Fats Domino – $8 million
Greatest Hits: Ain’t That a Shame, Jambalaya, Lady Madonna
New Orleans rock-and-roll pioneer Fats Domino was one of the genre’s most influential musicians. He also inspired R&B. He sold over sixty-five million records and had eleven top ten hits between 1955 and 1960. He was considered to be modest and camera-shy, so his rock influence is often ignored. He had thirty-five albums hit the top 40 billboard charts. Many of these records are platinum or gold-certified. He released the album “The Fat Man” in 1949, the first rock and roll record to sell a million copies.
Fats Domino
Kurt Cobain – $50 million
Greatest Hits: Smells Like Teen Spirit, Sappy
Kurt Cobain was Nirvana’s frontman, considered one of Generation X’s most influential bands. He’s also the band’s lead guitarist. Born in Washington, he founded the band in 1987 with Aaron Burckhard and Krist Novoselic. It was part of Seattle’s grunge scene. Nirvana signed with DGC and flourished, mostly through his second album, which had the single “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Cobain resented media coverage, claiming the mainstream misconstrued and oversimplified his message. He married rocker, Courtney Love.
Kurt Cobain