1. Pink Floyd 2. The Jimi Hendrix Experience (or any of Hendrix's stuff) 3. The Beatles 4. Led Zeppelin 5. Rolling Stones (only a few great songs, though quite a lot of good ones) Queen are crap, and I can no longer listen to Cream. I don't know anything by The Doors (apart from 'Light My Fire'), the Edgar Winter Group or The Who.
Oh, no, not more insults towards Queen . Personally, I would choose (in this order) Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and then either The Beatles or The Doors (I love both of them about the same). Axis, you really should check out The Doors. They are amazing, and I don't just mean their hit songs.
Led Zeppelin would be third on my list, after that it's hard to decide. I never dug the Who somehow, and also Pink Floyd and the Beatles don't really blow me away like the do most other people on here. I dig them both though. But for good space rock I rather listen to the finest Hawkwind and Farflung albums then some Pink Floyd.
Queen Floyd Zep Who Never did like The Stones, The Doors only have a very limited number of good songs, Cream are alright, but I could never get into Cream... same with Hendrix. Edgar Winter Group... honestly have only heard 3 songs of their at most... can't truly comment there.
Cream was aptly named! As tired of a recording it is, listen to Sunshine of your Love live. There's 3 of them on stage, and at no time is there any "holes" in the music; during the vocals and the solo, they fill up the entire sound spectrum to appropriately and skillfully that most people don't notice that there's no 2nd guitar playing rhythm.
For me it'd be: 1)Led Zeppelin 2)The Doors 3)The Beatles 4)Pink Floyd 5)The Who PS. no disrespect to any of these bands or anyone else but it's so hard to say which one's I like best because I love them all and they all ROCK