John Lee Hooker

Stomping his foot on a board and riding a single chord for as long as the feeling lasted, John Lee Hooker made blues that sounded more like a trance than a twelve-bar. His deep, growling boogie came out of the Mississippi Delta and caught fire in postwar Detroit, where 'Boogie Chillen'' topped the R&B charts.

'I'm in the Mood', 'Crawling King Snake' and 'Boom Boom' followed, and he recorded for so many labels that he used a string of aliases to dodge his contracts. The Animals' cover of 'Boom Boom' became a North American hit.

Decades later, The Healer brought duets with Carlos Santana and Bonnie Raitt, a Grammy and an unlikely late-career comeback that kept him performing until his death in 2001.