Brian at number 57 in new Rolling Stone greatest singers list

[rn57]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-singers-all-time-1234642307/

Rolling Stone’s done another list of the greatest singers of all time - pointing out in the intro that the criteria used to determine greatest singer are different from those used to decide the greatest technically proficient vocalists.

The last time the magazine put together such a list, a dozen years ago, it was 100 greatest; now it’s 200 greatest.

Much more so than was the case in the previous list, non-rock singers are included. For example, Om Khalsoum, the great Egyptian singer is on it, and so is Ofra Haza.

Brian is at number 57 and Carl is not included.

Very remarkably, Joe Cocker, who certainly would have been in the top ten or at least 20 if Rolling Stone had done an issue like this in the 1970s, isn’t included at all. He was number 98 in the earlier list of 100.

Harry Nilsson is another fine singer not in the list.

[rn57]

By way of comparison Rolling Stone’s earlier list

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-singers-of-all-time-147019/aretha-franklin-6-227696/

[Emdeeh]

Lots to dispute with that list, although I won't argue their no. 1 pick -- Aretha is the greatest.

RS could have at the very least mentioned Carl by name in the article on Brian, but no-o-o-o... And they couldn't even get Brian's inspiration the Four Freshmen right, referring to them as the Four Seasons.

[Lonely Summer]

These lists are meaningless.

[Robbie Mac]

Lots to dispute with that list, although I won't argue their no. 1 pick -- Aretha is the greatest.

RS could have at the very least mentioned Carl by name in the article on Brian, but no-o-o-o... And they couldn't even get Brian's inspiration the Four Freshmen right, referring to them as the Four Seasons.

I often wonder if the reason why Carl gets excluded from these lists is that his peak and dominance came during the post-SMiLE era that is not included in the telling of rock history. Whereas, the part of the BB story that gets told in the story of rock music is 62-66 where the lead vocals were mostly dominated by Mike and Brian.

[patsy6]

Good point, with the exception, of course, of God Only Knows. Carl always gets the short shrift in this department, even though he had the best voice of ANYONE in pop music throughout his career.

[juggler]

Good point, with the exception, of course, of God Only Knows. Carl always gets the short shrift in this department, even though he had the best voice of ANYONE in pop music throughout his career.

 
And, of course, Carl was the lead on the verses of Good Vibrations.  It's a shame that he got short-shrift on this list.  And let's face it, the BBs had hits with Mike, Al and even Blondie on lead vocals (can't think of a Denny-lead hit of the top my head but 'Forever' should have been a hit).  Brian's falsetto provided perhaps the group's most *unique* voice, but "best"?  No, that's a silly thing to say. This is unfortunately a list that reflects a sort of journalistic laziness where Brian is credited for the singing talents of the whole group.

[HeyJude]

The only thing to do with these lists is to expressly and specifically go out of our way to ignore them (which my post of course contradicts). They were "clickbait" before clickbait was a thing, and they are certainly even *more so* clickbait in 2023.

I expect many lists in the future to bump Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, and the Beatles in favor or Ariana Grande, BTS, and some singer you've never heard of from the 1930s that recorded one song and then died, all just to piss off the "boomers" (and boomer-adjacents).

Everything on this list is programmed to cause outage. Putting Lennon so high weirdly has people stupidly going after Lennon, but also they put McCartney way below Lennon, so others are pissed because of that. Then you get the people who don't understand any criteria for such things, and are confused why every singer on the list isn't as elastic vocally as prime Mariah Carey.

They probably love putting Michael Jackson on the list; that's guaranteed to piss a bunch of people off regardless of what place they put him at.

The discussion around these lists has just gotten infinitely more toxic compared to decades ago, because *everything* has to be politicized now. Long gone are the days of nerds spiritedly but inoffensively arguing Kirk vs. Picard or Roth vs. Hagar.

I saw one comment that was pretty right on: I'm surprised William Hung isn't on this list.

[Rocker]

These lists are meaningless.

Correct. Interesting that these lists are still a thing. It seems RS publishes every two years one of those. The lists are more about popularity and the author's favorites than anything else. Unfortunately the title suggests some kind of objectivity. An objective list of the greatest singers certainly wouldn't have John Lennon that high up in the ranks. Lennon may have been a lot of things, a great singer though wasn't one of them. Brian in his prime was a great singer. But he also had times when his voice wasn't in form. Al, Carl and Mike all were more consistent throughout the decades. Especially Carl's potential was never fully tapped. But boy, what a singer!

[Robbie Mac]

Good point, with the exception, of course, of God Only Knows. Carl always gets the short shrift in this department, even though he had the best voice of ANYONE in pop music throughout his career.

 
And, of course, Carl was the lead on the verses of Good Vibrations.  It's a shame that he got short-shrift on this list.  And let's face it, the BBs had hits with Mike, Al and even Blondie on lead vocals (can't think of a Denny-lead hit of the top my head but 'Forever' should have been a hit).  Brian's falsetto provided perhaps the group's most *unique* voice, but "best"?  No, that's a silly thing to say. This is unfortunately a list that reflects a sort of journalistic laziness where Brian is credited for the singing talents of the whole group.

Do You Wanna Dance just missed the Top 10, peaking at 12 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

[juggler]

Do You Wanna Dance just missed the Top 10, peaking at 12 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Good catch. Thank you.

[Awesoman]

Rolling Stone has always been a joke, and they've only gotten worse over the years.  Seems like they're more interested in virtue signaling than anything else with their more recent lists.  Although Brian's placement on this list seems about right.  Even though he sang like a bird in his prime, Carl was always the better singer and he absolutely should have placed on this list.

[Lonely Summer]

These lists are meaningless.

Correct. Interesting that these lists are still a thing. It seems RS publishes every two years one of those. The lists are more about popularity and the author's favorites than anything else. Unfortunately the title suggests some kind of objectivity. An objective list of the greatest singers certainly wouldn't have John Lennon that high up in the ranks. Lennon may have been a lot of things, a great singer though wasn't one of them. Brian in his prime was a great singer. But he also had times when his voice wasn't in form. Al, Carl and Mike all were more consistent throughout the decades. Especially Carl's potential was never fully tapped. But boy, what a singer!

I disagree about Lennon. His was always the voice in the Beatles that I loved. McCartney probably rates higher on technical ability, but  John sang with more passion. And yes, I've heard outtakes where John sounds pretty bad. I get it. I have days like that, too!