Greatest female singer of all time

[TrentonMakes]

Just now, Dirtyhip said:

Of course not.  She sucks.

I got into an argument about this exact issue, with a really good friend, many years ago.  He did not agree that the lovely Ms. McVie had the better voice.  I was incredulous.

[MoseySusan]

Patsy Cline should have had more songs. It’s sad that her legacy was cut short. 

I’m adding Annie Lenox to the list. 

[Ltdskilz]

I'd nominate Taylor Swift but I think she only has one note. 

[Ralphie ★]

2 hours ago, TrentonMakes said:

I got into an argument about this exact issue, with a really good friend, many years ago.  He did not agree that the lovely Ms. McVie had the better voice.  I was incredulous.

I agree with you!

[Further]

The best tends to be the one I'm listening to now. Diana Krall is often on the list. Sade, Roberta Flack, Amy Winehouse...too many to list.

And...

It's music, not a competition, enjoy them all     

[MoseySusan]

I tend to agree. The best is the one you’re listening to at “that just right moment” when...

[Ralphie ★]

On 9/25/2019 at 10:21 PM, Further said:

The best tends to be the one I'm listening to now. Diana Krall is often on the list. Sade, Roberta Flack, Amy Winehouse...too many to list.

And...

It's music, not a competition, enjoy them all     

Those are excellent candidates.  I would say for me it is probably between Sade and kd lang.  Both have voices of an angel.

[Ralphie ★]

This was a good thread.

Resonance is a good word for it.  Something inside me vibrates along with great voices, like the ones Further and I mentioned, and I melt like buttah and maybe even get a little verklempt.

 

[UglyBob]

Anne Wilson is super high on my list, but people forget that Nancy can sing lead as well. She flies under the radar.

 

My current favorite is Haley Rinehart.

 

[Ralphie ★]

2 hours ago, UglyBob said:

Anne Wilson is super high on my list, but people forget that Nancy can sing lead as well. She flies under the radar.

 

My current favorite is Haley Rinehart.

 

She’s got le-e-e-e-e-egs. And she knows how to use them.

 

[Longjohn ★]

When I met my wife she played twelve string guitar and sang mostly Christian songs and played in churches and retreats. She sang songs by Bill and Gloria Gaither. When she wasn’t singing Christian music she liked singing Karen Carpenter music. Her voice was very similar. I never paid much attention to the Carpenters until I heard Esther sing them. I became a fan but mostly when I heard my wife sing them.

 

[MickinMD ★]

Clearly Edith Piaf, who sold more records than Elvis Presley despite recording in French and many of her great records being released during the Depression.  I have a couple hundred mp3's of her, one greater than the next - though they're almost all in French.

Even now, over 100 years after her birth, her singing voice is still heard in commercials (Non, je ne regrette rien ("no regrets," literally, "I regret nothing") is in a current one), and as background music in many movies like Bull Durham even though they're in French!

Unfortunately, they screwed up her songs when they recorded some of them in English.  They murdered La Vie En Rose with a fast Latin beat!

For American female singers, I love Linda Ronstadt, Rosemary Clooney, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, and Patsy Kline.  They NEVER missed a beat or a note or when to come in and sang with great emotion and vocal tone.  Ronstadt could control individual vocal cords!

I'm talking about singing ability alone here.  I've seen people like Carole King listed on some greatest singer lists, but her voice is not among the elite.  But she is, in my opinion, the greatest of all the women singer-songwriters and perhaps the greatest singer-songwriter period.  A lot of the 50's and early 60's rock-and-roll bands became famous singing songs she wrote or co-wrote.

Mirielle Mathieu, another French singer who was born in 1946, like Ronstadt, also has incredible recordings.

People in most other nations hear musicians from all over the world regularly.  In America, the record companies pretty much have foreign record companies boxed out as well as most TV Series and Movies. There is a very excellent Polish movie on the life of Chopin recorded in English and then dubbed with American accents but you're not likely to see it unless you get it through a torrent. You usually don't hear foreign singers unless they record on American labels.

So, asking Americans who is the greatest female singer of all time is pretty ridiculous: how would most of us have any clue when the vast majority of the world's big-selling recording artists are blocked from us?

 

 

[Dottleshead ★]

[Rattlecan ★]

On 9/25/2019 at 12:01 PM, ChrisL said:

Of the recent pop singers I would think you have to consider Mariah Carey Over Madonna or Whitney Houston.  She was one of the few of her genre that actually could sing.

But I couldn’t pick just one.

And I am pretty sure only dogs can hear half of her vocal range so we can never know how great she really is 

[Ralphie ★]

On 8/1/2021 at 7:45 AM, Rattlecan said:

And I am pretty sure only dogs can hear half of her vocal range so we can never know how great she really is 

Excellent thread closer.