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Home » The Voices: Roy Orbison, Karen Carpenter

The Voices: Roy Orbison, Karen Carpenter

The New Neo Posted on by

I do a lot of YouTube surfing. It’s a way to relax and unwind, and it’s addictive, like potato chips, although less fattening. Last night, it started out when I came across one of those silly Rolling Stone polls—you know, the ones that purport to list the 100 greatest this and that of all time.

Rolling Stone‘s 100 Greatest Singers of All Time is a curious document. The order seems confused, featuring some people who rank higher than they should be as vocalists (IMHO), since they are really more notable for songwriting.

And what’s up with no mention at all of Dionne Warwick, a pure vocalist who was effortlessly musical? Roy Orbison at 13 was a good choice (his voice quality and range are extraordinary; memorably described by Dwight Yoakam as “the cry of an angel falling backward through an open window”). And it’s good that the fabulous Nina Simone (talk about distinctive voices!) comes in at 29. But I don’t like a lot of the others.

And then there’s Karen Carpenter. I never paid much attention to her, and Rolling Stone only clocks her at number 94, probably because she was considered corny, sentimental, hokey. But YouTube makes it so easy to go back and listen and, lo and behold, what a voice! Phrases such as “smooth as silk” and “warm maple syrup pouring” come to mind. She had what all great singers possess, a totally unique and instantly recognizable sound.

I have never heard such an effortless voice before or since (although Johnny Mathis and Nat King Cole come somewhat close on the male side, and Patsy Cline—Rolling Stone’s 46—had some of the same quality), unforced and flowing and almost unbelievably rich:

Comments

The Voices: Roy Orbison, Karen Carpenter — 79 Comments

  1. I came to like Carpenter music in an unusual way.

    In my late teens, I went on six bus rides of six to ten hours each and the bus driver’s wife played Carpenter’s music the whole time.

    If she’s reading, thank you!

  2. I agree on Karen Carpenter. The closest thing the world has ever heard to a perfect singing voice.

    And i don’t see how they left out Marilyn McCoo and Andy Williams in this.

  5. The Carpenters are a guilty pleasure and must be enjoyed in secret. 😉

    The Rolling Stone list was made by people who were trying to show how cool they are.

  6. Starting with “Only the Lonely” in 1960*, I have been a confirmed Roy Orbison fan for a full fifty years now.

    That is a ^half^ ^century^!!!

    (I know you-all can do the math, but reinterpreting it in terms of centuries rather than years opens up a different perspective for me.)

    Anyway, I’m pleased as punch you (neo-neocon) appreciate the Big “O”, too.

    See ya . . .

    M J R

    [ * Fact: he did have some minor and local success before 1960, but 1960’s when I was first introduced to his music. ]

  8. Johnny Mathis’s “Open Fire Two Guitars” is one of the best records evah. Talk about amazing control…

  9. Roy Orbison was good no doubt. But i find it to be a good i can only take in small doses. I can’t imagine listening to a whole RO album and enjoying his peculiar falsetto to the end. I think of him more like a fine wine that’s best when sipped occassionally.

  10. Yes, yes, yes to all the above. And to add one name to the list, Alison Krauss. Surely her voice is what God had in mind when he gave us music.

  11. I remember “Rainy Days and Mondays” from an X-Files ep; I think it was in the 6th season. Some girl whose moods determined the weather.

    I like “Top of the World” better, though.

    “Something in the winter’s learned my name
    And it’s telling me that things are not the same…

    When this day is through I hope that I will find
    That tomorrow will be just the same for you and me
    All I need will be mine if you are here”

  12. I didn’t see the list, but where was Patsy Cline?

    And this may be an obscure one, but for my money the best voice in music is A-mei Chang. She’s a Taiwanese aborigine and has been Taiwan’s biggest pop star for the last 10 years. She sings in Mandarin, but her voice makes you FEEL the emotion of the songs even if you can’t understand the words. That’s what real singers can do.

    Not like an Adult:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX1abFjis0M

    Girls Say:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAlL90VIaMQ

    Unforgettable Scene:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa-AY9lTo3M

    Remember:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_67zVnK9PY

    Oh yeah Neo, I enjoy all your on-topic posts as well. LOL. Keep up the great work.

  13. Here’s one of my favorites:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVUsMbHU4UM
    – It’s Too Late, Nanci Griffith

    The very blasphemous thought (via the Jesus Christ Superstar musical) that went through my head was that this could easily have been Mary Magdalene singing.

    “You’ve been my mystery, and I’ve been your desire…”

    Just change a couple of lowercase letters for capitals, and it fits.

  14. Every time I hear Karen Carpenter sing, I can’t help but remember how painfully thin she was in some of her videos, and how she died from anorexia/bulimia.

    What a waste.

  17. If you like Karen Carpenter, listen to the British singer called Rumer. It’s like she’s been reincarnated in 2010.

  19. @ SteveH 3:24 pm. The closest thing the world has ever heard to a perfect singing voice.

    Yup yup. I would nominate “Only Yesterday” as the most beautiful love song ever (in American pop music, at least).

  20. P.S. It is rumored that, when Elvis Presley was introduced to Roy Orbison, Elvis said he was proud to meet the greatest living voice.

  21. Dylan at 7 and Redding at 8!

    Obviously someone is putting emotion and politics before thought.

    Any Lileth singer is automatically invited for a caribou hunt.

  22. Lists like this are annoying. People like Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison are always on these lists not because of their raw talent, but because their talent has been grossly exaggerated by the baby boomers. Boomers have elevated them to martyr status because they killed themsevles from drugs while the boomers were rebelling against society. They are good singers, they just wouldn’t be in my top 100.

    How can Janis Joplin be on the list but young women of this era with greater range such as Christina Aguilera, Joss Stone, and Jewel are not on the list?

    Unless I missed her, I didn’t see Ella Fitgerald. Her voice in the collaboration she did with Louis Armstrong on “Summertime” is one of my all time favorites. It never gets old.

    Not enough crooners are on the list. Where’s Frank Sinatra? Bing Crosby? Andy Williams?

  23. I think Gogi Grant is the singer who topped the charts with “The Wayward Wind,” not Patsy.

  24. Although he was never taken seriously because of his comedy routines, Dean Martin had a good voice and style.

  25. Jim,

    You are right – A-mei Chang is tremendous.

    Guess I’m going to be doing some Chinese-English translations!

  26. Karen Carpenter was remarkable. But what an annoying list! I had to hunt elsewhere online to find a page where it was summarized so I wouldn’t have to click through 100 screens to find out who’s on it.
    It’s not really a list of vocalists; it’s a list of people who got famous for singing, with those whose voices were real instruments (Freddie Mercury, Elvis, or yes, Karen Carpenter) mixed up with those who could sing well enough and got famous for their songwriting or biographies or for yelling a lot (John Lennon, Janis Joplin).

    Neo, for an entirely different kind of effortless, floating, extraordinarily rich voice, have you listened to Eva Cassidy? It couldn’t hurt to start here:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce-5OWBNGNw
    or here:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSXYu-3r1S8

  29. Sure, “Top of the World” is pure bubblegum, but I like bubblegum in small portions. It’s fun, cheerful, and easy to sing along with (c’mon, admit it. I do). Here in Asia, a lot of the local bands (Indonesian and Filipino) have made staples out of a lot of the Carpenters’ tunes, and why not? Musically, they’re fairly easy to play (I’ve been told this, not being a musician myself), they’re easily recognizable, and people like them.

    Bob Dylan shouldn’t even be on this list. He could write songs and entertain well enough, but he couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket if his life depended on it.

  30. Combining this topic with one from the past day or two . . .

    Just before the Beatles hit it ^really^ big over here, they were steadily gaining in popularity in England. At the start of those steady gains, the Beatles were the opening act for none other than Roy Orbison, who was already ^extremely^ popular over there.

    John Lennon once remarked that “Please Please Me” was his attempt to write an Orbisonesque song.

    Roy Orbison and George Harrison were two members of the five-member supergroup The Traveling Wilburys (the other three were Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne (matermind of the Electric Light Orchestra)).

    ELC, the incident to which you’re referring is this: Elvis was performing somewhere or other, and he saw Roy in the audience (they were old buddies from ‘way back). He introduced Roy to the audience as [as close as I can quote now] quite simply the greatest singer in the world. I understand [based on Orbison biographies] that when Elvis did his stint in the army, the singer he was most afraid would cut into his popularity was Roy Orbison.

    ‘Nuff! . . .

  31. What a sad irony that Karen Carpenter was anorexic — her voice was so high-calorie.
    I just took Anne’s tip and listened to Rumer. I’d never heard her before. She is wonderful! Her voice is very much like Karen Carpenter’s, only a little more soprano.

  32. I agree with Wordy1’s assessment of the list and with the impatience that others have expressed with lists of this sort. I’d also agree with Mrs. Whatsit that it’s not really a list of vocalists per se. I also agree about Ella Fitzgerald and Allison Krauss. I didn’t see KD Lang on the list, either.

    Although I find NPR very irritating for very many reasons, I still listen to it when I’m waking up in the morning. NPR has been running a series called “Fifty Great Voices” which features a much wider range of singers. As it is NPR, it goes without saying that the list makes a lot of gestures towards the “multicultural”–some of which are annoying–but also many of the singers that it features are noteworthy or interesting in various ways. Here’s a link to the NPR website for the series: http://www.npr.org/series/122287224/50-great-voices

  33. For effortless great voices of this era – Cass Elliot of the Mamas & the Papas. Can’t find any of the wonderful examples of her singing – but she truly had an operatic, effortless sort of voice. As if she just opened her mouth and it all came out:

  34. Tried to post a link to a youtube example – but it didn’t take. She had a lovely and effortless voice, though. Just google Cass Elliot and youtube and take your pick…

  35. My favorite singers of all time, well, I won’t say their names, but is was a Shacharit service and Mom and daughter, with voices that sounded alike and yet different, combined and separated like fortune and mankind!

  36. “Greatest” and “All Time:” I do not think those words mean what the list writers think.

    Still, glad to see the great Levon Helm on the list, however mysteriously, and Joni Mitchell, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson. Nice shout out for Stevie Wonder’s “Ribbon in the Sky.”

  37. Great suggestions by previous commenters. But a list of the top hundred singers– even a list of the top ten– is incomplete without the sublime Tracy Nelson. Not much of note on YouTube– but if you can find a cut of her 1969 recording of “Down So Low,” don’t miss it. Sends chills up your spine–

  38. I always thought Sandy Denny, of Fairport Convention, had a beautiful coice. She died much too young of a brain hemorrhage, about a month after she took a tumble down some stairs.

    The whole of Fairport Convention’s Liege and Lief shows her at her best. Here are two from that album.

    Tam Lin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy3ihk205ew&feature=related

    Reynardine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3RMut_8IxQ&feature=related

    From Wiki:

    She is also noted for her duet with Robert Plant on the song “The Battle of Evermore” from Led Zeppelin’s fourth album released in 1971. She remains to this day the only guest vocalist on a Led Zeppelin album.

    In case you don’t know that song.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZLMoMe3PjU

    When I listened to that Zep album, I always loved that ‘dueling’ duet. Never knew it was Denny as the other half until much, much later. But it helped explain why I was always fascinated with the song.

  39. Mr. Xyz – that clip is classic. I feel that today’s most popular singers are more concerned with showing off how powerful their voices are than actually singing. Singers like Patsy Cline knew when to hold back.

    I’m very partial to legendary country singers like Patsy, Conway Twitty and Dolly Parton (the latter two should also be on the list, if they’re not). I’m relatively young (34) and live on the outskirts of San Francisco. And of course, there is A LOT of snickering and insults from my oh-so-tolerant liberal friends when they hear me listening to Patsy, Conway or Dolly. But for some reason they’re perfectly fine with the drug-running Johnny Cash. Hmmm….

  41. @OlderandWheezier 7:33 pm :

    Quite so about Gogi Grant, but Patsi Cline is winning the Youtube Wayward Wind popularity contest. 🙂 I only know about the song because it turned up on an infomercial and it was easy to remember the song’s hook.

    ——–
    @Jim 5:03 am:

    Here’s one to tweak your San Francisco neighbors. Jim Nabors! Wiki says he was horrified by rumors he was gay, and likely he would never have been even considered for the Rolling Stone list.

    From his TV show “Gomer Pyle USMC”, “Impossible Dream”, this clip rivals the Carpenters’ for staged sappiness:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5KeGccP9Jk

  42. @Jim 5:03 am:

    This may help explain favorable attitudes of liberals toward Johnny Cash. It features Native Americans in major head gear and at the end one pays tribute to Johnny.

