineup and the multiplatinum Permanent Vacation, which signaled one of the most spectacular comebacks in rock history. Though by this time they were presenting themselves as vociferous adherents to the sober lifestyle, Aerosmith retained much of their bad-boy image. And despite a considerably more commercially slick and power-ballad oriented sound than they'd first emerged with, frequently drawing on outside songwriters, they managed to became even more popular the second time around.
70. Van Halen
Starting with their Top Twenty debut album in 1978, Van Halen almost single-handedly redefined heavy metal as sunny, pop-friendly California party music that managed to retain its physical power and virtuoso credentials — a concept that would reverberate throughout the hair-metal Eighties. With Eddie Van Halen's highly original guitar pyrotechnics a constant through the years, Van Halen would shuffle their lineup again and again. Initially fronted by the flamboyant and ever-quotable David Lee Roth, the band garnered a loyal mass following that held fast long after Roth's 1985 departure, and through numerous well-publicized intra-band squabbles.
69. Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band combined deeply Southern strains of music — blues, country, and gospel — with boisterous rock & roll and their jazzy, jam-oriented style. Thus they created the "New South" sound, drafting a template to be used for decades by everyone from Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band to My Morning Jacket and the Drive-By Truckers.
68. Al Green
To a greater extent than even his predecessors Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, Al Green embodies soul music's mix of sacred and profane. He was one of the Seventies' most popular vocalists, selling over 20 million albums. His wildly improvisational, ecstatic cries and moans came directly from gospel music, and in the late-1970s he returned to the Baptist church as a preacher. In the 2000s, Green returned to secular music and continues to turn out acclaimed albums, staying close to the Memphis-soul sound that made him famous.
67. Tina Turner
Tina Turner is one of the great soul singers of all time, a powerful performer overflowing with heart-on-her-sleeve passion and sex appeal. She also has a great comeback story. Turner became famous in the Sixties by partnering onstage and off with Ike Turner, to whom she was married for nearly 20 years. After a tumultuous relationship, which Tina Turner has described as being marked by physical and emotional abuse (claims her ex-husband disputes), Tina left Ike in 1976, then became bigger than ever.
66. Black Sabbath
Mixing bone-crushing volume with Ozzy Osbourne's keening, ominous pronouncements of gloom and doom, Black Sabbath were the heavy-metal kings of the 1970s. Often reviled by mainstream rock critics and ignored by radio programmers, the group still managed to sell over 8 million albums before Osbourne departed for a solo career in 1979.
65. Louis Armstrong
64. B.B. King
B.B. King is the most famous of the modern bluesmen. Playing his trademark Gibson guitar, which he refers to affectionately as Lucille, King's lyrical leads and left-hand vibrato have influenced numerous rock guitarists, including Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. A fifteen-time Grammy winner, King has received virtually every music award, including the Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in 1987.
63. AC/DC
AC/DC 's rowdy image, giant riffs and macho lyrics about sex, drinking and damnation have helped make them one of the top hard-rock bands in history. When they first emerged from Australia in the Seventies, the primal simplicity of their songs and riffs fell on deaf ears of more prog-attuned American rock fans; in fact, they were initially marketed as a punk band. But that started to change by decade's end. And thanks in large part to duck-walking, knickers-clad guitar showman Angus Young, who became as famous for mooning audiences as for his gritty blues-based lead guitar, the group has remained one of the world's most dependable concert draws. AC/DC's albums consistently go platinum, despite never having produced a Top Twenty single in the U.S.
62. John Lennon
John Lennon was the most iconic Beatle. He was group's most committed rock & roller, its social conscience, and its slyest verbal wit. With the Beatles, he wrote or co-wrote dozens of classics – from "She Loves You" to "Come Together" – and delivered many of them with a cutting, humane, and distinct voice that would make him one of the greatest singers rock has ever produced.
61. Sex Pistols
The Pistols were a revolution, they changed the way people dressed, thought, walked and played music. They killed flared trousers and introduced anarchy to pop culture. They made people hack off their hippie hair, Rotten was a one man generation gap whose look and attitude was something totally original. They made ugly beautiful and they created a whole lexicon of rock n roll. God Save The Queen had questions asked about it Parliament and the band invented a whole new type of controversy.
