We recently ran across this list of the "Top Ten All-Time Arizona Musicians" from Arizona Premiere Living. Some of the choices are obvious: Meat Puppets, Jimmy Eat World, Jordin Sparks, Gin Blossoms, Alice Cooper, and Linda Ronstadt almost always make the "top" lists of Arizona musicians. We were also pleasantly surprised to see legendary guitarist Duane Eddy on the list.
Mr. Mister: Better than Meat Puppets?
But some of Arizona Premiere Living's choices (and more so, their omissions) baffle us. For example, Mr. Mister is #7 on the list. I've got nothing against the '80s popsters (keyboardist Steve George's mother was my music teacher at Sunnyslope Elementary School), but they only had two hits ("Kyrie" and "Broken Wings") and then disappeared into the ether. So why did they make the list (even ranked above Bill Spooner of The Tubes, Jimmy Eat World, and Meat Puppets)?
Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington is also on the list, at #6. An
argument could certainly be made for his presence there, as Linkin
Park's sold more than 50 million records worldwide. But there are so
many amazing musicians with deep ties to Arizona that were criminally
overlooked here, and any one of them could have been on the list in
Bennington's place.
For example, Stevie Nicks is not on this
list. Now, we love Detroit-born Alice Cooper for making Phoenix his
home, but Stevie Nicks was actually born here. And she's more than
qualified. Nicks has written more hits (both solo and for Fleetwood
Mac) than the members of Mr. Mister can count on all their fingers and
toes. Why are they #7 All-Time and Nicks is list-less?
Stevie Nicks: Not one of Arizona's greatest?
And
with the exception of Duane Eddy and his twangy guitar sound, the list
completely skips the greatest country musicians from Arizona, who
include Waylon Jennings, Dierks Bentley, Glen Campbell, and Buck Owens.
And for Pete Best's sake, why isn't "fifth Beatle" Billy Preston on this list? Granted, he only lived in Scottsdale from 2003 until he died in 2006, but if we can claim Cooper because he moved here in the '60s, we should be able to hail Preston as one of our own, too.
Also absent from the list:
Judas Priest singer Rob Halford
Roger Clyne
John Denver
Michelle Branch
Nils Lofgren
Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave)
Wayne Newton
Maybe the folks at Arizona Premiere Living
were embarrassed at the thought of publishing a picture of Wayne Newton
next to Chester Bennington, but they should have dug deeper for this
list. This one reads like "Arizona's Most Obvious," with some 80s yuppie
nostalgia (Mr. Mister, Ronstadt) thrown in.
