5 most recognizable voices in American music?

Surprisingly (to me, at least) dweller, playing guitar on Beefheart's first album (Safe As Milk) was a young....Ry Cooder!

@bdp24 I could not have said better! Exactly my point (re. this thread for >90% of the folks out there)

French: Edith Piaf, Charles Boyer, Pepe LePew.
Russian Aida Nikolaychuk (YouTube sensation).  

@dweller Thank you for getting my point, I did not mean any disrespect to the posts @ this thread, was rather thinking about those over 2 billion Chinese, Indian, and Russian-speaking dudes perspective on the subject. (Well, and French of course) What do They think??!? Do they even care? I did not (do not) care if Bowie is American or Brit, whether he is a man or a woman, or gay, or lesbian... I just loved him (Michael Jackson not so much) when residing on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall. Personally, I do not have any Chinese/Oriental tunes in my x1000+ library (unless you count Debussy and George Harrison) and totally hate Russian pop!! As a test, search for YouTube videos of the album "Po Freidu" by Max Barskih. Cool videos, but my-guess u will get my point of the outsiders-"natives" listening to American rock/pop. Once again, with all due respect etc etc this is the only tune (plus Riverside of course) coming from "beyond" that I can listen to and I still feel sorry that did not buy his CD when it was available on Amazon...
Now, a tip for those who dig Lustmord, Reich, Brian Eno: "Cows don’t dream at night" by Electric Orange! The best 60+min drone tune I have in my collection,... the only bummer is that I still understand Russian and cannot help listening to the background "news" he used as a "human touch" to electronic droning... Let me know if I am wrong!!!

sevs: If you like to drone, check out "Program" on the Silver Apples album. Happy Holidays!