1. Jimi Hendrix – In his first year of recording, he’s already done nothing less than forever redefine how the music’s signature instrument is played. I’d say that merits first-ballot induction.
2. The Byrds – What made them the greatest folk-rock band was that they successfully synthesized the best elements of both folk and rock, like no one before or since.
3. The Kinks – Their first singles stripped rock and roll down to its most brutally primal elements; then they spent the next few glorious years building it back up again, creating some of the most sophisticated music of the era.
4. The Velvet Underground – Changed rock like few other artists, although at the time it was happening nobody really knew it yet.
5. Aretha Franklin – The rest of the industry saw a failed journeyman singer; Jerry Wexler saw a nascent superstar who merely hadn’t found her niche yet. He helped her find it this past year, gloriously, and she’s been a Queen ever since.
6. Bill Evans
7. Howlin’ Wolf
8. Ornette Coleman
9. Sonny Rollins
10. The Supremes
BACKSTAGE WING
1. Rudy Van Gelder
2. George Gershwin
3. Jerry Wexler
