Just where do you rank a band that went against every traditional Rock platform, whether it was in the mainstream or underground? Where do you place a band that had no real hits, but an incalculable influence? We are not sure ourselves.

Obviously, the acts on this list had the bulk of their essential recording decades ago. Some of those songs sound as fresh today as they did then. Iron Butterfly however may not be one of those bands.

The average person might recall Gary Numan’s greatest hit, “Cars” and think of it as a quirky one hit wonder that was a flash in the pan of the New Wave era. Gary Numan’s career was actually much more than that and his contributions to the world of Electronic music may be incalculable.

While compiling this list, non committee members asked us about out ranking and pointed out albums sales as to why our rankings made no sense to them. As often as those debates began (and will perpetually continue) we expect a series of debates based on concert attendance. If that was our factor, how many people would be higher than Jimmy Buffett?