With the death of Glenn Frey, a founding member of the best selling band The Eagles, Todd Leopold for CNN.com asks the above question:

What’s The Greatest American Rock Band

I have the say, the question is trickier than one might think, given that there are some bands that sound very “American” and yet whose members (some or all) may be from other countries.

Mr. Leopold offers some interesting choices, among them (of course) The Eagles, The Beach Boys, Nirvana, Aerosmith, The Ramones, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Grateful Dead, etc. etc.

There is a reader voting offered at the end of his article and, of the bands offered, I’d probably choose The Doors as my favorite.  In six albums they created a unique, eerie, haunting, and at times bluesy sound.  Some of their songs were big radio hits…

They also created a few long, epic songs…

And toward the (ahem) end, shortly before lead singer Jim Morrison’s death, the toll of his abuse of drugs and alcohol ravaged his voice.  And yet, even with his voice noticeably different than from his early days, it was nonetheless still more than good enough to serve up one of the group’s final, classic songs…

Six albums -and one live album- released between 1966 and 1971.  A very high output and, in my opinion, a great body of work.