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Pavoroti (sp)
Early Frank Sinatra
You’re dating yourself, Eve…:)…I’d agree with Crosby, in so far as you mean the early, high-baritone, two-tone-shoes Crosby, not the later, bass-baritone, pipe and slippers Crosby. Being a str8 d00d, I have no dog in the “sexy” race, but one of the most handsome and virile voices ever must have been that of Dick Haymes. And, for sheer feeling and musicianship, it would be hard to top Al Bowlly.
Leonard Cohen, hands down. IMO, no one else even comes close.
No, they sound nothing alike. I think Adam is an interesting singer and I like his current single, but for me, he will forever be in the shadow of his father. I bet he wishes he got some of that Leonard voice, mmm.
Oh my yes. Lots of others, too, but give me Josh Groban and leave the room;)
(bisexual guy, for anyone keeping that informal poll)
I second this - his voice was (IMO) both beautiful and sexy.
My all time favourite for the beautiful category is Mandy Patinkin. I own all of his albums and he can make me weep (he also has a pretty decent range) with certain songs.
For straight sexy: Peter Gabriel. I don’t know what it is about him, but he does it for me. Chris Isaak is also very good, but for some reason I don’t own a single album by him.
Hetero female
I think Frankie is way overrated.
I’ll third Josh Groban for most beautiful voice.
For sexy I’ll throw in Damien Rice, his voice is not perfect but it’s real and passionate - you can feel what he’s singing about - that makes it sexy to me.
Ian McCulloch (Echo and the Bunnymen.)
In fact, his voice transforms a band with otherwise mediocre music and spotty lyrics (sometimes excellent, sometimes cheesy,) into a very listenable group.
He’s right up there with Emiliana Torrini and Bjork in the list of people who could sing a phone book and I’d still listen. Altho in the case of the two females, I seriously might faint if I actually heard them in concert.
Other singers can do great things with their voice, such as the aforementioned Gilmour, and Ian’s contemporary Richard Butler of Psychedelic Furs et al., but they don’t have as inherently beautiful a voice (whether that inherence is trained or natural, if you follow me.)
There are a few singers that don’t necessarily have the greatest voices, but they have that sexy, scratchy, slightly-hoarse sound that really gets me going. For example, Jim Morrison and Brad Nowell of Sublime. Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) also falls in this category. Or maybe I just have a thing for tragic drug abusers.
Others:
John Popper
Robbie Williams
Harry Connick Jr.
Josh Groban
Michael Crawford
Duncan Sheik
Peter Gabriel
I have odd tastes, though.
Hetero female.
Listen to John Mayer sing Daughters. Wish I sang like that.
It’s funny that so many of you have mentioned Freddie Mercury, as I’ve often said IRL that I think his talent has been woefully underrated. Maybe I’m wrong and he is properly rated after all!
But although Mercury was one of the truly great rock vocalists of all time, and one of the few who I think could have made it as a “serious” (as opposed to “popular”) singer, I personally wouldn’t say he has a sexy voice. YMMV. I must give that crown to Eddie Vedder…which I believe dates me even more clearly, if a bit more recently, than Eve’s choices. 
A lot of vocalists I’d consider for runner up have already been mentioned, but I’d like to second Peter Murphy as beautiful/sexy, Nick Cave as sexy, and Iggy Pop as…scary/sexy. A friend of mine once described him “the one who sounds like the Devil”.
I’ll be pretty much repeating my nominations from the last thread that was similar to this, but here goes:
Sexiest: Jarvis Cocker of Pulp. I feel dirty just thinking about his voice. No competition, but first runner up would be Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand.
Beautiful: Jason Molina of Songs:Ohia/Magnolia Electric Company - sad, tremulous. Dean Wareham - can be either eerie and wistful [Galaxie 500] or cool and laidback [Luna]. Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields - dry, deep and miserable. Lou Barlow - thoughtful. Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel - expressive.
Of course, these don’t even cover many of my favorite male singers, as we don’t have a category for “Friggin Awesome.” These would be people like David Lowery (Camper Van Beethoven), Britt Daniel (Spoon), Calvin Johnson and Elvis Costello.
For Christmas, I’ve been showering my mom with musical CDs. She has, I think, a beautiful voice and a very discerning ear, but she’s let herself get out of the loop (as far as “what’s out there”) lately.
She had heard the MOST (as she put it) beautiful male voice singing “O Holy Night” on the radio the other day, and she didn’t know the singer’s name. It was tormenting her, and she kept on talking about it. I helped her find the singer (we’re pretty sure) by scouring through all the versions of the song available at the iTunes music store. Verdict: Josh Groban. She is entranced with his voice.
I also played her some samples of Andrea Bocelli, and she was entranced with him too—but wanted to hear something that she understood.
As for my vote for most beautiful male voice, I’d say Groban, Bocelli, and an honorable mention to Hakan Hagagard. Sexiest voice—hm—I don’t know, maybe Robbie Robertson, but he’s got basically only one song that I know him by (Somewhere Down the Crazy River). But he’s great in that.
Nick Cave or Tom Waits.
According to my mum, Nick Cave makes brutal murder sound sexy.
Nick Rivers, of course.
(Shop at Macy’s)
'Scuse me? I had almost thought about including Ian, but I don’t think their music is otherwise mediocre. They have a great guitarist and rhythm section. I agree with you about the lyrics though.
I’ve heard Richard Butler’s voice described as John Lydon’s without the sneer. That sounds accurate to me.
I’ll have to agree with those who said Tom Waits, but only sometimes. His voice is often very ugly (and I love it that way), but it also is beautiful in songs like Alice, Hold On, and Downtown Train.
How silly can you get? (Actually, his voice is surprisingly good in that movie.)
My votes (gay male here):
Eddie Nichols from Royal Crown Revue
Frank Sinatra
Tony Bennett
Liam O’Maonlai from Hothouse Flowers
Dave Matthews (yeah, I said it!)
Marvin Gaye
Van Morrison
Oh man, how could I forget Bowie? He’s at the top of my list. I get a little hot and bothered just thinking about him.
I would have mentioned him too, but I didn’t know his name. You perfectly described his sound too. It’s just wonderful.
Another vote from a straight male for Jeff Buckley
Nothing comes even close to the magic from this guy.
It is a damn shame that he was lost so young in his life.
Israel’s Dudu Fisher has long been my choice. His voice is so good it’s unbelievable. A straight male preacher I played a CD for described it as “liquid butter.”
Fisher played Jean Valjean in London & New York, and they created a Hebrew version of the show for him. When you meet anyone from Israel, ask them if they’ve heard of Dudu Fisher. They will be amazed that you know of him.