I agree with the Lol@Nirvana. They didnt have enough of a body of work. Only two albums and a couple of indie efforts. Aerosmith should have replaced them.

I think you need to have a superior output over a long time frame to count. So although I love their stuff, Nirvana shouldn't be on the list. Ditto The Doors.

I also have no fricking clue what "Can" might be. I'm an oldster so that's not surprising.

I've been thinking about this for a surprisingly long time. The groups I can come up with that I enjoy listening to regularly, who have been around long enough and put out enough albums to be considered, would be Paul Simon (& Garfunkel), Bob Dylan, U2, and the Beatles. Pretty boring / mainstream choices, I guess. The Stones sure have a lot of great songs, though.

I think I'd go with Bob Dylan if I had to choose one.

Nice pick on the Bob Dylan, does he qualify as a band? That would be my choice as well. I pick the Stones out of what you gave us. No way is nirvana even in the top 10 band disscusion IMO.

I originally had Bob Dylan and The Band as an option, but removed it due the 10 option limit.
Against my better judgement I left Metallica and Nirvana in because a couple of posters nominated them. I'd have preferred to replace both with Dylan and Hendrix. The rest are easy to justify - The Doors made 6 studio albums, Can are frequently cited as one of the best bands ever.

My top 10 would've run something like

Hendrix
Stooges
Dylan
Stones
Can
Zeppelin
Radiohead
Floyd
The Who
Velvet Underground

hmmm...imma go with

1. Jawbreaker OBV
hmm...
2. Ramones
3. Johnny Cash (if he counts)
hmm............
4. Stones
5. Zeppelin
6. Phish
7. Primus
hmmm....
8. Sonic Youth
9. Weezer
10, and people are gonna hate me for this, but GREEN DAY

PS, why arent ramones in the list btw..? Bah northey, your list is ghey...

whatelsewhatelse....

Sonic youth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> radiohead <<<<<<<<<<<<< my west buttcheek....

and yeah, who the hell is can? Stooges are actually tite, they'er like the one decent thing that northey has ever done for me...outweighed 1000fold by all his BS, obv, but o well..

I can't believe that no one has mentioned Janis.

1. Janis Joplin/Big Brother and the Holding Company
2. The Beatles
3. Led Zepplin
4. Emerson, Lake & Palmer
5. Jimi Hendryx

Am I showing my age?

A few more for the old hippies.
- Mason Proffit
- It's A Beautiful Day
- Cream
- Hot Tuna

Now if you want to consider influence then how about
1. Miles Davis
2. John Mayall
3. Bob Dylan. . . . just to get us started.