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List of musicians (as artists), sorted by birth date - oldest first (all time)
A list of musicians who can be rated in multiple musical areas; singers, songwriters, performers, musical instrument players, rappers, etc. This list is about them as artists, in whole. The rating of a musician as an artist may be based on their passion, singing skills, songwriting skills, performing skills, achievements, etc. To see the list of all musicians (including composers, etc.), see the higher list (Ranking scheme, right menu).
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1
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and director. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records...
2
Albert King
Albert King Nelson (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), known professionally as Albert King, was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing. One of the "Three Kings of the B...
3
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter.
4
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. In 2006, Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which recognized him as "one of the key...
5
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004), professionally known as Ray Charles, was an American singer, songwriter, musician and composer. He was sometimes referred to as "The Genius", and was also nicknamed "The H...
6
Johnny Cash
Johnny "J.R." Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and author. Although primarily remembered as a country music icon, his genre-spanning songs and sound embraced rock...
7
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer and dancer. The founding father of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century popular music and dance, he is often referred to as "The Godfather of Sou...
8
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, painter, poet, and novelist. His work has explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships. Cohen has been indu...
9
Freddie King
Freddie King (September 3, 1934 – December 28, 1976) was an American blues guitarist and singer. He is often mentioned as one of "the Three Kings" of electric blues guitar along with Albert King and B.B. King. Freddie King based h...
10
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. He is often referred to as "the King of Rock and Roll", or simply, "the King".
11
Woody Allen
(1935)Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, December 1, 1935) is an American actor, writer, director, comedian and playwright, whose career spans more than 50 years.
12
Vic Vogel
Victor "Vic" Stefan Vogel, (born August 3, 1935) is a jazz pianist, composer, arranger, trombonist and conductor in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
13
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye ( born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984 ) was an American soul singer, songwriter, and musician. Gaye helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as...
14
John Lennon
John Ono Lennon, born John Winston Lennon; (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980), was an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a founder member of the rock band the Beatles, the most commercially succe...
15
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. He occasionally sang lead vocals, usually for...
16
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American musician, actor and singer-songwriter. Simon's fame, influence, and commercial success began as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, formed in 1964 with musical partner Art Garfunkel...
17
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, artist and writer.
18
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
19
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed (March 2, 1942 – October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was the guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of the Velvet Underground, and his solo career spanned several de...
20
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer and musician. Franklin began her career singing gospel at her father, minister C. L. Franklin's church as a child. In 1960, at the age of 18, Franklin embarked on...
21
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, one of the...
22
Sixto Rodriguez
Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, also known as Rodríguez or Jesús Rodríguez (born July 10, 1942), is an American folk musician from Detroit, Michigan. His career initially proved short lived, with two little-sold albums in the early 1970s an...
23
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter who first rose to fame in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the psychedelic/acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later a...
24
Keith Richards
Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English musician, singer and songwriter, actor, and one of the original members of the rock band The Rolling Stones.
25
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer songwriter, and poet best remembered as the lead singer of The Doors.
26
George Harrison
George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Although...
27
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer, songwriter and actor, best known as lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones.
28
Richard Wright
Richard William "Rick" Wright (28 July 1943 – 15 September 2008) was an English musician, composer, singer and songwriter. He was a founder member, keyboardist and vocalist of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, performing on th...
29
Roger Waters
George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. In 1965, he co-founded the progressive rock band Pink Floyd with drummer Nick Mason, keyboardist Richard Wright and...
30
Nick Mason
Nicholas Berkeley "Nick" Mason (born 27 January 1944) is an English musician and composer, best known as the drummer of Pink Floyd. He is the only constant member of the band since its formation in 1965. Despite solely writing onl...
31
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, Jr., OBE (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer mostly known as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page began his care...
32
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer and musician. Cocker's cover of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends" reached number one in the UK in 1968. He performed the song live at...
33
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. He began performing in a group covering Shadows instrumentals in Canada in 1960, before moving to California in 1966, where he co-founded t...
34
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton (born 30 March 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the...
35
Ritchie Blackmore
Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist and songwriter, who began his professional career as a session musician as a member of the instrumental band The Outlaws and as a backing musician of po...
36
John Paul Jones
John Baldwin (born 3 January 1946), better known by his stage name John Paul Jones, is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. Best known as the bassist, keyboardist, and co-songwriter...
37
Syd Barrett
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English musician, composer, singer, songwriter, and painter. Best known as a founder member of the band Pink Floyd, Barrett was the lead singer, guitarist and princip...
38
David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour (born 6 March 1946) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he is best known for his work as the guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the progre...
39
Bon Scott
Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (9 July 1946 – 19 February 1980) was a Scottish-born Australian rock musician, best known for being the lead singer and lyricist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980. He w...
40
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant...
41
David Bowie
David Bowie (born David Robert Jones, 8 January 1947) was an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, arranger, painter, and actor.
42
Sammy Hagar
Samuel Roy "Sammy" Hagar (born October 13, 1947), also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock vocalist, guitarist, songwriter and musician. Hagar came to prominence in the 1970s with the hard rock band Montrose. He afterward...
43
Brian Johnson
Brian Johnson (born 5 October 1947) is an English singer and songwriter. Since 1980, he has been the lead singer of the Australian rock band AC/DC, with whom he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003...
44
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, 25 March 1947) is an English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriting partner since 1967; they have collaborated o...
45
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop (born James Newell Osterberg, Jr.; April 21, 1947) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He is the vocalist of influential proto-punk band The Stooges, who reunited in 2003, and has been known for his outr...
46
Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana (born July 20, 1947) is a Mexican and American musician who first became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered a fusion of rock and Latin American music. He has won 10 Gram...
47
Michael Stearns
Michael Stearns (born 1948) is a United States musician and composer of ambient music. He is also known as a film composer, sound designer and soundtrack producer for large format films, theatrical films, documentaries, commercial...
48
Glenn Frey
Glenn Lewis Frey (November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, producer and actor, best known as a founding member of rock band the Eagles. During the 1970s, Frey played guitar with the band, as well as...
49
Ted Nugent
Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent ( born December 13, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, hunter, and political activist. Nugent initially was the lead guitarist of The Amboy Dukes before embarking on a solo career. Nug...
50
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter and television personality. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of the band Black Sabbath. Osbourne was fired from Blac...
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