Overshadowed by bandmates

Mapman, I did not know that--it makes up a bit for finding out that some of my favorite Harrison solos were played by McCartney (notably, Drive My Car and Taxman).

What a great topic! Lots of great answers, too. Most of my examples have already been mentioned, the most significant being Johnnie Johnson (Chuck Berry's pianist. Someone interviewed in the movie Hail, Hail, Rock n' Roll, noted that a lot of Chucks songs are in "piano keys", not those written on guitar. Get it?), John Entwistle (you can't tell how good he was from The Who's recordings, but live he was astounding), and Mick Taylor (also in the movie is a scene in which Chuck and Keith are rehearsing "Oh Carol", and Chuck notices Keith is incorrectly playing the guitar figure that precedes a couple sections of the song. He shows Keith that the first note is played with the strings bent up (sharp), the second note played with the strings unbent. Those two notes, back and forth between bent and unbent, in that order, several times. Try as he might, Keith just can not play it! Any 16-year old should be able to, and Keith cites Chuck as his main influence. Lame!).

Being overshadowed varies by degree, and though well known amongst this crowd, there are a couple of guys I can add:

Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum. His organ playing was very much responsible for their original sound (including his infamous J.S. Bach quote in "A Whiter Shade of Pale"), which changed quite a bit after he left (the A Salty Dog album was his last). He subsequently made a few good solo albums on RCA, fairly easy to find on LP for cheap.

James Jamerson of "The Funk Brothers", the Motown house band. Yes, he's well known, but his contribution to not only recordings, but the very playing of electric bass itself is inestimable, and still under-acknowledged (though not by McCartney, who has said that hearing James' playing changed his conception of what bass playing could be). The bass part in Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" (one of the handful of greatest songs ever written, by the way) sends shivers up my spine!

1-Floyd Snead/Three Dog Night. 2-Brad Whitford/Aerosmith. 3-Roger Glover/Deep Purple. 4-Alex Lifeson/Rush. 5-Cedar Walton/Various. 6-Marty Balin/Jefferson(Airplane-Starship). 7-Maury Muehleisen/Jim Croce. 8-Jack Bruce/Cream. 9-Robby Krieger/The Doors. 10-Ron Carter/Various.

Let me second Audiofeil's listing of Chris Hillman. His Byrd's songs were some of their best, and his post-Byrds output is just amazing. He made a bunch of great solo albums (on Bluegrass-label Sugar Hill), and was the leader of The Desert Rose Band, who made some real good music.

Plus one for Chris Hillman. Also really love the Souther, Hillman, Furay band. Kinda like Little Village, a supergroup that never gained traction despite great talent and a really good (better than that in the case of SHF, IMO) album.