He’s not a singer, but I lunge for the dial whenever Peter Sagal comes on public radio. I absolutely cannot stand his smarmy voice, mugging for a laugh.
I’m not a big fan of Bruce “Mumbly Joe” Springsteen’s voice.
Nor I. He sounds like he has a speech impediment.
I’d rather chew aluminum foil than listen to Michael Stipe.
(Snip)
Years ago, I interviewed a record producer who said exactly that. First time Id ever heard the aphorism “You can’t polish a turd”.
Add me to the list of those who can’t stand Neil Young.
According to Rick Beato, Lenny Kravitz relies heavily on Autotune …
and you can tell, his voice has that “50% human, 50% vocoder/synth.” texture when you listen to it …
It’s his lyrics which bug me, tho after being at his most incoherent on Murmur he got a bit better. Try to figure these out:
We ankled up the garbage sound, but they were busy in the rows
Scratch the scandals in the twilight
She was laughing like a Horae
Put that knee into our landslide
Take the steps to dash a roving eye
Got to punch, right on target
Twisting tongue, got a stripe
Down your back, all nine yards
Down her back
Aluminum? I heard it tastes like fear.
roving eye…
So much more attractive, inside the moral kiosk…
Down her back…
La la la la la la conversation fear!
I know he has a wonderful voice, but Steve Perry? Ack! It just grates on me.
For “weird vibrato that just drives me up the wall”, I have to nominate Phoebe Snow. Her vibrato has such a slow oscillation… I always have this urge to say to her “Hey, why are you doing that? Just sing! Pick a note and stay on it, willya?”
Sadly, Janis Joplin barely made it into the '70s, so she’s barely '70s classic rock. But you must know that if the classic rock stations played her, it would always be Me & Bobby McGee.
I’ve always liked Big Brother and The Holding Company, and I’ve read that towards the time when Janis left, they were getting widely slammed for poor chops and just generally being not good enough. They sound fine to me on numbers like Take Another Piece Of My Heart, though. Maybe their work in the last year or so slipped due to chemical and other factors? I don’t know.
The first one off the top of my head: that guy in Supertramp. They did some fine songs, but that high, high voice just grates on me after awhile.
I know it’s practically an article of faith in some circles that Carole King is a musical deity. Quite good songwriter, IMO, but I loathe her singing voice. I’m not sure how to describe the objectionable element, but it grates on my eardrums.
Whenever we have threads like this, I’m always amused that people complain about Geddy Lee of Rush but nobody ever complains about singers like Roger Hodgson of Supertramp or Jon Anderson of Yes who are just as high-pitched and shrill. So thanks for that. 
(Personally, I have no problem with any of them.)
They were not real tight on that song, but it’s what I’d call “sloppy good.” Passionate, a solid groove. It works!
The one that makes me reach for the dial at lightspeed is ‘Zombie’ by the Cranberries.
Dolores O’Riordan COULD sing perfectly well, but the hideous little vocal hiccup thing she did on that song is just… ugh. How any producer let them get away with that is beyond me…?
Two posts above yours:
That’s what I was responding to. It was good to see someone mention another high pitched rock singer other than Geddy Lee.
Ah, I misunderstood. Mea culpa. Apologies for the snark.