Rolling Stone 200 Greatest Singers of All Time

[oregonjen]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-singers-all-time-1234642307/

Taylor Swift? She’s popular yes, but really, of all time? Billie Eilish? Hmmm, I don’t agree.

They left out my favorite John Denver and also Neil Diamond and Celine Dion…

Who would you add to their list? Who do you think shouldn’t be on there?

[Docreed2003]

1. I'm usually not a fan of "greatest lists",

But there is no list that should ever list Freddy Mercury as an inferior singer to John Lennon.

[True Dough]

2. I rank

Docreed ahead of Dr. Hook, but that's just me.

[Docreed2003]

3. 🤣🤣🤣

Wow thank you!!! Dr John still has an advantage on me though, which I can respect

[True Dough]

5. Lou Reed

also has a slight advantage. But you keep on rocking, Doc! You'll overtake him!

[ProudMNDemocrat]

4. Where did Freddie Mercury place I wonder?

I would assume he would be in the Top 25.

[ironflange]

19. #14

[hlthe2b]

6. If Billie Eilish is on that list, I know it is bogus.

Really? "Greatest vocalists?" She may have some songwriting talent, but she has no voice. Largely ditto, for Swift, albeit she is in a very different category than Eilish.

I'll stick with the "best guitarists" or other musician lists. At least one can argue they are not merely "fan-generated."

[ZZenith]

8. She's actually a really good singer.

Took me a while to realize it but she has exquisite control of her voice.

Having said that, though - the list is utterly ridiculous, as are all such lists. It’s impossible to quantify artistic ability.

[hlthe2b]

11. Song better matched to her abilities, that's for sure.

I could see her as a jazzy crooner type of singer. Maybe her talents will mature.

[dem4decades]

7. Bobby Hatfield, not on the list? Too bad the authors never heard Unchained Melody.

[Mike Nelson]

9. Well...

... not going to scroll all those! Some All-Time great ones... Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Connie Francis, Rosemary Clooney, Johnnie Ray, Hank Williams, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Roy Orbison, Ray Charles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Jay Black, Ben E King, Nat King Cole, Gene Pitney, so many! ...and I'm gonna say Bob Dylan, Al Jolson, Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong due to their being so distinct, if not classic smooth... and it's hard to forget Dionne Warwick, she has a special coming on... what a songstress. So many "group" lead and harmonizers, too...

[highplainsdem]

10. What a fucked up list.

[moniss]

12. I don't know about the RS list but this lady

is one of the tops for me. 1965 Studio One at Abbey Road. Yes that is Bacharach conducting and playing piano.

[FuzzyRabbit]

13. Was Tom Jones on the list?

If he was, I missed him.

And Bill Medley also.

And Celine Dion definitely belongs.

And Judith Durham.

[Freddie]

15. No Tom Jones is not

And he certainly should be! Maybe I’m just old but some of them…Taylor Swift, really??

[IcyPeas]

14. Article says: keep in mind that this is the Greatest Singers list, not the Greatest Voices List.

Before you start scrolling (and commenting), keep in mind that this is the Greatest Singers list, not the Greatest Voices List.

Freddie Mercury is number 14✔️

Billie Eilish is number 198

Taylor Swift is number 102

Some others from the list:

Karen O - number 184 ✔️

Debbie Harry is 168✔️

Morrissey is 166✔️

Sandy Denny, 164✔️

Robert Smith - 157✔️

Bryan Ferry - 150✔️✔️

Bono - 140✔️

Courtney Love - 130 ❓

Chrissie Hynde - 114✔️

Amy Winehouse - 83✔️

Emmylou Harris - 79✔️

Joni Mitchell - 50✔️✔️

Marvin Gaye - 20✔️

[highplainsdem]

16. Unlike their 2008 list, the new list had NO votes from musicians - ONLY RS staff,

including contributors.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-singers-all-time-1234642307/

When Rolling Stone first published its list of the 100 Greatest Singers in 2008, we used an elaborate voting process that included input from well-known musicians. The results skewed toward classic rock and singers from the Sixties and Seventies. This new list was compiled our staff and key contributors, and it encompasses 100 years of pop music as an ongoing global conversation, where iconic Indian playback singer Lata Mangeshkar lands between Amy Winehouse and Johnny Cash, and salsa queen Celia Cruz is up there in the rankings with Prince and Marvin Gaye.

So basically the new list is whoever the current staff wants to make a fuss about. And it's a deliberate repudiation of the 2008 list.

It does include a lot of great singers.

It also drops a lot of great singers who were on that 2008 list of the 100 greatest, including some singers who weren't near the bottom of that list of 100, completely out of the 200 greatest. Like Paul Rodgers, who'd been #55 on the 2008 list, and should have been ranked higher.

Bonnie Raitt dropped from #50 in 2008 to #187 on the new list.

TBH, for Rolling Stone's staff and whoever the hell they selected as "key" contributors to think they can really make judgments on "100 years of pop music as an ongoing global conversation" is delusional, especially with them choosing to exclude well-known musicians from their poll.

One of the best things about the 2008 list was the commentary BY OTHER MUSICIANS included in the paragraph about each singer on the list. This new list just has the opining of staffers and contributors identified only by initials. It's as if Rolling Stone decided the "ongoing conversation" that's popular music should be between musicians and rock journalists who choose to notice them, not among the musicians themselves.

[BluesRunTheGame]

17. Rick Danko, Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones, Alison Krauss, Dianna Krall, Bill Monroe...

[Ocelot II]

18. I've never heard of 3/4 of these people.

[LudwigPastorius]

20. A ridiculous list, because...

they're ranking singers from entirely different genres and styles.

...also, because spares like Lana Del Rey and The Weeknd are on it.

[lpbk2713]

21. Streisand at #147??

They blew their credibility right there.

[jmowreader]

22. Hang on for a second...

They put Kurt Cobain, the man whose Weird Al parody is about how you can't understand a damn thing he says, on this list...

but left off Bruce Dickinson, the closest thing rock and roll has to an opera singer?

[Buckeye_Democrat]

23. Bob Dylan at #15?!

I'm an embarrassingly terrible singer, but I could sound just like Bob Dylan when I participated in Karaoke years ago. The crowds would loudly applaud simply because it was like Dylan was singing the songs himself, after I stopped breathing through my nose and I altered my voice to emulate him.

He's NOT a good singer!

EDIT: Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane) made the list, I hope. I only skimmed through it.