Rolling Stone Best Lead Singers of All Time - ForAmerica July 22nd, 1947 "You have to put something in it to make them move," said Sam Moore, half of the Sixties R&B duo Sam and Dave. "That solo Lord have mercy!" Josh Todd (Buckcherry), Marilyn Manson, Chester Bennington. "And he can handle anything from beautiful acoustic playing to jazz to hybrid kinds of stuff. Rolling Stone 200 greatest singers list snubs Celine Dion, more - USA TODAY Amazingly, Nelson has been playing the same Martin M-20 classical guitar, nicknamed Trigger, since 1969; it has defined his sound, a nylon-stabbing mix of country, blues and Django Reinhardt's gypsy jazz. "He's not singing to you, he's talking to you. Its as if theyve fooled us into loving them, diddled our hard-wiring, located a vulnerability we thought wed long ago armored over. 25 Best Rock Band Lead Singers Of All Time Photo: B.ciggaar / CC BY-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3./) Well this one will probably bend your rock and roll ticket stubs. Influenced In all cases, what mattered most to us was originality, influence, . Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Key Tracks May 24th, 1944 I always felt like three players simultaneously. "He has an amazing voice that is a mystery to us all," says songwriter J.D. Influenced Rolling Stone Readers Pick the Best Lead Singers of All Time: 1. "The power, the range, the tone he created his own style. Thom Yorke, Brandon Flowers, Colin Meloy (the Decemberists). December 25th, 1954 A Mississippi native who moved to the Windy City in the late Forties, Rush was a fearsome electric guitarist with a grittytreble tone and lacerating attack, like a gunslinging cross of Muddy Waters and B.B. Plant said he wanted to be like Elvis Presley. ", Key Tracks: "Seek and Destroy," "Master of Puppets", RelatedVideo: Q&A with Metallica's James Hetfield, The massive slabs of rock-candy noise that J Mascis heaved from his Fender Jazzmaster in Dinosaur Jr. contained multitudes: Black Sabbath savagery, melodic Neil Young soul, punk-rock pig slop. Cobain didn't invent alt-rock. " Even in his earliest recordings, says Sheryl Crow, "He sounded like he'd already lived a thousand lifetimes. Influenced His baritone always stood out not only above other blues singers but above all voices and styles of music that I heard. Key Tracks His fans included the Edge and Bob Dylan, who was initially turned away backstage at a 1978 show because Gallagher didn't recognize him. "He's having a great time. ", Key Tracks: "The Shape I'm In," "Like a Rolling Stone (Live 1966)", Related Video: Robbie Robertson Talks About the Evolution of his Guitar Style The Beginnings of the Band: Rolling Stone's 1968 Cover Story A Portrait of the Band as Young Hawks: Rolling Stone's 1978 Feature on 'The Last Waltz'. The Greatest Singers of All Time (Part 2) Influenced Chris Cornell's voice packs so much power that over the past 20 years superstar collaborators have lined up to work with him everyone from members of Rage Against The Machine to Santana, Pearl Jam and even hip-hop producer Timbaland. She approaches singing with impressive seriousness and does not like to improvise: When it came time to record the rocking coda ("I got to go") to "Midnight Train," her brother, Bubba, who was one of her famed support group, the Pips, sang the parts live into her headphones, and she delivered them in her own inimitable style. It looks as if they took a random French singer. If one of the weird things about singers is the ecstasy of surrender they inspire, another weird thing is the debunking response a singer can arouse once weve recovered our senses. There's a reason why Rolling Stones voted Robert Plant as the greatest of all lead singers in 2011. Influenced Playing a weathered Strat, often wearing a flannel shirt, Gallagher electrified Chicago and Delta styles with scalding slide work and hard-boiled songwriting. "It seems a waste to me to work and work for years," Rory Gallagher told Rolling Stone in 1972, "and just turn into some sort of personality." "I was a little too reverent," he says, looking back. "He brought Ray Charles to the mix as an influence on rock & roll," says Steve Van Zandt. That polyglot mastery earned him huge respect from jazz and rock peers alike: Jeff Beck called him "the best guitarist alive. ", Born ", Key Tracks: "Expressway to Yr. Skull," "Silver Rocket", Related The Rolling Stone Interview: Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore Thurston Moore: The Six-Pack Q&A, Even if he had never progressed beyond the brain-rattling riffing of "2112" and "Xanadu," Rush's