The "Top 40 Greatest Voices in Rock," according to Planet Rock:
01. Robert Plant (LED ZEPPELIN)
02. Freddie Mercury (QUEEN)
03. Paul Rodgers (FREE, BAD COMPANY)
04. Ian Gillan (DEEP PURPLE)
05. Roger Daltrey (THE WHO)
06. David Coverdale (WHITESNAKE)
07. Axl Rose (GUNS N' ROSES)
08. Bruce Dickinson (IRON MAIDEN)
09. Mick Jagger (THE ROLLING STONES)
10. Bon Scott (AC/DC)
11. David Bowie
12. Jon Bon Jovi (BON JOVI)
13. Steven Tyler (AEROSMITH)
14. Jon Anderson (YES)
15. Bruce Springsteen
16. Joe Cocker
17. Ozzy Osbourne
18. Bono (U2)
19. Peter Gabriel
20. James Hetfield (METALLICA)
21. Janis Joplin
22. Chris Cornell (AUDIOSLAVE / SOUNDGARDEN)
23. Roger Chapman (FAMILY)
24. Phil Lynott (THIN LIZZY)
25. Glenn Hughes (DEEP PURPLE)
26. Steve Perry (JOURNEY)
27. Jim Morrison (THE DOORS)
28. Alex Harvey (THE SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND)
29. Rob Halford (JUDAS PRIEST)
30. Ronnie James Dio (DIO)
31. Sammy Hagar (VAN HALEN)
32. Meat Loaf
33. Alice Cooper
34. Geddy Lee (RUSH)
35. Brian Johnson (AC/DC)
36. David Gilmour (PINK FLOYD)
37. Fish (MARILLION)
38. Dave Lee Roth (VAN HALEN)
39. Biff Byford (SAXON)
40. Neil Young


Are you FING kidding me??? Where is Ann Wilson of heart! That alone makes this list flawed. Who else should be on this list and who shouldn't?

Ann Wilson absolutely should be on there.

So should Geoff Tate of Queensryche. How the hell is he NOT on there?!

I can't see how you can put Robert Plant ahead of Freddie Mercury either, that's sacrilege. (CJ, I got your back on that one!)

Ones that should rank higher:
-Bruce Dickinson. Maybe I'm jaded as a huge Maiden fan, but the ol' Air Raid Siren has incredible pipes.
-Steve Perry. Did they REALLY rank Ozzy ahead of Steve Perry?!
-Rob Halford
-Meat Loaf. Yeah some of his songs were corny, but the man can flat-out sing.
-Ronnie James Dio

Who is too high, or should NOT be on the list?
-Brian Johnson. Huge AC/DC fan, but his vocals just don't do it. He screams. Although I will say he sounds better on Black Ice than he ever has.
-Bon Scott. See Brian Johnson.
-Alice Cooper
-Ozzy and Steven Tyler, bump them down a few notches.

No shit!

She's excellent. One of the very best power female voices there is.

There are several on that list I don't agree with.

Hell, I would add the NIRVANA guy to that list easy. Maybe take off the YES guy. He's unique, but not one of the best, IMHO.

If Kurt Cobain is added to that list, I will slit my wrists with a bowling pin. Nails to chalkboard.

LOL!!!

At least we agree on RUSH.

"At least we agree on RUSH."

And Geddy is right where he should be. Probably top 40 but lower end ... he's proven that he CAN sing, especially when he started lowering his octave level a couple notches (around Permanent Waves) ... but it's not upper echelon.

David Coverdale?
Wonder who he blew to get to #6????

Oh come on now Brian, Kurt Cobain was not that bad of a singer!

Was he one of the 40 best vocalists? Absolutely not, but he wasn't horrific.

I'll take Plant over Mercury because of range of styles.

Overall, too much hard rock singers in the list.
Screaming is not singing unless you're (see first sentence for the only two that can pull that off).

Alice Cooper? CMFB!! Vince plays golf better than he sings and that don't say much.

Stephen Stills in his heyday had great pipes. Far better than a dozen of the clowns on the list.

Glenn Hughes should be listed for Trapeze, where he really developed his style.

Jon Anderson should be above Bowie.

Jim Morrison should be higher, in the top 15. Considering how short his career was and how long his songs have endured, climbing the charts every decade or so ...

I love Rush, but Geddy and Neil Young don't belong on a singer's list. Songwriting, yes. Instrumentalist, yes. Singers? No.

I'd put Daltrey ahead of Gillan. A much larger and more diverse body of work ... can sing a ballad.

Chapman? Family? WTFIT?

If you put Gilmour on the list, you have to put Waters on the list.

No Roy Orbison?

Clearly this list is close to worthless.

"Overall, too much hard rock singers in the list.
Screaming is not singing unless you're (see first sentence for the only two that can pull that off)."

