Microphones for recording

The type of mic you have will drastically have a huge effect on how your song will sound in the end compared to other national recordings.

For my needs, a large condenser for vocals, flutes, a small condenser for acoustic strings, drums and delicate things, a dynamic for general purpose stuff and miking amps, and an omnidirectional stereo mic for location and sampling. That is my list. Yours is going to vary, of course.
One of the most versatile mics to have, the all-purpose stage hammer, yes, the Shure SM57. If it's all you have, you can use it to record everything, though for vocals and acoustic guitars, it is happiest with a good preamp. For recording your amp or really loud stuff, it will resist breakup even under extreme pressure. For vocals my first condenser was a Rode NT1, which is now replaced by the NT1a. Once you have both a dynamic and a large condenser working for you, you have a lot of recording ground covered well. Condensers shine on vocals, acoustic stuff--anything that has lots of high crystalline frequencies. A third mic for me was a small condenser--the Shure SM81. More expensive than many, but I wanted high quality acoustic guitar recordings. Those 3 mics make a great basic mic cabinet for a home studio.

I should point out that microphones sound better with excellent preamps. To get the realize the full subtlety and nuance that a fine mic provides, it needs clean, quiet, gain, or amplification. But you will hear a huge difference between condensers and dynamics even with the cheaper preamps tacked on to audio interfaces.