Who are your favorite (or least favorite) vocalists?

Starting a thread for this. List them however you want. So fire away!


Greatest all-around Metal vocalist: Ronnie James Dio

Best pure and most athletic voice: Michael Sweet

Best dirty voice: Chris Cornell

Strangest voice: Geddy Lee

Least favorite voice: Any cookie monster screamo idiot out there. Learn to sing, you annoying, immature, mad-at-the-world buffoon.
Oh, and Robin Zander. It sounds so unnatural and forced to me. Sorry to any Cheap Trick fans.

Yep, agree with Geddy; like it loads, though!! Best all rounder..... Hard one, but Gillan's gotta be up there, eh. One or two of Alan Parsons vocalists were pretty bloody good and I personally rate anyone who stands in front and sings in tune!!!
Not a fan of Cookie Monster vocals either, but that's only 'cause I can't understand the lyrics... I rather like Randy Newman, Eric Carmen, and Burton Cummings as singers....

I'm quite fond of Roger Manganelli from Less Than Jake (and Rehasher) and Dick Valentine from Electric Six. Then again, those are my two favorite bands, so I wonder why...

Oh, if you search for LTJ songs to hear Roger, I should point out that there are two vocalists and their songs tend to be one or the other. He sings on All My Best Friends Are Metalheads and The Science of Selling Yourself Short, if you look for music videos. Chris Demakes is the other vocalist, and while he isn't bad by any means his voice is less unique.

Male vocalists would be Klaus Meine, Robert Plant, Chris Cornell, Brad Delp, Mac Powell, Ian Gillian, Bon Scott and Bill Withers.

Female vocalists would be Ann Wilson, Annie Lennox, Pat Benatar, Amy Lee, Linda Ronstadt and Sade.


Can't always be headbangin' 'ya know...

I'm not really into tradition rock singers I seem to like British male vocalists who make some sort of noise in their own accent. Syd Barrett, David Gedge, Morrissey, Lee Mavers, Robert Smith, Suggs.

I like female vocalists who are a bit strange....Kate Bush, Bjork, Elizabeth Fraser, Sinead O'Conner, Dolores O'Riordan

My least favourite have to be Chris Martin from Coldplay I just don't get it, he sounds like he has a peg on his nose or has just come down with a bad cold and Mark Owen from Take That, he can't pronounce his R's and he has lisp too, not good if you are gonna sing.

Oh, yeah - women singers; for me, Debbie Harry, Suzi Quatro, Joan Jett and Christina Amphlett (Divinyls) for the rocky stuff, and Alison Krauss, The Judds and Emmylou Harris for the more introspective songs.... amongst dozens of others!

I'm not usually a fan of female vocalists, but I do like Monique Powell from Save Ferris.

Warrn wrote:I'm not usually a fan of female vocalists

That's funny, me neither! Probably because I sing, and the woman key is hard to sing along with. Seriously, if I can't sing along with it, it's almost a waste of time for me!

For the females, I smile every time I hear Anne Murray. Maybe it's from being a kid and hearing her in the parents' car on the country music station, but her voice is like butter. And also Tiffany Arbuckle, singer for Plumb.

I love Geddy Lee and Rush! My favorite vocalists, well, i like tender singers. My all time favorits had gotta be Jerry Garcia, i love his sweet boyish tone. David Gilmore, Aaron Freeman from Ween. Chris Cornell wails with amazing control, he's gotta be my favorite heavy vocalist.
My daughters fave - Justin Beeber! Did i spell that right?

hobster wrote: My daughters fave - Justin Beeber! Did i spell that right?

Well there's a probable first... "Justin Bieber" finally made his way into our hallowed grounds! He's absolutely inescapable!

I wonder if Iceman has a Justin Bieber guitar to go with his Hannah Montana signature axe?

Should probably lock the thread right there..... Justin bloody Bieber indeed!!

I wonder if Iceman has a Justin Bieber guitar to go with his Hannah Montana signature axe?

Hmmmm.. I wonder....

Wonder all you like..... I can neither confirm nor deny such redonkulous accusations.

I can't believe no one has mentioned Roy Orbison yet. The guy had an amazing voice, he supposedly had a four octave range and never looked like he was straining to get the high notes.

A personal favourite of mine has to be Paul Di'Anno, don't really know why, I just love listening to him on the first two Iron Maiden albums.

I think Nazareth's Dan McCafferty has a unique voice, sounds like he must have smoked a million cigars! Not sure it makes him a good singer but he is definitely a cool rock vocalist in my book.

I always found Howlin' Wolf amazing to listen to, my jaw dropped the first time I heard "Smokestack Lightning", unbelievable. Again, probably not a great singer technically, but he really used it to get the blues across.

A couple of old school female singers that come to mind are Mary Ford (who sang with Les Paul) and Patsy Cline. Both had a pure tone to their voices that you rarely hear today. I also want to give a shout out to Maggie Bell, not that well known but she is what you could call Scotland's answer to Janis Joplin. She has a good raspy rock voice that some people in the UK may remember from a track called "No Mean City", used on the original theme tune from the "Taggart" TV show

Sorry REM fans, I really don't get Michael Stipe . Even when he's singing "Shiny Happy People" he makes it sound so depressing! Same thing goes for Radiohead's Thom yorke, someone please give him a hug (and maybe some happy pills)!

