Top 25–Singers

That’s right…25 is back.  And unlike the last few 25, I’m actually going to order them.  From the top of my head–and with the help of my iTunes list–here are my favorite 25 singers ever.  You’ll find a heavy emphasis on soul, but the list isn’t exclusive to soul.
There are a lot of criteria I used to put this list together, but the most important thing to me when discussing a singer is the ability to convey emotion.  All the technical stuff doesn’t really move me as much.  All communication is about getting an idea across, so that’s what’s most important to me.  Few other things matter, too, but that’s the big one.
Let’s go…
25.  Teena Marie.
I used to say that Janis Joplin, who narrowly missed this list, was the best white female singer I’d heard just because she could power her way through any song.  Then I realized that her inability to stay in key gives the prize to Teena.  The hard part in evaluating Marie is, of course, that she’s a white soul singer, meaning I’d have to figure out if I’d recalibrated my expectations by subconsciously adding the caveat “for a white girl” to my thoughts on her.
No problem here.  She just can do it to death.
24.  Lou Rawls
So am I adding Lou because I love that Chicago baritone?  Or is it just because Lou was one of the five coolest dudes on planet Earth?  I really don’t know, but I can listen to “Dead End Street” for hours on end.
23.  Sade
Would have been higher if she didn’t sound the same all the time.  She ain’t got but about three ways or so to flip a song.
22.  Donny Hathaway
I’m sure the old folks are pitchin’ a fit that Donny’s not much higher.  Sorry, but Donny can just as easily put me to sleep as he can warm my heart.  He just can’t get across that many emotions.  He longs and he loves, but that’s really just about it.  He does, however, long and love very, very well.
21.  Erykah Badu
Okay, this feels too high.  However, she’s already done a live album to death and given us one of the greatest albums ever (Mama’s Gun).  But I really don’t have reservations about this one because she’s so unique, so confident, and able to do so many things.
20.  Ray Charles
Ray gets here for the same reason Luther Vandross will be listed so highly–you’ve gotta be a monster when you put a grip of your career in the hands of covers.  You’ve got to be able to run the gamut of emotions or, at the very least, be able to apply one emotion to a wide range of songs.  So yeah, here’s Ray-Ray.
(Please, Kirk, don’t start railing on Jamie Foxx.)
19.  R. Kelly
Kinda hard not to do this one without thinking about…yanno.  But has anyone flipped his voice up from album to album like Kells?  And he’s pulled it off.  He’s only got a couple of great albums, but he doesn’t have any bad ones.  And considering how stupid a grip of his stuff is, his voice has got to have a lot to do with it, even more than shocking sexual lyrics.
18.  Ronald Isley
Singing’s not supposed to sound that easy.
17.  Bill Withers
Bill sure don’t make singing sound easy.  He doesn’t make life sound easy, either.  It sounds pretty damn miserable, but Bill always sounds honest as all get out.  Like he couldn’t lie to you if he wanted to, whether he’s talking about killing himself or enjoying being a boy toy.  The most underrated performer of his generation.
16.  Stevie Wonder
Same on the sincerity, for Stevie will scream at you if he thinks it’ll help.  And he’ll also get smooth, funky, or whatever else is requires.  I wouldn’t wanna see him singing unaccompanied, but there’s a reason his voice is so damn recognizable.
15.  Etta James
I don’t think there’s any verbal description of Etta James that works better than her voice.  That isn’t to say she transcends comparison or anything.  But, for some reason, I can’t come up with the words that say it best.  She’s just Etta.
14.  Frankie Beverly
Compared to Frankie, Ron Isley sounds like he’s trying to sing out of his nose.  That’s how smooth Frankie is.  He wins over Ron–and a grip of others–because he makes it seem easy but is still powerful as hell.  Go listen to “Golden Time of Day” and try to tell me I’m lying.
13.  Maxwell
Okay, so I’m torn here.  This dude’s only put out one (1) album that I want to hear again in my life.  Just one.  And that was ten years ago.  But man, he can sing his ass off.  I also admit that I’m biased by how blown away I was by his concert at the Fox Theater in Atlanta in 1999.
12.  Barry White
Who cares if he can sing?  He can.  He can do it to death.  But no one singer has done so much for so many.  So I thank you, Barry, and give you a spot on this list.  It’s the least I could do.  Half my friends–hell, maybe me, too–wouldn’t be alive were it not for you.  One time for life!
