I was listening to a mix CD – “Pretty Songs” – on my way to work this morning. Janis Joplin came on (Trust Me), and I thought, “Damn, she had a great freakin’ voice.”
Then a little later, Marvin Gaye came on (Piece of Clay), and I thought, “Damn, he had a great freakin’ voice.”
And surprise, surprise, when Eva Cassidy (Songbird) came on, I thought … well, you get the idea.
Of the three, I think I’d pick Marvin Gaye (who had not only the abovementioned Piece of Clay but Heard It Through the Grapevine, Pride and Joy, and What’s Going On in its entirety).
Just too tough to decide one, so I’ll toss out a few, and the reason I’d choose them:
Freddie Mercury. His voice wasn’t the greatest, but his presence, even on a studio album, is mammoth. He owned everything he sang like nobody else could. Powerful and piercing and pure effin’ ROCK.
Ella Fitzgerald. Her voice WAS the greatest. Effortless. And an amazing range. She could be sultry one song, playful the next, heartbreakingly mournful the next. She could sing the ingredients list off a box of cereal and it’d sell out the club.
Bill Monroe. Okay, he’s nowhere near my favorite dead singer; really, he just can’t sing very well at all. But for dead musician, the man is a god. He really helped bring bluegrass down from the hills and into the mainstream. Not only is he an obvious influence on any bluegrass, folk, or country musician, but he is a model for any musician who wants to be a virtuoso at his instrument. Mon played that mandolin like it was a piece of him. Oh, and many songs he’s writen have gone on to be standards that will be played 500 years from now.
Jim Morrison, no doubt about it. Not only a wonderfully hypnotic voice pitched just where I like it best, but a poet and a dreamer and a sexy, sexy man. He was a priest, was Mr. Mojo Rising, not merely an entertainer. Too bad about the drug addiction, alcoholism and death thing.
And, by many reports, the “being a complete dick” thing…
One of the few artists whose non-musical behavior makes it very very hard for me to get into the music. But man what a voice and stage presence when he wanted to deliver…
In 1971, Robert Plant invited Sandy to duet with him on Led Zeppelin’s fourth album on the song “The Battle of Evermore”, thus earning her the accolade of being the only guest vocalist ever to feature on a Zeppelin album. Sandy was voted twice as Britain’s best female singer by "Melody Maker’’, in 1971 and 1972.
Lovely voice cut way too short.
While he didn’t have the prettiest voice in the world, it was certainly one of the most unique, and he sang like a man possessed. He gives me goosebumps. I miss Bon Scott.
Male: Chick Bullock, a 1930s radio and recording singer who refused to perform in public or even have his picture taken due to an eye disfigurement. Nevertheless, he had a big, happy, easy voice.
Female: Greta Keller, a Viennese Dietrich, only sweeter and prettier. She was a lesbian who married a gay so they could be one another’s cover story in 40s Hollywood, but he was killed by another man.
