100 Greatest Singers Of All Time List

Recently Rolling Stone mag published a 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time list. What makes the list interesting is that they got musicians, famous musicians naturally, to write about why these singers are the greatest.

So the number one pick, Aretha Franklin, is written about by Mary J. Blige, for example, who says of Aretha: "You know a force from heaven. You know something that God made. And Aretha is a gift from God. 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."

This may be true, just as it may be true that Nico is the reason why boys want to dance.

If you look at the list though (here's the condensed version) you will see that it represents a pretty small slice of music styles. And that bugs me. (It also bugs some of the people who commented -- for example a reader named "Null" who said: "Two words: Billie Holliday. For god's sake.") After all, if you're going to call something "greatest singers of all time," you might want to broaden it out to include, say, jazz, classical, and "world music."

Another respondent said "There is no greatest singer," and of course that is true. But if you're listing 100 voices surely you could have a wider cross section of genres? (Aside: what's with the gravitating to 100/1000 lists, anyway, 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die, 1001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die...what's next, 1002 Thoughts To Think Before You Die?)

Now, there is no way I would attempt a 100, let alone a 1000 list, but here are NINE SINGERS WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE LIST, in no particular order.

Youssou N'Dour
Cecilia Bartoli
Emmylou Harris
Sarah Vaughan
Milton Nascimento
Carmen McCrae
Maria Callas
Johnny Cash
Odetta

Feel free to contribute your own suggestions...