By L.A. Weekly Tuesday, March 8, 2016
They've yet to invent the musical instrument that can move us more than the human voice. Great singers convey a world of emotion in a single note, turn simple melodies into symphonies, and imbue the most straightforward lyrics (think of Aretha's "Baby, I love you") with the depth of a Russian novel. No guitar solo can do all that.
In compiling this list of our favorite singers, we looked beyond range, technique and pitch to consider other factors: expressiveness, phrasing, originality, showmanship ? and, let's be honest, how much fun they are to imitate at karaoke. We also inevitably got subjective, and compared apples to oranges. Is Axl Rose really a better singer than Frank Sinatra? Are there really four R&B singers more talented than the greatest opera soprano of all time? Probably not, but ranking them and arguing about those rankings is half the fun.
Here, then, are L.A. Weekly's picks for the 20 greatest singers of all time, in any genre.
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3. Axl Rose
Axl Rose was the last rock & roll singer and in a perfect world, he?d enjoy more critical acclaim than a certain divorce-rock godfather from Aberdeen. ?A small-town white boy just trying to make ends meet,? Rose possesses perhaps the most instantly recognizable voice in all of rock. His nearly-six-octave range is among the world?s largest, which is braggable, but more important is how he uses it. He goes from a mean growl to a soaring screech to a soulful croon on a single album side. His little asides in songs (my favorite is ?that?s right!? but there?s also ?all right, that sucked!?) add that extra something that only a master can. - Nicholas Pell
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