Vintage Vinyl News: Aretha Franklin Named Greatest Singer of Rock Era

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Aretha Franklin Named Greatest Singer of Rock Era

Rolling Stone's new issue names their picks for the 100 greatest singers of the Rock Era based on a poll of 179 industry professionals.

Aretha Franklin tops the list with Mary J. Blige saying "Aretha has everything — the power, the technique. When it comes to expressing yourself through song, there is no one who can touch her. She is the reason why women want to sing." Franklin is followed by Ray Charles and Elvis Presley.

For the poll, each individual was asked to name their 20 "best" vocalists from the Rock era in order of importance. All of the lists were then combined, using a weighting factor based on how high they were on each individual list, producing the final 100.

Among those voting were Eric Burdon, Solomon Burke, Dave Clark, Alice Cooper, David Crosby, Clive Davis, Dion, Mick Fleetwood, Art Garfunkel, Merle Haggard, Daryl Hall, Etta James, Billy Joel, B.B. King, Mike Love, Loretta Lynn, John Mellencamp, George Michael, Bette Midler, Iggy Pop, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Roger Waters and many more.

What is striking about this particular list is the abbundance of what we call Veteran Artists (those whose recording career started at least 25 years ago). Only eight singers whose career started before the mid-80's even made the list.

Rolling Stone has been guilty in the past of loading many of their "Best-Ofs" with modern artists may not have belonged on the lists and leaving off much more deserving artists. This time, the breadth of the people asked to vote has been able to keep a better perspective of older artists withing the framework of the times.

Veteran artists who made the list: