The Richest Musician Of All Time Has Never Topped The Charts As Himself

You can easily guess the wealthiest living musicians, but how do they stack up to the richest musicians ever?

It helps to emerge at the right time (the late 1960s and early ‘70s or the mid- to late-‘90s, the two moments when the now-shrunken industry was at its largest), make shrewd investments (in publishing and elsewhere, but also by capitalizing on one’s own brand), and working across different media platforms (television, film, and touring).

Adjusting fortunes going as far back the the pre-rock-and-roll era for inflation, we made some surprising discoveries.