I was only seventeen, I fell in love with Uriah Heep...

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Roger Daltry isn't on the list but he should be. Same thing with David Bowie.

Both among my favorite singers.

Snicolette wrote: Also kind of missing Jim Morrison here.

He's one of my favorites, too. I love The Doors, but I even love Jim Morrison more... Such an interesting guy. Responsible for validating my rebelliousness in middle school. Still love him 25 years later and enjoy every new book that comes out.

We loved The Doors in my home.  My older sisters saw them play at The Whiskey and my oldest sister said that Jim Morrison walked up to her and stroked her face.  She came home and rinsed her face and saved the water in a little jar.  I wonder what happened to that jar?  She's been gone a long time now, him even longer.

I also enjoyed his poetry LP (An American Prayer), still have that.

We also all loved Love, sort of friendly rivals on the LA scene at that time.  Arthur Lee gone, too, such a great vocalist as well.

Esp that Byron had more votes than him until I cast mine for Dio.  That's just mindboggling.  Byron is just a wobbly vibrato version of Gillian.  Dio could do soulful clean vocals and swing to monstrous distortion.  And he did it for so many years with seemingly no change in his voice.

I'm kinda "sad" (for lack of a better word) David Coverdale gets so little love around here. (no vote yet). I would have voted for him had Freddie not been in the poll. Oh well...

Dellinger wrote: I'm surprised there's so little love for DIO. I mean, of course this list is full of great singers, and it's really just about impossible to name one better than all the rest. But for me DIO is THE best Metal / Hard Rock singer. I'm going with him, even though I love just about as much Freddy Mercury, Robert Plant, David Byron, And I guess Ian Gillan too. Oh yeah, and I guess Roger Daltrey is indeed missing big time on this poll.

 

You got that right! As soon as I saw his name (much to my surprise in this poll), that's where my vote went.

There are many fine if not extraordinary singers in this poll. But if Dio were not in the poll, I likely would vote for Steve Walsh, whose singing on those '70s Kansas albums is legendary.

This seems to be a list of those who aren't explicitly prog. Jon Anderson, Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel aren't even on the list and they are both either classic rock or pop rock.

As for the list well if you have Dio on the list you also have to have Rob Halford but for some reason he's not on here. No Bruce Dickinson either come to think of it. 

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: As for the list well if you have Dio on the list you also have to have Rob Halford but for some reason he's not on here. No Bruce Dickinson either come to think of it.

 

They're not recognized as anything apart from metal vocalists." Dio's career is more varied; he was a founding member of Elf, the band that led to Ritchie forming Rainbow after leaving Purple — the first album is Elf + Blackmore as the guitarist.

Dio(the singer) was only hard rock and metal also though. JP started out as heavy blues rock/hard rock. 

Dio is brilliant but I struggle him being in this group of "classic rock" vocalists, heavy metal he is king! As far as female vocalists in the classic rock category.......Ann Wilson wins hands down every day and twice on Sunday.

Catcher10 wrote: As far as female vocalists in the classic rock category.......Ann Wilson wins hands down every day and twice on Sunday.

 

Three if it's a leap year!

Or Plant followed by Freddie! 

Because mostly the great female singers haven't been in great or even noteworthy bands, except Grace Slick who isn't all that great anyway imo.  I mean, on similar lines, you see no Paul Rodgers or Joe Lynn Turner in this list either nor John Farnham.  All great singers.  If it was truly about lining up the best singers from the classic rock era, at least Ann Wilson would have been a shoo in in the list. But it seems to be more of a poll of the singers who were in great classic rock bands.

Disagree that Joplin had more power than Dio. She did sound raw as hell, yes, but Dio could also do more hardcore distortion (After All, for instance, or even Master of Insanity). He just did it a lot more fluently and effortlessly.  Of course, if you compare the exact same fifth octave pitches, she is going to sound stronger but that's because she's a mezzo/soprano.  On similar lines, Annie Haslam's B5 on Prologue is a lot bigger than Joplin's.  Just doesn't sound as aggressive but that's texture and different from power.   The singers I thought could match or approach Dio's power were/are Ray Gillen, Russell Allen and Bruce Dickinson.  Zach Stevens was also great.

Ann Wilson is an incredible singer.  I would say Barracuda or Mistral are great showcases of her upper range.  But she has a 'small'/thin voice so not someone you necessarily think of in terms of power. 

Ann and Nancy Wilson, sisters who created the hard rock band Heart. I would never consider Peter Hammill in this list, first off VdGG is not "classic rock" nor do I feel he is a powerful singer like most in the list by the OP.

Dio had a more powerful voice than Janis, but I really do not want to compare male and female singers. Janis was raw, but IMHO did not have that sensitivity like Ann Wilson or Grace Slick. Pat Benatar has a voice that could do what Janis did but also had some of what Ann Wilson could do with say power ballads.

 

Exactly, I would have voted for him. In his absence, I voted for Percy.

