[Music] Rolling Stone 200 best singers of all time

[Lenny Rider]

The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time

Best Singers. Beyonce, Prince, Adele, Bob Dylan, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey

www.rollingstone.com

Clearly open to debate, especially amongst the music lovers of NSC, 15 years ago they published the Top 100 singers, Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Elvis were all in the Top 10, 2023's version and Mariah Carey is at number 5 and the aforementioned 3 music legends are out of the Top Ten.

Music can't have changed that much in 15 years?

 

[Muhammad - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

Opinions and all that, but Ronnie James Dio isn't even in the top hundred.
He's in the top ONE as far as I'm concerned

 

[Stato]

Opinions and all that, but Ronnie James Dio isn't even in the top hundred.
He's in the top ONE as far as I'm concerned

Wasn't even the best singer in Rainbow, nor the best singer in Black Sabbath. I'll accept that he was probably the best singer in Dio.

 

[Muhammad - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

Wasn't even the best singer in Rainbow, nor the best singer in Black Sabbath. I'll accept that he was probably the best singer in Dio.

Like I said, opinions...

Bruce Dickenson, David Coverdale both missing too

 

[Hotchilidog]

Wasn't even the best singer in Rainbow, nor the best singer in Black Sabbath. I'll accept that he was probably the best singer in Dio.

What? Crazy talk

 

[Questions]

So no Clair Grogan then ?

 

[Muhammad - I’m hard - Bruce Lee]

What? Crazy talk

He upgraded every single band he sang in IMHO

 

[Stato]

My daughter took me through this list last week and it seems a lot more effort has been made to include singers from different countries, genres and languages than in most comparable lists. The top end of the list is very soul heavy and I have no problem with that. A lot of the most spectacular voices come from that genre.

We all have our pet peeves (Billie Holliday's voice can be touching, but on a lot of recordings, it's just a bit shoddy. There are far better jazz singers who just don't have her tragic back story) and there are some silly mistakes. (Brian Wilson is a musical genius and he knew that Carl was his best singer. Don't argue with him), but overall this is a more interesting list than these usually are. There are some foreign language singers that I don't know and I'll be investigating them, which is more than I usually get from this kind of pointless preference stating.

For me the one remarkable omission is Lydon. I'm not even a huge fan of either the Pistols or PIL, but his voice is a unique instrument and he brought something very influential to pop vocals that nobody seemed to have done before. There are quite a few vocalists on the list who wouldn't sing the way they do if it wasn't for John Lydon.

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

I don’t suppose any of my favourites are on that list, Russell Mael (Sparks) probably puts on the best show I’ve ever heard and when Jim Morrison sings songs like The Crystal Ship for example, he’ll put Sinatra to shame.
My other favourite singers probably can’t even sing, I just like their style as it pleases my ears, this includes
Tim Burgess
Simon Rowbottom - Boo Radleys
Conor Deasy - The Thrills
Oli Judge - Squid
and the one from The Magic Numbers, I think he’s called Romeo Stoddart.

 

[Stato]

Like I said, opinions...

Bruce Dickenson, David Coverdale both missing too

I reckon I might be alone in thinking that Iron Maiden went downhill after they sacked Paul Di'Anno.

As you say, opinions.

 

[Pevenseagull]

No Tim Buckley, no Elisabeth Fraser, no Scott Walker.

It's a no for me.

 

[KZNSeagull]

2 of the best (Elizabeth Fraser and Harriet Wheeler) are not even in the list so they can do one. Cindy Alter should be in there too.

 

[Stato]

No Tim Buckley, no Elisabeth Fraser, no Scott Walker.

It's a no for me.

The mention of Tim Buckley reminds me of Jimmy Carr's line 'I don't much about American football, but I'm told that Peyton Manning is one of the top three quarterbacks.... In his family.' Tim had a lovely voice and personally I prefer it to Jeff's, but they were only going to pick one and the wider audience is usually going to go for the fireworks.

Liz Fraser would have been in if the list was produced by British rather than American journos. I'd say the same for Robert Wyatt and for June Tabor. Scott Walker's not in there, but then neither is his hero Jacques Brel. Nor is Edith Piaf. Although they have made more of an effort to include singers from other traditions, there is still a inevitable bias towards their own country's singers. Very few other places in the world would be including the likes of Bob Seger.

I know I shouldn't, but it's like a red rag to a bull and I have to say it again: Star power doesn't equal singing talent - Diana F'ng Ross in the top 100 singers in the world?! She'd struggle to make the top five in a list of best singers who've been in the Supremes.

 

[jakarta]

Only looked at the first 100, almost all Yanks who I haven't heard of.

Roy Orbison should quite clearly should be no.1...

BTW is this the finest Supergroup ever?

 

[Live by the sea]

Of singers in the last 50 years , Whitney , Mariah , Streisand & George Michael spring to mind as the exceptional voices . I may have missed some others but these singers spring to mind ,

 

[A1X]

Of singers in the last 50 years , Whitney , Mariah , Streisand & George Michael spring to mind as the exceptional voices . I may have missed some others but these singers spring to mind ,

Think Christina Aguilera deserves a mention too

 

[The Clamp]

These lists are interesting and undoubtedly include some fantastically talented performers but it’s all a matter of taste. So they are effectively, a waste of time.

 

[METALMICKY]

In no particular order but I'd like to think fairly diverse my top 5:

Bruce Dickinson
Ronnie James Dio
Chester Bennington
Dolores O' Riordan
Nat King Cole

In any such assessment you need to make the distinction between pure singing ability and the ability to hold and work an audience. On that score Freddie Mercury ticks both boxes big time.

 

[Pavilionaire]

1. So all of the Top 11 are all black/bi-racial and predominantly soul singers. Really?
2. Neither Elvis or Sinatra in the Top 10 - again, really?
3. Robert Plant only at No. 63? Shocking.

 

[Stato]

Only looked at the first 100, almost all Yanks who I haven't heard of.

Roy Orbison should quite clearly should be no.1...

BTW is this the the finest Supergroup ever?

I would definitely have Roy a lot higher up my list. He'd probably be the top white singer, but I think that they got the number one spot on. She nicked 'I Say A Little Prayer' from Dionne Warwick, she had poor Dusty regretting all the choices she made when she recorded 'Son of a Preacher Man' and, as mentioned in the article, in 1998 when asked at a moment's notice if she could sub for a sore-throated Pavarotti at the Grammy awards, a woman with no formal vocal training just said 'of course' and went on and did this:



Much as I love Roy and Sam Cooke and many many others on and off that list, in terms of power, restraint, sweetness, choices, feel, whatever you might want to measure, she just stood alone.