How great singers' voices have or have not held up over time

[bill5]

Granted it's not fair to ask someone to maintain the same level in their 40s/50s or more as in their youth, but it's interesting to me how some can maintain that level or close to it over better than others...for ex. IMO:

 

Held up well over the years:

- Mick Jagger 

- Billy Joel

- Paul McCartney (more or less)

- Linda Ronstadt (before medical issues kicked in)

- Tony Bennett

- Chet Baker

- Ella Fitzgerald (she was amazing right up to the end) 

- Harry Connick Jr 

- Michael McDonald

 

Or not (PS and note: this does not include people whose voice was wrecked for other reasons e.g. Julie Andrews and surgery gone bad):

- Frank Sinatra

- Dan Folgelberg

- Burton Cummings 

- Stevie Nicks

 

 

 

[KuruPrionz]

16 minutes ago, bill5 said:

Granted it's not fair to ask someone to maintain the same level in their 40s/50s or more as in their youth, but it's interesting to me how some can maintain that level or close to it over better than others...for ex. IMO:

 

Held up well over the years:

- Mick Jagger 

- Billy Joel

- Paul McCartney (more or less)

- Linda Ronstadt (before medical issues kicked in)

- Tony Bennett

- Chet Baker

- Ella Fitzgerald (she was amazing right up to the end) 

- Harry Connick Jr 

- Michael McDonald

 

Or not (PS and note: this does not include people whose voice was wrecked for other reasons e.g. Julie Andrews and surgery gone bad):

- Frank Sinatra

- Dan Folgelberg

- Burton Cummings 

- Stevie Nicks

 

 

 

You could add Emmylou Harris and David Bowie to the first list. 

I've never considered Stevie Nicks a good singer, opinions vary. The songbird in Fleetwood Mac was Christine McVie, she sort of sounded like a female, British Smokey Robinson to me. I'm singing better than I ever had but I stopped singing mostly in my mid 20's and except for harmonies I didn't take it back up until I was in my late 50's. Of course, I am not famous... 😇

[MathOfInsects]

Maybe we can focus on the first list? It feels crummy to use a whole thread on a music site to crap on other musicians.

[The Real MC]

Greg Lake's voice improved with age.  He had this impressive basso profundo in his later years, and he did nothing to develop it.  It just came to him.

[David R]

Billy Joel’s voice has only held up because he’s dropped the keys by a semitone or three. TBH I feel like his voice was strongest in the 1990s.

 

Sting and Stevie Wonder have held on to their original ranges and sound incredibly healthy. I’m not a Foo Fighters fan really but Dave Grohl still sounds fantastic.

 

Sheila Jordan and Tony Bennett still sound phenomenal in their 90s! Inspiring. The Buena Vista Social Club singers - Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo - sound(ed) incredible to the end of their careers/lives.

[Canoehead]

My addition to the first list would be Tommy Shaw.  The man turns 70 this year and still sounds great singing tunes in their original key.

[The Real MC]

1 hour ago, Canoehead said:

My addition to the first list would be Tommy Shaw.  The man turns 70 this year and still sounds great singing tunes in their original key.

 Even on "Lady"?  He reached into dog whistle territory with the high harmony on that song.

[o0Ampy0o]

Alanis Morissette

 

 

[mcgoo]

Jon Anderson

[CowboyNQ]

I saw Steve Miller Band in concert maybe 6 years ago?  He sounded great.

 

Same goes for the Doobie Brothers’ Tom Johnston about 4 years ago I think.

[Stokely]

8 hours ago, The Real MC said:

 Even on "Lady"?  He reached into dog whistle territory with the high harmony on that song.

Do you mean a live version?  He wasn't in the band yet when Lady was released (first four albums had a different guitarist/vocalist).  I was a big Styx fan as a teenager, had every album up through Kilroy (which I hated).   James Young used to do most of the lead vocals on the early albums and did the really high harmonies.

But yeah Tommy Shaw still sounded amazing last I had heard him.   He does some great versions of songs like Foolin Yourself with a youth orchestra that warms my heart to see (my oldest kid was a huge band kid and for all the negative things in music trends like tracks and autotune and AI, that whole scene gives me hope for the future!)

For a while in the early 2000s apparently he was going around doing acoustic gigs in Borders bookstores iirc.   People could just sit right down by him and request anything they wanted    

[Motif88]

9 hours ago, The Real MC said:

 Even on "Lady"?  He reached into dog whistle territory with the high harmony on that song.

hello…Dennis DeYoung sang Lady

[Spider76]

10 hours ago, David R said:

 

Sting and Stevie Wonder have held on to their original ranges and sound incredibly healthy.

I don't agree with Sting. He still has an amazing voice, but he cam go nowhere near as high as he went with the Police.

Also, he now plays many songs live in a substantially lower key.

 

I'd add Bruce Springsteen to the "good" list. The guy's 73 and he can still roar, growl and scream for 3 hours..and he still has an amazing falsetto and finesse to go with all that power.

I think he's one of the most underrated rock singer.

[AnotherScott]

There's a difference between people who sing just like they did in the old days (Gary Brooker, right up 'til the end), people who still sound plenty strong but lose some amount of their high range (which I don't necessarily put in the category of "not holding up", because they can still give a really great performance), and then the ones who lose a lot of what they had.

