Which One Band or Musician

has made the most impact (musically) in your life? (although there might be lot......name only ONE and why).
 
For me, it was when I was in junior high/going into high school and heard VH 1 (Eruption). One of my uncles (an old school jazz fan) said it was all electronics (trying to discourage me in listening to rock), and gently tried to steer me in another musical direction. Of course, I made that a personal challenge to learn most of VH1 and played it for him on my cheapo Hondo destroyer the very next summer he visited.......
 
That CD was a game changer for me.

Steve Russell and John England from University.  We lived together, got drunk together, got wrecked together, tripped balls together...but they were the guys who taught me to play the guitar, or at the very least (as I'm still trying to learn) put me on the path.

Their souls had been sent to the future from the 50's as they were complete rockabilly / Sun records nuts.  Both had more musical talent in one finger than I have in my entire body.  Steve could sing (best voice I've ever heard first hand, like Elvis good), play double bass and guitar.  John was one of the best natural guitarists I've ever known or heard.

Without those two guys' influence, I'd probably never have tried to pick up the instrument.

Pink Floyd for me.  7th grade art class.    Up to this point music was a casual thing for me.  Something for the background rather than something to get focused attention.  The teacher gave us our assignment to draw or paint or whatever, then put the new DSOM album on while we did our assignment.  That instantly changed the way I thought about and listened to music, and kindled my desire to make music.

Miles Davis
 
I was raised (in the south) on classical and church music, and was fortunate enough to study piano for 3 years with the soloist for the St. Louis Philharmonic (Joanna Lange; two left-hand-only vids of her below) when I was 10-12.
 
I moved to Wisconsin at 13. The next summer (1965), I saw a documentary on the Chicago PBS station on blues music (of which I'd never heard). The first half hour was Mississippi John Hurt, sitting alone on stage, playing a resonator. [I had fallen in love with the delta blues, St. Louis style, when I'd sneak out at night and head down to Gaslight Square, grab a slice and a coke for $0.25, and sit on an outdoor bench, listening to the live bands.] The second half hour was a 17-year old Buddy Guy, playing his lightning-fast electric blues. Now I'm serious in love with the blues.
 
Fast-forward 4 months to Christmas-time, 1965. We were doing Xmas at a relative's home in Chicago. I was over 5'9" when I was 12, and never had much trouble passing for older. I really, REALLY, wanted to hear some live Chicago blues, so I snuck out of the house, took the train downtown and walked up to Old Town to look for a blues bar. Being winter, there were no open doors or windows (like I was used to in St. Louis). I saw one club that had a line of peeps, waiting to get in. Must be the best blues band, tonight, I figured, so I got in line. No problem getting in. I found a spot in a dark corner and waited for the blues.
 
Well, I got the blues...but not the kind of blues I expected. Not at all. Playing that night were:
 
Trumpet: Miles Davis
Tenor Sax: Wayne Shorter
Piano: Herbie Hancock
Bass: Ron Carter
Drums: Tony Williams
 
Oh, and the name of the club?
 
The Plugged Nickel
 
My life changed. I've never had a better musical orgasm than I had that night.
 
Edit: Here are the two videos.
 

One Band: The Beatles
One Musician: Jack Bruce
(sea watt eye didare?)
 

It's never been about any one band or musician, but about records.
 
A record is a quantum blast of energy, an explosion resulting from an accumulation of years of quiet chemical reactions.
 
You might start out unaware that all those pop songs on the radio were being created by jazz and classical musicians, until one day they're set loose. Then you get an album like In the Court of the Crimson King that blends rock, jazz, classical and poetry like some musical Unified Field Theory and suddenly you're the Star Child in 2001 A Space Odyssey, seeing the universe as it really is.
 
Records also provide a handy chronological benchmark. I can think of 5 that were the biggest milestones for my musical journey:
 
1. Hearing the 1812 Overture for the first time as a very young child. I played that record until it was worn out. It was a launchpad for what would become a lifelong love of classical music. And, I suspect, a later respect for metal.
 