    Johnny Cash…The Ballad of Ira Hayes
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdNV9JX-Xi8

    He also does a tune about a miner called “The Legend of Henry’s Hammer”

    I don’t remember either of those tunes from the old days (country music was anathama in some (most?) liberal households in the Viet Nam era at least), but I might remember “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town”. So, perhaps that is the key! (I could have the song confused with “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town”)

  43. Al Johnson – big second on Tracy Nelson. She has always been one of my favorites and her voice is easily the equal of Bonnie Raitt’s. I had the good fortune to see her a few years ago in a small club.

  45. Pretty silly list.

    Rolling Stone is leftist. So, it overdoes the black worship and ignores the great country rock singers almost entirely.

    The list is heavily weighted toward the Boomer era and just about ignores everything else.

    And, Dylan. He’s not a singer. Yes, he was very influential. And that’s not necessarily a good thing.

  46. Shouting Thomas may have the key to the Joan Baez omission: Rolling Stone is Leftist. They must be really hard core. Wiki tells us that Baez made the left uncomfortable when she criticized Viet Nam and Cambodia.

    “Her disquiet at the human-rights violations of communist Vietnam made her increasingly critical of its government and she organized the May 30, 1979, publication, of a full-page advertisement (published in four major U.S. newspapers)[29] in which the communists were described as having created a nightmare, which put her at odds with a large segment of the U.S. left wing, who were uncomfortable criticizing a leftist régime. In a letter of response, Jane Fonda said she was unable to substantiate the “claims” Baez made regarding the atrocities being committed by the Cambodian Khmer Rouge.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez#Vietnam_War

  47. Liberals must be torn about Johnny Cash. He had admirable failures when it came to drugs but loved him some Jesus for bringing him out of it. He was too original to ignore but was friends with some of the biggest rednecks in the country. They’ll have to go to work now on his life narrative so you’ll swear from whats available for public consumption that a God fearing Christian he was not.

  48. Anne Murray is another one of those natural, effortless voices. “Snowbird” is a masterpiece, imo. And I would put Merle Haggard on any list.

  49. If Peggy Lee isn’t on the list, the list is worthless. I didn’t see Judy Garland either…

    Oh, and Bob Dylan is a singer? Really?

  50. I think one reason Karen Carpenter and Anne Murray sounded “effortless” was that both sang in the relatively low register, well down in the alto range. It just seems harder to me to make a soprano voice have that same easy, natural quality. Any singers out there care to comment?

  51. If you can fin Maureen McGovern’s “Out of this world” buy it immediately. Every song gives me chills and there are not many singers that do that to me anymore. Her phrasing is effortless as is her technique.

  52. Clicking thru the Rolling Stone list a bit, I come away impressed by the apparent (didn’t do the math) short median life span of the listed.

  53. I’m not really feeling the Ah Mei thing. She does have a sweet voice, but the Blue Bayou recording strikes me as funny– rather like a Japanese soldier trying to correctly enunciate the nightly Marine password. But to each his own. Variety is the spice of life.

    And Bob Dylan? Please. He’s #7, while Whitney Houston’s great pipes come in at #34.

  55. What a nice post and nice comments; thanks neo-neo.
    Nice way to spend a Saturday morning. I listened to a lot of the suggestions here. No one beats Karen Carpenter.
    Agree Rolling Stone is Left; so was I; so was neo-neo.
    Winston Churchill: “If a young man is not liberal, he has no heart; if an older man is not conservative, he has no brain.”

    Would that you young singers would sing the songs, not show off their range and technique. Are there no teachers left to teach them?

  57. Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady and Camelot days came as close to “effortless’ in the soprano range as anyone I can think of off the bat. But then, you get into opera singers who, I think, are in a different category.

  59. “I’m not really feeling the Ah Mei thing. She does have a sweet voice, but the Blue Bayou recording strikes me as funny— rather like a Japanese soldier trying to correctly enunciate the nightly Marine password.”

    LOL! That’s a funny way of putting it. Fortunately her English-language recordings are limited. I didn’t want to post any more Chinese-language videos.

    Anyway, is anyone else surprised that Rolling Stone ranked Elvis as high as they did? Again, maybe it’s because of where I live, but around here, you either like Elvis or the Beatles, and if you like Elvis, you’re old and unhip. I thought for sure RS would put Lennon and/or McCartney above him.

