Even with the recent surgery on his vocal chords, Roger’s best singing days are way behind him. If he picks his material wisely, he still has a few years left. (and sadly, there’s a sense among Who fans that he may be going on without Pete)
As for Jack Black’s sister-in-law, Petra’s acapella rendition of The Who Sell Out has always been a huge favorite of mine.
Neko Case and Paul McCartney win it for me as general voices. Two very different eras, but both incredibly powerful and versatile singers.
Jeff Buckley is close. He had the greatest falsetto in pop music history, and could alternate between gorgeous crooning and fist-in-the-air rock vocals with aplomb.
I love Thom Yorke and Colin Meloy as well, although they fall more under the category of “unique and emotive” voices that suit their particular style of music perfectly rather than being exceptionally gifted.
Some that spring to mind, with a perhaps idiosyncratic view of beautiful, perfect, and for that matter popular -
Luke Kelly
Linda Thompson
Hank Williams
Emmylou Harris
Merle Haggard
Robert Johnson
Rob Halford
Ronnie James Dio
Aaron Stainthorpe
Michael Akerfeldt
Bruce Springsteen
Tom Waits
That’ll do for now.
Maynard James Keenan. Might be stretching the definition of popular, which has limited my input so far, but I had to mention him.
This vid shows Mariah Careys five octave vocal range. I swear, she could let glass explode in het higher registers. That woman can *sing. * But perhaps that is more technical brilliance.
As for beautiful voices, Sinnead o Connor and Nina Hagen come to mind. Nina Hagen was an trained opera singer.
And I just love the voices of Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, especially together in this unearthily beautiful song.
One more: the female singer (i don’t know her name) who always sings with Damien Rice. If I could pick any voice as my own singing voice, it would be hers.
Dolly Parton, of course! :smack:
Thanks to those mentioning Karen Carpenter and Mamma Cass. They weren’t on my radar, and that was my loss.
How about Adele’s Rolling in the Deep? She’s big in Europe and UK now, has she reached the US yet?
And how could I forget Kate Bush? How?
KD Lang
Linda Ronstadt
edit: Beat me to it, furlibusea!
nm
Answering “Pop” rather than “Popular”, my vote is Emiliana Torrini. Also Bjork, just for Birthday (which has the best singing of all time, the subject matter, not so much.)
Two names from the '80s that haven’t been mentioned yet:
Annie Lennox
Boy George.
No such list compiled in Chicago would be complete without Bonnie Koloc.
Hugely popular but not in the West:
The mystery of the Bulgarian Voices
And agreed with Annie Lennox. And has someone mentioned Suzanne Vega yet?
Does Hayley Westenra count as “popular music”? I just sort of melt whenever I hear her.
I couldn’t believe we got that far down the list without her.
Anneke van Giersbergen. She’s already married, so I’d just be happy to be married to her voice. Sends chills down my spine whenever she sings.
the always forgotten - Andy Bell of Erasure
Lady Gaga acoustically, when she’s just singing and playing the piano. But she fucks around a lot with synths and voice modding in her mainstream stuff, so most people don’t see it unless they seek out her older live performances.