Milton Nascimento, Freddie Mercury, Al Green, Fred Astaire, Jackie Wilson, Vince Gill, Snoop Dogg, Jeff Buckley, Johnny Cash, Chris Cornell, Van Morrison, Stevie Wonder, George Harrison...those are some of the many that I love. |
The Walrus of Love, Mr. Barry White
Tony Bennett
Jesse Belvin
Felix Cavaliere (of the Young Rascals)
Smokey Robinson
Sammy Davis Jr.
Dean Martin
Steve Lawrence
Andy Williams
Eddie Kendricks
David Ruffin
Arthur Prysock |
elton john blows everyone away...seriously....early jon through yellow brick road.... |
Johnny Mathis - Listen to Open fire, Two Guitars |
Jackie Wilson was one of a kind. |
Even as a "Gen X'er" myself, my vote for best male and female "singer" goes to Barbara Streisand and Elvis repectively!
I don't even own any of their music per se. Yet, in terms of heart, depth, emotion, substance, talent, skill, vocals, and ability to "move a crowd", I pic those two.
yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of "pretty voices" out there to pic from in all genre's of music. And you might even argue there's better "voices' out there to put in that "pretty sounding" or "greatest voice" category. But as "artists of their craft", I chose Bab's and the King!...even if I don't Barb's political outspokeness.
If I pic "voice" alone, there's simply too many to list!
In fact, we could make a very very long list for both men and women in that category, and still not have a winner |
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No question. William Shattner! |
What was the song that Keith Mechalle sang please.
It was something to do with a story about all the creatures in a wood. |
JACKIE WILSON, BEST SINGER OF ANY CENTURY, NO CONTEST. If you have ears then it is SO obvious. Jackie had every emotion, every range, every tone, could sing anything. |
Andrea Bocelli hands down!!!!
My favorite of all time, as a matter of fact he has a new album coming out on Nov.4th through Universal you can get a free preview by clicking this link...
http://exodus.interoutemediaservices.com/deliverMedia.asp?id=06378103-1E31-400A-BF69-77E56E828709 |
FREDDIE MERCURY!!!!!!!!!!!
His incredible voice, his terriffic range!!!!!!!
Yes, in my opinion he was the best male singer of the 20th Century!!!!!!!!
And he also was a great show-man and composer! |
It's difficult to give a meaningful answer to this question, because it's so hard to make a meaningful comparison between popular singers, jazz singers, blues singers, folk singers, rock singers, and opera singers, to say nothing of the difficulty of comparing tenors, baritones, and basses. But given all that, the majority of those who are truly knowledgeable about the human voice and the art of singing, if pressed for an answer to this question, would say that the greatest male singer of the 20th century was Italian tenor Enrico Caruso (born Naples 1873, died Naples 1921), the man whose name became virtually synonymous with great singing. You won't find many who know what they're talking about who would disagree with this judgment. Fortunately for posterity, Caruso made many recordings, all by the acoustic process, and did more than any other single artist to popularize the phonograph (or gramophone) in its early decades. |
With no contest, in pop music, the 3 "best" voices are :
Greg Lake, Jon Anderson, Freddy Mercury
Zefox of France |
Its Ray Charles, of course!
The single most influential singer of all time.
A great blues singer who kick-started Rock'n'Roll went on to invent Soul and is the inspiration behind ALL of the sixties british bands like the Stones,Beatles,Kinks and the Animals who, in turn, influenced countless american bands. Modern music would be unrecognizable without Ray.
Objectively, he'll be hard to beat. |
If it is for singing alone we give this honor then I would vote for Elvis. The Man had an incredible voice which he could and did apply to a number of different genres of music, and with which he did broaden the view of what great singing could be- what vocal styles could be acceptable. That is a lot to do in one century! Still, my favorite bests are the likes of Woody Gutherie and Bob dylan. Captains of the best worst male singers of the twentieth Century catagory to show up here, er, eventually. |
Nusrat is amazing .. but a little nasal.. One of the best male singers i can think of (and largely forgotten) is Tim Buckley -- 5 and a half octave range, totally incredible! Listen to his album 'starsailor' (1970) to see what i mean.. tracks like 'monterey' make your blood run cold - Buckley could go up, down and in 6 other directions at once! robert plant doesn't come close! |
personally same thing guides me as i posted my favorite guitarists on another thread...uniquness and style not technical proficiency...who had brought a new voicing, an new style, differnt phrasing etc? who has soul?
in no particular order, the ones who come to mind are
frank sinatra, robert plant, smokey robinson, james brown, john lennon, louis armstrong, muddy waters, marvin gaye, ray charles, ...
