If it means “sold a shitload of records” or “got stuck in people’s heads permanently”, then Frankie Valli was disrespected big-time.*
There’s little that’s more pitiful than a bunch of performers and commentators and hangers-on sitting around deciding what is “important” in popular music.
Oh, and I’ve never understood why Sam Cooke made the pantheon of Great Pop Talents. Unless it’s part of the whole aura about Dying Young.
*“You…ooo…OOOOOOO…better ask your ma-a-ma.”
My definition of “great singer” only includes people who can sound amazing completely a capella, live, in a room with no microphones or processing. Which eliminates a good percentage of this whole list, but does include Kate Bush, K.D. Lang, Jane Siberry and Todd Rundgren. Any other standard allows too much studio trickery to be credible.
Well, soul music does pretty much start with him. Plus his songwriting is pretty much untouchable. Sam Cooke is my definition of what soulful pop music is all about.
Annie Lennox and Karen Carpenter down in the 90s? Below Mariah Carey? WTF? Carey has range, but no restraint and crap material. OK, Karen Carpenter had crap material too, but such a “pure” voice, for lack of a better word.
Lennon and Dylan in the Top 10? Great songwriters, sure, but singers?
Mick Jagger at #16: One of the greatest *frontmen *of the Rock Era? Absolutely. One of the greatest singers? Not so much. I’d knock him down, and help nudge Bowie up into the Top 20.
Once again Prince is hosed by a Rolling Stones “Greatest…” list. He did albums other than “Purple Rain,” you know, you people making these lists. Like, 30 other albums. He has a vocal range that rivals Mariah Carey’s (they both have a five octave range, if I’m not mistaken), and he actually knows how to use it.
Daltrey’s top 20, easy, and probably top 10. Listen to “Who’s Next”: it’s like a collection of short stories, each written - and sung - in a different voice. Few people could inhabit a song like Roger Daltrey and make it sound like somebody meant it.
And where the fuck is Ian Gillan, the finest pure rock singer of them all.
Rolling Stone is obsessed by Bob Dylan. You can argue with the list no matter how you rank them, and make arguments in any direction, but their boner for Dylan is getting sad. The Sixties are over, guys.
I admit I don’t have a problem with Aretha in the #1 position, though.
I have to agree. Bob was a good songwriter but his voice is horrid.
And Chris Cornell has an amazing voice. I’m not saying top ten maybe, but he should be in there somewhere.
Also…Sly Stone needs to be a bit higher, Freddie Mercury is in the top ten, and while I’m a Beatle devotee I think John Lennon and Paul McCartney need to be moved down.
Also…someone else with a powerful voice? Mike Patton.
Bob Dylan doesn’t have a great voice. But he does have a great rock and roll voice. He belongs just about where he is on that list. Why is that some insist rock was supposed to be pretty?
Tambourine Man is one of the best songs ever written, and it is well sung. But that is a fluke for Dylan singing. The man had a poor voice that has just become awful.
