Cher

The only solo artist ever to land a No. 1 single on the US Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades. Born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, California, on May 20, 1946, Cher rose to fame in 1965 alongside her then-husband Sonny Bono, whose duo hit "I Got You Babe" became a signature of 1960s counterculture. She launched a solo career at the same moment, and where most 1960s stars faded, she kept remaking herself — the theatrical storytelling of "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" giving way to her run of 1970s Billboard chart-toppers "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves," "Half-Breed," and "Dark Lady."

Then she did it again, and again. In the 1980s she became a serious actress, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for Moonstruck, before storming back to the pop charts with the rock-edged "If I Could Turn Back Time." In 1998, at 52, she released "Believe" — the first hit record to use Auto-Tune as a deliberate effect — and topped charts around the world all over again, winning her first competitive Grammy. She has sold more than 100 million records and remains the only performer to hold both an acting Oscar and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a career built, across sixty years, on the refusal to stay in any one place.