Songs of the Day: A Selection of "Greatest" Vocalists

Rolling Stone picked the 200 greatest singers. Worth a laugh but also a listen, below to Ronstadt, Gaye, Billie, Tina, Ray, Al, Sandy and Umm Kulthum.

Rolling Stone is out with another one of its “greatest” lists—that is, impossible and therefore often ridiculous rankings of the best singles/albums/artists etc. ever. This time it’s an updating of their “greatest singers” picks from 2008, as chosen by staffers and contributors, now expanded from 100 to 200, because more has to be better, right, and Meatloaf must be included as a side. Rather than a full critique of the choices and/or the ranking order (like shooting fish in a barrel), I will just post the link here and songs by a few of the “winners” below. The singers they placed near the top are reasonable picks but then there’s plenty to mock or argue about —e.g. Kurt Cobain and Thom Yorke topping Van Morrison, Ariana Grande beating out Ella Fitzgerald and Tina Turner, Lou Reed besting Jackie Wilson, Freddie Mercury over Louis Armstrong (the most influential of all), Courtenay Love over Sandy Denny, no Richard Manuel anywhere, and so on. Enjoy, then subscribe, it’s still free.

Marvin Gaye with instruments deleted making this a capella—imagine this with someone today and with auto-tuning tuned out.

Ronstadt in peak rocking form on “Tumbling Dice.”

Early live Ray Charles, “Let the Good Times Roll.”

Tina with the epic “River Deep, Mountain High”

Rev. Al Green takes you to the river.

Sandy Denny post-Fairport.

Umm Kulthum: So great, Bob Dylan in the early 1970s told us at Crawdaddy he would not do an interview with us until we did a piece on her. We did. He still didn’t talk to us. Still: glad we did. And Bob later recorded this testimonial.

Two for the price of one: Billie Holiday plus Satchmo.