# Greatest Singers



## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Who are your favourite singers? Whom you love because of their voice, their emotion? Singers from any genre or time or country...

My list (mostly rock and roll biased as I'm inexperienced in other genres):

1. Marvin Gaye
2. Jim Morrison
3. Roger Daltrey
4. Grace Slick
5. Janis Joplin
6. Tim Buckley
7. Joni Mitchell
8. Sam Cooke
9. Billie Holiday
10. Van Morrison


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## BaronScarpia (Apr 2, 2014)

This post does not exist!!!


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Thanks for the great reply, but this is the non-classical part of the forum.

Just saying.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

as hard as I find it to compare my favourite country singers with my favourite rock singers, my list would look something like this:

1. Björk
2. Chris Cornell
3. George Strait
4. James Taylor
5. Cat Stevens
6. Maddy Prior
7. Garth Brooks
8. Jeff Buckley
9. Tori Amos
10. James LaBrie


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Bjork at 1 surprised me greatly, but I have never heard her that well... but a great list. I like James Taylor a lot too.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Thanks a lot for the youtube links, BaronScarpia. I think I'll take out an hour or two in the near future and listen to some of those.


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## BaronScarpia (Apr 2, 2014)

shangoyal said:


> Thanks for the great reply, but this is the non-classical part of the forum.
> 
> Just saying.


So it is! Thanks for the tip!  That is _rather_ embarrassing. I think I'll go and sit in a dark corner somewhere to hide my blushing cheeks


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

BaronScarpia said:


> So it is! Thanks for the tip!  That is _rather_ embarrassing. I think I'll go and sit in a dark corner somewhere to hide my blushing cheeks


No, you can keep sitting in the centre and show us more of your great sense of humour.


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## BaronScarpia (Apr 2, 2014)

shangoyal said:


> Thanks a lot for the youtube links, BaronScarpia. I think I'll take out an hour or two in the near future and listen to some of those.


Oops! Just deleted them! I shall message you them!


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

BaronScarpia said:


> Oops! Just deleted them! I shall message you them!


Thanks a lot. :tiphat:


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

shangoyal said:


> Who are your favourite singers? Whom you love because of their voice, their emotion? Singers from any genre or time or country...
> 
> My list (mostly rock and roll biased as I'm inexperienced in other genres):
> 
> ...


Great list, there are many of my favorites. 
Males:
Tim Buckley
Dock Boggs
Robert Wyatt
Jimmy Scott
Tom Waits
Bim Sherman
Camaron De la Isla
Sam Cooke
Aaron Neville
Rick (the bassist and singer in the australian band Feedtime)
Van Morrison

Females
Iris Dement
Janis Joplin
Aretha Franklin
Maria Bethania
Marion Williams
Bessie Smith
Nina Simone
Ester Phillips
Mary Margaret O'hara
Joni Mitchell
Sandy Denny
Jeanne Lee
Mahalia Jackson
Odetta
Lee Wiley


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Robert Wyatt wow. You are really avant-garde!


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

shangoyal said:


> Robert Wyatt wow. You are really avant-garde!


He has done some experimental stuff but I love him also when he's just singing a simple melody.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Yeah I kinda like Rock Bottom but it hasnt realky touched me deeply yet. Experimental reminds me of another great singer Meredith Monk. Her album Dolmen Music I find very interesting.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

shangoyal said:


> Yeah I kinda like Rock Bottom but it hasnt realky touched me deeply yet.


Not even Sea song? That's one of my desert island albums. The other one that I really love is the Hapless child with the composer Michael Mantler where he sings the lyrics of Edward Gorey.
Anyway talking of simple melodies I was thinking of things like:















shangoyal said:


> Experimental reminds me of another great singer Meredith Monk. Her album Dolmen Music I find very interesting.


yes, I remember especially Biography from that album ("dying, dying, dying...")


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

My favourite singers come from folk music, pop songs, and Scottish/Irish songs of my childhood. The order is fairly vague.

1. Roy Orbison, pop - absolutely beautiful tenor voice, full of heartbreaking emotion
2. Maddy Prior, progressive folk - soaring, melodic voice
3. Andy Irvine of Planxty, the Irish folk band - lyrical tenor, songs like 'Arthur McBride' and 'The Green Fields of America'.
4. Kenneth McKellar, tender trained-tenor voice, songs of Robert Burns
5. Delia Murphy, Irish-American traditional singer, voice dark & smoky & full of character
6. Dick Gaughan of Five Hand Reel, folk band - very craggy & virile Scottish voice
7. Joni Mitchell, 70s dreamy joss-sticky voice
8. Martin Carthy - when young; his voice is dreadful now - singing folk songs like 'As I walked over Salisbury Plain'
9. Del Shannon - 60s pop star, very striking use of falsetto to get emotion across
10. Jo Stafford, 40s 'Big Band' singer - stylish languor & regret - 'Begin the Beguine' was my favourite of hers


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## Mesa (Mar 2, 2012)

I could ham fistedly shuffle out my current flavour of the month top 10, of which admittedly about 2/3 have already been mentioned, however i could make a power play and suggest a one man top ten:





Edit: Pipped to the post by Ingelou. I constructed this post ages ago, but only posted after becoming distracted and watching about half of Black and White night again. I have consumed far too much strong dry cider to listen to this much O.

"_I'm not crying... it's just been raining... on my face._"


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Love your list Ingelou! That's because there are many names there I don't know... and that means new stuff to discover.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

Impossible to say, but I know Eric Burdon would be somewhere on my rock list, as would the previously mentioned Janis Joplin and Roy Orbison. Otis Redding. Aretha. 

Nina Simone. Jazz singers like Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. 