(P.S. I thought swearing was frowned upon in this forum, then someone drops the B**ber!!!!! . Come on mods, my fragile little mind won't take such disgraceful language, SORT IT OUT! )

DAN.

The Great 'Orb'...Yes.
Have a laugh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-XoxXCArFE&feature=related

Chris Cornell is my favorite - his voice is remarkably versatile. Has anyone ever listened to his solo albums? He's not just a screamer. He's got a killer blues voice too with unbelievable range and control.

And Maynard James Keenan from Tool and A Perfect Circle. Listen to that poop! Spectacular range and control along with unique note choices and crazy rhythms. Unlike most singers, Keenan's voice is one of the instruments in the band. And if Tool ever tours again - YOU HAVE TO SEE THEM! It is an experience like none other.

And while he's not my favorite - you have to give props to Bono - he is quite the crooner! I saw U2 live this summer for the first time. I was a professional sound engineer for a decade and must say that they sounded fabulous - possibly the best I have heard except for maybe Tool and one particularly good-sounding Godsmack show in Louisville several years ago.

Robert Plant and Roger Daltrey are faves.

And what about Stevie Ray Vaughn? Sure, he's known as a player. But John Lee Hooker once said that he believes Vaughn is the greatest blues singer of all time and that his singing is better than his guitar playing. Consider it - he have been right.

And for unique modern/numetal voices - how about Sully Erna from Godsmack and David Draiman from Disturbed?

Weirdest vocalist - James LaBrie (Dream Theatre)

Best beat-box guy - Rob Halford @ 1:12 of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vid=v60lOLD0OPA&annotation_id=annotation_984134&feature=iv&v=PD0ZxqDLcic

No offense to Priest fans, but another entertaining shred vid.

In my house he's known as Justin Bawbag.

A Wizard, A True Star........

Todd Rundgren

the man can do it all....

....addendum.... just in case anybody thinks "Hello Its Me" is what Todd R is still up to, check this out, and crank it up LOUD!
https://youtu.be/MZCv5htkfSU

guitar - Jesse Gress, bass - Kasim Sultan, drums - Prairie Prince, vocals - TR

I was thinking about this today, and realised my favourite male vocals of all time are The Fortunes, so that doesn't really count, eh....

All-time fave vocalist - Paul Rodgers, nuff said.

Ian Gillan is amazing too, especially "back in the day" when you could almost hear the raging desire to shake Blackmore gently by the throat.

Not fashionable but Meatloaf could belt 'em out. He hasn't got the power these days if some of the youtube footage of his concerts is anything to go by. Added bonus that the missus can't stand him after long car trips with my lads singing along to "Bat out of Hell" like chimps on heat... happy days!

And ... Clapton. OK, he's got demi-God status as a guitarist (am I the only one thinking that his solos are a bit repetitive?) but I really rate him as a singer. He can handle pretty much any style of song and has the blues growl that suits a lot of his songs.

Didn't expect it to be, but this post has been enlightening to me as a vocalist. Serious vocalists concentrate on being as good as possible, but from reading this post I'm reminded that it's not always amazing vocals that draw people. Reading everyone's answers, most of your favorites aren't the "greats" from a vocalist's point of view, but they're unique and grab you somehow. That's why your favorite singers don't really sound like anyone but themselves!

And just to muddy the waters even more, I like Dean Martins' style to that of Frank, and I've found Gary Cherone does a very nice line in crooning ....

And there's a NZ boke called Malcolm Hayman, who sounds like what David Clayton-Thomas would like to sound like; the band was Quincy Conserve and they were outrageously talented, all of them!!

norfolkngood wrote:All-time fave vocalist - Paul Rodgers, nuff said.

Ian Gillan is amazing too, especially "back in the day" when you could almost hear the raging desire to shake Blackmore gently by the throat.

Not fashionable but Meatloaf could belt 'em out. He hasn't got the power these days if some of the youtube footage of his concerts is anything to go by. Added bonus that the missus can't stand him after long car trips with my lads singing along to "Bat out of Hell" like chimps on heat... happy days!

And ... Clapton. OK, he's got demi-God status as a guitarist (am I the only one thinking that his solos are a bit repetitive?) but I really rate him as a singer. He can handle pretty much any style of song and has the blues growl that suits a lot of his songs.

Totally agree with you about a couple of things. Firstly, the prowess of Paul Rodgers as a vocalist, and secondly, Eric Clapton as a guitarist. I loved him with Bluesbreakers and Cream, I got him with Blind Faith, Dominoes and Bonnie and Delaney etc, but in my view, he has taken that mellow side too far, and has lost his hunger and soul during the early seventies and should have gone back to ballsy, underproduced, Gibson sound. For the last 30 years he has twiddled about, making the sort of dull repetitive noises which caused the first punk scene..perhaps we are due a second ?

Hoax