Rolling Stone recently ranked its 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. The list is packed with legendary artists, plus features a handful of celebrity columnists gushing over their fave crooners (Billy Joel on Ray Charles: “He was the minister and I was the congregation”). As with any all-time-greatest list, it’s also riddled with questionable choices and glaring omissions – at least that’s how I see it. With help from Rhapsody Pop Editor Rachel Devitt, I’ve compiled 10 artists who could and should be included in any serious conversation about great singers. Some are obvious, many obscure and a few will have you muttering, “What the … ?”
Have a read as we stoke further controversy!
James Carr
We can’t dis Jann Wenner and company for lack of soul. Half of their top 20 hail from said genre. However, ask just about any soul fanatic for a list of his top singers and chances are the little known James Carr ranks higher than Rolling Stone-sanctioned icons like Stevie Wonder and Otis Redding. Sure, he didn’t “move units,” but there’s nothing quite like the man’s deep and all-too-wounded baritone.
Wanda Jackson
Country, R&B, rock 'n' roll -- Wanda Jackson could (and honey, she still can) do it all. And all right, they weren’t always all that different in her heyday, but Jackson treated each genre she mastered with a dexterous versatility, crooning like a cowboy’s sweetheart one minute, growling her way through bad girl shack-shakers the next and generally giving Elvis and the rest of the early rock boys’ club a run for their money.
Rob Halford/Judas Priest
Rolling Stone treats heavy metal like a red-headed stepchild. That’s why Robert Plant (who is more of a hippie on HGH) is the genre’s only representative on this list. But how can any talk of the rock era’s greatest singers not include Rob Halford of Judas Priest? It’s not as if the dude is some caveman howler; he’s an extremely nuanced frontman who defined the metal-as-opera aesthetic. I’d like to hear Bono (no. 32) try and sing “Painkiller.”
Shirley Bassey
Whither the divas, Rolling Stone? I don’t know how it’s possible to make a list of greatest singers that includes so few straight-up pop crooners. Hello? Celine? Babs?! But the grossest oversight is Dame Shirley Bassey, she of the high notes as sparkling as (uh) diamonds, a belt as brassy as Midas’s kingdom and the sultriest purr this side of Eartha Kitt. She is, in short, la diva ultima.
Lefty Frizzell
I’m not convinced Rolling Stone “gets” country music. Here’s the evidence: 1) George Jones, whom pal and fan Ray Charles once picked up in private jet, comes in at no. 43 (boooo). And 2) Lefty Frizzell is nowhere to be found. Hank Williams' spiritual counterpoint, Lefty’s gentle voice ditched harsh reality for the mystery-rich contours of the inner life. Pretentious? Yes! But 10 bucks says he’ll make you weep.
John Tardy/Obituary
Celebrity columnist Mary J. Blige declares Aretha a “gift from God.” Well, our gift from Satan is Obituary’s John Tardy. If the concept of “great singing” can include both the whine of Neil Young (no. 37) and the wheeze of Bob Dylan (no. 7), then why not the cookie monster vocals of death metal? For the uninitiated, Tardy is basically the Caruso of the genre. He has transformed the act of puking up lungs into an art form.
Ann Wilson/Heart
Ann Wilson matched Robert Plant banshee blues howl for banshee blues howl in the ’70s, out-powerhoused the ’80s’ best power balladeers and vocally shredded as hard as her guitarist sister Nancy (and for that matter, any of rock’s great axemen). Honestly, I’m still practically speechless that Rolling Stone omitted Heart’s omnipotent vocalist, so I will let her words speak for her: “Oooo, barracuda.”
Jimmy Cliff
Jamaica produced greater artists: Keith Hudson, Linval Thompson, and yes, Marley (no. 19). But Jimmy Cliff is arguably the island’s most versatile and skilled voice. Like all true crooners, he can tackle just about any genre (ska, rocksteady, reggae, deep soul) and sound as if he’d been born to sing it. Of course, Cliff is no Don Henley (no. 87).
Sandy Denny
As a solo artist and as the lead singer for both Fairport Convention and Fotheringay, Sandy Denny’s U.S. stock has skyrocketed in the last decade. More and more American rock critics prefer her to Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Grace Slick and maybe even Janis herself. And why not? Sandy had it all: the voice of Mother Earth, a gift for haunted balladry and the ability to make other people’s songs her own (see Fairport’s “The Ballad of Easy Rider"). Only Joni is as complete an artist.
Fred Neil
Freddie Neil didn’t give two craps about fame. In fact, he didn’t give two craps about much outside of hanging with dolphins in Florida. Yet he laid down a clutch of tunes in the mid-1960s that are as important to the development of folk-rock as anything by the Byrds. His disembodied bass-baritone (which Dylan worshiped) served as the prototype for the blissed-out hippie crooner: Tim Buckley, David Crosby, Gene Clark, etc. When folks talk about a singer stopping time, Fred Neil is whom they’re referring to.
Further Reading
Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers of All-Time (Rollingstone.com)
Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers of All-Time [PLAY]
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Not a huge Richie Spice fan, but I was taking a quick glance of the review of his newest album on Rhapsody and encountered your borderline racist and completely ignorant and useless review.
If you think all reggae artists sounds like cookie monster and are repetitive then don't review reggae music.