Bo Didley

A self-proclaimed man among men (and deservedly so), singer/guitarist Bo Diddley is still the only musician in history to have a beat named after him. Diddley's raunchy, distorted 1950s sound and African-derived rhythm have been an enormous influence on pop and rock, from contemporaries like Buddy Holly (whose classic "Not Fade Away" is a de-facto Bo Diddley song) to blues wiseguy George Thorogood, whose remake of Bo's "Bad to the Bone" is being heard somewhere in a movie or a TV commercial even as you read this. Diddley lived and rocked into the 21st century before dying of heart failure in 2008.