Well, I’ve been thinking about it for a mighty long time now and I’ve gone through a lot of soul searching and I’ve finally determined who the 2 best voices ever belong to.
*Male: Sam Cooke
Female: Dinah Washington*
I’m sure you have your own opinion but before you post your choice go to your record collection, your father’s record collection, the internet, or whatever you can, and listen to a tune by each of them. I’m sure you cannot disagree. Especially Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers singing gospel. I swear the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when he takes a solo.
Natalie from the dixie chicks- very powerful and effortless, and she does it with country music.
can’t stand their music but gotta give them props:
Whitney Houston
Christina Aguilera
stupid canadian what’s her name, the skinny one.
this is like a whole category of "yeah you got a great voice and all, but so what?
Classic:
Mel Torme
Aretha
I think once you get above a certain level of skill, you have to call it a tie between everyone in that upper tier.
I gotta go with Otis Redding and Patsy Cline.
A new female voice I’ve discovered in only the past couple of years is Eva Cassidy. She’s has a fantastic voice. Unfortunately, it’s been silenced; She passed away from cancer 4 or 5 years ago while only in her early 30’s.
Sam Cooke is a good choice, as is Aretha.
I’d be interested in hearing non-western popular responses to this as well.
Okay people, pay attention now, because I don’t like to repeat myself. The OP instructed you all to *listen to a song by *Sam Cooke and Dinah Washington before posting. How many of you did just that? A show of hands please. Mm-huh! Just what I thought. Nobody.
Some excellent contenders though. Aretha, Otis, and Patsy. Agreed- they’re all good and sing with soul power. But the voice, man, the voice!
Cornflakes: You got me on a technicality. The implication was singers. Sorry it was not made clear. However you did give me a good chuckle imagining Hepburn singing “Since I Fell For You”
JK1245: Never heard Eva Cassidy. I’ll definitely look for her though. Like Sam and Otis, the good die young.
For the rest of you. Do your homework!
Male vice: obviously the young Elvis at his creative and performing peak. How much testosterone can flood through one voice?
Female voice: Dinah Washington? Go do some homework. The greatest female singing voice in the world belongs to Linda Eder. You’ve never heard of her? Do some searching, and enlightenment will be your reward. She can hit notes purer than the Pope’s dreams and hold them for a week. She finds the emotion in every lyric and nails it every time. She has dynamic range that few can match, and she can do every mood from torch song to ‘funny’, show tunes to rock ballads. There is no-one to touch her, and if this here forum is all about fighting ignorance, then prompting you all to discover this incredible singer for yourselves is a step in the right direction.
Interesting that you include a tom waits quote, cause if that guy could write decent lyrics, he’d be a sure fire contender in this competition:D
But seriously, by what criteria?
Technical merit? Bobby mc ferrin (don’t worry, be happy) can sing in like 8 octaves, incredible range. I’d hardly call him one of our generation’s greats though.
Artistic expression?
Aretha for sure,
I always thought David Lee roth was underrated, but i was drinking alot in my van halen loving days.
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. This is a man who wanted to be the next Caruso growing up. Not quite a “pure” voice, but the things that man could do when singing. Listen to his versions of “Orange Colored Sky”, “Darling, Please Forgive Me”, “Take Me Back To My Boots And Saddle”, and “I Love Paris”. There is a magnificent voice in with all the shouting & carrying on.
Female: Ella Fitzgerald (Aretha is docked for inadvertantly inspiring the current generation of wobbly-voiced divas, none of whom could find the melody with a searchlight.)
