B.B. King

B.B. King's 15 Grammy Awards and more than 30 studio albums make him one of the most-awarded blues musicians in history — well ahead of #3 Muddy Waters's six Grammys. His Gibson guitar Lucille and vibrato-heavy single-note style, perfected on "Live at the Regal" (1965), set the technical benchmark for a generation of electric blues guitarists. His 1969 crossover hit "The Thrill Is Gone" reached #15 on the Billboard Hot 100, one of the biggest crossover successes any blues artist has had. King toured relentlessly for six decades — more than 200 shows a year into his 70s, sometimes 300 nights a year — amassing well over 10,000 concerts, a live-performance endurance record few blues musicians can match.