OT: Best Vocalist You've Seen Live

[Klipper]

Andrea Bocelli
Frank Sinatra
Stevie Winwood
Stevie Wonder
Dan Reynolds- lead singer of Imagine Dragons
Ryan Tedder-lead singer One Republic

 

[weyuo]

Pat Benatar: For a gal at best 5 feet tall she had one of the most powerful voices I've ever seen live. ​

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Ann & Nancy Wilson from Heart: Saw them back in the mid 70's. Excellent vocals and looks to match.​

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Jon Anderson from Yes​

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Note: Even though I never saw her live I'd have to say Barbra Streisand must rank up in the top 5 of vocalists ever recorded. I'm sure all vocalists would agree.​

 

[lonsharkin51]

Mummy Case from Here Come the Mummies. Don't know who he is, but the dude is electric.

Winwood was amazing when I saw him about four or five years ago in Aspen. And I agree about Clapton. One of the most uninspired, boring shows I've ever been to.

Also, not necessarily the greatest singer in the world, but Michael Franti has a stage presence that few other vocalists can match. If you haven't seen him, do.

 

[lonsharkin51]

Pat Benatar: For a gal at best 5 feet tall she had one of the most powerful voices I've ever seen live. ​

​

Ann & Nancy Wilson from Heart: Saw them back in the mid 70's. Excellent vocals and looks to match.​

​

Jon Anderson from Yes​

​

Note: Even though I never saw her live I'd have to say Barbra Streisand must rank up in the top 5 of vocalists ever recorded. I'm sure all vocalists would agree.​

Got to interview Jon Anderson a few years back for a magazine article. Wonderful guy and still can sing pretty damn good.

 

[alexd]

Pat Benatar: For a gal at best 5 feet tall she had one of the most powerful voices I've ever seen live. ​

​

Ann & Nancy Wilson from Heart: Saw them back in the mid 70's. Excellent vocals and looks to match.​

​

Jon Anderson from Yes​

​

Note: Even though I never saw her live I'd have to say Barbra Streisand must rank up in the top 5 of vocalists ever recorded. I'm sure all vocalists would agree.​

We saw Pat Benatar a few weeks ago at Foxwoods. She's still got it.
An amazing Heartbreaker>Ring of Fire>Heartbreaker to end the show.

 

[tentoes4rings]

Pat Benatar: For a gal at best 5 feet tall she had one of the most powerful voices I've ever seen live. ​

​

Ann & Nancy Wilson from Heart: Saw them back in the mid 70's. Excellent vocals and looks to match.​

​

Jon Anderson from Yes​

​

Note: Even though I never saw her live I'd have to say Barbra Streisand must rank up in the top 5 of vocalists ever recorded. I'm sure all vocalists would agree.​

I forgot to add Peter Gabriel for male vocalists and Natalie Merchant at Spring Weekehd.

When I racked my brain for great singers I also thought of mostly female vocalists. Apart from opera singers or lounge singers like Sinatra and Frankie Valli, I don’t think there are that many amazing male vocalists, especially in the rock genre. Here are the ones I wish I had seen live or still want to:

Plant in prime
Daltrey in prime
Jim Morrison not stumbling drunk
Paul Rodgers in prime
Rod Stewart
Marley
Paul Carrack

 

[wheelerdog]

Patrick Monahan (Train). Saw them open for Hall and Oates last year and it should have been the other way around.

 

[superjohn]

This list is really strange, it's a list of the greatest vocalists people have ever seen and there has been close to 100 white singers named and about 10 or so black singers named. Something is seriously out of whack.

 

[storrsroars]

This list is really strange, it's a list of the greatest vocalists people have ever seen and there has been close to 100 white singers named and about 10 or so black singers named. Something is seriously out of whack.

I was more noticing "singers from bands I like" as opposed to great vocalists, but now that you mention it...

 

[tentoes4rings]

This list is really strange, it's a list of the greatest vocalists people have ever seen and there has been close to 100 white singers named and about 10 or so black singers named. Something is seriously out of whack.

Couldn’t it simply be that it’s a board made of mostly white guys who haven’t been exposed to some of the best black vocalists? I personally would have loved to have seen Marvin Gaye, younger Stevie, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh and several others but some were either before my time or as a fan of mostly rock music, off my radar. What’s your point exactly? That we collectively didn’t see a lot of the great black vocalists or choose to diminish their talent?

 

[Steelerone]

I saw Elvis in 1956. There was not one after that.

 

[ToolzieFan]

Saw Winwood open for the Allmans during what turned out to be their last show ever in CT and again opening for Steely Dan at Bethel NY. Still an amazing voice....He only got 45-50 minutes each time. Which was a shame, but he did all traffic, Spencer Davis and blind faith stuff...just one solo song..higher love.

I saw Winwood open for The Allman Brothers Band and for Tom Petty. He was a perfect opening act for great classic rock bands like that. I really wish I saw him when he played with Eric Clapton, not only to see him play longer, but because the live album they did sounded much more inspired than the set I saw Clapton do at MSG two years ago.

As far as blues/classic rock voices, I haven’t seen many better than Gregg Allman. I saw them many times, including during their last week at the Beacon.

 

[superjohn]

Couldn’t it simply be that it’s a board made of mostly white guys who haven’t been exposed to some of the best black vocalists? I personally would have loved to have seen Marvin Gaye, younger Stevie, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh and several others but some were either before my time or as a fan of mostly rock music, off my radar. What’s your point exactly? That we collectively didn’t see a lot of the great black vocalists or choose to diminish their talent?

Absolutely that can be it, it just stuck out to me. It's just weird in a long thread of the best vocalists people have ever seen we've got names like Buffett, Adam Levine, Dylan, Billy Joel etc. and hardly any of the million or so amazing black singers.

Most people when they think of the greatest singers they don't think of a bunch of old white guys.

 

[alexd]

Absolutely that can be it, it just stuck out to me. It's just weird in a long thread of the best vocalists people have ever seen we've got names like Buffett, Adam Levine, Dylan, Billy Joel etc. and hardly any of the million or so amazing black singers.

Most people when they think of the greatest singers they don't think of a bunch of old white guys.

But the thread is about the "best vocalists you've seen live" (so the answers are subjective and limited to artists you've actually seen), not the greatest singers.

 

[Kathy]

Stevie Nicks w/ Fleetwood Mac at UConn

Tarja Turunen w/ Nightwish- operatic vocals with symphonic metal band

 

[superjohn]

But the thread is about the "best vocalists you've seen live" (so the answers are subjective and limited to artists you've actually seen), not the greatest singers.

I'm aware, that's exactly what stuck out me. It seems like the overwhelming majority of boneyarders haven't seen any black singers live.

 

[Devland]

I saw Percy Sledge at the BIg E. He was pretty amazing. I almost forgot about it because we didn't go to see him. We went to go to the fair. We sat in the music stage area to take a rest and while we were there the show started.

 

[storrsroars]

I'm aware, that's exactly what stuck out me. It seems like the overwhelming majority of boneyarders haven't seen any black singers live.

To be fair, I think about the only black vocalist that played at Shaboo was James Cotton. And you saw him for the harmonica, not the singing

 

[Dove]

Players Tavern, Westport, probably 1978, spectacular from first note to last.

And I'd largely forgotten about it until just now.

You're welcome, Hans!

 

[pj]

emmylou harris, linda ronstadt, sheryl crow

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

This list is really strange, it's a list of the greatest vocalists people have ever seen and there has been close to 100 white singers named and about 10 or so black singers named. Something is seriously out of whack.

Stevie Wonder, Wilson Pickett, Toots Hibbert, BB King, Jimmy Witherspoon, James Cotton, Taj Mahal, Ella Fitzgerald, George Clinton, Sun Ra, George Adams, Ann Peebles, Sam & Dave, Prince, are the first that come to mind, with certainty that there are obvious omissions. I liked all of the above more than a large majority of what's been posted, but I still think that the answers aren't surprising, invalid, or out of whack. Set & setting matter greatly.

 

[uconnfan68]

emmylou harris, linda ronstadt, sheryl crow

Karla Bonoff in SDSU cafe. Her band included many of the studio guys behind Linda Ronstadt, Wendy Waldman, and Jackson Browne.

 

[LIuconn]

Andra Day

 

[alexd]

Stevie Wonder, Wilson Pickett, Toots Hibbert, BB King, Jimmy Witherspoon, James Cotton, Taj Mahal, Ella Fitzgerald, George Clinton, Sun Ra, George Adams, Ann Peebles, Sam & Dave, Prince, are the first that come to mind, with certainty that there are obvious omissions. I liked all of the above more than a large majority of what's been posted, but I still think that the answers aren't surprising, invalid, or out of whack. Set & setting matter greatly.

Holy crap!!! You've seen all of those singers live??? I'm impressed.

 

[Dove]

Saw Ann Wilson last night at the Heart show in Hartford. She did her best. (Strange show. They did about 5 covers with some Heart songs thrown in)

Adding:

Bruce Dickinson