This man is what sex would sound like if sex was a voice. Now in his 70s and going stronger than ever, Sir Tom Jones has sung I believe literally every genre of music that can be sung. Pop, blues, gospel, rock, country, R&B, dance music, and schmaltzy show tunes, he has owned them all. I have seen this guy live and yes, the panties actually do fly towards the stage. Also if I were wearing any, they would have joined them. Pick your favorite Tom Jones era, but he is currently doing some seriously awesome, stripped down blues standard records with Ethan Johns that I would highly recommend checking out.
Alternative
art/prog-rock,or whatever the hell you wanna call it has no finer
band than Tool. Rock music in general then has few finer vocalist than
Maynard James Keenan. This guy's voice has held up flawlessly and
whether he is screaming his ass off for over thirty straight seconds in "The Grudge" or sinisterly crooning in an upper register in "The Pot", (not to mention
all of the stuff in between), he never ceases to impress. If every band
with distorted guitars had a guy like this behind the mic, the world
would clearly be a better place.
I am completely comfortable in my sexuality to fully admit that Marvin Gaye has the sexiest voice of all time. I mean "Let's Get It On" and "Sexual Healing" speak for themselves. Of course there is also his old Motown stuff and even on the highly influential What's Going On album where social unrest was the song of choice, Gaye's voice could still command the lamentations of the women. I actually do feel bad for having him this low, so any comments referring to this travesty are surely welcome.
Behold, the foremost vocalist that heavy metal has ever or will ever produce. Ronnie James Dio has the incredible distinction of fronting three legendary bands, Rainbow, Sabbath, and solo outfit Dio respectively. Ronnie's voice through all of it remained effortlessly incredible. "Catch the Rainbow", "Stargazer", "Heaven & Hell", "The Sign of the Southern Cross", "Holy Diver", and "The Last In Line", only touch the surface of this man's greatness. Hail the little Italian gypsy woman that is Dio!
Peter Gabriel started out innocently and oddly enough as, well, the very odd frontman for Genesis, (see picture). His rather flamboyant and very British vocal stylings in the old days eventually subdued and a more developed voice emerged in later years. Gabriel's vocals throughout all of his solo work are extraordinary, his channeling of world music styles just about unequaled. At least for a British white man.
It should surprise zero people who I know that Lionel Richie was going to make an appearance here. It should also not be surprising that he would be this high. I would proudly put the Richie on the Mt. Rushmore of Awesome. The man's first two solo albums are absolute perfection and though the glorious afro may be long gone, his voice is still exquisite. Though his best work delved further into pop territory than anything else, a finer R&B vocalist barely exists, if I were to give him even more titles. How bout one more, just King Sexy, to close it out?
If anyone were to tell me that they thought Faith No More was the greatest band of all time, I would not argue with them. Yes I am partial to The Beatles and a small handful of others, but FNM is glorious stuff. You then cannot talk about how awesome this band is without talking about Mike Patton. One of FNM's most enduring qualities is their willingness to venture into multiple sub-genres and Patton's vocals can do anything. Rapping, screaming, crooning, wailing like Tom Jones in "Star AD", soaring like a blue-eyed soul banshee in "Just A Man", I can go on and on. So can he.
As Sweets would say in Coming To America, "Goddamn that boy can sang!". Exactly what I think every time I bump any Black Keys. When I saw what this guy looked like for the first time, I really had a hard time believing such a goofy, homeless looking white boy could sing the blues this good. It certainly does not hurt that Dan Auerbach writes all of those great songs as well. Man is a beast.
No surprise here I would hope. Thom Yorke has been on every "greatest singers" list I have seen and well, this should be obvious enough. His voice is a soaring instrument in itself, making zero difference that he chooses not to enunciate as well as others. When it sounds that haunting, you cannot help but get lost in it all anyway. I have actually read that Yorke himself is annoyed at times by how truly beautiful his voice is, since he has tried in vain to "dirty" it up whenever he has tried to sing aggressively. Brilliant people problems.
I would go as far as to say that kid Michael Jackson had one of the most irritating voices ever, (eeeuuuugh, those fucking Christmas songs). Yet I would certainly go even farther in saying that by the time he hit puberty, (I think), MJ instantly became one of the best there ever was. I have loved solo Michael Jackson my whole life and Off the Wall through Dangerous are all favorite albums that set a still stellar standard for pop music. All of those "he he" Michael Jackson orgasm-isms are great, but whatever the fuck song he was singing, he never made it sound less than perfect.
I am not Mexican or British, but I do love me some Morrissey. My cousin, (same guy who made me a Kiss and Alice Cooper fan, wouldn't you know), got me into Morrissey and the Smiths many a year ago and yes, the Mozz is as great of a singer as he knows he is. His incredibly high yodeling like vocals on the first Smiths album have never returned, but his famous croon has matured into a formidable weapon, having been consistently excellent since always. Morrissey's lyrics are some of the best and funniest ever penned as well, which is just an icing on the cake.
I have said it my whole life because it is the truth, but the Beatles are and will always be the greatest thing that ever happened to anything. In addition, John Lennon has remained the most beloved musical icon of all time probably, which he absolutely should be. It has been said that Lennon himself never liked his own voice, which must have been some kind of weird mental side-effect of Beatlemania or something. Pop music has hardly been given a better or more original sounding singer and as George Martin said, Lennon's was "a voice that sends shivers down the spine".
The undisputed king of shaky vibrato, (well, "good sounding" shaky vibrato, since I am not counting Aaron "Volume Knob" Neville), Bryan Ferry's romantic croon is highly enticing. I am a fan of all eras of Roxy Music, from their art-rock beginnings, through Siren and County Life, to one of the greatest albums of all time Avalon. All the while, Ferry's voice never ceases to amaze. I can imagine women have to change their undergarments when this guy starts doing his thing. I know I have to change mine.
Mmm...Depeche Mode. Main songwriter Martin Gore actually sings almost exactly like frontman Dave Gahan, so much so that I never even knew Gore took on lead vocals on at least one track on almost every Depeche album. So I guess an honorable mention belongs to him as well. Gahan's the main man at the mic though and yeah, outstanding stuff. Another sexy, crooning vibrato, if I could sing like this guy I would never leave the house. I would also never wear pants.
Damn, just out of the top ten, that ain't right. So yes, we have made it to Robert Plant, who undoubtedly belongs. Along with the Beatles, Led Zeppelin have and will remain my favorite band. More to the point, they are the first band that I ever got obsessed with. I honestly took Plant's ridiculously awesome vocal prowess for granted for quite awhile. Eventually, such ignorance was unavoidable and shit, was their a more powerful voice in all of rock music throughout Zeppelin's prime? Most certainly not.
Yup, more famous guitar players who not enough people notice are brilliant vocalists. I kind of surprised myself by how high Eric Clapton ended up on here but hell, this is where he belongs. For a British white boy, the blues simply oozes from this man's pores. His legendary guitar playing is well, well documented, but I think his voice is the most powerful instrument he has. From his B.B. King inspired falsetto on Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs, all the way to his earthy and soothing singing on the throwback From the Cradle album, Eric Clapton's voice simply gives me goosebumps.
I will never, ever see Pete Ham anywhere on a finest vocalists list and this, as well as the entire Badfinger saga, is indeed tragic. Unfortunate member of the 27 Club, Pete Ham hung himself in a drunken depression after Badfinger had their finances utterly ruined from evil management by the mid-seventies. Devastating stuff which is slammed home even more when you hear the man sing. Goddamn is it beautiful. If anything at all comes from anyone reading this silly list, I hope it is that someone checks out Badfinger and particularly Pete Ham to see just what amazingness they may have been missing.
There are rock singers and then there is Steve Perry. Even if you hate Journey, (which you are wrong BTW), how can you not be floored by this man's voice? Steve Perry could sing diarrhea commercials and it would be the most amazing thing I ever heard. Neal Schon and co certainly struck pay dirt when they added Perry to Journey's line-up and a never ending stream of glory seemed to follow. Perry was so fucking good that the band has done nothing since but continue to replace him with the closest clones they can possibly find. Presumably so the casual Journey fan in the nosebleeds will not even notice it is not the man himself bellowing away.
