Your Musical Mt. Rushmore

Miles Davis
Bob Dylan
Bob Marley
Louis Armstrong

Hey Steven...

I agree with the Big 3. Sinatra was the hardest for me to add.

Judging by the other responses, I really didn't ask the question correctly...It should have been PERFORMERS that had the biggest impact on the most fans.

There's no doubt Les Paul had a huge impact, but not really as a performer.

If "contributions" was the criteria, I'd have WC Handy on the list. WC was a black man with a heigh level of education. He went to the deep South and was the first to try to transpose the music of the deep South into written music sheets. At that time, there were no recorders.

If we go on the impact of other musicians, instead of their fans, my list may be:
WC Handy - Considered the "father of the blues", the root of all American music. He was to American music as George Washington was to US history.
Scott Joplin - Helped develope "rag", which later became jazz.
The Carter Family - Generations of pioneers of C/W, hillbilly and bluegrass
Muddy Waters Band - First major band to go electric, the "bridge" between old and new.

I'd have Les Paul #5, just missing out.

Two great selections there! I almost put Bird in my top four.

That's it right there. With makeup, of course.

I'm sure Gene is already trying to figure out where they can do this and how big a gift shop they can have.

Yep, Les Paul was a great performer and popular. But to say he was as popular a performer as Sinatra, Elvis, The Beatles or Michael is a looooong stretch, or that his fans reacted to him in the same way as my four, I disagree. It's not even close.

And your list only includes "rock", although none of them are pure rock, like a Chuck Berry.

What about jazz, swing, rag, blues, c/w, pop? No other genre of American music belongs on an American Music "Mt. Rushmore?"

Alice Cooper.

I mean, come on. Alice Cooper didn't just do "Welcome to my Nightmare," he also covered the "Ubangi Stomp" and "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" - he's a versatile guy, and hardly ever gets credit.

Almost an impossible question to answer because as somebody who has
been writing songs, seriously, for over 25 years and also knowing my
own strengths and weaknesses as a writer, I don't think there is one person
living or dead who I'd trust with me getting into heaven.

You mentioned Ray Charles being so versatile, and he is, but for country,
I'd pick so many who could do country better than Ray. He wasn't the
best singer for each musical genre. That's the problem with trying to
answer this. Nobody is so good, IMO, that they can do it all better than
anybody else. I think even you'd agree with that.

So in this case, I'd probably throw my arms up in the air, pick up the
hotline to hell and ask Lucifer if he has room for one more.

But...to keep in the spirit with the question and do my best to answer it,
knowing I'd probably go to hell anyway, I'd pick Billy Joel.

He truly has done it all. His New York State Of Mind was a Ray Charles
imitation the likes I've never heard. So he's got Jazz nailed.

Rock? We all know Billy can rock "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" "Captain
Jack" etc.

Country? "Uptown Girl" had a kind of country feel to it. Certainly as
versatile as Billy's voice is, I'd bet he could pull it off.

Pop? Well, that same "Uptown Girl" was certainly pop too. So was his
"Piano Man". Actually, that's probably more Adult Contemporary.

Anyway, Billy Joel would be my choice.

Now, if I could pick one singer for each genre, here would be my choices.

Jazz - Ray Charles
Rock - Freddie Mercury
Country - Johnny Cash
Pop - Paul McCartney

Those 4 people would get me into heaven for sure.

Hi Sal,

I have Sinatra, who I feel could be the singer for Big Band/Swing.

And I agree, the earliest rock, like "Rock around the Clock" was a mixture of blues and Big Band/Swing, with a touch of country (called "hillbilly" back then).

Personally, I like Glenn Miller, Cab Calloway and Benny Goodman.

Finally. I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one that would include them.

Following Kurt's criteria, I would probably go with his list, but would swap Sinatra for Floyd.

John

I strongly considered Hank Williams on my most "influential" list. But I would have chosen Jimmy Rogers, simply because he came first. I ended up really cheating by picking the Carter family, because there's so many of them, but they had a huge impact on that style of music, for a very long time.

As far as rock's roots, "rock" and "roll" are blues terms..."Rockin' and Rollin" is a song written in 1950 by LiL Son Jackson. It's the same song as BB King's later "Rock Me Baby".

Rock and Roll to me is really all of America's music coming together...For the purpose of dancing and getting rid of the blues.

I believe Lieber & Stoller's first major hit was a blues hit, with Big Mama Thorton.

You're forgetting "Gotta Dance" from the Goes to Hell album. That's disco if I ever heard it.

Awesome! I have a few more than that... had 29 when I bought The Last Temptation, and I've bought a few since then: Fistful of Alice, Life and Crimes, Eyes of Alice Cooper, Along Came a Spider... probably a couple more. He covered Jimi Hendrix "Fire" on one of them, can't remember which one though.

I've been known to sit around listening to "Make That Money (Scrooge's Song)" repeatedly when working on IM stuff. And his early work was great... very different, especially the stuff on Easy Action, and "Fields of Regret" has always been a personal favourite.

No...The question is really for Steven who's a song writer. I left it open if someone else wanted to answer.

My answer would be Ray Charles, followed by Elvis. But there's no way I could write 4 songs, let alone one of each genre.

How about Edward Elgar and Erik Satie?