I Love Rock 'n' Roll
With the passing of Ronnie Spector earlier this week, I started thinking about all the great music she made with the Ronnettes and as a solo artist and I came up with this idea to start going over some of the greatest female vocalists of all time. No, I am not talking about Maria Calas and her ilk, I am of course talking about Rock and Roll singers and the list is long.
I may miss some and please take me to task if I miss some great ones and also, you can take issue with my timeline as well. I generally will start in the Mid 60’s to the Mid or late 80’s. Sorry to all the youngsters out there, Rhiannon is not a great singer, neither is Beyonce or Dua Lupa or any of the manufactured stars of today.
Aretha Franklin was a great singer. I don’t have to go over this. She was probably the greatest singer ever, man or woman. There was never anything remotely close to her and there never will be.
With Aretha out of the way, we can get down to it. My list, as usual, is eclectic and probably skirts the boundaries of rock and roll but remember, it is my column and I write what I want. The list is not in any order of preference so don’t read too much into it as far as ranking. People like lists and ranks but I really don’t think I am knowledgable enough to actually rank one against the other.
I will start with Janis Joplin. Her career was cut short because of the excesses of the day and her inability to fight those excesses and it is a shame because she had so much talent and heart that every song she sang drew you in. Her experiences and her heartbreaks were out there for the World to see and giving all of that, every night, to an audience has to wear you down like nothing else. She didn’t have that pleasant voice like a Petula Clark, she had razorblades and whiskey and two packs of cigarettes a day.
Grace Slick was not only beautiful (in a hippy kind of way) but she had as powerful a voice as anyone on the planet at that time. Pitch perfect and entrancing. I could listen to the Jefferson Airplane at their peak, over and over again. The problem became that they were too spacey at times and while her voice was smooth like butta, the lyrics were just too far out there. Still, a perfect voice.
Linda Ronstadt is another perfect voice from that era. Ronstadt started with The Stone Ponies as a 18 and had a few hits and she became one of the most gifted solo artists this country ever produced. Hits upon hits, she showed vocal range that few artist ever reached. Was she rock and roll? I say yes, pop ballads or not she was definitely rock and roll. She toured with Neil Young and Crazy Horse, enough said.
Some will say my next choice is more about the band than the actual lead singer, I will say, I don’t care, Ann Wilson from Heart is an extraordinary rock and roll vocalist. Powerful and take no prisoners is how I would describe her singing style. The band knocks you over the head with their musicianship and she drags you down with her vocals. Anyone who doubts it should watch her version of Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll on Youtube and you will see Robert Plant watching and loving it.
You can’t do this type of column without mentioning Tina Turner. She could sing softly, slow, nice and easy or she could ram it down your throat. her history is almost as fascinating as her singing and she is legendary no doubt. I was never a big fan but you don’t have to be a fan to realize how great a singer and entertainer she is.
While never exhibiting the belting power of Ann Wilson or Tina Turner, Joni Mitchell had a style all her own. She sang like a beautiful spring day and what makes her so unique is that her lyrics were more important than her singing of them. Her voice was sweet and at times almost conversational but you could always listen for hours and never get tired of it. It’s about the song, stupid.
In a similar vain but not nearly as accomplished is St. Vincent lead singer Annie Clark. She has a beautiful, mesmerizing voice and is a wicked guitar player. While she plays avant garde thing to the hilt, just listen to her sing and you will see it’s just a gimmick to separate her from the rest of the artists out there. She is the rare artist nowadays that actually has talent and she could have done the standard rock and roll thing with a dirty grungy band and the accouterments and she would still be special.
One of my favorites of all time was Kate Pierson from the B-52’s. Gimmicky yes but the band was great fun to listen to and Pierson’s vocals were always there leading the way. The band did use other vocalists at times but Fred Schneider could never hold a candle to Kate Pierson and they knew it. I think everyone should should go back and listen to the first three albums by this band. Listen to her singing and your day will be a whole lot better afterwords.
I am going to group Joan Jett and Pat Benatar together only because they had similar arcs to their careers and similar stylings to their singing. As a pure singer, I think Benatar probably was a better singer but I think it’s splitting hairs. Joan Jett has the more accomplished career I guess and being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame confirms that but I think they probably rank evenly as far as overall talent goes.
Lot’s of people I know would say that Patti Smith might be the greatest female singer ever (Aretha, be still, I disagree) but I don’t think so. I do think her version of Gloria is transcendant (as I said a week or two ago) but a lot of her stuff other than the first album is a grab bag of studio takes that may or may not be coherent. I will give her this, she has a very unique style and that is what landed her here today.
From that era again I will say that Debbie Harry should be included. She was a personality, she had a lot of talent, she could write and she was great live. We are talking singers here and she could sing. Another singer who’s voice was as smooth as glass and could reach high and low all in the same song. And she could rap.
Dialing it back and remembering the 60’s I have to put Mama Cass Elliot on this list. While the band had three other very good singers, Cass Elliot was time and time again the lead vocalist on almost everyone of The Mamas and Papas hits. She could belt out a song like no one else at the time and they were one of the most popular groups of the 60’s because of her talent. Here is a little tidbit that will prove my point; The Mamas and Papas have had several of their songs covered by other artists and not one of them has ever reached the level of the original. The covers could never do justice to the original.
I have not forgotten these singers but for today, they don’t reach this list. Chrissi Hynde, Bjork, Cher, Nina Simone, Diana Ross, Dusty Springfield, Laura Nero, Roberta Flack, Leslie Gore, Brenda Lee, Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield and last but not least Stevie Nicks.
If you have any others, from any era, email me and if and when I right another column like this I will try to include them.