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Photo: Persson/Redferns/Retna Born August 22nd, 1917 (died June 21st, 2007) Key Tracks “Boom Boom,” “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer,” “Boogie Chillen” Influenced Van Morrison, Jim Morrison, Robert Plant Everything parents don’t want you to get into as a teenager — that’s what you could hear in John Lee Hooker’s voice. Everything you love about [...]
Photo: Brown/Getty Born May 3rd, 1934 Key Tracks “Sherry,” “Walk LIke a Man,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” Influenced Billy Joel, the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees In 1962, a song called “Sherry” blasted from AM radios with a facile falsetto vocal so impossibly precise, many thought it had “one-hit wonder” written all over [...]
Photo: Winter/Getty Born March 27th, 1970 Key Tracks “One Sweet Day,” “Vision of Love,” “Fantasy” Influenced Brandy, Christina Aguilera, Leona Lewis “When I was little,” Mariah Carey says, “I used to wake up with a really raspy voice and” — she shifts to her signature squeak — “talk in a really high voice. My mother [...]
Photo: Putland/Retna Born March 15th, 1943 Key Tracks “Everyday People,” “Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Again),” “Family Affair” Influenced Prince, George Clinton “Sly was definitive cool,” says Gnarls Barkley vocalist Cee-Lo. Sly Stone’s funk was so revolutionary in its conception, its writing, its arranging, it can be easy to overlook his remarkable singing. “Sometimes [...]
Photo: Aaron/Retna Born April 6th, 1937 Key Tracks “The Fugitive,” “The Bottle Let Me Down,” “Mama Tried” Influenced Gram Parsons, Dwight Yoakam, George Strait 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 [...]
Photo: Goodwin/Redferns/Retna Born January 22nd, 1949 Key Tracks “Oh Sherrie,” “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Open Arms” Influenced 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. “The power, the range, [...]
Photo: Echenberg/Retna Born April 21st, 1947 Key Tracks “Search and Destroy,” “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” “Lust for Life” Influenced Jack White, Johnny Rotten, Nick Cave Drawing inspiration from the most aggressively carnal moments of Mick Jagger, Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop’s force-of-nature vocals with the Stooges invented the snarling style that came [...]
Photo: Putland/Retna Born March 12th, 1948 Key Tracks “Five and Rain,” “Sweet Baby James,” “You’ve Got a Friend” Influenced Jack Johnson, Garth Brooks “I want to be in tune,” James Taylor told Rolling Stone in 2008. “I want to sing pretty, I want to sing sweet.” Taylor boasts a classic American voice — a clear, [...]
Photo: Barr/Retna Born January 19th, 1946 Key Tracks “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” “9 to 5″ Influenced Shania Twain, Natalie Maines, Alison Krauss Dolly Parton describes her voice as “a cross between Tiny Tim and a nanny goat.” Such self-deprecation is typical, but others hear her childlike quaver and soulful delivery as effervescent, joyful, [...]
Photo: Persson/Redferns/Retna Born May 28th, 1945 Key Tracks “Bad Moon Rising,” “Fortunate Son,” “Proud Mary” Influenced Bob Seger, Ronnie Van Zant, John Mellencamp 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. John [...]