Thinking of this thread on the drive home tonight I was wondering which Beatles tune might qualify. I’m more a Lennon fan than a McCartney fan, but Paul really sings his heart out on “Oh Darling.”
Yeah, I know it ain’t Pavarotti, but it’s pretty impressive.
Hey, listen to “This Boy.” Wow. These guys were great.
I know this goes in the opposite direction as most of the other posts here, but when I think of great vocals, I think of Burton Cummings. Specifically, Star Baby.
Ms. Sutherland was pretty freakin’ awesome, I can’t argue.
I’m a baritone, and just good enough to be able to appreciate how phenomenal these performances are - how difficult, how exhausting it is to produce these sounds just standing still. Add in having to act and move around the stage, and it is completely mind-boggling.
I ran across this recording of Diana Damrau singing the “Queen of the Night” aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute. Not necessarily a favorite performance, but a truly brilliant one - she is clearly pushing the upper limits not only of her voice, but of the human voice in general, while at the same time singing with fantastic precision. Remarkable.
Wow. That is magnificent. I’ve heard a lot of good Queens of the Night, but I don’t think I’ve seen it performed that often, and her acting was right up there with her singing.
In spite of the great singing and acting, though, I couldn’t get away from this thought: what a great drag outfit that would make! Talk about your queens of the night!
Roddy
wipes keyboard
Marvin Gaye - Heard it Through the Grapevine
Aretha Franklin - do I have to pick? Natural Woman? Rock Steady? Till You Come Back to Me? This is the House that Jack Built?
They move me.
Ha! The first thing that popped into my head was a Frank Sinatra recording – “Prisoner of Love” off of the album Sinatra & Strings.
It may not be my favorite vocal performance, ever, across the board (I don’t know what is), but it is my favorite Sinatra performance, hands down. He put his soul into that song.
For sheer emotional impact, it would have to, for me, be one of these three:
Jennifer Holliday - “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”
Kate Bush - “This Woman’s Work”
Johnny Cash - “Hurt”
But probably the single greatest vocal performance I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing, based on pure vocal prowess and technique, is Steve Marriott’s in Humble Pie’s “Black Coffee”.
In the blues realm:
Ruby Wilson (The Queen of Beale Street) singing almost anything, but A Song For You (scroll down to #3) and A Change is Gonna Come really show what she is capable of.
Nina Simone singing Feeling Good.
Cactus Cuties singing the Star-Spangled Banner.
I dare 5 other people to sing any country’s anthem better…I double dare ya!
My pick, too. My favorite was when she filled in last minute for Pavarotti on some awards show (Grammies?) and sang the living crap out of Nessun Dorma. Don’t know if opera buffs approved, but I loved it.
Also, Patty Griffin’s Up to the Mountain, k.d.lang’s live performance of Hallelujah, Stevie Winwood’s Pearly Queen, Leon Russell’s Song to You and Merry Clayton’s bit in Gimme Shelter.
Torch songs:
All The Way, done by Jimmy Scott.
With a little time I might think of something different, but the first thing I thought of was this spontaneous rendition of “Come And Go Blues”.