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  1. Bob Dylan

    Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, musician, and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of Dylan's most recognized work dates from the 1960s, when he became an informal documentarian and a reluctant figurehead of American unrest. A number of his songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", …

  2. Amy Winehouse

    Amy Winehouse (born 14 September, 1983) is an English soul, jazz and R&B singer and songwriter. Her debut album, "Frank" (released in 2003) was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Winehouse is a two-time Ivor Novello Award winner; once in 2004 for her debut single "Stronger than Me" and again in May 2007 for the first single "Rehab" from her 2006 internationally acclaimed second album "Back to Black".

  3. Johnny Cash

    Johnny Cash was an influential American country and rock and roll singer and songwriter. Cash was the husband of country singer and songwriter June Carter Cash. Cash was known for his deep, distinctive voice, the "boom-chick-a-boom" or "freight train" sound of his Tennessee Three backing band, his dark clothing, and demeanor, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black." He started all his concerts with the simple introduction "Hello, …

  4. Britney Spears

    The youngest Spears stepped out on her own in 2002 as a cast member of Nickelodeon's All That . After becoming a fan favorite - like former All That stars Amanda Bynes and Nick Cannon - the then 13-year-old got her own series , Zoey 101 , which became the second highest-rated show among tweens, after TV juggernaut American Idol .

  5. David Bowie

    David Bowie (born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, actor, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger and audio engineer. Active in five decades of rock music, and frequently re-inventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an influential innovator, particularly for his work through the 1970s. Bowie has taken cues from a wide range of fine art, philosophy and literature. He is also a film and stage actor, …

  6. John Lennon

    John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 - 8 December 1980), was an Academy Award and Grammy Award-winning English songwriter, singer, musician, graphic artist, author and political activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founders of The Beatles. Lennon and Paul McCartney formed a critically acclaimed and commercially successful partnership writing songs for The Beatles and other artists. Lennon, with his cynical edge and knack for introspection, and McCartney, …

  7. Paul McCartney

    Sir James Paul McCartney MBE, known as Paul McCartney, (born 18 June 1942) is an Academy Award- and Grammy Award-winning English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who first gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles. McCartney and John Lennon formed one of the most influential and successful songwriting partnerships and "wrote some of the most popular music in rock and roll history." On leaving The Beatles, …

  8. Joni Mitchell

    Joni Mitchell, CC (born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943) is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and painter. Mitchell grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Mitchell's singing, over several decades, began in small nightclubs and busking on the streets of Toronto and in her native Western Canada. She subsequently became associated with the burgeoning folk music scene of the mid-1960s in New York City.

  9. Tom Waits

    Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by one critic as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car." With this trademark growl, his incorporation of pre-rock styles such as blues, jazz, and Vaudeville, and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music, …

  10. Stevie Wonder

    Stevie Wonder (born Stevland Hardaway Judkins on May 13, 1950, name later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris), is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Wonder has recorded more than thirty Top 10 hits, won twenty-two Grammy Awards (a record for a solo artist), plus one for lifetime achievement, won an Academy Award for Best Song and been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame.

  11. James Taylor

    James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, born in Belmont, Massachusetts. Taylor's career began in the mid-1960s, but he found his audience in the early 1970s, singing sensitive and gentle acoustic songs. He was part of a wave of singer-songwriters of the time that also included Joni Mitchell, Tom Rush, Cat Stevens, Carole King, John Denver, Elton John, Jackson Browne as well as Carly Simon, whom Taylor later married.

  12. Leonard Cohen

    Leonard Norman Cohen, CC (born September 21, 1934 in Westmount, Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. Cohen's earliest songs (many of which appeared on the 1968 album "Songs of Leonard Cohen") were rooted in European folk music melodies and instrumentation, sung in a high baritone.

  13. Elvis Costello

    Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick MacManus August 25, 1954 in London) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter. His full given name is often listed as Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus; however, Aloysius was not one of his names at birth, being added years later, around the time of the release of "King of America" (typically, it was a tongue-in-cheek gesture, …

  14. Neil Young

    Neil Percival Young OM (born November 12, 1945, Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and film director from Omemee, Ontario. His work is characterized by deeply personal lyrics, distinctive guitar work, and an instantly recognizable nasal tenor (and frequently alto) singing voice.