I agree that there might be too many hard rock/metal singers on the list, but there are some fantastic folks in that group.

One that has no business being OFF of this list as I pointed above, Geoff Tate, has an opera background and is very multi-faceted.

So is Bruce Dickinson, also with an opera background. There are some that can flat sing ... have you heard Axl Rose when he's not screaming? Fantastic. Not sure why he screamed, probably to get upper octaves when he has normally a tenor or baritone-esque voice, but the man can flat sing. So can Ronnie James Dio.

"Clearly this list is close to worthless."

Well, it's up for argument and interpretation. I love these, who is on there who shouldn't be, who SHOULD be on there, who's ranked too high, who's ranked too low? It's good fodder.

I would have switched # 23 with #24. But otherwise, that's the list I had too.

"Clearly this list is close to worthless."

Amen to that Andy. This has to be a joke. April Fools and all that, right? Only one woman on the list? Only white people? Really? Did these folks do any research at all or did they just jot a few things down while draining a suitcase of Hamm's in their trailer? This reads a lot like a list of tapes stolen from the back of a hesher van.

A number of the nominees are just mass marketed pop stars and many truly influential giants are not even represented on the list. I do agree with choices like Springsteen, Jagger, Mercury and Daltrey, but they are all pretty obvious ones. Let's briefly examine some of the other "rockers" represented:

06. David Coverdale

If dedication to haircare were the most important part of music, he might have a fighting chance. Of course, he would still have to find a band that actually rocks under their teased locks.

07. Axl Rose

Crown prince of the shrill junkies. I suppose he and his outfit get extra credit for spousal abuse, copping licks and giving away free soda pop to thousands of parched paint huffers.

11. David Bowie

Purely a pop musician and rightfully famous for recognizing and exploiting trends. His celebrated sidemen often rocked in their own bands, but Bowie without his "Spiders From Mars" to fall back on? Puhleeze.

14. Jon Anderson

Yes does not rock. No, not even a little bit. If one were to nominate a "rocker" among the folky/artsy crowd of the 70s it would have to be Richard Thompson, not some eunuch singing for half an hour about mallards.

16. Joe Cocker

The Michael Bolton prototype: A fat British drunk with vomit on his shirt doing karaoke with a supergroup. Was Ray Charles too black, too blind or too talented for his singing style to be accepted first hand by the boomers? Or was it all three?

19. Peter Gabriel

An icon to be sure, though nobody could ever accuse Genesis of being a rock band. Weird, pretentious and tedious perhaps, but not anything close to the roots. Gabriel's career without them is synth-pop and not even near the ballpark.

22. Chris Cornell

Like many of his Emerald City peers, he spent much of 1989 holed up listening to "Workbook" by Bob Mould. Before long, the lot of them had perverted his style, perfected the "yarl" and it swept the nation in a cloud of sweaty flannel. Soundgarden was about as original as the Archies, but they did rock in spite of themselves.

27. Jim Morrison

A plagiarizing poet, wife beater, boozy asshole and junkie superstar before that combination was mandatory for lasting fame. He was a low rent Charles Bukowski fronting a top surf/lounge act in shit stained leather pants. Luckily, his band often rocked whether he was lucid enough to perform or not.

28. Alex Harvey

This pick is truly bottom drawer with only curiosity value. Nobody nominated Ray Stevens, but I guess "The Streak" was less provocative than "Gang Bang" in the pantheon of rock.

Has the definition of "Rock and Roll" really changed that much over the years?

"Rock and Roll" does not include the unique vocal talents of Little Richard, Buddy Holly, or the aforementioned Roy Orbison? "Rock and Roll" does not include Chuck Berry, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Fats Domino, or Jerry Lee Lewis? "Rock and Roll" does not include Bo Diddley, The Isley Brothers, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran or Ike & Tina Turner? "Rock and Roll" does not include Jimi Hendrix, John Fogerty, Arthur Lee, Ray Davies, or John Lennon & Paul McCartney? "Rock and Roll" does not include Iggy Pop, Rob Tyner, Marc Bolan, Joe Strummer, Pete Shelley, Alex Chilton, Paul Westerberg or Tom Petty?

Where are the ladies?! Is "Rock and Roll" just for boys? Did the folks who made this list have too many whippets or did they just decide that giving token props to Janis Joplin would be enough? Justin brought it up right off the bat -- why not the Wilson sisters? I'll say it again -- where the hell is Tina Turner? Why not Chrissie Hynde, Exene Cervenka, Patti Smith, Kim Gordon or Kristen Hersh & Tanya Donelly? Why not Suzi Gardner, Ronnie Spector or Kim & Kelly Deal? Why not Grace Slick, Stevie Nicks, Maggie Bell, Gilly Ann Hanner or Ana da Silva & Gina Birch? Why not Joan Jett, Mia Zapata, Johnette Napolitano, P.J. Harvey, or Liz Phair? Why not include the hugely influential, not so rocking, but utterly unique Joni Mitchell, Sandy Denny or Ani Difranco?

