#6 Paul Butterfield The Chicago-born Butterfield was the American version of Mayall, or was Mayall the British version of Butterfield? Each popularized the blues to primarily white post-war baby boomers. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band album released in 1965 was a trailblazer. In fact, it was released a year before Mayall's Blues Breakers. Butterfield sang and played the harmonica. His lead guitarist, Mike Bloomfield (who was the American version of Eric Clapton) would leave the band, after the release of the second album "East West" to be replaced by Elvin Bishop. Butterfield died of a drug and alcohol overdose six years after Bloomfield did. And while his body of work isn't particularly large, Paul Butterfield opened up a sound of music, (black blues to a primarily white audience) on this side of the Atlantic, the way John Mayall did on the other side of the Atlantic. If and when either is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the other should go in at the same time. #5 John Mayall Mayall is 73 years old now. In the mid-60's, he was a hybrid laboratory, lab technician, bandleader, mentor, older brother and father of British blues and blues musicians. From Mayall's Blues Breakers emerged Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce (2/3rds of Cream), Peter Green (an original member of Fleetwood Mac), Mick Fleetwood and John McVie (who are Fleetwood Mac), Mick Taylor who later played guitar with the Stones, and several others. Mayall's Blues Breakers album with Clapton in 1966 was one of the most influential albums of its time, back when albums could indeed be influential. His "Turning Point" album three years later remains timelessly sweet. #4 Joe Cocker  John Robert Cocker is one of the great cover artists and interpreters in rock history. Joe has extraordinary ability of turning other artists' songs into his own. It's been nearly 40 years since Cocker and his Grease Band (with Chris Stainton producing and arranging) recorded "With a Little Help from My Friends" on his first album. I ask, has there ever been a better interpretive cover of a rock classic, than the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's offering? With Ringo singing lead the original, the song was a breezy, light, whimsical, happy tune. Cocker took the tune on a bluesy journey, pleading with the listener, no matter how old he gets, to stay with him, his back up soul singers, and the Grease Band. He did. They did. We did. Covering Beatles' songs is dangerous business, but Joe made it seem so natural, as he did with "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window." While Cocker didn't write his signature songs, such as "Delta Lady," "The Letter," "Feelin' Alright," "I Shall be Released," or the 1982 Oscar award Winning "Up There Where We Belong" (a duet he sang with Jennifer Warnes, and written by Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie), he made each song decidedly his.
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