  15. Sheryl Crow

    Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is a nine-time Grammy-winning American blues rock singer, guitarist, bassist, and songwriter. Her music blends country, pop, folk, and blues rock into one mainstream sound. Crow is also a noted political activist who uses her fame to promote causes she supports.

  16. Eric Clapton

    Eric Patrick Clapton CBE (born 30 March 1945), nicknamed "Slowhand", is a Grammy Award winning English guitarist, singer and composer, who is one of the most successful musicians of the 20th century, garnering an unprecedented three inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Often viewed as one of the greatest guitarists of all time among critics and fans alike, …

  17. James Brown

    James Joseph Brown (May 3 1933 – December 25 2006), commonly referred to as "The Godfather of Soul" and "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business," was an American entertainer recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music. He was renowned for his shouting vocals, feverish dancing and unique rhythmic style. As a prolific singer, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer, …

  18. Norah Jones

    Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30 1979 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and occasional actress. Jones's career was launched with the massive success of her 2002 debut album "Come Away with Me", a contemporary pop album with a sensual, plaintive soul/folk/country tinge, that sold over twenty million copies worldwide and received six Grammy Awards, with Jones winning "Best New Artist".

  19. Alicia Keys

    Alicia Keys (born Alicia J. Augello-Cook on January 25 1980) is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, pianist, record producer, actress, philanthropist, and author who has won numerous awards, including nine Grammy Awards, eleven Billboard Music Awards, and three American Music Awards.

  20. Paul Simon

    Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Simon is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, both as half of the folk-singing duo Simon and Garfunkel and as a solo artist. In 2006, "Time" magazine called him one of the "100 people who shape our world". He currently resides in New Canaan, Connecticut.

  21. Billy Joel

    William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949, in the Bronx, New York, USA) is an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and composer. He released his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973. According to the RIAA, he is the sixth best selling artist in the United States. Joel had Top 10 hits in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, is a six-time Grammy Award winner and has sold in excess of 150 million albums worldwide. He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (Class of 1992), …

  22. Neil Diamond

    Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer and songwriter. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Diamond was one of the more successful pop music performers, scoring a number of hits in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. As critic William Ruhlmann writes, "as of 2001, he claimed worldwide record sales of 115 million copies, and as of 2002 he was ranked third, behind only Elton John and Barbra Streisand, …

  23. Van Morrison

    Van Morrison was born in Belfast in 1945, the son of a shipyard worker who collected American blues and jazz records. Van grew up listening to the music of Muddy Waters, Mahalia Jackson , Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker . As a teenager he played guitar, sax and harmonica with a series of local Irish showbands, skiffle and rock'n'roll groups before forming an r&b band called Them in 1964.

  24. Elton John

    Sir Elton Hercules John CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March, 1947) is a five-time Grammy and one-time Academy Award-winning English pop/rock singer, composer and pianist. In his four-decade career, John has been one of the dominant forces in rock and popular music, especially in the 1970s. John has sold more than 250 million albums plus hundreds of millions of singles, making him one of the most successful artists of all time.

  25. Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen

    When Bruce Springsteen finally broke through to national recognition in the fall of 1975 after a decade of trying, critics hailed him as the savior of rock & roll, the single artist who brought together all the exuberance of '50s rock and the thoughtfulness of '60s rock, molded into a '70s style. He rocked as hard as Jerry Lee Lewis , his lyrics... Continue Bio >>

  26. Hank Williams

    Hiram "Hank" King Williams (September 17, 1923 - January 1, 1953) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter who has also become an icon of country music and rock 'n' roll, and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. A leading exponent of the honky tonk style, he had numerous hit records, and his charismatic performances and succinct compositions increased his fame. His songbook is one of the backbones of country music, …

  27. Avril Lavigne

    "'Avril Ramona Lavigne Whibley (born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian rock singer and musician. She has sold over twenty-six million albums worldwide. In 2006, "Canadian Business Magazine" ranked her the seventh most powerful Canadian in Hollywood. Although her parents are of Quebecois origin, she does not speak French and her birth surname is usually pronounced in an anglicized way as (in French it is commonly pronounced).

