Top Ten Rock vocalists, male division:

[RandomKoolzip]

And their best ever performances, IMO:

1. Robin Zander, Cheap Trick ("Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace/He's a Whore"
2. Toots Hibbert, Toots and the Maytals ("Pomp and Pride")
3. Roky Erickson ("Click Your Fingers Applauding The Play")
4. Robert Pollard, Guided by Voices ("Glad Girls")
5. Lemmy Kilmister, Motorhead ("Iron Horse")
6. Glenn Danzig, The Misfits/Danzig ("Tired of Being Alive")
7. Graham Parker ("You Got to Be Kidding")
8. Captain Beefheart ("Big-Eyed Beans From Venus")
9. John Wetton, King Crimson ("Dr. Diamond")
10. Bob Mould, Husker Du ("Eight Miles High")

[Skip Intro]

1. How can you not have Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden on that list?

A travesty, I say. A travesty.

[RandomKoolzip]

2. I almost included the guy from Europe, too.

It's "The Final Countdaown," baby!

[Skip Intro]

7. we're heading for Venus

Venus

(at two minutes to midnight - :evilgrin: )

[XNASA]

3. Ten? My brain won't go to 10 today.

Here's three more:

Tom Jones "What's New Pussycat"
Elvis Costello "Shipbuilding"
Bryan Ferry "The In Crowd"

[flvegan]

4. Where's Jon Bon Jovi?

*snort*

[democracyindanger]

5. No real rock list only goes to ten. It has to go to eleven to really rock.

11. Eddie Vedder (no specific performance)

[leftofthedial]

6. where is Donny Osmond?

[EC]

8. Jim Morrison..... n/t

[Joe Power]

9. My list

1. Freddie Mercury, Queen (no contest here, imo)
2. Chris Cornell, Soundgarden, Audioslave
3. Meatloaf (yeah, he's goofy...so what? he had pipes!)
4. Andrew Eldritch, Sisters of Mercy
5. Ian Astbury, The Cult
6. Ian Gillian, Deep Purple
7. Roger Daltry, The Who
8. Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin
9. Jack Bruce, Cream
10. Jim Morrison, The Doors

Honorable Mentions, in no particular order:

Mike Patton, Faith No More
Steve Winwood, Too many bands to list
Art Garfunkle, Simon and Garfunkle
Gregg Allman, Allman Brothers Band
Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music

And then, because he was hard to define as "rock", in a category all his own:

Roy Orbison

[Ruffhowse]

10. Oh Yeah-Roy Orbison. The guy had a voice even Elvis was jealous of.

[asthmaticeog]

11. My 2 cents, INPO

John Darnielle, the Mountain Goats ("Love Cuts the Strings/Game Shows Touch Our Lives")

Ian McCulloch, Echo & the Bunnymen ("The Back of Love")

Elvis Costello ("Peace Love & Understanding")

David Yow, the Jesus Lizard ("Zacharia")

Ian Gillian, Black Sabbath ("Trashed")

Joe Strummer, the Clash ("City of the Dead")

Roger Daltrey, the Who ("Won't Get Fooled Again" - the scream puts it over)

Steve Marriott, Humble Pie (practically everything he sang smokes)

Johnny Cash ("Big River")

Johnny Rotten, Sex Pistols ("Bodies")

[RandomKoolzip]

12. Ohhh. good choice on the Marriott!

The best vocal performance he ever did, IMO, was not on any Small Faces or Humble Pie rec, but on the chorus to The Easybeats' "Gonna HAve a Good Time Tonight."

I love Darnielle, too...there's a song on "Full Force Galesburg whose title I forget right now, but whose chorus goes "I am king/and I should not be allowed to touch anything" that was phrased in such a way that I found almost unbearably moving. ("Masher?" Was that the name of it? It's on side two.)

[asthmaticeog]

15. That's "Maize Stalk Drinking Blood," no?

[RandomKoolzip]

18. THAT'S IT!

Haven't broken that one out in a long time. Thanks, man!

[asthmaticeog]

20. Anytime.

BTW, just a word of caution if you haven't heard it yet - IMO, "The Sunset Tree" kinda blows.

[silvermachine]

17. He is awesome on the Billy Nicholls "Would You Believe" lp also...

...his label-mate on Immediate Records.

[northzax]

13. the greatest singer ever in rock n roll

would have to be Romeo,
his vocal cords are made of gold
he just looks a little too old.

[DS1]

14. First time I've seen Glenn Danzig mentioned in any of these lists

'tis a good song though

[RandomKoolzip]

19. By any sane standard, he's a great singer.

But people dismiss him because he's such an unintentional goofball.

[Aiptasia]

16. My list

1. Rob Halford, Judas Priest
2. Freddy Mercury, Queen
3. Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin
4. Ian Gillan, Deep Purple
5. Bruce Dickenson, Iron Maiden
6. Prince
7. Roger Daltry, The Who
8. Stevie Wonder
9. John Lennon, The Beatles
10. Jack Black, Tenacious D

[maveric]

21. Paul Rodgers from Bad Company is one of the best.

Where's David Bowie?

[dean_dem]

22. Though I can't pick one particular performance...

Because it's too hard to pick just one, still here's my list:

Morrissey
Ian Curtis
Glen Danzig (for vocal ability, not for ego)
Nick Cave
Robert Pollard
Charles Thompson/Black Francis/ Frank Black
Joe Strummer
Elvis Costello
Dave Gahan (yes, from Depeche Mode. Trust me, he puts on a hell of a live performance)
David Byrne

[RandomKoolzip]

25. Good to see Pollard place on more than one list.

In Bob we Trust!

[silvermachine]

23. Okay....

Maybe not in precise order, maybe not even my ultimate top 10, but these spring to mind....

1.Peter Hammill-"A Louse Is Not A Home"
2.Steve Marriott/Small Faces-"Afterglow"
3.Paul Rodgers/Free-"Heartbreaker".
4.Johnny Rotten/Lydon-"Anarchy in the U.K."
5.John Wetton/King Crimson-"The Night Watch"
6.John Lennon-"Across the Universe"
7.David Bowie-"Bewlay Brothers"
8.Mick Jagger/Rolling Stones-"No Expectations"
9.Neil Hannon/Divine Comedy-"Bad Ambassador"
10.Greg Lake/King Crimson-"In The Court of the Crimson King"

EOM

[RandomKoolzip]

24. Good choices....thumbs up for the Hammill.

My fave Hammill perf is "Lizards Play."

[Karenina]

26. Steve Perry

:SIGH: