Best vocal performances

Best pure vocal performances was a topic that came up for discussion somewhere, so here's my list:
  • The Marvin Gaye version of the Star Spangled Banner
  • The Ray Charles version of "America the Beautiful
  • Aretha Franklin "Call Me" - I love the vocal control, and the dynamics are incredible. My favourite, but any number of Aretha performances could be right up there...
  • I still think Ronnie's performance on the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" is a thing of beauty - no vocal gymnastics, but her voice sounds to be like the voice of a woman whose heart is close to bursting with love.
  • Al Green's version of "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?" - good Lord. "Funny How Time Slips Away" also kills me everytime.
  • Ray Charles' version of "You Don't Know Me" - one song that I think gets covered really well, with many differing nuances... Ray Charles singing country - what a marriage...
  • Donny Hathaway "Someday We'll All Be Free" and "The Ghetto"
  • Solomon Burke "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" and "I Really Don't Want To Know"
  • Gladys Knight and the Pips "Midnight Train to Georgia"
  • Elliott Smith "Miss Misery"
  • Barry White "Just the Way You Are"
  • Alison Krauss "Baby Now That I Found You"

Comments

7-8 said…
Yeh, and how about "Moonlight on Vermont" by Captain Beefheart?
30 October 2005 at 01:37
Anonymous said…
Wow. I never knew our tastes in music were so similar!!!

Damnit, I'm in Barcelona right now, and have no access to Al and Aretha and Ray... and now you've got me thinking about them.
2 December 2005 at 17:21
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Verbal agreement

From a Grauniad Guardian article on James Dyson , inventor of the dual-cyclone vacuum cleaner: He still has one major ambition. To become a verb, in the same way that Hoover - or, as he puts it, "the alternative" - has done. I suggest to him that people are already using his product but still saying they are "hoovering". He smiles. "I don't think they'll be doing that for long," he says. That struck me as unusual - it's very rare for a firm's leader to say that he wants his product to become a verb. Lots of other companies like TiVo and Google have tried desperately to avoid their name becoming a verb, for fear of the name becoming so generic that the trademark gets diluted. But then, the Languagehat archives seem to show (see comment near the bottom) that Dyson's big on turning his name into a verb. *** Sadly, due to its distinct lack of vowels, the chances of "sng" becoming a verb seem close to zero, regardless of whate...
Read more

50 Cent's crib

This New York Times article on 50 Cent's life in the sleepy suburb of Farmington, Conn. , is quite wry - But a cook at China Palace said Mr. Jackson could save 10 percent on any order over $30... Ah, the privileges of fame... 10% off Chinese takeout! For the party, Mr. Jackson ordered more than $5,000 worth of liquor, including "a lot of Baccardi," according to the owner of a Farmington liquor store who spoke on the condition of anonymity "to protect his privacy." Sipping Bacardi (ooh, caught a Times misspelling) like it's his birthday. How anonymous could a liquor store owner in a suburban town be? It's not like there're hundreds of liquor stores in the town, I'm guessing. I like how they keep referring to him as Mr. Jackson...
Read more