60. Madonna
Madonna is the most media-savvy American pop star since Bob Dylan and, until she toned down her press-baiting behavior in the Nineties, she was the most consistently controversial one since Elvis Presley. Her pleasure-celebrating dance music and outr é videos gave feminism a much-needed makeover throughout the Eighties, smashing sexual boundaries, making eroticism a crucial pop-song element, and challenging social and religious mores. Madonna later positioned herself as a doting mother and charitable international citizen, but to her detractors, she merely reinforced the notion of "woman as plaything," turning the clock back on conventional feminism two decades. One thing, however, is rarely disputed: At nearly every turn, she has maintained firm control over her career and image.
59. The Police
The Police's songs are unmistakable. Both canny and cosmopolitan, the British trio's sound blended pop hooks and tricky rhythms. Reggae beats here, African funk there, and on top of all the pulsing grooves, the keening wail of Sting's voice. The band, driven by Stewart Copeland's drums, Andy Summers' guitar, and Sting's bass, leapt from the punk underground to conquer the radio airwaves with 1978's "Roxanne." For the next several years they went on to create a wildly successful body of work that was both experimental and highly pop-wise. Maybe that's why they titled their most popular album Synchronicity, and maybe that's why — 30 years after they arrived on the scene — their reunion tour was one of the most celebrated rock events of 2008.
58. Patti Smith
In the early 1970s, Patti Smith, already a regular on the New York scene as a poet, performance artist and sometime lover of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, began to set her poetry to Lenny Kaye's electric guitar playing. Soon, she had a full band, whose rough, clattering sound made a perfect match for Smith's shrieked, soaring vocals. The moment she proclaimed, "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine" on her reworked version of Van Morrison's "Gloria" in 1975, Smith positioned herself as a key leader of the punk movement that followed.
57. Lynyrd Skynyrd
The quintessential Southern rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd rose to prominence in 1973, full of regional pride and stressing cocky, boisterous hard rock as opposed to the Allman Brothers' more open-ended blues. Their signature song, "Freebird," complete with it fiery five-minute, three-guitar solo, is easily the most requested live song in existence. When the band broke up in 1977, after Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines died in a plane crash, rock suffered a tremendous loss.
56. Eagles
No other band did as much to translate the explosively creative, politicized rock of the 1960s into the massively popular, de-politicized rock of the 1970s as the Eagles. Specializing in broadly appealing, masterfully crafted tunes, the southern California band has sold more than 100 million albums. The 1976 compilation, Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, was the first album ever certified platinum and has sold 29 million copies in the U.S., second only to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' on the all-time list.
55. Eric Clapton
In the Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, and Derek and the Dominos, as well as through his prolific solo work, guitarist Eric Clapton has continually re-defined his own version of the blues. From the start, he caught audiences' attention with his fiery, adventurous and precise playing. In late Sixties London, his worshippers advocated the slogan, "Clapton is God," a phrase that originated with a now-famous piece of graffiti spray-painted on a London Underground. Over the next four decades, Clapton did little to dampen that reputation and was named number two in Rolling Stone's list of '100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time'.
54. Van Morrison
Van Morrison is an enigma shrouded in Celtic garb. An often cranky introvert who rarely gives interviews, he's also an incredibly passionate and distinct vocalist whose concerts can generate serious heat. However his brilliance can be undercut by whim or temper, and he has upon occasion alienated audiences by rushing through songs and remaining aloof between them. He's an Irish poet in love with all sorts of bedrock American music — particularly jazz, blues, and country — and artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and Bono have cited him as a huge influence. Whether swaggering and flamboyant or quiet and elliptical, there's always an emotional candor in Van Morrison's singing.
53. The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are the most important vocal duo in rock. The enduring influence of their close, expressive harmonies is evident in the work of British Invasion bands like the Beatles and the Hollies, and of folk-oriented acts such as Simon and Garfunkel, not to mention countless solo artists, among them Dave Edmunds, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt. Most of the Everlys' hit singles — "Bye Bye Love," "Wake Up Little Susie," "All I Have to Do Is Dream" — merged Nashville's clean instrumental country style with innocuous teenage themes, and were smoother than other contemporary country-rock hybrids like rockabilly. Their mastery is revealed in their ballads, among them "Let It Be Me."
52. Cream
Fronted by Eric Clapton, Cream was the prototypical power trio, playing a mix of blues, rock and psychedelia while focusing on chunky riffs and fiery guitar solos. In a mere three years, the band sold 15 million records, played to SRO crowds throughout the U.S. and Europe, and redefined the instrumentalist's role in rock.
51. Smokey Robinson
Bob Dylan called him "America's greatest living poet," and in 1987 ABC's Martin Fry sang that "Everything's good in the world tonight/When Smokey sings." As a writer of love songs, Smokey Robinson is peerless: From Motown standards like "My Girl" to the elaborately constructed, metaphor-driven "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game," "Let Me Be the Time (on the Clock of Your Heart)," and "The Way You Do the Things You Do," he explored every aspect of romantic love. Whether making an elegant declaration of passion ("More Love"), pleading forgiveness ("Ooh Baby Baby"), or musing at love's paradoxical nature ("Ain't That Peculiar," "Choosey Beggar"), Robinson's best songs showed a rare mastery of the pop form. His delicate yet emotionally powerful falsetto is among the most romantic in pop.
50. Michael Jackson
No single artist – indeed, no movement or force – has eclipsed what Michael Jackson accomplished in the first years of his adult solo career. Jackson changed the balance in the pop world in a way that nobody has since. He forced rock & roll and the mainstream press to acknowledge that the biggest pop star in the world could be young and black, and in doing so he broke down more barriers than anybody. But he is also among the best proofs in living memory of poet William Carlos Williams' famous verse: "The pure products of America/go crazy."
49. Bruce Springsteen
For nearly four decades Bruce Springsteen has been a working-class hero: a plainspoken visionary and a sincere romantic whose insights into everyday lives — especially in America's small-town heartland — have earned comparisons to John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie. His belief in rock's mythic past (and its potential) revitalized pop music and made Springsteen a superstar in the Eighties. He maintained his enormous popularity into the 21st century, when he became even more of an outspoken political activist.
48. Joni Mitchell
Starting as a finger-picking folkie and winding up as a jazz-savvy experimentalist, Joni Mitchell has brought a sharp eye, light touch and an agile trill of a voice to her songs, which have often dissected her romances and skewered myopic government. A wealth of musicians — from Tori Amos to Prince, from Joanna Newsom to Iron & Wine — have acknowledged her influence.
47. Hank Williams
During his short life, Hank Williams racked up 29 Top 10 Country & Western hits, including the Number Ones "Lovesick Blues," "Why Don't You Love Me," "Long Gone Lonesome Blues," "Moanin' the Blues," "Cold, Cold Heart," "Hey, Good Lookin'," "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)," and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." His best songs, as much a part of the American soundtrack as car engines and "My Country 'Tis of Thee," were instrumental in country music's rise in popularity and influenced scads of rock & rollers. In tracks like "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" Williams expressed intense, personal emotions with country's traditional plainspoken directness, a then-revolutionary approach that has come to define the genre through the works of subsequent artists from George Jones and Willie Nelson to Gram Parsons and Dwight Yoakam. As a singer, Williams mastered a range of styles, from gospel to the pre-rockabilly playfulness of "Hey, Good Lookin'." In 1987 Williams became one of the earliest inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
46. Elton John
For most of the Seventies, Elton John and lyricist Bernie Taupin were a virtual hit factory, churning out 25 Top Forty singles, 16 Top Ten, and six Number One hits. In the Eighties their fortunes declined only slightly. To date, they have achieved more than four dozen Top Forty hits and become one of the most successful songwriting teams in pop history.
45. Nirvana
Few bands in rock history have had a more immediate and tangible impact on their contemporary pop musical landscape than Nirvana did in the early Nineties. When the Seattle trio hit the scene in 1991, mainstream radio was awash in the hair metal of Poison and Def Leppard. But seemingly within hours of the release of Nirvana's anarchic, angry single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" — and its twisted anti-pep-rally video—the rules had changed. Artifice was devalued; pure, raw emotion was king.
44. Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin was perhaps the premier blues-influenced rock singer of the late Sixties, and certainly one of the biggest female rock stars of her time. Even before her death, her tough blues-mama image only barely covered her vulnerability. The publicity concerning Joplin's sex life and problems with alcohol and drugs made her something of a legend. In recent years, periodic attempts to recast her life and work within the context of feminism have met with mixed results. Sadly, Joplin was one of three major Sixties rock stars (the others being Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison) to die at the beginning of the 1970s.
43. Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley's signature beat is a cornerstone of rock and pop, a simple, five-accent rhythm that's the driving force behind Diddley's own "Who Do You Love," "Mona," "Bo Diddley," and "I'm a Man" — as well as Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," the Who's "Magic Bus," the Strangelove's "I Want Candy" (later covered by Bow Wow Wow), Bruce Springsteen's "She's the One," George Michael's "Faith," Primal Scream's "Movin' on Up," and many, many other songs. Diddley was one of the most influential guitarists of his generation, and his lubricious vocal style has informed blues and rock singers for over a half-century. Long a popular live act, Diddley was also a fixture on the road for six decades.
42. Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk's robotic, repetitive, all-electronic music influenced virtually every synthesizer band that followed in its wake. In the mid-'70s the German group literally invented the man-machine sound and image. In 1970 Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider-Esleben, who had met studying classical music at the Dusseldorf Conservatory, founded Kling-Klang Studio. Their first recorded appearance together is on 1970's Tone Float, the debut by a psychedelic kraut-rock quintet called Organisation. After leaving that group, Hütter and Schneider took the name Kraftwerk ("power plant") and began experimenting with integrating mechanized sounds from everyday life into music. Following numerous lineup changes, during which two members defected to form the influential kraut-rock band Neu!, Kraftwerk was reduced to a duo. After Ralf and Florian (not released in the U.S. until 1975), the pair added Klaus Roeder and Wolfgang Flür.
41. Creedence Clearwater Revival
Thanks largely to John Fogerty's rough, inimitable voice and seemingly bottomless supply of great melodies, Creedence Clearwater Revival were the preeminent American singles band of the late Sixties and early Seventies.
40. Frank Zappa
With more than 80 albums to his credit, composer/arranger/guitarist/bandleader Frank Zappa demonstrated a mastery of pop idioms ranging from jazz to rock of every conceivable variety, penned electronic and orchestral works, parlayed controversial satire, and testified in Congress against censorship. Zappa was impatient with any division between popular and high art; he combined scatological humor with political wit, required of his players (among them over the years, Little Feat founder Lowell George, guitarists Adrian Belew and Steve Vai, and drummer Terry Bozzio) an intimidating skill, and displayed consistent innovation in instrumental and studio technology. In the 2000s, his son Dweezil revived Zappa's music and demanding musicianship with Zappa Plays Zappa, a performance ensemble that transcends being a mere cover band, actually recreating the music and extending the improvisations on stage for new generations.
39. The Byrds
The Byrds pioneered folk-rock, combining traditional acoustic music with early Sixties pop. The group's signature sunny melodies, lush harmonies, and ringing 12-string guitars — as well as their eventual exploration of psychedelic rock — made for some of the decade's best singles. The band continued to do strong work (including foray into country), establishing a sonic model for many of the Seventies biggest rock bands, including the Eagles, Tom Petty, and the latter-day Fleetwood Mac.
38. Neil Young
Some artists make it seem utterly courageous to follow their own muse. Neil Young makes it seem like there's no other choice. For the last 45 years, Young has glanced at his options, shrugged for a moment, and lit off for the place that seemed right. Young has always kept his fans guessing, turning an array of stylistic corners — country twang here, poignant picking there, and a whole lot of blaring guitar rock everywhere between. It doesn't matter if the songs are personal confessions, allusive tales, or bouncy throwaways — since the mid-1960s Young has filled each with immediacy and passion, two hallmarks of a career that has been utterly influential and wildly fun to follow. He's like your weird old uncle — if your uncle were a rock & roll genius.
37. Otis Redding
Otis Redding's grainy voice and galvanizing stage shows made him one of the greatest soul singers of all time. At the time of his death, he was being hailed as the King of Southern Soul and was making his first significant impact on the pop audience after years as a favorite among blacks. Redding's songs have been covered by numerous artists: Aretha Franklin recorded the definitive version of "Respect," taking it to Number One in 1967; more than two decades later, the Black Crowes scored a hit with Redding's "Hard to Handle."
36. Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters was the man who moved the blues north from the Delta and made it electric. The leading exponent of Chicago blues in the 1950s, Waters came up with guitar licks and a repertoire of classic songs that have fueled innumerable rock acts, from the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton to the Allman Brothers Band and Led Zeppelin.
35. Roy Orbison
Originally a Sun Records rockabilly artist, Roy Orbison went on to become one of the most distinctive singers in popular music. In his first peak period (1961-64), Orbison vacillated between snarling blues rock and his mainstay, the romantic/paranoiac ballad with crescendo-ing falsetto and strings. With his twanging guitar and quavering bel canto tenor, Orbison scored a number of hits: "Only the Lonely" (Number Two, 1960), "Running Scared" (Number One, 1961), "Crying" (Number Two, 1961), "Dream Baby" (Number Four, 1962), and "Oh, Pretty Woman" (Number One, 1964). His brooding loner persona was later given resonance by the personal tragedies that befell him — his wife Claudette was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1966 and two of his three children died in a fire in his Nashville home in 1968.
34. The Kinks
The Kinks were a key part of the 1960s British Invasion, and their early hits — especially "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night" — paved the way for the next decade's hard rock. After their first burst of popularity died down, the Kinks became a cult band, continuing to turn out great albums into the Seventies. Ray Davies was the leader, a deeply articulate (and often cranky) craftsmen who could write elegies for the beleaguered British middle class, romantic scenarios for rock theater, and bittersweet tales of show-business survival. Skirmishes between Davies and his brother, Dave, who had been the group's guitarist since its inception, were perpetual — and sometimes even physical. But over the years, the Kinks have influenced bands from the Pretenders to Pavement.
33. Jerry Lee Lewis
Though he had only three Top Ten hits in the first phase of his career, many believe Jerry Lee Lewis was as talented a rock & roller as his Sun labelmate Elvis Presley. Nicknamed "The Killer," he became almost as famous for his-edged persona as for his music. As a result Lewis fell off the map after delivering some of early rock's most famous songs. But his life had a second act — he resurfaced as a hitmaking country artist — and he's still widely regarded as a rock legend.
32. Johnny Cash
31. The Clash
Unlike many other punk bands from the 1970s, the Clash took raw anger as a starting point, not an end. They were rebels with a cause — many causes, in fact, from anti-Thatcherism to racial unity to the Sandinistas. Their music was hard-charging and roots-based but also future-visionary; their experiments with funk, reggae, and rap never took them far from a three-minute pop song. Hyped as "the only band that matters," the Clash fell apart just as they broke through to an American audience. By then they had delivered an arsenal of unforgettable rock songs while showing that punk was not just a flash-in-the-pan explosion.
30. Ramones
A group of "brothers" from Forest Hills, Queens, the Ramones helped invent punk rock by mastering a simple but extremely effective sound — a combination of speedy grooves, sing-along tunes and deadpan lyrics that achieved a kind of boneheaded genius. The sound influenced thousands of bands, and proved so durable that the Ramones more or less stuck to it for their entire career.
29. Simon & Garfunkel
When they were in the sixth grade together in Forest Hills, Queens, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel discovered they could harmonize. What they may not have realized at the time was just how far their angelic voices would carry them. Throughout the latter half of the 1960s and early 1970s the duo's literary lyrics, sculpted melodies, and, above all, exquisite harmonies combined for a folk-pop sound that propelled them to the top of the charts and left a mark on thousands of future singer-songwriters.
28. Fats Domino
With more than 65 million record sales to his credit, New Orleans singer and pianist Fats Domino outsold every 1950s rock & roll pioneer except Elvis Presley, leaving a profound impact on subsequent generations of musicians. In 1986 he was among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
27. Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye was one of the most consistent and enigmatic of the Motown hitmakers, with a career that exemplified the maturation of black pop into a sophisticated form spanning social and sexual politics. Blessed with a mellifluous tenor and a three-octave vocal range, Gaye was among the most gifted composers and singers of his era.
26. The Doors
Morrison and Manzarek, acquaintances from the UCLA Graduate School of Film, conceived the group at a 1965 meeting on a Southern California beach. After Morrison recited one of his poems, "Moonlight Drive," Manzarek — who had studied classical piano as a child and played in Rick and the Ravens, a UCLA blues band — suggested they collaborate on songs. Manzarek's brothers, Rick and Jim, served as guitarists until Manzarek met John Densmore, who brought in Robby Krieger; both had been members of the Psychedelic Rangers. Morrison christened the band the Doors, from William Blake via Aldous Huxley's book on mescaline, The Doors of Perception.
