Vocalists

My recent discovery of Halestorm and the power vocals of Lzzy Hale got me thinking about vocalists. I don't play an instrument so vocals tend to be the first thing I really notice about a song (not that I sing either), therefore vocals and lyrics are very important to me in music. So I've thought long and hard and compiled a list of five of my favourite vocalists. This is basically an impossible task so I'm not saying that these are definitely my top five and will never be beaten (well apart from the first), no way, these are just the musicians I really think I would pay to hear them sing the phonebook. Now there are so many more I would have liked to include here (Robert Plant, James Hetfield, Kurt Cobain, Tim McIlrath, Prince, Stevie Nicks, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and more), but for now it's these five.

Freddie Mercury

Seriously though, beat that. There is no voice like Freddie Mercury's. I may not listen to Queen every day of my life, in fact I very rarely listen to Queen, but I can't imagine not having Freddie Mercury in this post. It wouldn't make sense.

Michael Jackson

I absolutely love Michael Jackson, nearly five years after his death I'm still pretty broken hearted because if I could pick anyone in the world to see live it would be Michael Jackson. His voice is awesome, he's the world's greatest dancer and entertainer ever. I really hope that I'm still as big a Michael Jackson fan as I am now in 10, 20, 30 years time. And yes I know the Thriller dance, and the one below.

Steven Tyler

Huge huge huge huge huge Aerosmith fan so Steven had to be on this little list. If you like Aerosmith then you understand the excitement that is Steven Tyler's scream, and the further excitement of when the harmonica comes out. Of course the older performances are better, let's not forget Steven is 66 now, but he's still doing pretty well if you ask me.

Chris Cornell

I love voices that you just can't ignore, Chris Cornell's voice is definitely one to sit up and pay attention to. Gargling pepples low and sexy one minute then BAM full power.

Corey Taylor

It's pretty wildly known in my friends and family that I love Corey Taylor. For about 1000 reasons, but the voice is the main. First off you have Slipknot, I'd say it's fairly impressive to be able to communicate real raw emotion through singing and screaming while wearing a mask, but Corey nails it. Then there's there's Stone Sour and Corey's acoustic solos, suddenly the growling screaming masked man from Slipknot has a beautiful powerful voice. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Give that man the phone book I will pay!