  60. Barbara Streisand has the greatest voice (and may be one of the greatest singers) in popular music.

    Ella Fitzgerald may have been the greatest of all singers of popular music – her voice unquestionably great, but perhaps not the greatest.

    Judy Garland falls somewhere between or aside Ms. Fitzgerald and Ms. Streisand. Hers was an incredible combination of voice and performance.

    Karen Carpenter also had a wonderfully beautiful voice and was a great, great singer. Grading her is often biased by the songs she sang.

    Of course, YMMV.

    As for the single greatest vocal performance ever recorded, I have to go with Jessye Norman – singing Isolde’s Liebestod, under the direction of Herbert von Karajan -Utterly devastating

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPUT-LDo_nY

    Just sayin’

  61. Also missing are Linda Ronstadt and whichever Wilson sister (Anne or Nancy?) fronted Heart. And yes, as mentioned above, KD Lang and Roy Orbison…
    especially the two singing together.

  62. Baez was too partisan.
    Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty. Baez, having all that cranial cubic free for resonance, is probably the only person involved with the song who didn’t know it.
    As an earlier poster noted, Baez was the only anti-war person who really thought the goal was freedom and peace in SEA.

  63. Like most things associated with Rolling Stone, this list is lame. Stevie Nicks and Lou Reed and Gregg Allman, for crying out loud!

    No, by neglecting Sandy Denny, Emmylou Harris, and Joan Baez alone this list fails, not to mention Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, and many others.

    Don’t be too hard on the inclusion of Bob Dylan, he was a very capable and influential singer up to around the late 1970’s, idiosyncratic at times but interesting and effective, and differing from album to album. Coupled with his songwriting he deserves to be included.

  64. I’ve always said Karen Carpenter had one of the greatest voices in all of popular music. One of her real masterpieces is the Henry Mancini song “Sometimes.” She only sings for about 60 seconds, but it’s 60 second of perfection. Here are two versions, the first with a stylistically-dated backstory at the beginning, and the second from an album. She starts singing at about 2:00 in the first, and 1:15 in the second:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHokKI-_fao

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKTHLCXETac

    I’ve always thought of this song as the perfect tribute addressed to Karen herself.

  65. It had been a long time since I’d heard that Elvis-Orbison story.

    Yeah, Linda Ronstadt!

    And, yes, “Sometimes” sung by Karen Carpenter. Wow.

  66. Jim–I’m surprised to hear that your liberal friends are so dismissive of Patsy Cline. I thought she had special status as one who died young in an accident but nevertheless who had recorded so many timeless songs.

  67. “around here, you either like Elvis or the Beatles”

    It’s possible to like both!

    On the thread subject, I also think Karen Carpenter had a great voice. Her recording of Leon Russel’s “Supertar” was inifinitely better than the “hip” version by Rita Coolidge (who should be tarred and feathered for her butchering of “Higher and Higher” and “The Way You Do the Things You Do” but that’s another story).

    Jim – I also live in the Bay Area, in fact I have played in bands here for many years and most of the musicians I know have great respect for Patsy Cline even though most of them perform blues and other black-oriented music. Another great country singer who is virtually forgotten now but had a tremendous voice was Lefty Frizell.

  69. I couldn’t tell you the who most of today’s pop singers (or top groups) are today, perhaps because I’ve lived in Manhattan for the last 30 yrs. and rarely drive: the radio in the car was where I was introduced to singers.

    Dionne Warwick was — is ? — a favorite of mine, too. I can always listen to her singing all those fabulous Burt Bacharach tunes which seemed written for her voice which was most unique.

    Karen Carpenter had one of the most mellifluous voices and there seems to have been a very soothing effect in The Carpenters’ music.

    But, Walla Dolbo, while I poignantly remember how she died and what she looked like at the time, the image that instantly comes to my mind upon hearing Karen Carpenter’s name is that of her and her brother performing in the Grand Ballroom of the Poseiden — the ill-fated ship in the original “Poseidon Adventure,” one of the first star-studded disaster movies that populated the 70’s.

