George Jones will remain the quintessential country singer forevermore, the man whose emotional expressiveness turned honky-tonk into high art. In the '50s he tore out rockabilly-tinged tunes like the wild and woolly "White Lightning," but by the '60s he was hanging his heart out on the line with sorrow-soaked ballads like "She Thinks I Still Care." And his 1980 hit "He Stopped Loving Her Today" remains the Nashville equivalent of a Shakespeare soliloquy, with Jones' powerful pipes delivering an unparalleled level of passionate intensity.