The 10 best songs from Brian May, Queen's endlessly creative cloud-haired riff-master and space expert

Producer/engineer Eddie Kramer delights in the studio brilliance of Led Zeppelin – even though Robert Plant stole his girlfriend

Written by Otis Redding and his guitarist/producer Steve Cropper, (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay became a classic, but Redding died in a plane crash before he was able to enjoy its success

If you’ve ever heard anything on the Stax Records label, then you’ve probably heard Steve Cropper's masterful guitar playing. He might well have written and produced it too

Illinois Anglophiles Cheap Trick are deep into their fifth decade of existence, and they're enjoying a late-career surge of creativity

If you thought all Hawkwind’s freaky stuff belonged to the early 70s, you ain't seen nothing yet

"Gutless, spineless and devoid of inspiration" said the UK press of Tangerine Dream. UK music listeners didn't agree!

The uncompromising Paul Butterfield inspired Dylan to plug in, and was a virtuoso singer and mouth harp player. He was also the man who took black blues to white America

For a short period in the 60s, the Walker Brothers were bigger than The Beatles, idolised and frantically mobbed by hysterical screaming girl fans – but their main singer hated it

Gimme Some Lovin’ by the Spencer Davis Group was knocked off in less time than it took to cart Steve Winwood’s Hammond into the Marquee

Captain Beefheart, the Magic Band’s eccentric leader, was an influential artist tortured by his failure to break into the mainstream. These are his best albums

Ray Davies recalls how, in three takes one morning in 1964, a neurotic 19-year-old and a guitarist with a razor created All Day And All Of The Night and the blueprint for metal and punk

With or without The Dukes, Steve Earle is a true rock’n’roll maverick, and these are his best albums

Bill Wyman has been mates with Clapton and Page since the 60s, John Lennon wanted him, and he dared to quit the band that Keith Richards said people only left “in a box”

Actor and musician William Shatner picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, and reveals why BB King's daughter called him "a gift from god"

“We’re your new leaders!” announce The OBGMs, who’ve clearly got it in for the music business

When the going got tough, heading for burn-out and facing calling time on something they’d put so much into, Swedish band Blues Pills pulled together and got going

That Mark Lanegan is alive is a surprise – to him as much as to anyone else. His self-destructive days are now behind him, but for years it looked like we would be robbed of one of the stand-out singing voices of his generation

A song that Mungo Jerry didn’t consider to have potential as a single, In The Summertime was a worldwide hit that soundtracked the summer of 1970

Everybody's got to start somewhere, and some of our very best bands started slowly. Here's 10 great bands whose debut albums weren't actually great

10 live albums that remain a career pinnacle for 10 legendary bands

Between 1967 and 1982, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band wrote some of the most startling, sly and plain out-there songs this side of Frank Zappa