Top 100 greatest female singers of all time
Contrary to anything you’ve heard, the ability to actually carry a tune is in no regard a disability in becoming a rock & roll singer, only a mild disadvantage. Conversely, nothing in the vocal limitations of a Lou Reed guarantees a “Pale Blue Eyes” every time out, any more than singing as crazy-clumsy as Tom Waits guarantees a “Downtown Train.” Yet there’s a certain time-tested sturdiness to the lowchops approach forged by touchstone figures like Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison and Jonathan Richman, one that helps define rock & roll singing. Show
For me, Bob Dylan and Patti Smith, just to mention two, are superb singers by any measure I could ever care about — expressivity, surprise, soul, grain, interpretive wit, angle of vision. Those two folks, a handful of others: their soul-burps are, for me, the soul-burps of the gods. The beauty of the singer’s voice touches us in a place that’s as personal as the place from which that voice has issued. If one of the weird things about singers is the ecstasy of surrender they inspire, another weird thing is the debunking response a singer can arouse once we’ve recovered our senses. It’s as if they’ve fooled us into loving them, diddled our hard-wiring, located a vulnerability we thought we’d long ago armored over. Falling in love with a singer is like being a teenager every time it happens. This is an excerpt from Jonathan Lethem’s introduction to the Greatest Singers of All Time feature in the November 27, 2008 issue of Rolling Stone. A panel of 179 experts ranked the vocalists.
Aretha FranklinImage Credit: Goodwin/RedfernsBorn March 25th, 1942 Key Tracks “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “Respect,” “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” “Think,” “Chain of Fools” Influenced Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys, Aaron Neville, Annie Lennox You know a force from heaven. You know something that God made. And Aretha is a gift from God. When it comes to expressing yourself through song, there is no one who can touch her. She is the reason why women want to sing. Aretha has everything — the power, the technique. She is honest with everything she says. Everything she’s thinking or dealing with is all in the music, from “Chain of Fools” to “Respect” to her live performances. And she has total confidence; she does not waver at all. I think her gospel base brings that confidence, because in gospel they do not play around — they’re all about chops, who has the vocal runs. This is no game to her. As a child, I used to listen to Aretha’s music because my mom played “Do Right Woman” and “Ain’t No Way” every single day. I would see my mother cry when she listened to those songs, and I’d cry too. Then I discovered her on my own with the Sparkle soundtrack. I must have played “Giving Him Something He Can Feel” 30 times in a row; eventually, I connected the dots to that voice my mom was listening to. Even the way she pronounces words is amazing: In “Giving Him Something He Can Feel,” when she sings, “Many say that I’m too young” — the way she says “I’m,” you can almost see her saying it, like she’s all in your face, but you’re still right with her. You can really visualize her hands when she sings, “You’re tying both of my hands,” on “Ain’t No Way” — it’s the powerful way she hits the word “both.” When you watch her work, you can see why Aretha is who she is. When we did the song “Don’t Waste Your Time” on my album Mary, she just went in there and ate that record like Pac-Man. She could be doing a church vocal run, and it would turn into some jazz-space thing, something I never encountered before. You’d say, “Where did that come from? Where did she find that note?” It’s beautiful to see, because it helps people with a lack of confidence in their ability, like myself. I look at her and think, “I need a piece of that. Whatever that is.” —Mary J. Blige Who is considered the best female vocalist of all time?ARETHA FRANKLIN. Many would put this woman at the top of any numbered list as the best female vocalist and they'd have good reason. Who are the top 50 female singers of all time?50 best female artists of all-time. Who is the most famous female artist of all time?Madonna, who is currently on her Celebration Tour, has been re-certified by the Guinness World Records as the biggest-selling female recording artist of all time. She has reportedly sold more than 400 million records — albums, singles and digital — during her 40-year music career. Who is1 greatest singer of all time?In January 2023, Rolling Stone announced American singer, songwriter, and pianist Aretha Franklin as the greatest singer of all time. |