I will never be as into a band like I was and still am into Kiss. Ace Frehley was my favorite briefly when I just thought Kiss looked like horny superheroes, but after actually listening to all of their albums countless times over the years, there is absolutely no denying that the Starchild Paul Stanley is the ringleader. I have tried singing in the shower and in the car to match Stanley's rock and roll preacher power and it is fucking impossible. Satan bless them Kiss tribute bands, I for one do not know how they do it where Paul is concerned. Live or on record, he demands and gets the vagina.
My buddy and fellow bandmate actually put it best when after ten seconds of the first Ray LaMontagne song I played him, he simply said "Yeah, I'm buying everything this guy ever did". A bastard child of Otis Redding and Joe Cocker if they played folk music, LaMontagne's voice is jawdropping. He seems to get that "Holy shit!" reaction from everyone I know who is hip to him. Four albums into his career, more glory I certainly hope is on the way.
The "Who is a better singer, Lennon or McCartney" conversation is one that I have had with every Beatles fan that I have met over the years and my answer has never changed. I love John Lennon, (who doesn't?), but I have to go with Paul as the superior vocalist. It is rather silly to compare the two since their voices could not be more different. Then again, they could not complement each other better either. Paul spent most of his early singing career simply trying to impersonate Little Richard and well there must be something to that. Everything has been said about McCartney's melodic sense, which really is second to absolutely no one, but he has remained incredibly tasteful behind the mic as well. For the record, he is my favorite bass player as well.
Speaking of the greatest person who ever lived, we arrive at the Purple One. When it comes to vocal range and acrobatics, Prince's abilities are as various as his musical tastes and eccentricities are. Prince sings all over the place and often within a single song. So with shit I dunno, THOUSANDS of songs in his repertoire, we have heard this man nail everything. Another god-like figure who commands respect, he can play anything, sing anything, do anything, fuck anything. The list goes on and on. (BTW, that is the greatest Prince picture you are ever going to see, sans this one).
My brother actually was the first person I knew to state the obvious which was that B.B. King was the greatest singer who ever lived. Well, damn near I guess. I have always loved B.B. growing up, (my mother is quite the keen blues fan), always loved his guitar playing, always loved "The Thrill Is Gone" and especially "How Blue Can You Get?", (the later of which contains the greatest line in any song ever). Yet it has only been in the last several years or so that I noticed just how ridiculously awesome this man sings. The blues has no finer presence behind the mic. In his prime, B.B. King pound for pound out sung EVERYBODY. Yes most of his songs sound the same. but shit it is the blues. In fact, B.B. King is the blues. Damn right son.
It really does pain me to have Jeff Buckley so low. That may sound silly but really, as we have all heard this guy by now, he really belongs at the very top of any vocalist ranking you can make. For unofficial purposes I will say he simply shares the number one spot here, but I digress. Jeff Buckley's dad Tim was a singer-songwriter who has maintained a nice cult following, yet his son simply blows the roof off the place. Jeff Buckley's voice is inhuman. Starting out as a killer guitar player, he later cut his chops slaving away at the New York City club Sin-e, singing almost every night after every night. By the time he dropped his one and only album released in his lifetime Grace, people were surely speechless. I know I certainly was when I heard it. Technically flawless and as virtuosic a vocalist as any singer-songwriter ever was, Buckley's is a chillingly beautiful voice that shall forever be very, very missed.
How does one out-praise Jeff Buckley? Well, I will give it a go right now. Queen has always been in my "big four" of favorite bands, along with The Beatles, Zeppelin, and Kiss and Freddie Mercury has been my favorite singer for the exact same amount of time. You can check his Wikipedia entry for details on just how incredible his range and delivery was. Freddie effortlessly soared through any fluctuation, any pitch, any style, any anything. I have always thought that the most impressive thing of all though was that his voice lost none of its power up until his final days. Made In Heaven, the first posthumous Freddie Mercury's death Queen album, is testament to that as the majority of it was recorded when Freddie could barely stand and was literally dying from AIDS. That is just insane. The man lived to sing and goddamn was it as awe-inspiring then as it remains today.
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