Greatest Vocalists
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1)
Gladys Knight
“The First Lady Of Soul”
“There are some controvercial artists in the top 10, but Shirley Bassey isn’t one of them. Bassey’s vocal abilities are extraordinarily exceptional, and they still are after more than a half of a century! Everything else gets down to ones personal taste in music.”
“The Greatest POP Vocalist of All Time!”
“Shirley Bassey is first on this list when it comes to Vocal Ability. All those ranked higher are entertainers who are very popular for various reasons, and many reasons are given, but technical vocal ability is not one of them.”
read more comments on Shirley Bassey
“No one is like MJ! The most talanted!”
“the greatest vocals , he makes this great unique singing voice of his looks effortless , so you just enjoy listening to his words.”
“he is the greatest singer with great golden vocals. not just a performer he knows how to sing”
read more comments on Michael Jackson
4)
Vitas
“Vitas has the most incredible voice EVER. He can sing anything from folk to rock, pop, ballads and opera. And excels in all! His range and clarity are unbelievable.”
“The spectacular Russian singer!”
“Absolutely the best. Always.”
“Trully the king of all vocalists. RIP Freddie.”
“by far the greatest vocalist of all time”
“Vocal range, power and adaptability. He sang sweet lifting ballads and energized rock n roll. No one with, the possible exception of Elvis, has ever come close.”
read more comments on Freddie Mercury
6)
K.D. Lang
listen to sample of K. S. Chithra
8)
Johnny Mathis
9)
Edith Piaf
“I like the heavy metal but this lady is the greatest vocalist of all times”
10)
Elvis Presley
“Tom Jones is a great power vocalist, Tony Bennett has range and smoothness as does Engelbert Humperdinck BUT Elvis possesses something special in his voice, a purity, honesty and it’s as if God sings through him and that’s why he was called The King.”
“He sells more now than then.”
11)
Karen Carpenter
“There never has been a sweeter voice and may never be another even close.”
“the most beautiful, velvety, soothing voice ever”
12)
Tom Jones
13)
Ella Fitzgerald
14)
Diamanda Galas
15)
Tim Buckley
16)
Captain Beefheart
17)
Celine Dion
“I have seen many of the performers on this list and no one comes close to Celine Dion’s Talent!”
18)
Paul McCartney
“
He did a lot of great diverse music including a lot of great rockers even some hard rock in the early-mid 1970’s before and during early Wings which I think is his best post Beatles music period 1970-1975(the great 1975 Wings rock album Venus and Mars I think is last true great album)and he wrote and
played a lot of great obscure album tracks and B-sides many which were better than the well known hits,although I like the hits too.
Beware My Love is a great less known heavy Paul rocker and it’s the best song on the 1976 Wings At The Speed Of Sound album,Wings performed a pretty good rocking version on the very good live rock Wings album,Wings Over America.
And John also wrote in addition to
a lot of great rockers,some very sentimental songs even a few mushy did you ever hear his song for Yoko on his Mind Games album?As The All Music Guide rightfully says and points out,that the critical party line often champions Lennon as the angry realist rocker and McCartney as the melodic balladeer but they say this is a fallacy:each of them was capable in roughly equal measures of ballsy all-out rock and sweet romanticism.
There are many Beatles song examples of this too,Paul even wrote some of their earliest very good rockers,I Saw Her Standing There in 1963 which many people have said is a very good rocker,I’m Down which the all music guide calls a peerless and one of the most frantic rockers in their entire catalog,and they said The Beatles proved that they could rock really really hard with this song,John’s I Feel Fine and Paul’s late 1964 blues rocker,She’s A Woman which they said was one of the hardest rocking early Beatles orginals and they said McCartney to often unfairly pegged as a sweet balladeer demonstrates that he was also one of the best white rock hard singers of all time with his shrill yet rich even ballsy vocal.
He also wrote a lot of very good rock songs in their later career as did John but he also wrote quite a few beautiful love songs as well.”
“ye, ye, ye, the wonderful composer with the heart warming voice in singing... one of the era’s best singer vocalist
”
“HOLY CRAP, he is amazing! Why the hell is he at number 41?”
19)
Frank Sinatra
“the greatest and most suave man to ever sing
”
“Just a perfect vocalist. Phrasing, timing, pitch. He is the gold standard.”
“frank sinatra is the king of music”
20)
Nico
21)
Jeff Buckley
22)
Donna Summer
“she can sing everything!”
“Greatest voice ever... you can tell her voice apart from the rest even now at 62 years old!
”
23)
Connie Francis
24)
Mark Stewart (The Pop Group)
25)
Patti Smith
26)
Nick Cave
27)
Dinah Washington
28)
Engelbert Humperdink
29)
Tom Waits
30)
Jim Morrison
“Sorry Tim Buckley - Jim has the edge.”
31)
Luciano Pavaratti
32)
Linda Eder
33)
Barbra Streisand
“THE GREATEST... shes look like a SONGBIRD... THE LIVING LEGEND...”
34)
Judy Garland
35)
Roy Orbison
36)
Marvin Gaye
37)
Joan Baez
38)
Nat King Cole
39)
Patsy Cline
40)
Mahalia Jackson
41)
Aretha Franklin
42)
Linda Ronstadt
43)
Patti LaBelle
44)
John Lennon
“As The All Music Guide says as singers John Lennon and Paul MCCartney were among the best and most expressive in rock. John had such a beautiful unique voice and a strong great singing voice, he and Paul could sing rock songs and love songs great! Just listen to John’s beautiful singing on This Boy especially the middle parts, and If I Fell, I’ll Be Back, etc and his great rock vocal on Twist and Shout which he sang and recorded in only 1 take with a very bad cold and bad sore throat, and his rock vocals on Money and Rock and Roll Music Reveloution, etc etc are also great!”
listen to sample of John Lennon
45)
David Thomas (Pere Ubu)
46)
Glen Campbell
47)
Dionne Warwick
48)
Tina Turner
49)
Ray Charles
50)
Vikki Carr
51)
Nana Mouskouri
52)
Glenn Hughes
53)
Hayley Westenra
listen to sample of Hayley Westenra
54)
Maria Callas
55)
Stevie Wonder
56)
Brian Wilson
57)
Dusty Springfield
58)
Tony Bennett
59)
Judy Collins
listen to sample of Judy Collins
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