Best Voice
 

Who has or had the best voice?

Jimmy Gnecco gets my vote.

Freddie Mercury of Queen
or
Debbie Harry of Blondie

Who's Jimmy Gnecco first of all?

I like Daryl Palumbo (Glassjaw), Daryl Taberski (Snapcase), Cedric Bixler-Zavala (At the Drive-In/The Mars Volta), and Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse) a lot.... I like weird voices.

Barry White also must be mentioned, he is one of the all-time greats.

Snoop Dogg I appreciate too because his voice aids his delivery and he has one of the best laid-back deliveries ever in rap.

Also, KoKane, who did the back up lyrics on Snoop Dogg's "Tha Last Meal" album. Really strange, but cool.

EDIT: And Brainiac's Tim Thomas (RIP)

EDIT AGAIN: Ah, OK, I know who Jimmy Gnecco is. The guy from Ours. Yeah, he's got a good voice.

Cedric Bixler, The Mars Volta

Jimmy Gnecco sings for Ours. The dude from snapcase has a crazy voice. I saw them once with atreyu, and boysetsfire, and I was expecting his voice to only sound like that on studio produced stuff, but no, it sounds the same live.

1960's Johnny Cash

Jeff Buckley
Morrissey
David Gahan

Anyone ever hear Tim Buckley, Jeff's Dad? His voice is awesome.

Maynard James Keenan from Tool and A Perfect Circle. That motherfucker can sing.

Mikael Åkerfeldt - Opeth

--jaded

mike patton
tom waits

Chino (deftones)

Jay Z

Haha, are you kidding me? That guy can't hold a note live to save his life.


Elton John or Freddie Mercury.

Steve Perry
Brad Delp
Paul McCartney
and just because everyone would expect it from me - Paul Stanley


and another vote for Freddie :thumbsup:

My favorites:

Mark Lanegan: screaming trees
Freddie Mercury
Dolores Mary O'Riordan Burton : the cranberries
Shirley Manson: garbage

I don't listen to these bands\singers regularly. Most of the music I listen to does not have decent singers or non augmented vocals.

Here are some of my favorites:

Tarja Turunen (Nightwish)
Anthony Kedis (RHCP)
Gavin Hayes (Dredg)
Kelli Scarr (Moonraker)
Neal Morse (Spock's Beard)

Couldn't tell you if they are "the best", but if I had a choice of vocalists, they would be at the top of my list.

mike patton

Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory (NO ONE in metal today goes back and forth between singing and growling as well as he does)

Maynard James Keenan of Tool

Johnny Cash in his older years (that grating in his voice is so representative of the life he lived)

Devin Townsend (for sheer brutal volume...I mean, for chrissake, the man SHAT HIS PANTS during a show because he screamed so hard).

Nate from Boyz II Men

Mariah Carey (I hate her, but she has a 5 octave range...I ain't gonna fuck with that)

Ours, the group that Jimmy Gnecco sings for, whom I voted for originally, sings a cover of Bohemian Rhapsody. Download it so that you can compare the two singers. He sounds alot like Bono. Download it.

Ditto to that.

Also Chris Cornell, Robert Plant, Bon Scott, Brian Johnson, and Bono. All I got off the top of my head.

This is biased to the type of music I listen of course.

Are you kidding? Chino has perfect pitch. The man can scream with perfect pitch. No joke.

Maynard, Shirley Manson, Reznor, Tracy Chapman, Sarah McLachlan, Tori, PJ Harvey

Another vote for Freddy,
Dennis DeYoung-Styx
Steve Perry-Journey
Paul Rodgers-Bad Co.
Without starting a new thread- most distinctive voice:
Pepi Marcello- Good Rats

Mike Patton

several off the top of my head (a good portion near the end still alive even)-
Male:
Bing Crosby
Nat Cole
Dick Haymes
Eddie Cantor
-cliched answer- Old Blue Eyes
Female:
Peggy Lee
Dinah Shore
Doris Day
Julie Andrews
Keely Smith
Mariah Carey
Toni Braxton

:D lol Tom Waits is great. However an amazing voice I am unsure.
As per usual I will be a geek and vote for both singing members of the RHCP
Anthony Kiedis
John Frusciante
More voices I love
Brandon Boyd of Incubus
Unsure of the name but the lead singer of the Real Mckenzies
And of course Sting.