25. Robert Johnson
Though a street singer whose repertoire was not limited to the blues, Robert Johnson is among the first and most influential Delta bluesmen, despite his having recording only 29 songs before dying at the age of 27. He is credited with writing blues standards like "Dust My Broom" (which Elmore James made into a postwar electric-blues anthem), "Sweet Home Chicago," "Ramblin' on My Mind," "Crossroads" (covered by Cream), "Love in Vain" and "Stop Breaking Down" (covered by the Rolling Stones), and "Terraplane Blues" (covered by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band on Mirror Man). Equally important, Johnson's persona and his songs introduced a musical and lyrical vocabulary that are the basis of the modern blues and blues-based rock.
24. The Velvet Underground
The ultimate New York band — and, arguably, the most influential of all the proto-punk groups — the Velvet Underground were unique among Sixties rockers in their intentional crudity, in their sense of beauty in ugliness, and in their dark and risqu é lyrics. During the age of flower power, the Velvets spoke in no uncertain terms of social alienation, sexual deviancy, drug addiction, violence, and hopelessness, evoking the exhilaration and destructiveness of modern urban life. The group's music and attitude shaped the work of David Bowie, the New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Mott the Hoople, Roxy Music, the Sex Pistols, R.E.M., Sonic Youth, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and literally thousands of other bands.
23. The Beach Boys
Creators of lush songs described as "teenage symphonies to God" and one of the most innovative bands ever, the Beach Boys invented California rock. Brian Wilson's songs celebrated a West Coast teen fantasy, full of surfing, driving and pretty girls that barely hid the songwriter's inner conflicts. Wilson orchestrated and produced glossy, manicured tracks with an ultra-smooth blend of guitars and vocal harmonies, creating a signature pop sound as recognizable as any in rock history.
22. U2
Being the biggest band in the world is a tough job, which is why U2 have sloughed it off now and then: Periods of arena-scale romance have been followed by bursts of odder experimentation, including a less-than-stellar Nineties stretch when the band were mired in irony, postmodernism and orange goggles. But for much of their career, U2 have committed to grabbing and holding that Biggest Band title the way they commit to everything — completely and passionately.
21. Sam Cooke
In the Fifites and Sixties, Sam Cooke helped invent soul music by merging gospel sounds with secular themes. Cooke's pure, elegant crooning was widely imitated, and both his voice and his suave, sophisticated image influenced generations of soul men.
20. Queen
The epitome of pomp-rock in the Seventies and Eighties, Queen rocked radio and sports stadiums alike with booming, highly produced anthems like "We Are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You." Onstage, the English quartet used elaborate sets smoke bombs, and flashpots — none of which were quite as captivating as the band's lead singer, Freddie Mercury, whose preening and over-the-top vocals helped make Queen wildly popular.
19. David Bowie
A consummate musical chameleon, David Bowie has been a folksinger, androgyne, alien, decadent, blue-eyed soul man, art-rocker and a modern pop star, with each persona spawning a new league of imitators. His late-Seventies collaborations with Brian Eno made Bowie one of the few older stars to be taken seriously by the new wave. In the Eighties Bowie followed the mainstream pop smash Let's Dance (Number One, 1983) with numerous attempts to keep up with current trends. In the Nineties, that meant embracing grunge, industrial rock, rap and dance music, to varying degrees of success. But by then Bowie's place in history was secure: This is a man who did for pretensions what Jimi Hendrix did for electric guitar.
18. Prince
Prince was one of the most naturally gifted artists of all time, and also one of the most mysterious. In the Eighties, at a time when other megastars such as Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and Madonna, were delivering an album every three years or so, Prince remained prolific to an almost inhuman degree. A byproduct of his inexhaustible output was Prince's tendency toward wayward, self-indulgent career moves (like changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol in the Nineties) that sometimes alienated even his most ardent supporters.
17. Frank Sinatra
Baritone Frank Sinatra was indisputably the 20th century's greatest singer of popular song. Though influenced by Bing Crosby's crooning, and by learning from trombonist Tommy Dorsey's breath control and blues singer Billie Holiday's rhythmic swing, Frank Sinatra mainstreamed the concept of singing colloquially, treating lyrics as personal statements and handling melodies with the ease of a jazz improviser. His best work is standards —Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and the Gershwins —but Sinatra, despite his 1957 denunciation of rock & roll as degenerate, has recorded songs by the likes of Stevie Wonder, George Harrison, Jimmy Webb, and Billy Joel. Not only did his freely interpretive approach pave the way for the idiosyncrasies of rock singing, but with his character a mix of tough-guy cool and romantic vulnerability, he became the first true pop idol, a superstar who through his music established a persona audiences found compelling and true.