guitarist would have left his mark on Metallica and other like-minded metalheads. "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (Simon and Garfunkel), "All I Know" (solo) "He mystifies me, he's so good," says Art Garfunkel. Out of all the hopped-up Caucasians who turbocharged the blues in the late Sixties, Texas albino Johnny Winter was both the whitest and the fastest. ", Born Born Featuring Keith Richards on Chuck Berry, Carlos Santana on Jerry Garcia, Tom Petty on George Harrison and more. Elton John, Kid Rock, John Fogerty, Few artists have attacked singing with the ferocity of Jerry Lee Lewis, a key combustible element in the rock & roll Big Bang of the Fifties. I don't know. Cat Stevens, James Taylor, "He is a pure and beautiful tenor voice, and there really is no one like him," says James Taylor about Art Garfunkel, whose singing blends lyricism with a remarkable ease of delivery. Only Dave Davies could do that. Key Tracks He set the tone very early in the group's career. "Singing allows me to express all the mysteries hidden inside," he once said. IU And BTS's Jungkook Make Rolling Stone's List Of "The 200 Greatest Heavyweights such as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and John Lennon were all on record as fans of his rowdy vocals. Key Tracks King Solomon himself says, "I'm just trying to move as fast as I can, in as many directions as I can, for as long as I can. "Hotel California," "Desperado" (Eagles), "The Boys of Summer" (Solo) THE VOTERS: Trey Anastasio, Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), Brian Bell (Weezer), Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple), Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket), James Burton, Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains),. 40 Greatest Led Zeppelin Songs of All Time - Rolling Stone In the course of nearly four decades fronting Aerosmith, Tyler has defined both the sound and style of the lead singer in a hard-rock band. Along with guitarists like Magic Sam and Buddy Guy, Rush helped create the more modernized, R&B-influenced approach to Chicago blues that came to be known as the West Side Sound. It was always melodic." Hall and Oates, Michael Jackson, Rod Stweart, Motown founder Berry Gordy said that any of the five Temptations could have been a lead singer, but it was David Ruffin who stood out most from the pack. Carey is famous for her staggering vocal range including those ravishing high notes and power. ", Key Tracks: "La Villa Strangiato," "The Spirit of Radio", Related Video: Rush Rock Madison Square Garden Rush's Return to the Limelight, The Sex Pistols, Steve Jones' brutish power chords and flamboyant gutter-glam solos were a perfect mirror for the taunting bile of Johnny Rotten and a yardstick for every punk-rock noise-maker that followed. Every line Tyler sings is informed by a leer and a wink, whether overtly ("Love in an Elevator") or with more subtlety ("Walk This Way"). "Nels can play anything," Jeff Tweedy said. "He started as that cheerleader," says the Roots' Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, "then pulled back the Wizard of Oz curtain and revealed a lonely shell of a man." So, uh, Rolling Stone released their 200 Greatest Singers list. "Jolene," "I Will Always Love You," "9 to 5" She'd had some trepidation about playing to secular audiences, but as her father, Roebuck "Pops" Staples, told her, "The people in the clubs won't come to church. From "All Right Now" to "Can't Get Enough," his combination of macho blues power and melodic sensitivity still sets the standard for hard-rock frontmen. "He could play flashy, intricate phrases. Key Tracks Blige's 1992 pairing with rookie Sean "Puffy" Combs for What's the 411? "He's kind, lovely and very much a gentleman. ", Born Born "Five and Rain," "Sweet Baby James," "You've Got a Friend" Kurt Cobain even mentioned it in his suicide note: "When we're back stage and the lights go out and the manic roar of the crowds begins it doesn't affect me the way in which it did for Freddie Mercury," he wrote. "Take their voices off and it's Buddy Holly. If there was any doubt left in the late 1950s that the guitar not the saxophone was rock & roll's essential lead instrument, Duane Eddy settled the argument: See his 1958 single "Rebel Rouser," curled with country twang and rippling with tremolo. "You try to be authentic as a person, with all the doubt, wonder and mystery of being alive. Valli's solo hits, like "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," revealed his taste for more mainstream material, with a rich R&B influence. A breakneck stylist, McLaughlin was peerless, mixing psychedelic rock, R&B, gypsy jazz, flamenco and Indian raga techniques. Taylor boasts a classic American voice a clear, vibrato-less instrument as reassuring as a warm fireplace. "He was a brilliant rhythm player, rarely played solos, so full of sounds," said Radiohead's Ed O'Brien part of an entire generation of British guitarists who took their cues from Marr. ), pure tone and passionate sincerity now seem undeniable. I was rhythm guitarist. March 2nd, 1942 "He was always driving into the music." He played with feel. