Heheh, exactly my point. I've heard all of Samson's material with Bruce and even his voice can't save half of it!
I agree Bruce would have been successful anyway to some extent, but it was the music Maiden were already producing that really gave his vocals the opportunity to shine, not to mention the fact that Maiden were already becoming a well established touring band before he joined and this put him in front of a lot of people. Without Maiden he may never have gone that far.