Along with Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, Beck is considered one of the great guitarists of his generation, renowned for his technical ability and versatility. Though he has not received the same sort of media attention as Clapton and Hendrix, he nevertheless has hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide.

Born in Wallington, England, Beck attended art school in London but spent most of his time performing with various local bands. A stint with the infamous Screaming Lord Sutch (now a British political figure) built up Beck's reputation to the point where, in 1965, the Yardbirds asked him to replace their departing guitarist, Eric Clapton.

Beck performed with the blues-rock group for about a year and a half, maintaining their hit streak with top-ten cuts like “Heart Full of Soul,” while extending the group's rhythm-and-blues sound to a more Hendrix-like psychedelic territory, such as “Shapes of Things.”

By the end of 1966, Beck left the Yardbirds to create the Jeff Beck Group, working with Rod Stewart. They released their debut LP, Truth, in 1968, and were one of the first bands to establish the new kind of heavy metal sound that Led Zeppelin developed. In 1970, Rod Stewart and Ron Wood left and joined Small Faces. Beck reformed the group with vocalist Bobby Tench, bassist Clive Chaman, keyboardist Max Middleton, and drummer Cozy Powell. In 1973, he formed a new trio with former Vanilla Fudge/Cactus members Tim Bogart (bass) and Carmine Appice (drums).

In 1975, Beck made a comeback with the acclaimed Blow by Blow, an instrumental jazz fusion album produced by Beatles producer George Martin. For his follow-up album, Wired, Beck worked with ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra keyboardist Jan Hammer, repeating the success of Blow by Blow.

In 1985, the polished pop-rock album Flash, recorded with session musicians, became one of his most commercially successful albums, spawning the hit single “People Get Ready” (sung by Rod Stewart) and the Grammy-winning instrumental “Escape.”

After taking some time off and appearing on Mick Jagger's 1987 album Primitive Cool, Beck returned with an all-instrumental album, Guitar Shop, in 1989. It won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental and received widespread critical acclaim. In March 1999, Beck released his first album of original material in more than a decade, Who Else!, a collection of eleven new guitar compositions in styles ranging from techno to blues to traditional Irish, arranged and produced by Beck and Tony Hymas. You Had It Coming came out in 2001.