16. Buddy Holly
With his signature vocal hiccup and hits like "That'll Be the Day," "Rave On," "Peggy Sue" and "Not Fade Away," Buddy Holly was a rock & roll pioneer, as well as one of the genre's first great singer-songwriters. He used the recording studio for doubletracking and other advanced techniques, and popularized the two guitars, bass, and drums lineup. Holly's playful, mock-ingenuous singing, with slides between falsetto and regular voice, was a major influence on Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, and numerous imitators. When he died in an airplane crash at 22, he had been recording for less than two years.
15. The Who
Along with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the Who complete the holy trinity of British rock. The group began as fashionable London mods, playing a self-styled brand of "Maximum R&B," but became much more: the pioneers of rock opera, a powerhouse arena act, and among the first rock groups to successfully integrate (rather than merely fiddle with) synthesizers. Their smashed guitars and overturned (or blown up) drum kits symbolized the violent passions of a band that mixed four distinct and powerful sounds: Pete Townshend's alternately raging or majestic guitar playing, Keith Moon's nearly anarchic drumming style, John Entwistle's facile, thundering bass lines, and Roger Daltrey's impassioned vocals.
14. Pink Floyd
With the release of 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd abruptly went from a moderately successful acid-rock band to one of rock music's biggest acts. The recording, in fact, remained on Billboard's Top 200 album chart for 741 weeks, longer than any other album in history. Along with 1979's The Wall, it established Pink Floyd as purveyors of a distinctively dark vision. Experimenting with concept albums and pot-friendly studio effects and breaking free of conventional pop-song formats, Pink Floyd prefigured the progressive rock of the Seventies and ambient music of the Eighties.
13. Led Zeppelin
It wasn't just Led Zeppelin's thunderous volume, sledgehammer beat, and edge-of-mayhem arrangements that made it the most influential and successful heavy-metal pioneer. It was the band's finesse. Like its ancestors the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin used a guitar style that drew heavily on the blues; its early repertoire included remakes of songs by Howlin' Wolf, Albert King, and Willie Dixon (who later won a sizable settlement from the band in a suit in which he alleged copyright infringement). But Jimmy Page blessed the group with a unique understanding of the guitar and the recording studio as electronic instruments, and of rock as sculptured sound; like Jimi Hendrix, Page had a reason for every bit of distortion, feedback, reverberation, and out-and-out noise that he incorporated. Few of the many acts that try to imitate Led Zeppelin can make the same claim.
12. Stevie Wonder
Groomed from an early age for Motown stardom, Stevie Wonder mastered that label's distinctive fusion of pop and soul, then went on to compose far more idiosyncratic music &Number 8212; an ambitious hybrid of Tin Pan Alley chords and R&B energy, inflected with jazz, reggae, and African rhythms. A synthesizer and studio pioneer, Stevie Wonder is one of the few musicians to make records on which he plays virtually all the instruments, and does so with both convincing technique and abandon. A lifelong advocate of nonviolent political change patterned after Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, Wonder epitomized Sixties utopianism while, during his most active years at least, remaining resolutely contemporary in his musical experiments.
11. Ray Charles
Ray Charles virtually invented soul music by bringing together the fervor of gospel, the secular lyrics and narratives of blues and country, the big-band arrangements of jazz, and the rhythms and improvisational possibilities from all of them. His music was both sophisticated and spontaneous, and over the course of his 50-year career, Charles penned dozens of classic R&B and rock numbers.
10. Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin is not only the definitive female soul singer of the Sixties, she's also one of the most influential and important voices in pop history. Franklin fused the gospel music she grew up on with the sensuality of R&B, the innovation of jazz, and the precision of pop. After she hit her artistic and commercial stride in 1967, she made more than a dozen million-selling singles, and since then has recorded 20 Number One R&B hits. She moved toward the pop mainstream with fitful success in the Seventies, but in the late Eighties experienced a resurgence in popularity, and continues to record in a less ecstatic, more mannered style. Fittingly, after more than 40 years of helping to bridge the racial divide in her music, Franklin sang "My Country 'Tis of Thee" at Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009.
