“He doesn't get a writer's credit for Melissa, but Berry was an integral part of the band's chemistry”: Cut down in his prime, bassist Berry Oakley was behind some of the Allman Brothers Band’s most groove-savvy movements

Rock group The Allman Brothers (L-R) Duane Allman, Dickey Betts, Gregg Allman, Jai Johanny Johanson, Berry Oakley and Butch Trucks sit on some rairoad tracks on May 5, 1969 outside of Macon, Georgia.

There aren’t many acts that can boast a musical career that spanned six decades. But since coalescing around Florida-raised siblings Duane and Gregg in the late '60s, the Allman Brothers Band – with its potent brew of blues, rock, jazz, and country – effortlessly rode out changing musical trends, notching up a string of gold and platinum albums along the way.

The earliest incarnation of the band is the stuff of legend: Duane Allman's and Dickey Betts' sophisticated twin-axe lead approach showed what was possible with two guitars and a large slice of imagination.