About 783 times a day we get asked the following unanswerable question: “What’s the single greatest piece of memorabilia in the Hard Rock collection?” Though it’s by nature a subjective question, there are a few pieces that are so mind-blowingly historic that they just might qualify for that rarified title. Let’s check out a handful of contenders from our interactive memorabilia website. Click on the photos to see these pieces in amazing detail and get more of the back story at our interactive memorabilia website. You can chime in on this discussion over at our memorabilia Facebook page.

How’s this for starters? Here’s an early draft of the Bob Dylan classic “I Want You” from his 1966 masterpiece Blonde on Blonde. An original Dylan manuscript is like a Shakespeare folio. It really is that culturally significant.

You’ve definitely seen these old leather trousers before. Jim Morrison wore these nearly every day for two years straight at the height of the Doors’ fame. The myriad sexy photos you’ve seen of Morrison in leather pants? These are the very ones. He didn’t have multiple pairs and he didn’t wash them. The archetype of the leather-clad rock singer was established with these pants.

Everyone knows we have a bazillion guitars in our collection, but some are just ridiculously iconic. This was Scotty Moore’s Gibson Super 400 that Elvis borrowed for the “campfire jam” segment of his ’68 comeback special. The King in his black leather suit strumming this oversized axe is one of the indelible images of Elvis’ career.

Pop culture touchstones? Yeah, we’ve got a few. This is the very jacket that Michael Jackson wore in the “Beat It” video. This red jacket pretty much defines ‘80s fashion and you know you had one just like it.

Here’s a talisman of both tragedy and luck. It’s Buddy Holly guitarist Tommy Allsup’s wallet. This was recovered from the wreckage of the 1959 plane crash that took the lives of Buddy, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper. Tommy lost a coin toss to Richie for the last seat on the plane. Buddy was carrying his wallet because he was going to pick up a check for Tommy at the Fargo, North Dakota post office and needed Tommy’s identification.

Speaking of Buddy Holly, here are his glasses. Definitely a contender for the “greatest piece in our collection” prize.

Buddy’s spectacles not iconic enough for you? How about John Lennon’s?

We own a bunch of Hendrix guitars, so picking just one for this list is a bit difficult. How about this ’67 Gibson SG Custom? Jimi used this guitar often and famously busted it out for his appearance on The Dick Cavett Show in September of 1969.

Here’s another ridiculously historic Gibson SG. Pete Townshend rocked this bad-boy at Woodstock. Like so many of Pete’s old guitars, it was smashed and then hastily repaired by the Who’s road crew.

Is this simple contract the greatest piece in our collection? Maybe so. It’s the original management contract between Brian Jones and Andrew Loog Oldham that established The Rolling Stones as a business entity. It’s dated May 9th, 1963. The witness to the signing is an “M. Jagger” who lists his occupation as “student”.

This one’s truly incredible. It’s the simple suede jacket that John Lennon is wearing on the cover of Rubber Soul. This coat spawned a million imitations and kind of represents Lennon’s evolution from “mop top” pop star to serious artist. Some pieces of memorabilia have a preponderance of mojo so heavy it’s like they have a gravitational pull. This is definitely one of those pieces.

Did we save the best for last? That’s for you to decide, but this piece is so historic, it’s right up there with the pyramids of Egypt. This is a late ‘40s Epiphone B-5 upright bass that belonged to Marshall Lytle. Marshall was the bass player for Bill Haley and the Comets during their 1950s heyday and used this bass to record such classics as “Rock Around the Clock”, “Shake, Rattle, and Roll”, and “Rock the Joint”. Think about that for a second. Those three songs were the beginning of a cultural earthquake whose aftershocks are still rumbling in the 21st century. The lexicon of early rock bass playing was written by Marshall on this very instrument.

That was fun, right? We could keep this list going forever, which is exactly what we do every day at our interactive memorabilia site and our page on Facebook. Hit us up on line and let us know what you think the greatest pieces in our collection are. You can even tell us what you think the worst pieces are – we’re not overly sensitive about stuff like that. Either way, join the conversation and help us celebrate the amazing art form that is rock ‘n’ roll.