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Photo: Loud/Getty Born May 26th, 1940 Key Tracks “The Weight,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” Influenced Jeff Tweedy, Lucinda Williams, John Hiatt There is something about Levon Helm’s voice that is contained in all of our voices. It is ageless, timeless and has no race. He can sing with such depth and emotion, [...]
Photo: Hale/Getty Born Don Everly, February 1st, 1937; Phil Everly, January 19th, 1939 Key Tracks “Bye Bye Love,” “When Will I Be Loved,” “Crying in the Rain” Influenced 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 [...]
Photo: Micelotta/Getty Born March 21st, 1940 Key Tracks “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love,” “Cry to Me,” “Just Out of Reach” Influenced Mick Jagger, Van Morrison, Ben Harper Because Solomon Burke never had a big crossover hit, “the King of Rock and Soul” is not as widely known as others from the golden age of soul [...]
Photo: Winter/Getty Born April 30th, 1933 Key Tracks “Blue EYes Crying in the Rain,” “On the Road Again,” “Whiskey River,” “Blue Skies” Influenced 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 [...]
Photo: Blumenfeld/Getty Born July 22nd, 1947 Key Tracks “Hotel California,” “Desperado” (Eagles), “The Boys of Summer” (Solo) Influenced Bruce Hornsby, Sheryl Crow, Garth Brooks Don Henley got his famously rough voice from belting out R&B tunes at Texas college gigs in his early band the Speeds. “The frat boys would all want James Brown, Wilson [...]
Photo: Putland/Retna Born November 5th, 1941 Key Tracks “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” (Simon and Garfunkel), “All I Know” (solo) Influenced 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 [...]
Photo: Russell/Getty Born October 12th, 1935 Key Tracks “Soul Man,” “Hold On, I’m Comin’,” “Part Time Love” Influenced Al Green, Teddy Pendergrass, Bruce Springsteen “You have to put something in it to make them move,” said Sam Moore, half of the Sixties R&B duo Sam and Dave. Moore boasts a scratchy voice with incredible range [...]
Photo: Micelotta/Getty Born July 26th, 1941 Key Tracks “He’s a Rebel,” “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” “He’s Sure the Boy I Love” Influenced Cher, Cyndi Lauper Darlene Love’s name did not appear on her first hit, 1962′s “He’s a Rebel” (it was credited to the Crystals instead of Love’s own group of session singers, the [...]
Photo: Tabak/Sunshine/Retna Born December 30th, 1946 Key Tracks “Gloria,” “Rock N Roll Nigger,” “Because the Night” Influenced Chrissie Hynde, PJ Harvey, Cat Power As a teenager, Michael Stipe considered Patti Smith his favorite singer. Her voice, he said, “wasn’t a strained, perfect crescendo of notes. It was this howling, mad beast.” Smith unleashed that beast [...]
Photo: Corio/Retna Born December 7th, 1949 Key Tracks “New Coat of Paint,” “Downtown Train,” “Dirt in the Ground” Influenced Nick Cave, James Hetfield, Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse) Tom Waits’ voice “has the smoothness of Barry White, but the raspiness of a mountain lion,” says hip-hop producer RZA. The “smoothness” may be hard to believe, but [...]