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. "He plays eight notes to my one! Conversely, nothing in the vocal limitations of a Lou Reed guarantees a Pale Blue Eyes every time out, any more than singing as crazy-clumsy as Tom Waits guarantees a Downtown Train. Yet theres a certain time-tested sturdiness to the lowchops approach forged by touchstone figures like Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison and Jonathan Richman, one that helps define rock & roll singing. May 28th, 1944 This list of the best female singers of all time, ranked by music fans and casual critics like you, includes all the famous female singers from Aretha Franklin and Stevie Nicks to Celine Dion and Mariah Carey (all great women in music who have topped the charts for decades, and perhaps landed them a Rolling Stone cover or two). "He gets lost in the melodic moment. published 7 December 2010. Rolling Stone 200 greatest singers 2023 | Statista "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," "Here Comes the Rain Again" (Eurythmics), "Why" (solo) With his falsetto cries, rolled r's and warbling yodels, he pulled off lyrics few other singers could possibly have gotten away with, and he opened up possibilities for rockers who've followed him, from Oasis to Interpol. Dylan remembered playing King of the Delta Blues Singers, the 1961 LP that rescued Johnson from obscurity: "The vibrations from the loudspeaker made my hair stand up. Chris Daughtry, Chad Kroeger, Rob Thomas, "Other than Robert Plant, there's no singer in rock that even came close to Steve Perry," says American Idol judge Randy Jackson, who played bass with Perry in Journey. "You had to be as good as Otis Rush." A top session man in the Sixties, he played on the Byrds' 1968 landmark, Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Influenced 100 Greatest Guitarists - Rolling Stone 1 Freddie Mercury 32,246 votes Queen Secrets Behind Freddie Mercury's Wardrobe #1 of 569 The Best Singers Of All Time #20 of 1,158 The Greatest Musical Artists of All Time 2 Robert Plant 24,447 votes Led Zeppelin The Best Robert Plant Albums of All Time How appalling! Influenced Influenced In late 1966, Peter Green had the job of replacing Eric Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Key Tracks As a kid studying Motown records, Johnny Marr would try to replicate not just guitar riffs but piano and strings too, all with his right hand. "I like to sing heartfelt, where you address the mike with your honesty," says Garfunkel. I just wanted to hear her. Key Tracks: "Runaway," "Something to Talk About", Related The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time: Bonnie Raitt The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Bonnie Raitt's 'Nick of Time', In the Beatles' early days, George Harrison briefly billed himself as Carl Harrison in honor of his quick-picking hero. In contrast to his heavenly-voiced partner, Eddie Kendricks, Ruffin sang as if every word was a plea pain and desperation filled his lead vocals on "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," "(I Know) I'm Losing You" and "I Wish It Would Rain." Billboard magazine and Rolling Stone have ranked the band as one of the greatest of all time. "Close to You," "Goodbye to Love," "We've Only Just Begun" But underlying Reed's acidic talking-blues delivery is a deep love of Fifties R&B and doo-wop. Rush's impact on later generations was enormous: His late-Fifties and early-Sixties singles were go-to covers for Led Zeppelin ("I Can't Quit You Baby"), John Mayall ("All Your Love [I Miss Loving]") and the J. Geils Band ("Homework"), while Stevie Ray Vaughan named his band after Rush's lethal '58 lament "Double Trouble. Davies, who created the distortion on "You Really Got Me" by slicing an amp speaker with a razor, has laughed off claims that it was actually played by an uncredited Jimmy Page: "Who'd want to play a solo that crazy, anyway? ", Key Tracks: "Shoot Out the Lights," "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", John McLaughlin was invited