Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson's 29 recorded songs, cut in two sessions in San Antonio and Dallas in 1936 and 1937, are among the most influential single-artist catalogs in blues history. His open-tuned slide guitar technique, heard on tracks like "Cross Road Blues" and "Sweet Home Chicago," helped shape the sound later drawn on by Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, who called Johnson "the most important blues singer who ever lived." His records sold modestly during his lifetime, but the posthumous reissues found a far larger audience, with the 1990 box set alone passing a million copies sold. Johnson's mythic "crossroads" deal with the devil - a legend later attached to him from an earlier bluesman's story - added a cultural weight few other Delta musicians matched, cementing his legacy as a foundational architect of modern rock and blues.