I kinda figured as much but the geek in me couldn’t not play it straight and cough up the name.
Indeed! Not to mention that Ritchie still plays with his current group, Blackmore"s Night. Saw him in May.
Hmmm…I’m gonna cheat and say the Alan Parsons Project.
Of course, Parsons and Wolfson…
Notable contributors but not necessarily band members include:
Andrew Powell - keyboards and orchestration
Stuart Tosh - drums & percussion
Mel Collins - Saxophone
Ian Bairnson - Guitar
David Paton - Bass
Well, you could always swap out Hammet with Dave Mustaine.
I’ll say the original Van Halen. Alex and Eddie for sure. Mike Anthony seems pretty good to me, but I don’t really know. And if you judge Roth as an overall frontman rather than strictly on vocal ability, then I’d say he’s in the top hundredth of a percent.
Possibly certain lineups of Black Sabbath, like maybe Butler-Iommi-Ward-Dio, or Butler-Iommi-Ward-Gillan. Maybe.
Rush definitely should be on this list
It bugs me when people slag on Geddy and especially Alex; they are both musicians at the top of their instruments.
From wikipedia:
Awards for Alex:
“Best Rock Talent” by Guitar for the Practicing Musician in 1983
“Best Rock Guitarist” by Guitar Player Magazine in 1984 and May 2008
Runner-up for “Best Rock Guitarist” in Guitar Player in 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986
Inducted into the Guitar for the Practicing Musician Hall of Fame, 1991
Awards for Geddy;
Bass Hall of Fame – Guitar Player magazine
6 time winner: “Best Rock Bass” – Guitar Player magazine
1993 – “Best Rock Bass Player” Bass Player readers’ poll
To all those who doubt their talent, listen to La Villa Strangiato, on Hemispheres.
Primus, anyone?
This is probably the strongest case in the thread so far. It would be difficult to argue that Coltrane was not the best tenor player of all time. The case is muddier on piano given the diversity of great musicians on that instrument, but if I said that Bill Evans was the best jazz piano player ever, I’d probably get some support from people who knew their music. Adderley was a step below Evans and Coltrane, but he was probably the outstanding alto player available at the time with the possible exception of Eric Dolphy. Chambers and Cobb were (arguably) not clear giants of their instruments, but it would be hard to name ten better bass players and drummers working in 1958-59. Miles was much weaker technically than his sidemen, but given that he is probably one of the five most influential musicians in jazz, I’d say he qualitifies.
I would just swap out Kirk for James. Hetfield is a great rhythm guitarist. I’ve read a lot of disdain (on this board, I think) for Lars as a drummer, but I don’t know enough about drumming to say yes or no. Cliff is (was) a gimme for the top 1%.
And, I’ll show some Billy Cobham love with the Mahavishnu Orchestra:
Original lineup:
Cobham - drums
John McLaughlin - guitar
Jan Hammer - keyboards
And from Billy’s own band:
Cobham
John Abercrombie - guitar
Michael Brecker - sax, woodwinds
Randy Brecker - trumpet
George Duke - keyboards
Gary Burton quartets:
Burton - vibraphone
Most of his guitarists (at least Larry Coryell, Pat Metheny, Mick Goodrick, and John Scofield)
Steve Swallow - bass
Roy Haynes - drums
Sonny Rollins might want a word with you. Heck, Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins will be right behind the Saxophone Colossus. 
Kind of Blue is a magic combo, to be sure. I am just messin’ with the premise of the OP, which I have never quite cottened to since I prefer songwriting, innovation and band fit way over technical proficiency.
Lars is not a great drummer - he’s fine and…busy.
James is a Keith Richards-like Riffmaster Field General. My kind of Top 1%, but not the OP’s, near as I can tell.
Kirk Hammett is a wanker I have never had much use for.
Nah, actually to me the criteria are deliberately vague. The top 1% are subjective, as they’d have to be. Innovation should be a factor, at least.
Plus I’m the OP and and the guy who nominated James Hetfield. My criteria for Top 1% may not be all that different from yours.
ISWYDT 
…by the way, since there seem to be so many … er, *Fleckheads * here, anyone know who the violinist is that’s been playing with them this year? Or maybe it was just at one show in CT–it was supposed to be Bruce Hornsby, Bela Fleck and Gregg Allman, but Allman had to cancel. Massive show nonetheless; mostly the Noisemakers and Flecktones jamming together (Jaimoe opened, BTW). Anyway, there was a violinist whose name I didn’t catch and didn’t recognize. Anyone?
From Wikipedia: “The original lineup included Max Bennett - bass, John Guerin - drums and percussion, Larry Carlton - guitarist, and Joe Sample - keyboards. They recorded the album Tom Scott and the L.A. Express, as well as a number of tracks on Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark album in 1974 with this lineup, before both Carlton and Sample left the group. Robben Ford replaced Carlton as guitarist and Larry Nash took over as the group’s keyboardist.”
I think Scott, Ford/Carleton are slam dunks. Not sure how Guerin, Bennett, Sample and Nash might be ranked, not being a musician.
I’d put Joe Sample in the top 1%.
I’m surprised no-one has mentioned The Funk Brothers, Booker T. and The MGs, or the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section yet.
As for bands I’ve actually seen, all the best drummers and many of the best guitarists and bassists have been in death metal bands.
Both of these are assuming “best” means “most technical ability”, as opposed to “most enjoyable”.
Why would it have to be one or the other? McCartney and Bruce’s styles have just about nothing in common and they were both innovative and influential.
Portnoy is gone, but you can easily substitute their keyboardist, Jordan Rudess in there.
Although they never really showed their musical chops, I’d nominate Asia. Steve Howe and Carl Palmer are definitely top 1% and Geoff Downes probably qualifies as well.
I can’t find them right now, but you haven’t seen some old threads about drumming, have you? Carl Palmer is knocked for being all fill, no time-keeping by a few folks - not the least of which is me, when I related a story in which my friend engineered one of Asia’s albums and the producer he was working with enjoyed watching my friend’s (who’s a drummer, btw) face fall as he heard Carl in the studio. Howe and Downes kidded about wanting my friend to lay down drum tracks when he was testing out Palmer’s set after doing all the mic setups…
You know the best danged stories, WordMan.