to record with Miles Davis while still in his twenties, co-parenting jazz fusion on Bitches Brew and other Davis LPs. Playing his Stratocaster and fronting a double-guitar-bass-and-drum quartet, Holly essentially invented the rock band. December 8th, 1947 January 22nd, 1949 ", Key Tracks: "I'm Yours and I'm Hers," "Fast Life Rider", Since King Crimsons first rehearsal in 1969, Robert Fripp has been its distinguishing instrumental voice, a singular blend of distorted complexity and magisterial sustain. As Mariah Carey said when inducting Knight into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, "She's like a textbook to learn from. Key Tracks "Gloria," "Rock N Roll Nigger," "Because the Night" The list has 200 singers and orders them based on "originality, influence . Her dad was Broadway star John Raitt, but Bonnie's artistic parents were blues giants like Howlin' Wolf and Mississippi Fred McDowell, whom she met and performed with early in her career. It is, and he did: Lennon was the Beatles' spark plug and bloodletter, often adding rawness to pristine pop songs. Soon, with the original Fleetwood Mac, he was Britain's most progressive blues guitarist, with a Chicago-informed aggression heightened by the melodic adventure on albums like 1969's Then Play On. I was fortunate to get to go to one of his Midnight Rambles a few years back when My Morning Jacket were recording up in the Catskills. "I'm vocally the strongest I've ever been," says Blige. But she was a much more sophisticated musician. It was all the power and none of the guilt! "Her voice soothes me," says Love, "gives me something to aspire to and leaves me feeling courageous. "Boom Boom," "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer," "Boogie Chillen" Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 - October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. Quickly moving away from punk, he recast jazz chords and reggae rhythms as headlong rock & roll. "A hundred years from now," Hibbert says, "my songs will be played, because it is logical words that people can relate to." January 18th, 1941 (died June 1st, 1991) Sam Cooke 4. Our 2008 list of the best vocalists ever, as voted on by a panel of 179 experts. Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, Willie Nelson's secret ingredient is his unconventional phrasing something jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis has described as "very unpredictable, but it comes out poetic and very logical." She was a folkie who had learned to play what they call an indicated arrangement, where you are like a band in the way you approach a chord and string the melody along. His first choice was Terry Reid, who turned the gig down. I first heard Muddy when I was a kid, around my family's music store. ', Born Merle Haggard's tough but smooth baritone epitomized Sixties and Seventies country, from the stubborn attack of "Okie From Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me" to the delicate crooning on "Silver Wings" and "If We Make It Through December." She learned fast: Starting with her acoustic slide workout on 1971's "Walking Blues," Raitt rolled out a fearsome repertoire of blues licks, fingerpicking with the best and wielding a slide like an old master. Influenced ", Born "Sweet Emotion," "Dream On," "Walk This Way" Below is our list of the 33 best singers of all time: 1. Rolling Stones The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time Key Tracks March 12th, 1948 "I would call him one of the great blues singers of our generation. "Oh Sherrie," "Don't Stop Believin'," "Open Arms" The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Beginning with the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, every group for whom harmony singing is important owes a crucial debt to the Everly Brothers. Key Tracks "His arrangements were really complex, really unruly," said Rush's Alex Lifeson. Aretha Franklin - Greatest Hits (Official Full Album) | Aretha Franklin Best Songs Playlist. When he was 10 years old, Perry heard Sam Cooke's "Cupid" on his mom's car radio, and decided he had to be a singer. "I have come to believe we were fated for each other," he said. No one else plays the drums or sings like Levon, much less doing it at the same time. "Bye Bye Love," "When Will I Be Loved," "Crying in the Rain" December 18th, 1980 In our studio, there are pictures on the wall of our favorite artists. He doesn't walk off the path too far, but what a path he's walked. Using electronic trickery and exploiting what he called "the tension between what's human and what's coming from the