many of the sighted in this thread (certainly not all! and just because I have not included my list doesn't mean so...just for sake of a degree of brevity)...I find more iterations of the true pioneers, individualists. for example, i really like what's his name from Incubus: but would I put him as one of the great ones: no, he is really good, but is not someone who has really brought something unique. someone who may be getting there among current artists, I think is seal |
Frank Sinatra........hands down, IMO. |
He may not be the best "Male Singer of the 20th Century' but the latest album by Andy Bey "American Song" sure is good. Give it a listen, see if you agree. |
How about Johnny Hartman or Kevin Mahogany? Just listen to "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman" or "Monk on Monk" By TS Monk, for a couple of great examples of what these masters could do. |
I will exclude Opera and Broadway singers. My list would include singers and singer song writers:
Sinatra,Crosby,Armstrong,Mathis,Sammy Davis Jr,Tony Bennett,Bobby Darin, Ray Charles,Bobby Short,Orbison,Elvis,John and Paul, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor and Billy Joel. |
Marvin Gaye...hands down. |
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Nat King Cole. Not for nothing that "King" was put there. Louis Armstrong. Ray Charles. Listening to these 3 maestros, I understand one definition of genius: a genius makes doing something complicated seem simple and effortless. Like Leonhard Euler who could compute to 34 decimal precision in his head. |
Why don't you check out James Mcmurtry Childish Things or Live at Augat Three. Trust me on this one. |
Nat King Cole and Mel Torme. |
How about great underappreciated male singers of the 20th century?
General Johnson provided the unforgettable stuttered vocal on "Give Me Just A Little More Time" By Chairman of The Board. He also sang lead for The Showmen on "It Will Stand", "39-21-41 Fit", and "This Misery", among others. He also wrote and sang the original version of "Patches" one of the great sappy guilty pleasures of the '70's.
Not a great voice, but from late '50's doo wop, through '70's Motown-esque soul-pop, into straight schlock pop and even now, this guy made good (and often not so good) songs truly memorable by virtue of his interpretation. |
I don't know about the best, as this is a complicated question, but one name that comes to mind rather quickly is George Michael. Check out his cd "songs from the last century." |
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John McCormack up to 1924. You have to be willing to listen to transcriptions of old acoustic recordings. These take some getting used to but can be remarkably rewarding. |
Jussi Bjoerling, no contest! |
I think the late Lou Rawls could get a vote. That man is
smooth! Steve |
Vince Gill certainly deserves consideration. |
Johnny Mathis - I agree w/ R-Burke. You've gotta listen to "Open Fire, Two Guitars". Amazing! Actually beautiful. Hey, and I'm a solid blues and rock 'n roll fan. |
Louis Armstrong. He was the first to use modern phrasing and he had perfect pitch. Nobody felt and expresed music the way he did. If no Louis > no Holliday > no Fitzgerald > no Vaugh > no Crosby > no Sinatra > no Cole > no Bennett > etc. EVERY modern singer ows a huge debt to Pops. God rest his beautiful soul.- Jim |
To choose 1 male singer as the best across all genres from the whole century is difficult. I really enjoy Joe Williams and Mel Torme for Jazz and Roberto Goyenetche for Tango. Frank Sinatra's album "September Of My Years" (on vinyl) get's me every time; not b/c his singing is so great but because his sentiment is so sincere, his song are choicees so elegant, and the orchestrations are impeccable. |
Remember in answering this question that you have stylists which most singers are, or you have technically good singers. A tech superior singer would be Mel Torme, also referred to as "The Velvet Fog" His pitch, tone, diction, and breath control were superior to most. Sinatra had no where near the technical skills possessed by Torme. Also the greatest male voices at jazz/pop have all been baritones. This is the one short fall of Mr. Torme, but at no time has Mr Torme been considered the greatest jazz vocalist on any poll I have encountered. That title has been suggested of people like Joe Williams. Any jazz poll would have to consider Louis Armstrong since he practically invented the jazz solo, and "scat" singing. Let us not forget the tech voices of Johnny Mathis and Billy Eckstine. In closing I distinguish between a technical voice and a stylist. Mel Torme wins hands down for technic, but Louis Armstrong wins hands down as a stylist. |
Toss up between Stevie Wonder and Milton Nascimento. |
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The best male singers of the 20th century can be categorized into eras. First there was Al Jolson, followed by Bing Crosby, than came Frank Sinatra, and than Elvis Presley. I don't know if I can include anyone after Elvis as being in contention for top male vocalist for the century, even though there were some great male singers. Out of the above mentioned singers, I would select Bing Crosby as the top male vocalist. I think he had the best singing voice of them all. Al Jolson would be second, Sinatra third, and than Elvis. |
Mark Murphy - check out his latest, "Once to Every Heart". Over 70 years old!!!! |
Matt Munro - Even Sinatra said he was the guvnor |
Chris Cornell for rock music. Popular music I'd go with Frank Sinatra. Jazz I'd have to select Louis Armstrong. |
If I was to follow my subjectivity, then for me it is Franco Makiadi and Burning Spear (probably you have never heard of them - you shouldnÂt care either, they have not sold a million copy!
However, if I was to be pragmatic and objective, then it would be Stevie Wonder. He has more than thirty top 10 hits, 22 Grammy Awards, which is the most for a solo artist. If Stevie had only one hit song out of the several you already know, he would have been just as famous as he is today! That is genius |
I'd give a vote for James Taylor. His attention to the music, the harmonies and the quality of recordings also is a plus. He has a silky smooth voice and is a great musician/song writer. He has produced great music for 4 plus decades. |
Sam Cooke. Maybe somebody already mentioned him (I enjoyed the thread, but did not have time to read all of it), but he would certainly warrant a repeat reference. |
Let's see, how about Jussi Bjorling, Feodor Chaliapin, Roy Orbison, Jackie Wilson, Solomon Burkes, and. . .
for the 21st century: Ronaldo Villazon. |
