Tom Waits's inimitable voice is as well-travelled as his hall of fame career. Starting out on Asylum as a jazz-tinged bar singer with a penchant for storytelling, Waits came into his own in the '80s, toying with obscure instrumentation to create his own sound. Then he altered his voice after signing with Anti in the late-'90s, twisting it into a percussive instrument on albums like 2004's piano-free Real Gone. Waits's ability to switch from nostalgic ballad to baroque pop on a dime makes him impossible to categorize after four decades—but also endlessly compelling.