11.  David Ruffin
I’m actually not the biggest Motown fan because, quite honestly, I’m not a huge fan of poppy soul.  Maybe that’s why I love Ruffin so much.  He was so gritty that nothing Smokey could write could take the edge off that.  Not that Smokey was trying to do that, but he knew Ruffin worked best when, well, rough.   Also the obvious motivation for Eddie King, Jr. in The Five Heartbeats.
10.  Prince
At this very moment, I’d put him up there with anyone.  The most impressive thing about his rebirth on Musicology was how magnificent his voice sounded.  Check “Reflection” and see what I mean.  But early?  Yeah, the lil’ fella needed some work.  But he also sold hte hell out of every line, and that’s the biggie to me.
9.  Otis Redding
He didn’t just sell each line.  He could get you to buy his soul while you were at it.  The gold standard of Southern power vocalists.
8.  Michael Jackson
Serious, serious gift for melody and able to go from sounding totally childlike to fully grown.  That he does all that dancing and appears to be out of his mind obscures that.  And Josie makes the best point–his gift for melody is nearly unparalleled.
7.  James Brown
Someone out there is sayin, “James Brown can’t sing!”  That person’s an idiot.  James can sing, but a different kind of voice was necessary to drive the funk records home.  But no matter what, he dominated whatever song he was on, a serious feat when you’ve got the best band in the world behind you.  But it’s gonna be like that when you’re such an ill bandleader.
6.  Al Green
See, so much of Al’s stuff sounds the same, but he’s so so so smooth.  I really wanna know, though, who told Al that he was a singer.  He doesn’t have a voice I’d tell someone to carry on with.  But he sure as Hades has got it.
5.  Van Morrison
The older I get, the more I realize he may be my favorite singer of all-time.  Incredibly soulful.  More than anything, he drives those confusing songs like “Madame George” home.  Even though I frequently have no idea what he’s talking about, I do know what he’s feeling, which is worth a lot.  But man, if only he cared whether we knew what he was talking about.  Is that too much to ask for, Van?
4.  Sam Cooke
Always sounded so depressed, but always so cool.  Always so smooth.  Put it like this–he’s dope enough that he can get me to listen to gospel.
Yeah, it’s like that.
3.  Luther Vandross
Loofa’s on here largely for the reasons other people love him, not so much me.  Has anyone ever done this kind of music and sounded so perpetually optimistic?  Even when things are at their worst, he always seems sure that it’s gonna be okay in the end.  There’s a reason that big women love Loofa the way they do.  Not because he’s a big dude, but because he’s a big dude that ain’t letting that stop him from finding happiness.  Gotta respect it.
No.  Gotta love it.
2.  Marvin Gaye
A good friend of mine let me know once that she absolutely can’t get into Marvin.  That blew my mind, but she finally realized what the problem was–Marvin sang about a kind of love that scared her to death.  The love Marvin sang about was one that scared her to death, one too intense for her to handle.  Much of that had to do with his lyrics, which were amazingly compelling and totally vulnerable.  The clincher, though, is how he becomes totally immersed in the song, totally lost in his thoughts and feelings as he gives them to the world.  And he pulls it off because he hits every note perfectly in just about every way.
1.  Aretha Franklin
Alia always wonders why I don’t do more stuff on women and, specifically, why there’s never been a list for Aretha.  I’ll get to that at some point, but I agree with Marianne Faithful’s statement that Aretha’s voice is the voice of God.  It’s got everything you could possibly want–power, finesse, emotion, range, and anything else I could think of–and that comes out even when she’s doing an absolutely dreadful record (and lord, she’s made plenty of those).  But man, there’s no way that Aretha’s voice comes through the speakers and you don’t instantly know it’s her.  And if you’re not glad to hear it, I guess you were just raised wrong.  I mean, I used to listen to her version of “Precious Lord” every Sunday morning.
(Shucks.  I’ve already done the entire list and realized I didn’t put Patti LaBelle anywhere on it.  Put her between JB and MJ and then adjust the list from there.)
Honorable mention–Anthony Hamilton, Chris Cornell, Beach Boys, Bob Marley, Bobby Womack, Curtis Mayfield, Jim Morrison, Philip Bailey, Mike Patton, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Gerald and Eddie Levert, Isaac Hayes, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Jill Scott, K-Ci Hailey, Mary J. Blige, Rick James, Roberta Flack, Eddie Kendricks, Wilson Pickett, Bono, Gladys Knight, Billie Holiday.
Lots of new pieces coming next week.  I’m doing an interview with Richard Billingsley, the man behind one of the BCS computers.  I’m also attending the Carolina/Kentucky and Duke/Georgetown games this weekend and writing an account of the day.  That should be lots of fun.