2. The Beatles and other British-invasion bands such as The Animals and The Zombies. A love of Brit-pop led me, strangely enough, to American bands who embraced a similar vocabulary. Magical Mystery Tour was the first record I ever heard in stereo. It was what made me realize that all music is connected in an evolving continuum.
 
3. One defining milestone was when our drummer showed up at the band house with a copy of "Are You Experienced?". We immediately set about learning every cut on that album, discovering in the process that rules were just starting points.
 
4. Dave Brubeck's Out of Time album, and its less-successful follow-up Time Further Out, brought jazz to the foreground and taught me that it doesn't have to be in 4/4 to make your foot tap. It led me to seek out Brubeck's contemporaries as well as earlier players who influenced him. I am primarily a piano player because of people like Brubeck, Art Tatum and Bill Evans.
 
5. In the Court of the Crimson King. An epiphany unto itself: rock, pop, jazz - all just labels for the convenience of organizing the bins at the record store. The first ELP album, around the same time, was a similar fusion of genres that further reinforced the notion that musical genres are made-up BS.
 
[EDIT]
6. Snowflakes are Dancing by Isao Tomita. Showed me that synthesizers could be as beautiful as a classical orchestra, more than just ultimately-boring novelties. 
 

I would say that the one that would leave the deepest hole if NOT there would be the Beatles.

Has to be Frank Zappa for me - been listening to him since I was 3 years old and he definitely tuned my ear to more colorful rhythms and harmonies, and taught me that the last thing you want to do as an artist is take art seriously.

I would say Brahms.  I studied jazz forever (with Barry Galbraith no less) but jazzers are way t()o uptight unless they're addicted to drugs...then, of course fabu.

@ Bit.... 3. One defining milestone was when our drummer showed up at the band house with a copy of "Are You Experienced?". We immediately set about learning every cut on that album, discovering in the process that rules were just starting points.
DUDE!!! I can play a riff here and there but dang... I can do a version of Little Wing and I can play most of Wait 'Till Tomorrow but Are You Experienced... hat's off to you my man! You have to be LOUD to play that one I think and Third Stone?... I don't Live Today!... that is an AWESOME album. You guys must have rocked BIG TIME!! 
Ultimate ROCK album, IMO.
 
J

For me, it's definitely Walter Carlos (back before she became Wendy).  Switched on Bach profoundly rocked my world.

I gotta say... I pretty much learned how to be a slippery, hard pickin' bugger by learning most of Megadeth's "Rust In Peace" a couple years into my playing (I was around 14... started "officially" playing at 12).
 
So that'd be Freidman for the licks and Mustaine for the riffs.
 
Of course I've done WAAAAAY more since then but those are definitely the dudes that limbered me up enough to make all that followed happen. From rock to blues to country to folk and all the piles of ridiculous punk rock in between.

Deep Purple  for the band
 
Neil Young as the musician
 
DP was the first really heavy band.... man I just loved their energy and songwriting.
 
Young was a country rocker and a writer extraordinaire.  I didn't know I liked country rock music until I heard Young...and at the time didn't know it was country but man it was cool.

Leadfoot
Randy Rhoads

Do I have to to tell the whole story again?
(I have only two degrees of separation to RR) 

Many bands have had tremendous impact on popular music. But I would still posit it's still the individual artists that over the long haul have the most influence. I love the Beatles. But did they really single handedly (without the aid of many other British Invasion bands) precipitate more change to the course of pop music? Or did Bob Dylan? Was it the Modern Jazz Quartet...or Miles Davis...or Thelonius Monk...or Sun Ra? From Mozart to Little Richard...it still takes one bat **** crazy mofo to keep turning the dial ever closer to eleven. Always has...always will.

PS...just read a few more entries and am always glad when Bit and I agree on something. I was gaga over Snowflakes Are Dancing when it first came out and still love it near to death. I've still got my original T-Shirt which, of course, doesn't even fit one of my arms now...let alone my torso. Amazing work. (And, an individual to boot:-)