Jonsi (Sigur Ros)
Maynard (Tool/APC)
Thom (Radiohead)

Although I don't think it's the best voice in music, Beth Gibbons of Portishead's voice is truly remarkable.

Leah Remini (King of Queens) has a pretty neat voice. She is also quite cute.

There are more, but that is the only one comes to mind currently.

I'm a big fan of people that have nice laughs. Kinda sporadic with that comment, but I figured I owed another line of text. :)

EDIT: Heh, I just realized what forum this is in.

Musically, the lead singer of Nickelback has a unique voice. It's kind of raspy (??), but I think his voice certainly adds to the song.

Female-wise, Shania Twain has a great voice. The yelps she does are also very nice.

Also, Elmer Fudd at the beginning of the pre-release version of Master P's, "Them Jeans."

Ok, I'm done.

It's funny being an amateur singer of radio tunes I can imagine singing like all these people. I know the ins and outs of all their voices. It's cool. I can imitate just about anyone. Maybe I'll record myself singing like all these people.

Jeff Buckley...hands down...with Rufus Wainwright as a close second

Will someone just ackwoledge that Jimmy Gnecco is a great singer. That's all I want. I'll ackwnoledge that Jeff Buckley is amazing, he sounds alot like Jim Gnecco at times, their screams are quite similar.

here's my shortened list...

Nat King Cole
Eva Cassidy
Rod Stewart
Freddie Mercury
Barry White
Luther Vandros
Solomon Burke
Dusty Springfield
Luciano Pavarotti
Cecilia Bartoli
Jeff Buckley


and a few personal favs...

Elvis Costello
Michael Hutchence
kd lang
Sade

Hell yeah! Great choice.

Similarly I'd like to add Andy Khachaturian (The Apex Theory, Ontronik, Vokee)

fuck I think I've been missing out on dredg...heard so much about them, but never heard a single song...time to pick an album. Which one should I get?

--jaded

Their two albums, Leitmotif and El Cielo, are completely different.

I couldn't recommend one over the other... however if you wanted to hear how good Gavin Hayes' voice can be, you should pick up El Cielo.

Oh, and another I'm amazed hasn't been mentioned: Ella Fitzgerald.

I second the recommendation of El Cielo. You don't need a special excuse to get both at once - they are great albums and deserve your attention :D

I almost did along with Billie Holiday but was trying to keep the list 'short'
I have never heard of him, but am always open to at least giving something a try musically.

Eva Cassidy. Far and away the most beautiful voice I have ever heard. Its a shame she died so early...

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 .

For pure raw emotion

Robert Plant- early to mid Zep days

Maynard James Keenan

Hmmmm, John Mayer, Tom Delonge, Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, Elton john, Robert Carmine... thats all for now

I would say...

Elvis Presley
and/or
Freddie Mercury

This is somewhat of a weighted question, as I have to vote for my favorite, Warren Zevon.

However, I would give votes to Elvis, Freddie, Natalie Merchant, Sinatra...

and Bob Dylan. (Just kidding)!

Of the top of my head:

Brandon Boyd - Incubus
James LaBrie - Dream Theater
Elton John
Bjork
Sia Furler, Mozez, Sophie Barker - Zero 7
Beth - Portishead
Alicia Keys
Norah Jones
Axl Rose

Kelly Chen..the one and only...
http://chinese.altocelebs.com/c/kell...-w2-003127.jpg

Go check her out, find the song "Lover's Concerto" and listen to it, you'll see...:D

hmm....males:louis armstrong
female:mariah carey

Mariah is high on my top five list along with Toni Braxton
The top performer of the first half of the 20th century - Al Jolson - ranks on my list of male singers along with Sinatra

I'm going to have to agree with the Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, as well as the Isaac Brock. I'd add Stan Rogers, too. Not very popular outdside of Canada, but he had a spectacular voice. I also like Harry Nilsson quite a bit. And for fun, Carl Anderson II; he played Judas in the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar.