Albert King

Albert King’s inverted, upside-down guitar style and piercing upward bends set a benchmark for blues guitarists that remains unrivaled. His album Born Under a Bad Sign (1967) sold over 500,000 copies and is cited by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix as transformational. King’s 1968 Fillmore West session with Stax Records generated tracks that introduced soul-blues guitar to a national audience, and his sound directly outperforms #10 Stevie Ray Vaughan in raw emotional depth and phrasing variation. King’s sustained influence across decades, from R&B charts to rock festivals, makes him a cornerstone of modern blues.