#9 Jeff Lynne The 59 year-old Brit was the guiding light of Electric Light Orchestra. If nothing else, along with a string of Top 40 hits including "Do Ya," "Telephone Line," "Showdown," and "Roll Over Beethoven," ELO had a unique and immediately identifiable sound. As he was leaving ELO, Lynne produced George Harrison's album Cloud Nine, which featured the hit single "Got My Mind Set on You." He also produced Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever CD, and co-wrote with Petty, "Running Down a Dream," "Free Fallin'" and "I Won't Back Down." Lynne was a key component in the Traveling Wilbury's, along with Petty, Harrison, Bob Dylan, and Roy Orbison. Like the Petty album, Lynne co-produced the Wilbury's album, each was nominated for a Grammy. Lynne also produced Harrison's final cd "Brainwashed." #8 Warren Zevon  If John Hiatt is the Dale Murphy of the bunch, then Zevon is Jim Rice. An extraordinary songwriter, who was at once literal ("Keep Me in Your Heart for a While"), lyrical ("Poor, Poor Pitiful Me"), cynical ("Mr. Bad Example), mystical ("Werewolves of London") political ("The Envoy) and hysterical ("Excitable Boy"). His melodies could be at once rough ("Lawyers, Guns and Money" or "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner)or hauntingly and poignantly beautiful ("Carmelita" "Mutineer" "Mohammed's Radio"). By the way, has there ever been a more alliterative line written in rock history than "little old lady got mutilated late last night, werewolves of London, again?" Zevon's losing battles with the bottle kept him from being even more prolific. As he was dying from lung cancer in 2003, Zevon's recorded his brilliant and final CD, "The Wind" and received a little more than a little help from his friends, including Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, and Tom Petty. #7 John Hiatt Hiatt is the Dale Murphy on this list. Really, really good, but not an immortal. An extraordinary writer, who has recorded 18 studio and two live albums. The measure of the quality of his work is the the various artists who have covered his tunes, including Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Delbert McClinton, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett, Aaron Neville, Three Dog Night, Freddy Fender, Ronnie Milsap, Conway Twitty, Iggy Pop, Joe Cocker, Joan Baez, and Roseanne Cash. While you might not be able to pick out Hiatt from a lineup some of his signature songs you no doubt know, such as "Sure As I'm Sittin' Here." "Feels Like Rain," "Smashing a Perfectly Good Guitar." "Riding with the King" (which became an album title for B.B. King and Eric Clapton), and "Have a Little Faith."
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