Bob Seger

Seger is a prolific performer -- between 1976 to 1982 he released no less than six Top-10 platinum records in a row, two of them live double albums. The gravel-voiced superstar's rise to fame was far from meteoric, however. He began his rock apprenticeship in 1961, logging in many a long, hard hour in the studio and on the road before finally breaking through commercially with Beautiful Loser (1975). That record set the tone for his subsequent success by presenting Seger as the common man's bard from America's heartland. "Feel Like a Number," "Against the Wind," and "We've Got Tonight" detail the trials and private victories of ordinary people wending their way through the workaday world. Seger's ability to elevate the story of everyman into generational parables puts him in a select class of performers with the likes of Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp -- artists whose songs document an American way of life.