Favourite vocal performance

joneve

Bucket said:

Wis for Layne Staley. One of my favourite singers ever.

Yep, and another from me. Their MTV Unplugged is the best of the Grunge bands IMHO. 

beed84

To those who have disobeyed: One. I said post one of your favourite vocal performances. Not two, not three, one. Jesus christ!...

ourmaninthenorth

Gassage

Any version of this

MagicPigDetective

Gassage

And- scroll to 2.45 and listen to the biggest vocal range in history- the sublime Lisa B Fischer.

scrumhalf

Hmmm.

It's still Little Richard, best rock & roll voice of all time.

boogieman

Kurt Elling. The guy has an astonishing voice. The guitar work on this track is pretty nice too. 

ourmaninthenorth

And if I could sing like anyone it'd be, by a country mile, this geezer...the magnificent Guy Clark...

richardhomer

John Martyn - with David Gilmour guesting - is on stunning form on this:

Freebird

A bit of a cliché and I'm not really a fan of Journey, but surely Steve Perry is the benchmark for all vocalists?

Freebird

Anyway, moving away from near perfection, there was once a fella named Gram Parsons ...

beed84

DarnWeight

Mary Margaret O'Hara - When You Know Why You're Happy (from her Miss America LP)

cruxiform

bigjon said:

Aretha Franklin knocking 'em dead

Wow. I nearly cried at that clip! I love Aretha on this. 



She's incredible.

RandallFlagg

This has always brought a tear to my eye...very moving:

TTBZ

stimpsonslostson said:

Seeing as Eddie, Kurt and Chris have been mentioned I'll throw in Layne Stanley- to my mind the most underrated of that quartet. Jerry Cantrell on backing vocals is brilliant in his own right and the harmonies are beautiful. My favourite of the Unplugged series:


Another more recent one is this: Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes Beautiful Death.
I've always liked Franks voice, but the way he goes from 1-100 in the space of a breath (at the 44second mark on this track) is phenomenal.

2 great choices there! I agree about him being the most underrated, with Eddie being the most overrated! I can't hear his voice without hearing the singer from Creed.

I wish Frank Carter would go back to that style of vocals, Modern Ruin isn't nearly as good as Blossom imo. At his best when he's loud and angry. Brilliant front man as well.

stimpsonslostson

TTBZ said:

I wish Frank Carter would go back to that style of vocals, Modern Ruin isn't nearly as good as Blossom imo. At his best when he's loud and angry. Brilliant front man as well.

He is a great frontman isn't he? The first time I saw Gallows I was gobsmacked by the aggression Frank was putting out. He appeared to be one step from jumping into the crowd and fighting us all at once. Grey Britain is my favourite album of the past 15years.

TTBZ

I never had the pleasure of seeing Gallows live but I've seen the Rattlesnakes a couple times - was in the photo pit at 2000 Trees which was awesome !

lasermonkey

I had to think long and hard about this one. The singer was never in any doubt, but in the end I chose Pink Orange Red by Cocteau Twins.

The song very nearly didn't get released. It was recorded amongst a number of songs purely as a test for their (then) newly-built studio, but  were subsequently released as the Echoes In A Shallow Bay and Tiny Dynamine EPs.

The Cocteaus' singer, Elizabeth Fraser, is, in my opinion, a world apart from other singers. I've not heard anything to compare, and the first time I heard their Treasure LP was one of the most profound experiences of my life.

For many, it would seem that being able to "belt it out" equates with emotion, but Liz has the ability to make my feel such joy and heartache whilst, for the most part, singing in invented languages. Although nobody but Liz knows for sure, it is thought that the words to Pink Orange Red may consist of taxonomic names for moths and butterflies! I have no idea whether this is true or not, but I suspect that she could sing the phone book to me and I'd still be a gibbering wreck. Her voice is quite simply my favourite sound in the universe.

As I said before, I had to think long and hard about which song to choose, but in the end my decision was based on how her voice made me feel, not on whether it showed her widest vocal range or how loudly she's singing. That said, the fluidity she shows with the meter and timing at the outro is outstanding, IMHO.

Anyway, here it is. It certainly won't be to most people's taste, but she's utterly unique and I love her to bits!