Jeff Beck

The defiantly individualistic Jeff Beck belongs on any short list of rock ’n’ roll’s most innovative guitarists.

In 1965, with the British Invasion at its peak, the young Brit replaced Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds, with whom he would revolutionize the use of feedback and distortion before departing less than two years later.

He quickly formed the Jeff Beck Group, whose blues-drenched attack paved the way for hard rock and heavy metal at the end of the ’60s.