9. Bob Marley
The first major rock artist to come out of a Third World country, Bob Marley did more than anyone else to popularize reggae around the globe. He was a gifted songwriter who could mix protest music and pop as skillfully as Bob Dylan, and his songs of determination, rebellion, and faith became important parts of the rock and pop canon. Thirty years after Marley's death, hits like "No Woman No Cry" and "Is This Love" sound as vibrant as ever.
8. Little Richard
Pounding the piano, howling his lyrics and screaming in a wild falsetto, Little Richard &8212; the so-called Quasar of Rock &8212; was integral to the birth of rock & roll. His unhinged performance style, mascara-coated eyelashes, and high pompadour were exotic and androgynous, and in many ways he personified the new pop music genre's gleeful sexuality and spirit of rebellion. In his own way &8212; and as he is wont to exclaim to anyone in earshot &8212; he is the king of rock & roll.
7. James Brown
With some 800 songs in his repertoire, James Brown has influenced contemporary artists from virtually every popular music genre — rock, soul, jazz, R&B. His polyrhythmic funk vamps virtually reshaped dance music, and his impact on hip-hop, in particular, was huge; in the music's early years, Brown was by far the most sampled artist. Though he would be dogged by legal troubles and controversy in later life, he was a principled artist, adamant refusing to conform to anyone's vision. He was also an inimitable showman, and the only thing more fun than listening to James Brown was seeing him live.
6. Jimi Hendrix
A left-hander who took a right-handed Fender Stratocaster and played it upside down, Hendrix pioneered the use of the instrument as an electronic sound source. Players before Hendrix had experimented with feedback and distortion, but he turned those effects and others into a controlled, fluid vocabulary every bit as personal as the blues with which he began.
5. Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry melded the blues, country, and a witty, defiant teen outlook into songs that have influenced virtually every rock musician in his wake. In his best work — about 40 songs (including "Round and Round," "Carol," "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Back in the U.S.A.," "Little Queenie"), recorded mostly in the mid- to late 1950s — Berry matched some of the most resonant and witty lyrics in pop to music with a blues bottom and a country top, trademarking the results with his signature double-string guitar lick. Presenting Berry the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2000, President Bill Clinton hailed him as "one of the 20th Century's most influential musicians."
4. Bob Dylan
For almost 50 years, Bob Dylan has remained, along with James Brown, the most influential American musician rock & roll has ever produced. Inscrutable and unpredictable, Dylan has been both deified and denounced for his shifts of interest, while whole schools of musicians took up his ideas. His lyrics — the first in rock to be seriously regarded as literature — became so well known that politicians from Jimmy Carter to Vaclav Havel have cited them as an influence.
3. The Beatles
No band has influenced pop culture the way the Beatles have. They were one of the best things to happen in the twentieth century, let alone the Sixties. They were youth personified. They were unmatched innovators who were bigger than both Jesus and rock & roll itself: During the week of April 4, 1964, the Beatles held the first five slots on the Billboard Singles chart; they went on to sell more than a billion records; and 2000's 1, a compilation of the Beatles Number One hits, hit Number One in 35 countries and went on to become the best-selling album of the 2000s.
2. The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones began calling themselves the "World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band" in the Sixties, and few argued with them — even then. More than 40 years later, the band's music continues to sound vital. With literally scores of genre-setting hits under the group's belt — and fronted by two of rock's biggest archetypes — the Rolling Stones have done more to define the look, attitude and sound of rock & roll than any other band in the genre's history.
1. Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley was rock & roll’s first real star, not to mention one of the most important cultural forces in history, a hip-shaking symbol of liberation for the staid America of the 1950s. A white Southerner singing blues laced with country, and country laced with gospel, he brought together American music from both sides of the color line and performed it with a natural sexuality that made him a teen idol and role model for generations of cool rebels. He was repeatedly dismissed as vulgar, incompetent, and a bad influence, but the force of his music and his image was no mere merchandising feat. Presley signaled to mainstream culture that it was time to let go. Four decades after his death, Presley’s image and influence remain undiminished. While certainly other artists preceded him to the alter of rock & roll, he is indisputably The King.
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