Eric Burdon

Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941, in Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne) was the lead singer of The Animals, and War before becoming a solo artist.He was a founding member and vocalist of the Animals, a band originally formed in Newcastle in the early 1960s. The Animals were one of the leading bands of the "British Invasion", and the band had quite a following around the world. Along with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Dave Clark Five, and Gerry and The Pacemakers, they introduced British music and fashion to an entire generation in an explosion of great tunes and outspoken attitude on, and off the stage. Burdon sang on such Animal classics as "The House of the Rising Sun", "Good Times", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Bring It On Home to Me", "A Girl Named Sandoz," and "We Gotta Get Out of this Place". The Animals combined the traditional blues with rock to create a unique sound.
Original Animals members keyboardist Alan Price and drummer John Steel quit, and were replaced by Dave Rowberry and Barry Jenkins respectively. By 1966 the other members had left, except for Barry Jenkins, and the band was reformed as Eric Burdon and the Animals, which featured future Family member John Weider and future The Police guitarist Andy Summers. This incarnation had hits with songs such as "When I Was Young", "Sky Pilot" and "Monterey".
This ensemble lasted until 1969, going through several line-up changes, and changing the name from Eric Burdon and the Animals to Eric Burdon and the New Animals.
When the New Animals disbanded, Burdon joined forces with funky California jam band War. The resulting album, Eric Burdon Declares "War" yielded the classics "Spill the Wine" and "Tobacco Road". A second Burdon and War album, a two-disc set, The Black-Man's Burdon, was released later in 1970.
In 1971 Burdon began a solo career. Around this time, he also recorded the album Guilty! (later released on CD as Black & White Blues) with the great blues shouter Jimmy Witherspoon and also featuring Ike White & the San Quentin Prison Band.
Burdon rejoined briefly with the other original Animals in 1976 and 1983, but neither union lasted, although the 1983 reunion yielded the ignored single "The Night". From Wikipedia

Don McLean

Donald Richard McLean (born October 2, 1945 in New Rochelle, New York) is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for his 1971 songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".Don McLean's most famous composition, "American Pie," is often interpreted as describing the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper in an airplane crash on February 3, 1959, spawning the phrase, "The Day the Music Died." McLean has stated that the lyrics are also somewhat autobiographical and present an abstract story of his life from the mid-1950s until the time he wrote the song in the late 1960s. The hometown legend is that "the levee" is his hometown bar, the Beechmont Tavern near Iona College. "American Pie" symbolizes the ongoing radical and tumultuous changes in popular music during this period, evolving from the often raw, upbeat sounds that marked the earliest days of rockabilly and the rock eras of the 1950s to the darker, more introspective, often cynical and increasingly socially conscious music of the late 1960s, driven by the sweeping social upheavals and volatile political atmosphere that had engulfed and defined America by the end of the decade.Don McLean's "American Pie" has remained the subject of intense scrutiny and philosophical interpretation for more than 30 years as music historians, scholars, professors of modern American literature, and his fans alike continue to search for its 'deeper meaning.' In interviews, Don claims to be amused that many interpretations start with the premise that he never talks about the song nor has ever provided insight into the meaning of the lyrics. From Wikipedia

Donovan Leitch

Donovan (Donovan Philips Leitch, born May 10, 1946, in Maryhill, Glasgow), is a Scottish singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music.Donovan came to fame in the United Kingdom in early 1965 with a series of live performances on the pop TV series, Ready Steady Go!, and his popularity spread to the USA and other countries. After signing with the British label, Pye Records, he began a long and successful collaboration with leading independent record producer Mickie Most, scoring a string of hits in the UK, the USA and other countries, including several British and American #1 hits and million-selling records.
Donovan was one of the most popular British recording artists of his day, producing a series of hit albums and singles between 1965 and 1970. He became a friend of leading pop musicians including Joan Baez, Brian Jones, and The Beatles, and was one of the few artists to collaborate on songs with the Beatles. He influenced both John Lennon and Paul McCartney when he taught them his finger-picking guitar style in 1968. Donovan's commercial fortunes waned after he parted ways with Mickie Most in 1969, and he left the music industry for a time.
He continued to perform and record sporadically in the 1970s and 1980s, but gradually fell from favour. His gentle musical style and hippie image was scorned by critics, especially after the advent of punk rock. Donovan withdrew from performing and recording several times during his career, but he underwent a strong revival in the 1990s with the emergence of the rave scene in Britain. Late in the decade, he recorded a successful album with producer and long-time fan Rick Rubin and released a new album, Beat Cafe, in 2004. From Wikipedia

Roky Erikson of 13th Floor Elevators

Roky Erickson (born Roger Kynard Erickson on July 15, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, harmonica player and guitarist from Texas. He was a founding member of the 13th Floor Elevators and pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre.
Erickson is one of rock and roll's most famous cult figures, perhaps as well-known for his mental illness — caused in no small part by ill-advised shock therapy and incarceration in a Texas mental hospital — as for his musical talents. source: Wikipedia

Keith West of Tomorrow

Keith West (born 6 December 1943 in Dagenham, Essex, England as Keith Alan Hopkins) was the lead singer of Tomorrow, a 1960s psychedelic rock band. West composed most of the band's songs (duly credited to Keith Hopkins). Despite critical acclaim and support from DJ John Peel, who featured them on his "Perfumed Garden" BBC Radio 1 show, the band was not a great financial success.
In 1964 West became lead singer of "In Crowd" a rock band from London, which renamed in "Tomorrow" later. Member of the Band was the guitarist Steve Howe (later "Yes"). 1967 he became acquainted with Mark Wirtz, a producer who already created the instrumental title "A Touch of Velvet, a Sting of Brass" (1965). Later on the melody became theme song for the German music TV show "Beat-Club" and "Musikladen".
West himself is perhaps better known as a participant of Mark Wirtz's A Teenage Opera, completed in 2002. He was the singer of "Excerpt from "A Teenage Opera"," also known as "Grocer Jack," which reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart in 1967. He also performed "Sam," which reached the bottom end of the Top 40 the same year.
In 1968 he released the single "On A Saturday" on Parlophone. Other musicians who appeared on the single were guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Ron Wood, and drummer Aynsley Dunbar. An excellent piece of pop-psychedelia, the record was a modest UK hit. It has since been re-issued on the 1999 remastered CD of the self titled debut by Tomorrow.
In 1971 he released a solo L.P. "Wherever My Love Goes" on the German progressive rock-label Kuckuck. It features his songwriting-partner Ken Burgess and steel guitarist Glenn Campbell (ex-The Misunderstood). Two tracks of it were produced by Andrew Loog Oldham.
In the mid-1970s he was singer for Moonrider.
West continues to produce and record music, which is used primarily within the advertising industry. Source: Wikipedia

Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy

Philip Parris Lynott (August 20, 1949 – January 4, 1986) was an Irish singer, instrumentalist and songwriter, who first came to prominence as the frontman of Thin Lizzy. more here

Freddie Mercury of Queen

Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British musician, best known as the lead singer of the rock band Queen (inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001). He is noted for his vocal abilities and for his live performances. As a songwriter, he composed many international hits, including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "We Are the Champions" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". In addition to his work with Queen, he also produced several hits as a solo artist. Mercury, who was of Indian Parsi descent and who grew up in India, has been referred to as "Britain's first Asian pop star." He died of complications from AIDS in 1991. More