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Photo: Richards/AFP/Getty Born March 26th, 1948 Key Tracks “Sweet Emotion,” “Dream On,” “Walk This Way” Influenced David Lee Roth, Axl Rose, Scott Weiland Steven Tyler has a theory about how singing first began. “It had to be with the first primate uttering a moan during sex,” he says. “I truly believe that’s where the passion [...]
Photo: Putland/Retna Born May 26th, 1948 Key Tracks “Landslide,” “Dreams” (Fleetwood Mac) “Stand Back” (solo) Influenced Natalie Maines, Sarah McLachlan, Courtney Love Sheryl Crow calls Stevie Nicks’ voice a “combination of sheer vulnerability and power,” and Courtney Love swoons over “that ridiculous beautiful tone.” Nicks’ strong, deceptively versatile voice — by turns husky, warm, velvety [...]
Photo: Knight/Retna Born May 20th, 1944 Key Tracks “With a Little Help From My Friends,” “You Are So Beautiful,” “Feelin’ Alright,” “Cry Me a River” Influenced Bryan Adams, Brian Johnson “He brought ray Charles to the mix as an influence on rock & roll,” says Steve Van Zandt. Joe Cocker’s voice is an irresistible force [...]
Photo: Stawiarz/Getty Born September 16th, 1925 Key Tracks “The Thrill Is Gone,” “Every Day I Have the Blues,” “Early in the Morning,” “Ain’t Nobody Home” Influenced Eric CLapton, Ben Harper “The beauty of B.B. is that the guitar playing is an extension of his voice,” says the Allman Brothers Band’s Derek Trucks, a longtime fan [...]
Photo: Gardner/Getty Born May 24th, 1944 Key Tracks “On My Own,” “If Only You Knew” (solo) “Lady Marmalade” (with LaBelle) Influenced 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 [...]
Photo: Goodwin/Retna Born March 2nd, 1950 (died February 4th, 1983) Key Tracks “Close to You,” “Goodbye to Love,” “We’ve Only Just Begun” Influenced Sheryl Crow, Kim Gordon Karen Carpenter’s white-bread image and sad fate — she died of anorexia in 1983 — have overshadowed her chocolate-and-cream alto voice. But other performers know the score: Elton [...]
Photo: Winter/Getty Born December 25th, 1954 Key Tracks “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” “Here Comes the Rain Again” (Eurythmics), “Why” (solo) Influenced Beth Gibbons, Sinéad O’Connor, Duffy “Anybody my age turning on MTV and seeing Annie Lennox sing ‘Sweet Dreams’ — that was enough right there,” says Rob Thomas. “There was something so soulful [...]
Photo: Vincent/Getty Born May 22nd, 1959 Key Tracks “How Soon Is Now?” “William, It Was Really Nothing,” “What Difference Does It Make?” (the Smiths), “Irish Blood, English Heart” (solo) Influenced Thom Yorke, Brandon Flowers, Colin Meloy (the Decemberists) Bono said that when he first heard Morrissey singing the Smiths’ acid-tongued “Girlfriend in a Coma,” “I [...]
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 [...]