EWB's Favorite Singer III: The Results

[Guest mr. potato head]

Page probably shouldn't be ahead of Roy or Aretha but it's nice to see him on the list.

[Skummy]

I don't really know Tool - I had a whole bunch of their stuff when I was about 15, but it was so completely forgettable that I couldn't tell you a damn thing about any of it. Certainly nothing to suggest he had an especially memorable or in any way remarkable singing voice.

Ozzy is just silly. He cannot sing, and even the songs that his voice works for it's still just daft.

Nick Cave is utterly tone deaf, but I bloody love him. It's a great voice, but not a good singing voice. I love the guy, but his voice, while occassionally wonderfully emotional or visceral, especially in his Birthday Party days, is mostly just a means to an end.

Elliott Smith is great, but I pretty much echo what metalman said.

Steve Earle's good, but not great. Wouldn't make it anywhere near my list. It suits what he does, but again, it's a means to an end.

Stevie Wonder's voice is technically great, but he's not really my thing, and nothing about his singing has ever struck me as special. He's a safe vote, but to me...I don't know, it's lacking that little "something". Some voices are better flawed.

Ian Curtis is wonderful. He's not a great singer, but his voice is absolutely perfect for the material he performed. You cannot have "Atmosphere" - one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded - without that voice.

I like Louis Armstrong, but he's gimmicky. He's a better player than singer, and played up too much to a jokey persona that was thrust upon him. That said, his album of Disney songs is fucking great. Again, wouldn't have made my list, but I have no problem with him being up there.

I haven't the faintest idea who Baby Huey is.

I like Mike Patton, when he's not being silly. On something like "Evidence" by Faith No More, or "Sex (I'm A)" by Lovage, he's incredibly smooth and almost sexy. On Fantomas' Director's Cut, his voice is an absolute tour de force. On some of Mr. Bungle's stuff, and his more purely vocal-based stuff, he just gets kind of tiresome now. Other people do that vocal experimentation stuff ten times better than him.

Florence...yeah. She's not very good. Her voice was great on that track she did with David Byrne & Fat Boy Slim, but mostly she's underwhelming and sounds like a thousand girls in a thousand pub bands. Also, "Girl With One Eye" is brilliant but would sound so much better sung in a sleazy Tom Waits growl.

I don't know who Dallas Green is.

Lenny Cohen can't sing to save his life, and it's absolutely fantastic all the same. On the last album it got so deep and gravelly that it's practically inaudible. Brilliant.

Jim Morrison's voice is great, as silly as he is. "The End" is superb. In fact, Jim Morrison is brilliant, because he managed to exist at the one point in time where he could unironically be Jim Morrison. At no point in time since could a performer get away with the shit he came out with and still be taken seriously.

Al Green's good, but not my area at all, so can't really comment.

I hate Aretha Franklin, aside from her version of "You'll Never Walk Alone". I think she's fucking abysmal, that her singing is full of bullshit wavering vocal acrobatics that lead to the same cringeworthy vocal style being mistaken for soul and emotion, and resulting in a million women who think that they can sing because they can belt out a caterwaul at the top of their voice while struggling to hold a note. I guess I hate more what it lead to than the voice itself, but I still find it bloody awful to listen to.

PJ Harvey is bloody good. She's not someone I'd ever think of as an especially great vocalist, but she is fantastic.

Roy Orbison is absolutely, positively, beyond any debate, in my eyes, the single greatest vocalist in the history of pop music. They do not come better. Listen to "Crying" and try and argue that anyone comes close to that.

Steven Page is good, but kind of a "what the fuck?" entry there.

[thatshortguy]

Page is a great vocalist. He stands to gain more from splitting with the Barenaked Ladies than the band does. Are those of you who voted really collectively saying he's better than Orbison, who had the best-kept secret in a three-plus octave range? Aretha Franklin? Al Green?!?

Yeah, I didn't vote, but I'm...I'm rather flummoxed by this. If there's no reason for this beyond 'lack of turnout', then allow me to quote Bill Hicks by saying "Shit...ya stumped me."

[GoGo Yubari]

Lack of turnout is big. I think you get at least one more person each who votes for Franklin and Orbison at bare minimum. Maybe Green too. With the turnout it got it was pretty easy for someone two people really like to place high.

[Guest mr. potato head]

Lack of turnout is big. I think you get at least one more person each who votes for Franklin and Orbison at bare minimum. Maybe Green too. With the turnout it got it was pretty easy for someone two people really like to place high.

And then along came me and apsham to do just that! To be honest I didn't even think of him until I saw apsham's list.

[METALMAN]

Like Skummy, I find Aretha Franklin annoying. There's countless better female soul singers of the period who didn't do the whole warbling, and Carole King did all her songs better anyway. And Respect was amazing when it was Otis Redding singing it. Now his version has been forgotten and the song's been turned into something for drunk middle-aged women to holler tuneless on karaoke nights. Not impressed.

