my favorite is roy orbison.

Michael Buble

maynard james keenan of tool/apc. hands down

Happy? :p

Hmm, this is tough. Overall best voice in no classification of music? Guy/Girl?

Ok, How about you just name best female and male, or you could break it down by genre.

My favorite female is Lisa Gerrard, and male is probably Tim Buckley, because of the tone, but as far as skills go it's probably either Jeff Buckley or Jimmy Gnecco. Best scream would be the high pitched dude from A Static Lullaby.

Best Female = Christina Aguilera, Norah Jones

Best Male = James LaBrie, Serj Tankian




(these are my opinions, yours may vary)

I get the feeling that Daron is actually the driving force behind system of a down. Which brings me to a story almost totaly unrealted to that thought, and completely unrelated to this thread.

My friends and I went to see the snowcore tour 4 years ago about. System of a down, Incubus, and Mr. Bungle were playing. So we go to a Mcdonalds right before the show, and there are these dudes sitting there, and they are "freak" looking, and we sarcastically say: "hey look it's system of a down", and then we sit down behind them, so half way through my meal I realize that it is part of system of a down. I know it was Shavo, but I can't remember who else. Then John walks in and I talk to him for like 30 seconds and make an ass out of myself, mainly because he couldn't hear what I was saying, and I couldn't hear him. Then I told him to rock on, and my friends laughed at me for it, but it was a joke.

I would love to meet these guys. My feelings are that this band is alot different from most, they have originality and a creative twist to their music. Plus, they are very passionate about what they write and believe in what they are doing is for a good cause.

Axl Rose!
No one can screech like Axl can.

I think you may want to rephrase that as "could screech" IMHO. He seems to have lost his voice sometime after the last real GNR album.

Yes, and that was Appetite

I gotta go with Norah on this one. Her voice is like liquid. I love how she never breaks tone and goes into a Mariah Carey or Xtina screech fest.

for females I'd say Ella Fitzgerald

Maynard James Keenan from Tool/APC
Freddie Mercury
Robert Plant (his stuff with Zeppelin, anyway)
PJ Harvey

Fine...

Best male: Louis Armstrong
Best female: Ella Fitzgerald
Best scream: Michael (something Swedish) from Opeth

OMG- Axl Rose sucks!

Allsion Krauss

Bono or Dave Matthews for males and Chantel Kreviazuk for females.

Jeff Martin (The Tea Party)
Ronnie James Dio (Black Sabbath, others)

I thought I was the only one to have those dreams....sigh...heh!

Despite the fact I only like him in the Misfits, I'm really surprised by the lack of Glenn Danzig on this list.

Other:
Gavin Hayes (more the El Cielo vocals)
Johnny Cash (both old and new)
Joe Strummer

Whitney Houston, Celine Deon, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin (not necessarily in that order)

Oh definitely Freddie Mercury!

However if the "Best Voice" is the definition of what the performer's voice is capable of then Joan Baez wins for sure. As a soprano she was able expand her voice with 3 octaves which is highly unusual for any soprano

If you like Norah, you really should check out Eva Cassidy. She sung a similar style music, and, while Norah Jones has one hell of a voice, she doesnt have much on Eva Cassidy. Live at Blues Alley is a good album she did--check it out.

Does anyone know who Doreen Shaffer of The Skatalites is?? Man, I think she's got the most beautiful voice ever.

It is sooo haunting it makes my spine tingle. She's incredible!

Bruce Springsteen and maybe Adam Duritz

Tori Amos

john garcia
steve marriot

Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney are great, and they both have an amazing range of pitch and style (Clapton's growl is just tingly good fun).
John Fogerty (CCR) has a very distinctive raspy powerful voice that I love.
Cee-lo, anyone?

Also: Elton John, Chali 2na (of Jurassic 5, the one with the very deep voice), Paul Simon, and Ronnie VanZant (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

Neil Hannon
Nick Cave

yma sumac had a 4 octave range

this site says she had a 5 octave range:

http://www.spaceagepop.com/sumac.htm

impressive as hell. I just got to hear her voice so I'll stop buy the library later :)

Mikael Stanne from Dark Tranquillity has an amazing range of vocal talents. Whether clean vocals or growling like the recently deceased, I couldn't let this thread go further without giving him credit.

Louis Armstrong

Mike Patton
Maynard James Keenan
Jimi Hendix
Freddy Mercury

Too many to mention...

Etta James

Or

James Taylor, they're both so nice to listen to.

Norah Jones, Etta James, Eva Cassidy for females.

Cedric Bixler-Zavala (holy shit, he sounds even more amazing live than on CD. purest voice i've ever heard), Lyrics Born from Latyrx, and Robert Plant in the Zep.

Some of the names listed are rediculous...

I mean, I like a lot of the people listed, like Jimi Hendrix and Maynard, but c'mon, best voice? Nah...

Chris Cornell from Soundgarden and Audioslave has an incredible range and can really put power behind the words. Also, I think a name that hasn't been mentioned yet is Dave Ghroel, singer from the Foo Fighters (and drummer from Nirvana too, heh). Even live he sounds pretty good, that's key.

Almost 3 pages in and no one has mentioned Geoff Tate yet. I'm ashamed of you people :p .