Janis was not in Dio's league. You'd have to look to Ann Wilson and Jenny Haan for that kind of power.

Catcher10 wrote: Dio had a more powerful voice than Janis, but I really do not want to compare male and female singers. Janis was raw, but IMHO did not have that sensitivity like Ann Wilson or Grace Slick. Pat Benatar has a voice that could do what Janis did but also had some of what Ann Wilson could do with say power ballads.

 

Ever listen to Lee Aaron? Early albums are good if formulaic metal. But she's also blessed with great pipes, among other things.

However, I easily could have voted for Dio as well, and nearly all of these were amazing selections.  

Poor Brad Delp of Boston had a very sad and bizarre ending, RIP!  

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/brad-delp-suicide-lawsuit/" rel="nofollow - https://ultimateclassicrock.com/brad-delp-suicide-lawsuit/

Gee, you're starting to make me think there are better classic rock singers out there than prog rock singers.

Enchant X wrote: A vote for Steve Walsh if you ever got to see Kansas when Steve walsh's voice was at its best  ... The guys a rock God with Keyboard Headstands.  I thought it was nice Brad Delp got in the poll he had a fantastic voice .

 

I saw Kansas around about 2002 .Although they were past their best it's still one of the best live gigs I've ever been to. Walsh was fantastic (much bowing and 'we are not worthy' from the audience!) 

I'm surprised,too. 

I'm also surprised the guy from Styx got 2 votes. Possibly someone is trolling 

Raff wrote: For crying out loud, folks, where is Glenn Hughes? He's at the very least on the same level of most of the singers listed above, and in many cases a few cuts above. Ozzy is an icon, but I think very few people would call him a great vocalist - unlike all the other guys who sang for Black Sabbath, including Tony Martin, whose voice is also quite remarkable.

 

Ozzy is the original, but I concur he is easily the worst of Sabbath's singers. Every guy after him was superior, with Ronnie being the best and Glenn a tiptoe behind him.

Enchant X wrote: A vote for Steve Walsh if you ever got to see Kansas when Steve walsh's voice was at its best  ... The guys a rock God with Keyboard Headstands.  I thought it was nice Brad Delp got in the poll he had a fantastic voice .

 

Steve at his prime was a force with few peers. If only someone had cooked up a rock opera "starring" Ronnie Dio, Glenn Hughes and Steve Walsh...!

If we're to be honest, it's safe to say classic rock/metal's got the best singers. 

On a genre level, yes.  I would say more so metal than classic rock.  I mean Dio, Halford, Bruce, Tony Martin, Zach Stevens, Russell Allen, Daniel Gildenlow, you can go on and on and on.  Metal by its nature requires lot of power and the range to sing, in fact belt out consistently in the high fourth octave/fifth octave so it attracts singers with a high level of skill at minimum.  

But on an individual basis, I have found my favourite singers come from all over the spectrum.  Dio from metal, Freddie from classic rock, Annie Haslam from prog, Jeff Buckley from I don't know alternative rock, Stevie Wonder from R&B.  If I had to generalise, I would say what great singers do is to not just sing all the notes correctly but make their choices/decisions very essential to the song such that singing it differently somehow seems to detract from the essence of the song.  

Yes, RJD is #1 and Ozzy # last.

But I find Hughes well behind RJD.  He's got a good set of pipes no doubt, but I hear a hint of cheese in his delivery... sometimes I feel like I should be listening to Foreigner when I hear him.  While Ronnie is clearly the #1 Sabbath singer, I easily and by a long shot ahead of#3 insert Tony Martin at #2.

Glenn's rather versatile. IMO, he sang circles around Coverdale when they were in Purple together. It's more of a style thing, though. Glenn's equally at home in hard rock, AOR or metal. Funny you mention Foreigner...another of my favorite singers is Lou Gramm!

I have not followed Jon's graph over the years but regarding Tate, it's possibly lifestyle issues that hurt his voice more than technique (which I felt was impeccable).  Both he and Halford did drugs, smoking etc from what I have heard and that cannot be good for the voice.  Dio swore off anything that could hurt his voice and he was still belting out those high Cs until the point where cancer incapacitated him.   Don't know much about Sammy Hagar but Russell Allen too has taken good care of his voice and has it intact.  While Klaus Meine has aged, when I saw him in 2007, he was certainly in good voice for a man of his age.  And that was with all the running around that should ordinarily have messed up his breath.

Yes.  I should have mentioned Nick Cave in my earlier comment.

Maybe not "classic rock" per se, but over the course of the decades, I'd say Peter Gabriel solo ("Security" and "So" are classic enough by now) is a worthy inclusion too.  I didn't see his name mentioned yet, but maybe I missed it.  Lamb Lies Down, etc.  Pretty great vocals on his stuff.

Also, in his prime ('68-'77?), Ian Anderson had a powerful, distinctive, well-pitched voice.