I love Roy Orbison though. I've only got his singles collection. I don't know where to go from there, or even if I should. Still, excellent singer. I don't think I voted for him, but he would certainly have been close.

I genuinely don't know enough P.J. Harvey to comment. I've never felt compelled to listen to her music for some reason. I've no idea why. It's nice to see that someone with such a big nose can make it in the big time though. Gives me hope.

Dunno Steven Page either.

[GoGo Yubari]

With Kimya Dawson just missing the cut I wasn't able to do a list including someone I used to know when I was younger. But at least with this next one I get to include someone my dad's side of the family used to know!

25. Jimi Hendrix (15 pts, appeared on 3 ballots) (Last Time: N/A)

24. Joe Strummer (15 pts, appeared on 4 ballots) (Last Time: N/A)

22. Paul Baribeau (16 pts, appeared on 2 ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

22. Regina Spektor (16 pts, appeared on 2 ballots) (Last Year: N/A)

21. Ray Charles (17 pts, appeared on 3 ballots) (Last Year: #32)

[KONGO]

With Kimya Dawson just missing the cut I wasn't able to do a list including someone I used to know when I was younger. But at least with this next one I get to include someone my dad's side of the family used to know!

25. Jimi Hendrix (15 pts, appeared on 3 ballots) (Last Time: N/A)

24. Jimi Hendrix (15 pts, appeared on 4 ballots) (Last Time: N/A)

I see you've included both the black and white Jimi Hendrixes.

[GoGo Yubari]

Shit, the "Joe Strummer was actually a white clone of Jimi Hendrix" conspiracy was supposed to be a secret.

[Guest mr. potato head]

Like Skummy, I find Aretha Franklin annoying. There's countless better female soul singers of the period who didn't do the whole warbling, and Carole King did all her songs better anyway.

Can't stand Carole King.

OK five. Hendrix is a weird pick for this list. Strummer's good. Spektor I can live with. Ray Charles should be higher, disability aside, man had an awesome voice.

[LittleDaniel]

Duuuuuuuuuude I like that Paul Baribeau made it. I'm guessing just me and Ollie voted for him?

[GoGo Yubari]

Hendrix is a weird pick for this list.

Absolutely not. Jimi Hendrix's voice is extremely fucking underrated and a totally valid inclusion, especially considering that unique voices are pretty heavy in this list. If this were about octaves or technical singing I wouldn't have put him on my ballot, but it's not.

EDIT: Yeah, LD, probably.

[KONGO]

More people should have voted for Lee Dorrian.

[LittleDaniel]

Ollie

[Quom]

You seem to have made a mistake, some of mine have already been listed but they were meant to be 10-1 on the official list.

[METALMAN]

Yeah Jimi Hendrix's voice is overlooked quite a lot by his guitar playing and stuff. But he is a good singer. Distinctive voice and such.

And while Joe Strummer does have a distinctive voice and I can see why people voted for him, it's not for me. It just sounds so ridiculous and put on. I still like a good few Cllash songs, and they are hard to imagine without Strummer's voice. But I still hate his voice.

I don't know Paul Baribeau. He sounds a bit hokey, but I guess I can't make an informed judgement having only listened to five seconds of that youtube clip.

Reggy Speks being on the list is surprising. She's a capable singer but I'd never get anywhere near voting for her. Still, she is probably my favourite Russian singer that will feature on this list. So that's something.

Oh Ray Charles was really good, wasn't he? Another I didn't vote for but would definitely come close in my reckoning. A real pioneer. When he started, there weren't too many other people singing that style of music in that way. Wonderful stuff.

[MalaCloudy Black]

With Kimya Dawson just missing the cut I wasn't able to do a list including someone I used to know when I was younger.

I would still like to hear this story!

[Sousa]

I didn't put Regina Spektor on my list despite being a big fan of hers, but I've really become a fan of her singing voice since listening to some of the bonus tracks on her new album. She does a couple of songs in Russian by Bulat Okudzhava and sounds incredible--hearing her sing in her native language is really something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf4yVGa7zqY

There are a lot of songs in English where I really, really like her singing ("Samson," "Human of the Year," "Genius Next Door"... her ballads, basically), but I don't like her tendency to use a lot of weird vocal gimmicks (I don't remember the song, but she does this fake dolphin noise on one song that is just fucking ridiculous).

[apsham]

Well at first I came in here and wanted to make a post defending Steven Page - but then I got called into work and forgot about it for a moment, but coming back I realize that there are videos and clips behind each of the pictures. And I clicked on Page's to find that "If I Had A Million Dollars" was the choice for him. And I just can't let that go.

Break Your Heart blows me away every time I hear it, and when he played it live at the Playhouse last year there was a huge silence at the end followed by the loudest round of applause I think I have ever heard.

War On Drugs.. just.. War On Drugs, guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt3wfTi3WXo

I don't know - maybe y'all still think he doesn't really deserve to be near this list but I figured I'd give a bit of a better representation.

[apsham]

And two more that Lady Sham recommends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAo1e3pFAc0