Best Male Singers of the 20th Century

Thanks Timwat for the clarification. Whew! I was going to have to repost to add The Polish Prince, Bobby Vinton to my twentieth century all-star team, but now I can relax! Great speaker, that 501 was!

Err..., Some of the choices for best of the twentieth century are pretty shocking! Eddie Money? John Fogarty? Let's see. Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan were picked by separate people just on their record sales and popularity alone! If you are going to go with picks like these, I will have to go with my all-time greats like Michael Franks, John Denver, Neil Sedaka, Ricky Nelson, Neil Diamond, B.J. Thomas, Barry Manilow and the Monkees. I desperately wanted to pick Kenny G, but then again, he doesn't sing, does he? On second thought, the Monkees probably didn't either.

Uhh Craig... Haven't we been down this road before? I certainly didn't criticize EVERY pick. I know who John Fogarty is also as I was alive during that era. I didn't even mention a jazz singer! And I do like music other than jazz. When the title of the thread is Best Male Singers of the 20th Century, that's an awfully high standard to reach, and when some of us pick certain artists for their popularity rather than because we LIKE them, I wonder what kind of standard we are applying. I don't hate John Fogarty. I don't know all the Creedence Clearwater Revival music but actually, I kind of liked "Proud Mary" but IMHO he is a long way from the best of the twentieth century". But hey, that's just my opinion! Anyway, my posts on this thread were not meant to be terribly serious. I seem to have a penchant for continually offending you. For that, I am sorry because the other times I have run across you on Audiogon, you seem to be an interesting, engaging cheerful kind of guy.

I could get pretty crazy about a Harry Connick Jr. pick, but I don't want to offend anyone. I don't think Sinatra was the absolute best. Among crooners, I would pick Billy Eckstine and Nat King Cole over Sinatra. But at least noone can say Sinatra wasn't unique. He had a style, a way of presenting a song which was all his own and one that he perfected over the span of his career. "Derivative" is the perfect way to describe Harry Connick Jr. as a singer. Here is another guy who is an excellent musician, great pianist, but as a singer? Could he try to sound any more like Sinatra? IMHO, you can't be considered the best, or one of the best, when you walk in someone else's very large footsteps. I often wondered what Sinatra thought of him. If I were Sinatra and probably beyond the end of my very long and esteemed career when this guy came along, I would be angry and bitter! This is all just my opinion, so don't yell at me.

OK Craig, CAT SL-1 Ultimate, PASS Aleph 4, Vandersteen 3A Signature. My father, (same name as me) is a fairly well-known retired recording engineer who recorded a few of the people on this thread. A small sample of the artists he personally recorded were Louis Armstrong, Harry Belafonte, Mario Lanza, Duke Ellington, Perry Como, Sam Cooke, Bill Evans (the pianist), Jascha Heiffetz, Nina Simone, Sonny Rollins, Neil Sedaka, Isley Bros, The Main Ingredient, Harry Nillson, Ricky Nelson, John Denver, the Monkees and Evelyn Champagne King. That covers a lot of years and a lot of musical territory. I only say this to let you know that I have grown up with music all my life. All types: good music as well as bad music. I played the tenor sax for years. I had a well known jazz sax player as a music teacher for a while. I don't think anything I said concerning any of your picks was bordering on personal. Why do you presume to know anything about me? And why is it that you repeatedly attack me only to apologize a couple of days later. Now your doing it even when I respectfully try to register my disagreement with other people's selections. Really, it's beginning to make me wonder about you. I don't mind or care about whomever you think was the greatest singer of all time. If anything I have said previously leads you to feel that I begrudge you your right to choose anyone you want as the greatest singer of all time, I am terribly sorry. But if yours' and everyone else's selections must remain unchallenged, whether they be challenged respectfully, or in jest, simply because these are YOUR rules, I've got a big problem with that.

Hey Jousjane, Never meant to indicate my opinions are any better than anyone else's. They are just mine...