Empress said:

I feel the same as you. Still I grew up listening to Queen.

George is a brilliant vocalist, but Freddie was in a class entirely by himself. 2 me, the comparison is almost laughable.

Moonbeam said:

Freddy was a good person, a great singer, very talented composer.

I know Queen is overrated, but I keep my sympathy for Freddy.

So I will better

weird comparrison... they have totally different ranges.

This is so hard...

Being a huge fan of both, I can honestly say that Freddie had the better voice. George is incredible, but he would be the first to admit that Freddie had a range that blows pretty much everyone away. Mercury's voice is one of, if not THE best in rock history.

George's voice is fantastic, no doubt about it. In many ways, he is one of the best singers in pop in the past fifty years or so. Still, Freddie is THE best.

JediMaster said:

and there it is!

One could argue if at the beginning George Michael owed his success to his voice or to his looks.

In Freddie's case it HAD TO BE the voice

PANDURITO said:

You have to have in mind that George wrote and produced almost all of Wham! and his solo material.

MikeMatronik said:

I do I was there.( )So I also watched the Wham! videos at the time and they were definitely selling body

PANDURITO said:

If you were there, you know
If you were there, you know
If you were there, you know...

I haven't listened to that one in ages

PANDURITO said:

Well, you should. It's not as great as the original, but it's still a good song. It should've been a single.

AlexdeParis said:

Nooooo... "Credit Card Baby" shoulda been the single!!!

If you go on Youtube, you can find the rehearsals and actual performance of GM with Queen performing Somebody to Love. Really good stuff.

They are equally great, but I would give the edge to Freddie. He could sing operatically, with sould, or hard rock, so he gets my vote.

George Michael....i just saw the "Careless Whisper" video on VH1 Soul yesterday That man can sang!!!!

Freddie was miles ahead of George in the singing department.
Think he scored more boys than George did too.
Definitely more women than George.
There's no competition here, it's Freddie all the way.

missfee said:

He's actually lip-synching in the video... did you know that?

George Michael can imo be a really good singer, but his own material is generally so weak and boring (much of it seems to be weak, snooze-inducing bossa-nova) that he rarely shows his true talent on record.

The one exception I know is on the live Queen collab. 'Somebody to Love', where he is incredible, and I think that version as a whole probably equals the Queen original. It was easily the best thing about the fairly poor Freddie AIDS benefit show from 1992.

But I have to say that imo Freddie is obviously the better singer. His vocal range, mastery and power of his high notes and sheer versatility puts him almost in a class of his own. Other than Elvis or James Brown on form, I've never heard a singer enjoy the act of singing so much, and that is infectious to this listener.

And, while certainly releasing some weak material, solo and with Queen, Freddie is by the better and more diverse songwriter/ composer. And his and Queen's mastery of arranging vocal harmonies is one more thing he has over Michael.

Another thing I've never read anywhere is how great an influence the Beatles and especially Paul McCartney was on Mercury's song-writing, particularly in the '70s. Take 'Dear Boy' and 'The Back Seat of My Car' from McCartney's 'Ram' album of 1971. Then listen to some of Freddie's things on Queen's 'Sheer Heart Attack' album of 1974. Freddie must have been a serious McCartney fan, even tho I've never seen it mentioned anywhere. A lot of Freddie's humourous, 'novelty songs' of the '70s, seem to me to be McCartney influenced, with a touch of the Noel Coward's too. Freddie seemed to borrow some of McCartney's melodic and chordal style and add his own brand of pomp and camp to it.

Anyway, George Michael is good I think, but I actually find it a little surprising he is even being compared to Mercury, one of the great singers and showmen of rock history.

And Freddie and Montseratt's 'Barcelona' album is a truly glorious load of old tosh!
[Edited 3/8/07 13:17pm]

MartyMcFly said:

uh yes I do know that.