  28. Christina Aguilera

    Christina María Aguilera, born December 18 1980, is an American pop singer and songwriter. She was signed to RCA Records after recording "Reflection" for the film "Mulan". She came to prominence following her debut album "Christina Aguilera" (1999), which was a critical and commercial success. A Latin pop album "Mi Reflejo", and a Christmas album, "My Kind of Christmas", …

  29. Lou Reed

    Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed (born March 2 1942 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. Reed first found prominence as the guitarist and principal singer-songwriter of The Velvet Underground (1965 - 1973). The band gained relatively little notice during its life, but is widely considered by some to be one of the seeds of alternative rock music.

  30. Michael Jackson

    Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29, 1958), commonly known as MJ as well as the "King of Pop", is an American musician, entertainer, and global icon whose successful career and controversial personal life have been a part of pop culture for almost 40 years. Michael Jackson is widely regarded as one of the greatest entertainers and most popular recording artists in history, displaying complicated physical techniques, …

  31. Jeff Buckley

    Jeff Buckley (November 17, 1966 - May 29, 1997), born Jeffrey Scott Buckley and raised as Scotty Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Known for his ethereal singing voice, Buckley was considered by critics to be one of the most promising artists of his generation after the release of his critically acclaimed 1994 debut album "Grace." However, at the height of his popularity, …

  32. Aretha Franklin

    Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American R&B, Pop and Gospel singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has been called for many years "The Queen Of Soul", but many also call her "Lady Soul," as well as the more affectionate "Sister Ree." She is renowned for her soul recordings but is also adept at jazz, rock, blues, pop, gospel, and even opera. She is generally regarded as one of the greatest vocalists ever, …

  33. Mary J. Blige

    Mary Jane Blige (born January 11, 1971), is an American R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, rapper, producer, and actress who has sold over 60 million records around the world since her career began in 1991. In that span she has had thirty-one charting hits on the U.S. pop charts. She has had forty hits on the R&B charts, seventeen of which were in the top ten and six which reached number one. She also has nine singles to reach number one on the dance charts, …

  34. Peter Gabriel

    Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950, in Chobham, Surrey, England) is an English musician. He first came to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. More recently he has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts.

  35. Tina Turner

    Tina Turner (born November 26, 1939) is a 11 time Grammy Award-winning (sharing three), American Singer, Dancer, Record Producer, Executive Producer, Film Producer, Actress, Writer, Performer, Songwriter, Author and occasional Painter whose career has spanned from 1956 to present. Turner's success, dominance and popularity in Rock and Roll garnered her the title, …

  36. Bonnie Raitt

    Bonnie Lynn Raitt (born November 8, 1949) is a nine-time Grammy award-winning American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist who was born in Burbank, California, the daughter of Broadway musical star John Raitt.

  37. Sarah McLachlan

    Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC (born January 28, 1968) is a Grammy-winning Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. She is known for the emotional sound of her ballads, some of her most popular songs include "Angel", "Building a Mystery", "Adia", "Possession", "Fallen", "I Will Remember You", and "World on Fire". Her best-selling album to date is "Surfacing", for which she won four Juno Awards and two Grammy Awards.

  38. Ne-Yo

    Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18 1982), known professionally as "Ne-Yo", is an American R&B/pop singer-songwriter. He is of African-American and Chinese heritage. Ne-Yo's debut album, "In My Own Words", was released in early 2006, through Def Jam Records, and debuted at number one on Billboard 200, selling over 301,000 copies in the first week.

  39. Ani Difranco

    Ani DiFranco (born Angela Maria Difranco on September 23, 1970) is a singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She is known as a prolific artist (having released at least one album every year since 1990, with the exception of 2000) and is seen by many as a women's rights and feminist icon.

  40. Aimee Mann

    Aimee Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American rock guitarist, bassist, singer, and noted songwriter.

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