Top Male Vocalists -- Pre-Poll follow-up

Judging from some of the comments (including my own) at Top 200 Male Vocalists which was started yesterday by Cicero and which has received 32 replies as I post this, the source list of singers isn’t what most at SDMB would have chosen.

Rather than insert this in the ongoing thread, I thought the topic ought to be developed by individual choices followed by a poll of some sort. It might require more than one category since the majority of names in the other list are Rock vocalists.

If this notion is something you are interested in as an alternative to commenting further about what’s wrong with that other list, here are some ways to help develop names for an SDMB poll:

  1. without regard for musical category, list your Top Ten Male Vocalists
  2. using some genre categorizing, list your Top Five by genre
  3. something else that allows your favorite male singers to be added to some sort of poll listing

Other options for how to get a meaningfule list to vote on would be helpful.

My apologies to Cicero for responding in this way to his thread.

In their prime, in no order:

  1. Sinatra
  2. Elvis
  3. Phillip Bailey
  4. Dean Martin
  5. Freddie Mercury
  6. Steve Perry
  7. Teddy Pendergrass
  8. Johnny Mathis
  9. Prince
  10. Barry White
  1. John Lennon
  2. Smokey Robinson
  3. Otis Redding
  4. Freddie Mercury
  5. Sam Cooke
  6. Prince
  7. Stevie Wonder
  8. Joe Strummer
  9. Paul Heaton
  10. Brian Wilson
  1. Marvin Gaye
  2. Smokey Robinson
  3. Philip Bailey
  4. Prince
  5. Gino Vannelli (Seriously - check him out singing opera)
  6. Steve Perry
  7. Daryl Hall
  8. Freddie Mercury
  9. George Michael
  10. Chris Isaak

My criteria was rock, pop, blues, soul catch-all.

Alphabetically:

Tony Bennett
Nat “King” Cole
Bing Crosby
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Josh Groban
Dean Martin
Johnny Mathis
Mandy Patinkin
Frank Sinatra
James Taylor

Honorary mention:
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Mel Tormé

The top three are the top three, but after that they’re pretty much at random.

  1. Bobby Darin
  2. Nat King Cole
  3. Jackie Wilson
  4. Dr. John
  5. Phil Alvin
  6. John Pizzarelli
  7. Don Everly
  8. Lyle Lovett
  9. Van Morrison
  10. Howard Keel

Well, mine is pretty idiosyncratic and personal:

Billy Murray
Dan W. Quinn
Dean Martin
Frank Crumit
Al Bowlly
Jack Norworth
Cliff Edwards
Billy Joel
Bing Crosby
Cab Calloway

1 Elvis Presley
2 Daryl Hall
3 Steve Perry
4 Smokey Robinson
5 Levi Stubbs
6 Lionel Richie
7 Freddie Mercury
8 Prince
9 Marvin Gaye
10 Burton Cummings

I may have a slight bias towards the Motown sound…

  1. Justin Hayward (Moody Blues)
  2. Roy Orbison
  3. John Lennon
  4. Ian Gillan (Deep Purple)
  5. Art Garfunkel
  6. Luke Kelly (Dubliners)
  7. Roger Daltrey (the Who)
  8. Greg Lake (King Crimson, ELP)
  9. Liam Clancy (The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem)
  10. Ronnie James Dio (Rainbow, Black Sabbath)
  1. Paul Rodgers
  2. Steve Perry
  3. Ronnie James Dio
  4. Bruce Dickinson
  5. Rob Halford
  6. Mickey Thomas
  7. Jeff Pezzati
  8. Frank Sinatra
  9. Elvis
  10. Little Richard

How could I have forgotten John Raitt? (yup, Bonnie’s dad)

Thanks for the names submitted so far, but it seems a little early to be thinking a poll is in order. We ought to have a better sampling of the SDMB’s choices before asking for votes.

Josh Groban x 5

I am amazed he doesn’t make more “Top 100” lists and the like. Burton’s voice is one of the great all-time instruments in pop / rock. (I saw him this month at the Keswick in Glenside–what a great show.)