Meet the most productive musicians in history. How much of their music do you own?

Creativity is a strange and elusive thing. It cannot be summoned on demand or rushed. The muse arrives when it does and on its own schedule.

When it comes to music, most artists do well to release an album every 18 to 24 months, each with around a dozen songs. There may be a few additional tracks — bonus tracks, B-sides, and the odd standalone single — but for the most part, getting, say 20 new songs into the marketplace every couple of years is considered to be pretty productive.

But then there are the ultra-prolific types, the kind who are touched by the muse weekly, daily, or from the looks of it, even hourly. For them, songs flow like water. It becomes a race to capture as many of those ideas as possible. And once those songs are out, they can be performed live, recorded, and released.

When the dust has settled, they can be packaged in compilation albums and box sets. How do they do it?

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – 25 albums (so far)

The King Gizzard crew first came together in Melbourne, Australia, in 2010 and have since built a worldwide following with their psych sounds.

And you never have to wait long for new material. Since their debut album, 12 Bar Bruise, in 2012, the group has released 24 more full albums, averaging about two per year — except for 2017 when they released five. And then they repeated that in 2022. This is in addition to 15 live albums, three EPs, and one remix album.

Strangely, we haven’t seen a new album so far in 2024.

Guided By Voices – 40 albums (so far)

This band is headed by Robert Pollard, the composer behind at least 500 Guided By Voices songs and writer/co-writer of an estimated 1,100 more.

Last week, GBV released their 40th studio album since 1983 to go along with 19 EPs.

There have also been four box sets so packed with unreleased material that they’re known as “Suitcases.”

Willie Nelson – 75 albums (so far)

Willie isn’t about speed when it comes to releasing albums; it’s about longevity.

Breaking news from Canada and around the world sent to your email, as it happens.

His first solo studio record, …And Then I Wrote, appeared on Sept. 24, 1962. His 75th, The Border, appeared last month.

But that doesn’t quite tell the whole story.

Willie likes to collaborate with other musicians and has done so for another 26 albums. He also wrote two soundtracks. He’s got so many songs that he’s managed to issue 51 greatest hits-type records, too.

Oh, and 14 live albums.

Jimi Hendrix – About 90 albums (so far)

Jimi managed to record just three solo albums before he died.

His time on Earth has since been spun into three official live albums and a total of somewhere north of 90 posthumous releases. That includes 13 studio albums, another 28 live albums, a couple of soundtracks, 19 retrospective compilations, and two dozen or so official bootlegs.

The Fall – About 100 albums (so far)

The only constant in The Fall was their curmudgeonly leader and vocalist, Mark E. Smith.

Behind him, the churn was incredible. In the 40-year career of the band, about 66 musicians came and went with roughly a third lasting less than a year.

But even with this chaos, The Fall cranked out 31 studio albums, an astonishing 59 live records, a half dozen combination studio/live records, 44 compilations, and 17 box sets.

Smith may have died in 2018 but live albums have kept coming so we may not be done yet.

Frank Zappa – 128 albums (so far)

I had a friend who once vowed to collect every single Frank Zappa album. He’s still working on it.

During his lifetime, Frank released 62 studio records, including everything he did with The Mothers of Invention. Since he died in 1993, his family has found enough archival material to issue 66 — yes, 66! — posthumous albums. A majority of those are live records — the most recent is a 1968 recording made that Whisky a Go Go in 1968 — but still.

And don’t get me started on all the bootlegs out there.

Johnny Cash – 167 albums

The Man in Black is an interesting case. Throughout his lifetime, he recorded 67 studio albums and four soundtracks.

But those songs have been repackaged into compilations at least 105 times, making Cash the King of the Greatest Hits Collection. No one will every beat that record.

Elvis Presley – About 313 albums

Between the mid-1950s and his death in 1977, Elvis released over 60 records.

But death has been very good to The King — at least as posthumous records go. A rough count suggests that there have been 87 compilation records since August ’77 and another 130 albums from a label called Follow That Dream which specializes in rare Elvis recordings.

Nana Mouskouri – About 450 albums (so far)

By some accounts, Nana is the world’s best-selling female singer (sorry, Tay-Tay) with more than 300 million records sold worldwide.

That number of 450 albums (sung in 15 different languages, including Hebrew and Mandarin) is only an estimate. But I’m sure somewhere in her native Greece, someone has been keeping careful records.

Merzbow – 506 albums (and counting)

The Japanese noise artist has been incredibly prolific over his career (it does help that he specializes in noise rather than proper traditional music; think twice before clicking this YouTube link to one of his works.)

Starting in 1980, the records have just kept coming with no fewer than 420 studio albums.

Add in the 86 live albums and — well, you’re going to need a bigger boat.

Buckethead – 519 albums (and that's only a guess)

Buckethead is the guitarist who rose to fame by appearing onstage with a KFC bucket on his head.

Frankly, it’s hard to get a good accounting of exactly how many records he’s been involved in. The best I can do is say that if you were go back to 1992 and start counting, you’ll find that his discography includes (as I wrote this) an insane 519 studio albums.

One year, he released 59 full albums. In 2022, I counted about 90 live records.

It’s possible that by the time you reach this, Buckethead’s output will have reached beyond 600 albums.