I'm also a sucker for a country baritone, even though it too often goes along with an overly polished Nashville sound. Don Williams, Joe Nichols, George Strait.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Aretha Franklin
Patti Labelle
Al Green 
Linda Jones
Gal Costa
Marvin Gaye
Tammi Terrell
David Ruffin
Dionne Warwick
Esther Phillips
Q-Tip
Minnie Riperton
Chaka Khan

and one for the white people:

Rod Stewart


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Lambert, Hendricks, & Ross
Mark Murphy
Johnny Guitar Watson
Frank Zappa
Muddy Waters
Dinah Washington
Louis Armstrong
Napoleon Murphy Brock
Flora Purim
Emmylou Harris
Joni Mitchell
Gil Scott-Heron
Bobby Blue Bland
BB King
Etta James
Jack Bruce


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Jim Morrison
Scott Weiland
Morrissey


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

edit: going to interpret "greatest" as "favorite."

Curtis Mayfield for doing the falsetto thing in a way that somehow doesn't sound listless or effete. 

David Bowie for so naturally flirting with the idea of creating "characters" with subtle variations in his singing style, and his rather proto-punk tendency to intentionally sound bad to enhance the emotional effect of the song.

Lama Tashi. The throat singing guy. 

David Yow for creating his own vocal style more or less, and sounding as incoherent and disgusting as possible without ever totally abandoning the role of a singer.

Iggy Pop. He pretty much wrote the new testament of hard rock vocals in the 70s.

Jun Togawa. I don't listen to enough opera to tell whether or not her operatic spazz-attacks are "authentically good," but I think it's amazing.

Attila, the black metal guy. Inhuman use of overtones, always sounds like a frightened, obsessed spectator rather than the typical "aggressor" role of a metal vocalist, infinitely more effective. 

Probably some others.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Curtis is definitely "favourite" but not "greatest"!


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

regressivetransphobe said:


> Attila, the black metal guy. Inhuman use of overtones, always sounds like a frightened, obsessed spectator rather than the typical "aggressor" role of a metal vocalist, infinitely more effective.


this has reminded me of Nattramn, the "singer" in the band Silencer


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## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

norman bates said:


> this has reminded me of Nattramn, the "singer" in the band Silencer


Haha, they actually don't sound similar but that Silencer guy is something else. I imagine a giant adult-sized baby.


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## drvLock (Apr 2, 2014)

James Labrie
James Hetfield
Dani Filth 
Tarja Turunenn
Floor Jansen
Hansi Kürsch

and the list keep going...


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

drvLock said:


> James Labrie


I've always found him absolutely terrible


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

norman bates said:


> I've always found him absolutely terrible


I put LaBrie in my top 10 as well, perhaps somewhat generously as he has had some real-off days (or should that be whole off-years?) when he could scarcely sing a note in tune. But judging him by his best work (e.g. Images & Words or Awake), I think few metal vocalists can rival his power and control. But of course many DT fans consider him the weak link in the band, so each to their own...


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Winterreisender said:


> I put LaBrie in my top 10 as well, perhaps somewhat generously as he has had some real-off days (or should that be whole off-years?) when he could scarcely sing a note in tune. But judging him by his best work (e.g. Images & Words or Awake), I think few metal vocalists can rival his power and control. But of course many DT fans consider him the weak link in the band, so each to their own...


I know those albums but to me even there his vibrato when he's singing high notes sounds like a cat making screeching noises, and when he singing slow pieces I don't like at all his over sentimentality. Definitely not my kind of singer. I prefer even a Dave "Donald duck" Mustaine over him


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## drvLock (Apr 2, 2014)

norman bates said:


> I know those albums but to me even there his vibrato when he's singing high notes sounds like a cat making screeching noises, and when he singing slow pieces I don't like at all his over sentimentality. Definitely not my kind of singer. I prefer even a Dave "Donald duck" Mustaine over him


He had some problems with food poisoning back then. His vocal cords were all screwed up, and he even considered retiring, but the other DT members gave him support, and told him to keep going.

I remember reading an interview with him, at the time they were releasing "Train of Thought", and he said he started taking singing classes again, as his habilities were far below his fellow bandmates. I consider him one of the best voices inside the heavy metal scene, for his flexibility. Just listen to the note he sustains for several seconds on "Another Won", in their live recording of the 20th anniversary world tour album.


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## Bimperl (Apr 8, 2014)

For me, it's Billy Joel & Sinatra above all, and then some mere (mortal) favorites 


Love so many genres, hard to narrow them down! 

Helen Forest (Harry James, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman);
Vaughn Monroe

John Mastrangelo aka Johnny Maestro - The Crests, and later the Brooklyn Bridge;
"Little Anthony" Gourdine; 
Ronnie Spector


Whitney Houston, Bette Midler, Celine Dion
Sammy Hagar, Roger Daultry, George Harrison. 

Conway Twitty, George Strait, Randy Travis, Reba, Tanya Tucker… sooo many talents of so many genres who are timeless.


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## mirepoix (Feb 1, 2014)

Sinatra.
Ella Fitzgerald.
And for more poppy stuff, Carl Wilson.


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## LudwigKaramazov (Mar 30, 2014)

Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, and Billie Holiday are some of my favorites — they are the sorts of voices that seem to be able to heighten your emotion and get into your soul.


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## Bimperl (Apr 8, 2014)

Just my perspective, but I'd put some serious $ on who Mozart would admire the most:

Who does this sound like? 





Blue-Eyed Soul:





Homage to LvB 



Ray Charles:





Dylan:


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## Bimperl (Apr 8, 2014)

double post -- can't delete


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## Bimperl (Apr 8, 2014)

Please forgive another one? Just scratching the surface here, IMO.


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