Most Influential American Musician of All Time?

from the late 50's on...c'mon it's ELVIS....better yet let's ask our favorite musicians....most of mine said the king...

If Leo Fender had never been born, Jimi Hendrix would still have been a great guitarist. Like one of his mentors Jimi also played a Flying V.

As Aldavis indicated Albert King was inclined to think with an organ that wasn't between his ears. He never used alot of the gear Hendrix used or had any idea of what Jimi was doing in the studio. King sure as hell never put out anything remotely resembling Electric Ladyland. SRV was a good guitarist, but was obviously for the most part a Hendrix vessel. Most pre Hendrix blues influenced guitarists (Eddie Guitar Slim was a mind blowing exception) were barely on the same planet. Take King out of the picture and there was still a huge reservoir of blues guitar to build on and transform.

Don Van Vliet swiped stuff from alot of different places and may not be the most influential U S musician but he sure changed the rules and opened alot of doors for other musicians.

Hey, I thought the key word was "influence". Did not realize influence solely stayed within America!!!!!!!!:)

How about Ray Charles; he had best sellers on several different genres of music.