Photo: Redfern/Redferns/Retna

Born March 25th, 1947 Key Tracks "Your Song," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," "Tiny Dancer" Influenced Rivers Cuomo, George Michael, Axl Rose

John Lennon once told Rolling Stone that when he heard Elton John singing "Your Song" — the 1970 breakthrough ballad that spotlighted John's voice and its union of rock & roll grandness with deep soul feeling — he thought, "Great, that's the first new thing that's happened since we happened." Only a few years earlier, John had claimed, "I can't really sing." Once he found his voice, though, he quickly turned out to have a dumbfounding stylistic range, unleashing his singsong falsetto and his ferocious hard-rock bellow. "He was mixing his falsetto and his chest voice to really fantastic effect in the Seventies," says Ben Folds. "There's that point in 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,' where he sings, 'on the grooound' — his voice is all over the shop. It's like jumping off a diving board when he did that."

1. Your Song
2. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
3. Tiny Dancer
4. Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long Long Time)
5. Don't Go Breaking My Heart
6. Candle in the Wind
7. Crocodile Rock
8. Levon
9. I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues
10. Bennie and the Jets

• View List: The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time
• Listen: The Ultimate Singers Playlist
• The Ballots: View Handwritten Votes
• Legends at Work: In the Studio Photos
• Voters & Methodology