Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

My thought here is to look at the people with great pure singing ability, not necessarily the singers we happen to like. My list would start with:

Roy Orbison
Nat King Cole
Johnny Mathis
Paul McCartney
Linda Ronstadt

...Wayne Fontana...
(oh well... nevermind... just one of my personal favorites...)
My additions will be: Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and Elvis Presley. Again - just my very subjective opinion...

Freddie Mercury

Some great country singers/voices:
Ray Price
David Houston
Merle Haggard
George Jones

Wow. I just got done talking about this a little.

My own: Johnny Hartman. Hands down. That makes me an Old Fart, but you did say "pop".

Nat Cole second.

Ray Charles third.

You didn't say "American", so I will include two Brasilian women as my #4 and #5:

#4 Gal Costa. Purest female voice I ever heard. I have never heard Gal hit anything but the exact pitch on any note. Her voice is strong enough to fill an arena without a mike, too.

#5 The late Elis Regina (who cut a wonderful album with JL's idol Toots Thieleman, just before she died). Another pure talent who most Americans have never heard of.

#6: I do agree on Orbison. Talk about perfect use of falsetto. His voice stayed near perfect right up until his death. He also played a mean autoharp...

Johnny Mathis' style is a good deal too, er, eccentric for my taste. The chicks liked him when I was in high school, though. Very nice voice if you can forget the visual.

Linda Ronstadt has, after all these years, never learned to sing in her rather narrow range, and usually sounds strained. Vocal coaches would tell her to open up her throat to hit those high notes; she does the opposite--chokes up, and that somehow passes as "styling".

I never really liked Johnny Mathis' material or style either, but have always been impressed with with the purity and clarity and tone of his voice.

I'm not too familiar with Johnny Hartman (me bad), but I'll check it out....



....Though he was never the most distinctive vocalist, Johnny Hartman rose above others to become the most commanding, smooth balladeer of the 1950s and '60s, a black crooner closely following Billy Eckstine and building on the form with his notable jazz collaborations, including the 1963 masterpiece 'John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman'.

Johnny was once known as "The Voice that Is" for his commanding baritone. If anything, Billy Eckstine should follow him, IMO.

We agree on Mathis, it seems.

Going from section to section, like that groundhog...
Forgot to mention another guy with an amazing voice (IMHO): Art Garfunkel...

Way over here in the corner, Burton Cummings of the Guess Who. Powerful and melodic.

For me it would be McCartney. In the top five spots.

OK, OK, Alex Chilton, at least back in the day.

Colin Blunstone of the Zombies, who apparently still has his stuff together...

Now we're rockin!

Colin Blunstone - The Zombies

Sal Valentino - The Beau Brummels

Geoff Turton - The Rockin Berries

I apologize if I've told this story already...(one of the many colorful features of aging, and something for you younger folks to look forward to...)

I grew up listening to my dad's jazz collection with him...I was required to sing back tenor sax lines, etc., about the same time I was learning to walk and talk. Along with the musicology lessons were lots of stories about his friends Nat Cole, Mel Torme, and the guys in Woody Herman's band (most notably Terry Gibb)...it never occurred to me to wonder how an army lifer could have associated with these guys in his youth. After he died, my mom was able to fill in some of the blanks...he had run away from Depression-era Tulsa to Kansas City at the age of thirteen, and secured employment as a 'bag man' working out of the back door of one of the jazz clubs. I guess those guys kept him running all the time. He picked up the 'skag' habit himself during those years, unfortunately...and 'kicked' at the age of 16 during basic training.

I know I've mentioned this part before: get hold of a copy of Nat Cole playing piano in Chicago as part of the JATP (Jazz At The Philharmonic) series...it will blow your mind. The guys 'chops' were monstrous, and he doesn't sing a note on the album.

Geoff Turton is now in The Fortunes. They do excellent versions of "He's In Town" and "Poor Man's Son".

Don't forget to add Steve Winwood to the list of great singers. Nat King Cole is my all time favorite though.

Honorable mention should also go to Paul Rodgers.

Great story BTW Dane.

Wow, where does one start? If you wanna go way back in pop music, then Bing has to be what i consider at least one of the best, if not the best. Harry Babbitt w/ kay Kyser's band in the 40s was excellent, as was Vaugan Monroe. Elvis, John Lennon, Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys sang his butt off, but was never credited enough.David Crosby's voice always reminded me of a cello, so pure and well modulated.