machines," he changed his voice into a disembodied instrument; songs like "Everything in Its Right Place" sound like fragmented transmissions from some distant galaxy. "You do what you can to get the sound you want. Key Tracks "He invented the genre of the white guy singing low." The specific record that I wore to the bone was Hard Again. ", Key Tracks: "Rhiannon," "Go Your Own Way", Related The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time: Fleetwood Mac's 'Go Your Own Way' The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours', In the eighties, the Sonic Youth leader emerged as indie rock's premier guitar radical, mixing strange drone tunings, jamming screwdrivers or drumsticks under his strings, and blasting out feedback-swirled punk jams. He leaves you speechless. "I had this little handheld transistor radio that I used to sleep next to," Stewart remembers. They were dazzled by the way he made a guitar sound like an ensemble slide and rhythm parts yelping in dialogue, riffs emerging from the mist. "He's a Rebel," "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," "He's Sure the Boy I Love" "On My Own," "If Only You Knew" (solo) "Lady Marmalade" (with LaBelle) The Beatles had four amazing singers, but the only one to make our list is John Lennon. Still, he didn't get his due as a guitarist in the Beatles' heyday. I can see Mozart, Jay-Z, Gershwin, PJ Harvey and Bjrk. We all just expected it. He can pop in for sensitive moments, such as in between Manuel's vocals in "Whispering Pines." His voice really pierced me in a way that wouldn't let go. The Nirvana frontman's career lasted only a handful of years, but he's inarguably one of the greatest songwriters of the past few decades. Beth Gibbons, Sinad O'Connor, Duffy, "Anybody my age turning on MTV and seeing Annie Lennox sing 'Sweet Dreams' that was enough right there," says Rob Thomas. Says LeAnn Rimes, "Dolly made me realize that there are endless possibilities when communicating with your voice. They were blown away and Vedder was soon asked to join what became Pearl Jam. ", Born "My grandmother made sure that we listened to a variety of music, and that always stayed with me," says Burke. ", Key Tracks: "Right Off," "The Noonward Race", Related The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Miles Davis' 'Bitches Brew', When B.B. Rolling Stone releases list of 200 greatest singers of all time. Who Smith unleashed that beast in signature tracks like "Gloria" and "Land" combinations of classic R&B songs and Smith's stream-of-consciousness slurs, grunts and moans. Born "Midnight Rider," "Whipping Post" Born (Check out the Staples' transcendent take on "The Weight" in The Last Waltz.) We're into chaos. "The frat boys would all want James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding music, which I had to learn," Henley said. April 4th, 1915 (died April 30th, 1983) Rest in peace., Key Tracks: Floods, Cemetery Gates, Mouth for War, You can trace all things loud and riff-y right back to the Kinks' Dave Davies, starting with the fantastically simple power chords of "You Really Got Me," which he recorded at age 17 setting off a run of proto-metal singles from "All Day and All of the Night" to "Till the End of the Day." "To be validated by John Fahey," says Thurston Moore, "was really special for our scene. the tail end of it an octave higher.' Eddie Vedder 8. 25 Best Rock Band Lead Singers Of All Time He was also capable of generating a truly ferocious tone: In the live promo clip for "Revolution," Lennon makes his hollow-body Epiphone Casino screech like a very angry lawn mower. "One Sweet Day," "Vision of Love," "Fantasy" July 18th, 1939 "The Weight," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" Rolling Stone's 200 Best Singers of All Time - Rate Your Music "It was intimidating to stand next to him," she says. Influenced "Never Too Much," "Superstar," "A House Is Not a Home" The Best Albums of 2023 So Far - Rolling Stone Van Morrison, Jim Morrison, Robert Plant. For me, Bob Dylan and Patti Smith, just to mention two, are superb singers by any measure I could ever care about expressivity, surprise, soul, grain, interpretive wit, angle of vision. Key Tracks Influenced But with his love of Cheap Trick, the Melvins and Kiss, he gave it the metallic power necessary to conquer the world. Recently, he's picked up a Grammy and long-overdue recognition, and tracks such as "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" are now part of the soul canon. Rolling Stone Readers Pick the Top 10 R&B/Soul Singers of All Time Sly Stone's funk was so revolutionary in its conception, its writing, its arranging, it can be easy to overlook his remarkable singing. ", U2, Live From Outer Space: Launching the Biggest Tour of All Time, U2 Photos: Three Decades of the World's Biggest Band, Onstage and Backstage. It was a little flirty, but he was never actually hitting on me, he was just having fun. "Annie is amazingly versatile," says Thomas. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. With him as the frontman of Led Zeppelin, the band enjoyed great success for many years. ", Born When the Yardbirds dissolved in 1968 guitarist Jimmy Page wanted to form a band with the greatest singer he could possibly find. Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Mary J. Blige, Patti LaBelle pushes everything she sings over the top, from her early-Sixties hits with the Bluebelles through her politically minded Seventies records with her space-funk trio, LaBelle including the French Quarter funk of "Lady Marmalade," from 1975 to the past few decades' solo albums. All those vowels and consonants, those s's and t's, every one of them killed me." Thus no David Bowie, Elton John, etc. "The House of the Rising Sun," "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," "It's My Life" (the Animals), "Spill the Wine" (War) ", Born "Blue EYes Crying in the Rain," "On the Road Again," "Whiskey River," "Blue Skies" Pain, defiance, anger all those emotions were so acute with John Lee, and that's what draws us to the blues. I understood her joy in using bigger tools later jazz bands, orchestra. He had a streamlined style that reminded me of Keith Richards, said Slash. "I'm looking for controlled beauty," he says, a standard he learned as a child from the likes of Italian opera star Enrico Caruso. Rolling Stone Best Lead Singers of All Time Pick the best lead singers of all time. She was a fantastic rhythm player and growing so fast. When he burst onto the scene in 1964, his voice was "big and dark," says Steve Van Zandt. "I am the invisible guitar player. But so is Plant, the lead singer of the band that best defined rock stardom. (the Smiths), "Irish Blood, English Heart" (solo) But then I started to try to sing using that voice." Alicia Keys, John Legend, No singer made the Top 40 sound so intimate often painfully so as Luther Vandross. "The Radiohead influence on us was plain to see." The backwoods yowl that put the fire into Creedence Clearwater Revival's gritty late-Sixties hits like "Green River" and "Proud Mary" actually was not, as the man says, Born on the bayou. It is ageless, timeless and has no race. "He incorporated those elements into rock & roll, and it totally blew people's minds. Their hits in the Fifties and early Sixties seemed at once raw and pristine: When he first heard the Everlys, Art Garfunkel says, "I learned that every syllable can shine. And then to angry. Influenced It also doesn't hurt that, for me, he's up there as a songwriter alongside Lennon and McCartney, Dylan and Joni Mitchell the best of the best. Key Tracks Born Mick Jagger is 67 years old, and as he proved at the Grammys this year, he's still one of the greatest singers in the world. But it was when he joined the Eagles in 1975 that he truly lodged himself on classic-rock radio. His fluid, inventive playing influenced Hendrix, sometimes overtly: Jimi liked Collins' sustain in the song "Collins Shuffle" so much that he used it on "Voodoo Chile. "They call George the invisible singer," Lennon said. Beyonc, Keyshia Cole, "I can do a record with Elton John, I can do 'One' with Bono, I can work with Method Man, Jay-Z, and no one says, 'Why is she doing that?' Joey Ramone, Patti Smith, Billy Joel, Backed by future husband Phil Spector's wildly romantic production, Veronica "Ronnie" Bennett's knife-blade belting with the Ronettes became a defining voice of the early Sixties, and it filtered down to everyone from Patti Smith to Joan Jett to the E Street Band. Townshend later repaid the favor while talking to Rolling Stone in 1975: "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. "He was absolutely stunning. April 30th, 1933 A key figure in doo-wop's transition to rock & roll, the Bronx-born singer defined an attitude of white-boy rebellion and delivered his lyrics with a casual, swinging phrasing that rivals Sinatra. Mariah Carey, Jill Scott, Gladys Knight's advice about great singing: "Just sing the song and say the words." "Not having a bass player made me play more bass notes to fill out the bottom," he said. But his greatest performance could be "54-46 Was My Number," his defiant, deeply funky memory of a short stint in prison.