Even Elvis Presley does not count as an influential "Rock and Roll" vocalist?

I'm not suggesting that every name I mentioned ought to be included, but it seems to me that it could be a hell of a lot more diverse. I always thought that the strictest definition of "Rock" included a head full of Pomade, an amplified guitar or piano and a loud tight band. It was a rousing combination of R&B, boogie-woogie, electric blues, country, swing and many other traditional elements that crossed every boundary of race and geography to make people move their butts to a driving beat. It may have evolved a bit since the 1950s, but three hours at a stylist, pitch corrected pointy guitars, lip-synched vocals, smoke machines, a bank of sequencers and a stack of synths is not "Rock" by any stretch.

Rock is dead. Long live rock.

A fat British drunk with vomit on his shirt doing karaoke with a supergroup.

Please, don't hold back!

If Ann Wilson were included, it would no longer be an all-male list. ;-) Granted, there aren't that many females doing real rock. Tina is also a good choice.

Joan Jett?

Joan Jett,Melissa Etheridge,Dusty springfield

Yeah that list is heavily flawed. As for someone's assessment that the first two are right due to Robert Plant's diversity of style. Seriously?? When did he do a country western album? acid jazz stylings? punk infused rock? Oh right, he only did crappy solo albums and the stuff with Zeppelin. Don't be hating on Freddy Mercury. Who should be second behind Ann Wilson of Heart. My god Dreamboat Annie is sung with such passion and perfection. Her pipes are the best in rock'n'roll. Time and time again I go back to their music and her crooning. (Maybe cuz I lost my virginity to Magic Man, hrmmm Sigmund Freud, discuss.)

I love Tom Petty don't get me wrong but a good singer he is not. Him and Neil Young shouldn't even be in the top 100. This list ranked Neil Young...ok, I threw up a little bit in my mouth.

I think of lead singers in his generation Chris Cornell has an amazing range. He goes from falsetto to growly in a heartbeat and comes out the other side clean... pretty amazing.

Elvis not making this list is sad the man died when I was very young but my mother was a huge Elvis Presley fan.

David Lee Roth, Brian Johnson, Bonn Scott... nope nope and nope. In order, ok, horrendous, slightly below average.

If we are going to go down the list of metal and pop-metal bands how bout giving props to Joe Elliot of Def Leppard?

Peter Gabriel is a really good singer in my opinion.

Or where's John Mellencamp?
I also really like K.D. Lang very underrated.

And if you want to go with variance of styles, "Weird" Al Yankovic, the guy has done everything from country to metal to pop and back again while selling millions of records over a damn near 30 year long career.

"When did he do a country western album? acid jazz stylings? punk infused rock?"

Actually, all represented on his box sets. Not a whole album of each , but various session recordings that show his versatility. Not to mention his latest effort with Alison Krauss. Is she not country enough?

John Mellencamp? Great songwriter, but like Neil and Tom, hardly a great vocalist.

David Lee Roth? Cut me a break. Too much sing speak. Ugh!!
Jump? Panama? Get real.

Andy_brown: Did you read the whole sentence or just the name? All three of those jokers shouldn't be near this list.

I was responding to multiple posts, sorry, should have requoted.

What constitutes "ROCK"? based on the list, some are NOT ROCKERS!

and to leave off the chicks was wrong

Ann Wilson was a definite miss, GRACE SLICK MADE the Airplane and all the incarnations. next level down Pat Benatar and Joan Jett, but not Suzi Quatro! Stevie Nicks? love her stuff, but she more poet that singer.

I would also add Frankie Valli for range. Brian Wilson, and Terry Kath.......

kd lang is likely the greatest female singer, but I'm not sure she's a rocker!

I did have the opportunity to see her at Key Largo way back when before she became a star!

I'm fairly speechless when it comes to this list. Echo many comments above. Really, whenever we try to define "Rock", we get in trouble.

Consider the source document: "Planet Rock"??? WTF?

Aside to Littlesongs: Your assessment of Joe Cocker was priceless! Thanks.

Yeah, hear that. The thread should have been titled:

The "Top 40 Greatest Voices in Rock," according to Kid Rock

or

The "Top 40 Greatest Voices in Rock," according to Chris Rock

or

The "Top 40 Greatest Voices in Rock," according to A Monkey and a Rock

Oh and by the way Roger, this was also wonderful:

"Stevie Nicks? love her stuff, but she more poet than singer."

You've gotta admit, she really nails that one note she found though!

...or the 40 most popular vocalists that you're likely to hear played on an active rock or classic rock station. Really, how could they ignore the unique sounds of Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, or even Jay Black?

...and not only has a fine one note range, but is a great inspiration to drag queens worldwide!

kicking self for omiting Roy and Jay