  70. Kurt – it’s all about persona to my friends, not music. Many of them hated John McCain because he was “too old,” but think Betty White “rocks.” Maybe if a video surfaced of Patsy Cline smoking weed or cussing up a storm, they’d be more inclined to listen to her songs. Every stereotype you hear about the Bay Area is true. LOL.

  71. Gary – I have ZERO musical ability, but I’d hope that actual musicians, even in the Bay Area, would have respect for Patsy Cline and other legends regardless of genre. I’m really glad to hear that. I’ve given up on trying to open the minds of my friends. Haha.

  72. Jim, I have found that for the most part good musicians have wide-ranging tastes and do not make artificial distinctions between genres. It was particularly amusing to me to note the “Elvis vs. Beatles” comment when in the broad range of music they are really quite close. There is a close cultural affinity between older styles of country, blues and R&B music. The musicians from Muscle Shoals, AL who performed on Aretha Franklin’s seminal recordings were mostly (maybe all?) white Southerners; the Memphis house band Booker T and the MGs that backed Otis Redding, Sam and Dave and Rufus and Carla Thomas among others was half black, half white. I guarantee that all these people hold Patsy Cline and other great country singers in the highest esteem. And of course one of the fathers of soul music, Ray Charles, was well-known for crossing over to country music in the 1960s with “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and other hits.

  73. W-a-a-a-y too many composers/writers.

    We ARE talking singers…. ?

    And then, it’s as if music ONLY got launched in the mid – fifties.

    PLEASE.

    Crosby was a terrible father… but a FANTASTIC singer.

    He’s not even in the top ten.

    Yet his style and influence lead DIRECTLY into what today is recognized as the popular style. Crosby was Elvis on steroids — sales and influence wise. Dominant singer of the 20th Century: 20s, 30s, 40s and White Christmas.

    So he’s a nobody.

    No other singer dominated THREE decades, period.

    As for Franklin: she’s gravely ill. Hence.

    For my money Charles is number one. Fantastic voice – lasting influence.

    Crosby is number two. Fantastic voice – lasting influence.

    As for the rest…

    I love ’em all…

    But none stand so over arching as Charles and Crosby.

    Interesting: Google Crosby and his name does NOT come up on the first page!

  74. Jim Says:
    December 11th, 2010 at 3:04 pm

    “I’m not really feeling the Ah Mei thing. She does have a sweet voice, but the Blue Bayou recording strikes me as funny— rather like a Japanese soldier trying to correctly enunciate the nightly Marine password.”

    LOL! That’s a funny way of putting it. Fortunately her English-language recordings are limited. I didn’t want to post any more Chinese-language videos.

    ************

    I agree (mostly) with the comment on A-mei’s Blue Bayou.

    For better or worse, I will always hear only Linda Ronstadt’s version as the ‘real’ Blue Bayou. So differences – especially the odd Mandarin-accented pronunciation – are jarring and make me wince.

    That said, some wonderful singing in this version (especially the chorus, as you said), so thanks for the link.

    I will listen more to the Mandarin songs though – they do seem (likely to be) more genuine. and true-to-artist.

  75. OriginalFrank – Last one, I promise: A-mei in her natural environment:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7mdQRiSyI

    I checked out all the links in this thread and I never realized how many great voices I was missing out on. Thanks everyone (and…er…thanks Rolling Stone)! My iPod is going to explode in the next few days.

  76. Ray Charles, IMHO, was the most influential singer in popular music of the latter half of the 20th century. Ray Charles “invented” the voice of rock n’ roll. Clearly heard in listening to Steve Winwood, for example, and at times Lennon and McCartney – in truth, in the catalogue of nearly all rock n’ roll post-Charles, one can hear his influence.

    Bing Crosby did have a great voice, but to my mind his talent was as a great singer.

    Dean Martin was an equally great, or at least entertaining singer as Crosby. Martin’s voice was great, and both his voice and singing are chronically underrated.

    Johnny Mathis’ voice was at times sublime, as was his singing – his being I think one of the most beautiful of voices in popular music – his “ratings” suffer too, like Ms. Carpenter by the material he sang.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLTR0nTgbXk

    As always, YMMV.

  77. Karen Carpenter is one of those voices who the more you study, the greater the depth of pure effortless genius and minuscule nuances are apparent. Even she didn’t realize how good she was. By the way, her brother was a much better pianist that most give him credit for. When you listen to them, listen carefully and studiously and you will really appreciate them.

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