[The Real MC]

1 hour ago, Motif88 said:

hello…Dennis DeYoung sang Lady

hello... Dennis sang Lady while James Young and John Curulewski sang harmonies.  John sang that really high harmony, and after John left the band Tommy's audition required him to sing the high harmony that John had sang.

[marino]

7 hours ago, mcgoo said:

Jon Anderson

 

Absolutely.

 

12 hours ago, The Real MC said:

Greg Lake's voice improved with age.  He had this impressive basso profundo in his later years, and he did nothing to develop it.  It just came to him.

 

Umm, maybe having nearly doubled his weight could have something to do with that?

 

[BenWaB3]

Keeping the Soul category included, the great Sam Moore and the great Levi Stubbs. I did see Sam on TV a couple years ago & his voice was starting to crack a little but he kept that high soaring tenor well into his later years.

[o0Ampy0o]

Someone mentioned Bruce Springsteen. Another singer whose range has included growling, screaming and what sounds like straining but all on key is Paul Rodgers. He has been singing more from the nasal region than throat for a while now but can still belt out those vocals. At least the last time I heard him sing. 

 

[Baggypants]

May be a bit of a curveball but, Alice Cooper (75) still hitting the high notes at 7:30 in No More Mr Nice Guy.

 

 

[Ivan May]

I certainly think Peter Cetera had a great voice. Yes, I know Peter Cetera isn't well-liked by Chicago fans, but his vocals on songs like Just You and Me, Happy Man and I've Been Searching So Long show off the softer range in his voice. And even though his falsetto could be a bit on the annoying side, he still showcased how powerful his falestto was. To me, Cetera and Terry Kath were the strongest singers in Chicago. Around 1986 was when Cetera's vocal range started to decrease, and I foten wonder if this was a factor in why he left Chicago.

 

 

[Bobbo Fett]

I LOVE Mick, but honestly, "Great singer"? Ummmmm not so much.......

[The Real MC]

5 minutes ago, Bobbo Fett said:

I LOVE Mick, but honestly, "Great singer"? Ummmmm not so much.......

 

Mick is better at entertaining and being a frontman than being a singer.

[stoken6]

2 hours ago, o0Ampy0o said:

Someone mentioned Bruce Springsteen. Another singer whose range has included growling, screaming and what sounds like straining but all on key is Paul Rodgers. He has been singing more from the nasal region than throat for a while now but can still belt out those vocals. At least the last time I heard him sing. 

 

Rodgers was my first thought when I saw this thread.

 

Cheers, Mike

[Floyd Tatum]

15 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

Maybe we can focus on the first list? It feels crummy to use a whole thread on a music site to crap on other musicians.

Play nice, children!

[AnotherScott]

1 hour ago, The Real MC said:

 

Mick is better at entertaining and being a frontman than being a singer.

 

Yeah... but the upside of the fact that he never had a great voice is that, all these years later... he still sounds the same. So in that respect, it's held up great!

[jarrell]

 Steve Winwood

[Mitch Towne]

I’ve played gigs with Mickey Thomas from Starship and he still sings “Fooled Around and Fell In Love” effortlessly in the original key. 

[Michael Wright]

Well, after doing a lot of vocal exercises/lessons, over the years,  and singing, I have great deal of  respect for good vocalists.  You can't sit back on your laurels that's for sure, and gotta keep working the voice, constantly,  adjusting for age.  I did all the high parts when I was playing 6 nights, a long time ago, not sure how I did it, nor if I could it now.   I am retraining  my older voice.  Which takes about 2 hours a day. 

[Shamanzarek]

John Sebastian can barely croak out a song anymore. He began losing his voice in the 80s.

 

Ian Anderson started sounding different in the 80s. He can still hit the notes and in concert I can get used to the way he sounds after a few songs.

 

John Lodge was never a great lead singer and was better known for his falsetto harmony singing. The last time I heard him his voice was pretty ragged and they ran recorded vocal tracks on some songs.

 

Billy Joel sounds okay but he sings a lot of songs a step lower than recorded.

 

Bob Seger still sounds good but he was also transposing some songs down a step.

 

Brian Wilson doesn't always sing perfectly on pitch but he gets by all right with all the backup singers he has..

 

Eddie Brigati still sounds pretty good but struggles with the high notes.

 

Robert Plant has trouble singing the high notes so some of his old repertoire is avoided.

 

Elton John still sounds good. Some of his later material is sung in a lower range but that was his producer's idea according to his autobiography. Had an operation for cysts on his vocal cords.

 

Phil Collins is in bad shape and can't stand up on stage let alone sing as strong as he once did.

 

Ringo sings about as well as he ever did. The songs were written for his limited range.

 

John Fogerty still sounds great like he did in the 60s.

 

Ozzy Osborne has Parkinson's which has a negative effect on his vocal performance.

 

Linda Ronstadt also has Parkin's which forced her to retire.

 

Neil Diamond is also retiring due to Parkinson's.

 

Maurice White also has Parkinson's but is still able to sing well.

 

Celine Dion has lost some of her vocal strength due to viral infection.

 

John Mayer had vocal granuloma which required surgery and a two year break from performing.

 

Roger Daltrey had an operation for a pre-cancerous growth which affected his vocal cords.

 

Rod Stewart had nodules removed.

 

Other singers who had nodules include:

Adele

Mariah Carey

Shirley Manson

Justin Timberlake

Björk

[Michael Wright]

Getting older sux. Not for the faint of heart.   Period. Just keep working.