Here we go guys, In this article, we will be looking for the best blues singers of all time. Many came and gone but none came to be like these great musicians ever. These Blues singers are the real soul and heart of music. The way they perceive music, using different rhythms, using the sexiest of sexy riffs, and mixing it up all create a thunderous experience for the audience.
So, you may wanna know who they are, in this list, you may find people who are also said to have sold their soul to the devil, at last, blues music is the favorite devil’s genre too, maybe. But, these artists are no lesser devils themselves.
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So, let’s find out who are the best blues singers of all time
20. Howlin’ Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett (stage name Howlin’ Wolf) was one of the famous American blues singers and guitarists, born on June 10, 1910 – died on January 10, 1976. Regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. He recorded in genres such as blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and psychedelic rock.
19. Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (Nicknamed the “Empress of the Blues”) was a famous American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age, born on April 15, 1894 – died on September 26, 1937. Her successful recording career with Columbia Records began in 1923, but her performing career was cut short by a car crash that killed her at the age of 43. She was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s.
18. Ma Rainey
Gertrude “Ma” Rainey was a popular American blues singer, born on April 26, 1886 – died on December 22, 1939. She was an influence on the generation of blues singers. Rainey was known for her powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a “moaning” style of singing.
17. Mamie Smith
Mamie Smith was an American Blues vaudeville singer, and actress, born on May 26, 1891 – died on September 16, 1946. As a vaudeville singer, she performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues. In addition, In 1920, she entered blues history as the first African American artist to make vocal blues recordings.
16. Big Mama Thornton
Willie Mae Thornton aka Big Mama Thornton was an American singer and songwriter of the blues and R&B, born on December 11, 1926 – died on July 25, 1984. Her recording of “Hound Dog”, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952, and later recorded by Elvis Presley, reached Number 1 on the Rhythm & Blues Records chart.
15. Paul Butterfield
Paul Vaughn Butterfield was an American blues harmonica player, singer, and band leader, born on December 17, 1942 – died on May 4, 1987. He explored the blues scene in his native Chicago, where he met Muddy Waters and other blues greats. In 2006, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
14. Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (Nicknamed “Lady Day”) was an American jazz and swing music singer, BORN ON April 7, 1915 – who died on July 17, 1959. best known for Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Holiday won four Grammy Awards, all of them posthumously, for Best Historical Album.
13. Lightnin’ Hopkins
Samuel John “Lightnin” Hopkins was a famous American country blues singer, and songwriter, born on March 15, 1912 – died on January 30, 1982. He was a notable influence on Townes Van Zandt, Hank Williams, Jr., and a generation of blues musicians like Stevie Ray Vaughan.
12. Albert King
Albert King was a blues guitarist and singer from the United States whose style inspired many subsequent blues guitarists. Born Under a Bad Sign (1967) and its title tune are probably his most well-known and significant works.
He, B.B. King, and Freddie King were regarded as the “Kings of the Blues,” even though they were unrelated. King’s “deep, dramatic tone” was frequently replicated by both blues and rock guitarists.
11. Etta James
Etta James was an American vocalist who sang blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, jazz, and gospel, among other genres. She rose to stardom with classics including “The Wallflower,” “Tell Mama,” and “I’d Rather Go Blind” after beginning her career in 1954.
Before making a musical return in the late 1980s with the album Seven Year Itch, she struggled with a variety of personal issues, including addiction to heroin, serious physical abuse, and jail. Also, she is the only female singer on the list who gained fame through her talent as one of the best blues singers of all time.
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10. John Lee Hooker
John was a blues singer, composer, and guitarist from the United States. He gained notoriety as the son of a sharecropper, singing an electric guitar-style rendition of Delta blues.
Other components, such as talking blues and early North Mississippi Hill country blues, were frequently included by Hooker. He created his driving-rhythm boogie style, separate from the piano-based boogie-woogie of the 1930s and 1940s.
9. Ray Charles
Ray was a singer, songwriter, pianist, and composer from the United States. He favored the moniker “Brother Ray” among his friends and other artists. He was also known as “the Genius” by many. Charles was blinded as a youngster, probably as a result of glaucoma.
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8. Freddie King
Freddie is a blues guitarist, vocalist, and composer from the United States. Also, King had a huge effect on electric blues music and many other blues guitarists, thanks to his passionate and strong voice and unique guitar playing. He is also part of one of the best blues singers.
7. Buddy Guy
Buddy is a vocalist and guitarist from the United States who specializes in blues music. Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Gary Clark Jr., and John Mayer are among the guitarists who have been influenced by him.
Guy began a musical collaboration with blues harp maestro Junior Wells in the 1960s while working as a studio guitarist for Muddy Waters at Chess Records.
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6. Jimmi Hendrix
Jimmi is a musician, singer, and songwriter from the United States. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music and one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century, despite his mainstream career lasting just four years.
He is “probably the finest instrumentalist in the history of rock music,” according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
5. B.B King
B.B. King was a blues singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer from the United States. Many following blues electric guitar players were influenced by his sophisticated style of soloing, which included fluid string bending, shimmering vibrato, and staccato picking.
King was dubbed “the single most important electric guitarist of the final half of the twentieth century” by AllMusic.
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4. Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters was an influential participant in the postwar blues movement and is generally referred to as the “Father of Modern Chicago Blues.” “Raining down Delta beatitude,” as one critic put it, is how he plays.
3. Eric Clapton
Eric was brought up in a musical family. His grandmother played the piano, and his uncle and mother both liked to listen to big band music. Pat subsequently informed Ray Coleman, Eric’s official biographer, that his father was a skilled musician who played piano in various Surrey dance bands.
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2. Robert Johnson
The arrival of rock ‘n’ roll in the late twentieth century would convert Johnson into a legend. He was among the most famous guitarists of all time decades after his death, heralded as a lost prophet who, according to legend, sold his soul to the devil and embodied Mississippi Delta blues in the process.
1. Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s presence at the 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival signaled the start of yet another blues renaissance and the advent of yet another guitar hero. The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robert Cray, Los Lobos, and a slew of other real roots bands owe their existence to Vaughan’s blend of Texas blues and Jimi Hendrix-inspired rock.
