AlexdeParis said:

Bingo. And I LOVE Aretha too btw!

bboy87 said:

Please don't confuse voice color and vocal ability.
Stevie Wonder may have unattractive voice, but when it comes to vocal ability he's just on the top of game.
Stevie doesn't have attractive, elastic voice color as Michael Jackson, Donnie Hathaway, Luther Vandross. Some hate his voice color saying that his voice is nasal.(although I love his voice, I can understand that )

But He got a amazing vocal ability that make him possible to overcome his weakness of voice color.

His vocal phrasing, vocaliztion methods, voice range are just unbelievable.
He make his voice with full resonance and vibrato.
His ways of singing are so diverse and fluent.
And he use his vocal cords as if he plays harmonica or saxophone)

you can hate his voice color but you can deny the greatness of Stevie's vocal ability.

belows are just few example of his singing ability.






[Edited 1/16/10 7:23am]

AlexdeParis said:

Did you say Stevie's not pure as Sam??
I never heard of singers who can make pure and clear sounds as stevie does especially in high ranges.

sly67 said:

This video of S. Wonder covering J. Ingram is new to me, love it, thanks for posting!

sly67 said:

Especially the "I Can Only Be Me" song given to Keith John for the School Daze soundtrack. That's the greatness of his voice right there so much emotion standing up there on stage and playing keys.

Rolling with Stevie on this one.

WTF! Is this a trick question?

sly67 said:

Yes, that's what I said.

I'm gonna be honest here but comparing Aretha and Stevie isn't really fair. I actually hate choosing sides tho.

Timmy84 said:

Just do like me and pick Keith Sweat.

Timmy84 said:

that's what comparison's do. especially great comparisons. When talents like these are so unequalled it's very hard to compare them. but once again from what i've heard of each in their prime I gotta stick with stevie, although i feel he may have a slight upperhand because his melodies were so gorgeous and his lyrics so beautifully simple that it's almost an advantage aretha didn't have throughout her prime as he was able to show off his vocal talents better. The fact that despite the sometimes redundant and trite and second rate songs, melodies or arrangements she had, aretha's soulful vocals were able to uplift the tracks she sang on is a testament to how bad this Diva was.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Yeah that's a good pick. Keith it is.

I really don't think either that Stevie should be put in the same class as those vocalists that were predominantly vocalists and based their careers only on that. He has a unique approach to phrasing and one essential part of the charm of his voice is the way his own compositions and keyboard playing work together with it. His voice does often sound strained in a way that I don't find it surprising that some people find it irritating - he is neither the type of a singer who could perform just about any genre of music, mostly he's just suited to his own. Nevertheless, I'd definitely rather listen to Stevie than most others who have more range and power to their voices, but not that much personality.

Aretha Franklin may not simply have been an "entertainer", there was also genuine passion therem but the diva -type of singing just gets boring to my own ears very fast. Stevie's records are an entirely different type of a listening experience due to other factors.

just because it's sooooo wrong....

BklynBabe said:

Apples and Oranges. But, I loved and still LOVE the sound of Aretha's voice!

musicjunky318 said:

Say it LOUD!

midiscover said:

I'm not trying to take anything away from your opinion, however, on that last line where you say MJ overrated as a singer? If anything, I'd say he's underrated as a singer. MJ still hasn't gotten his props for the singer that he was. If you haven't, I urge you to take a listen to all of MJ's music catalog. There is nothing that the man can't sing. There is no emotion that the boy MJ or the man could not convey. As for Donny Hathaway, Yes, I'd say overlooked. I enjoyed his music to some degree, but exceptional? No.

novabrkr said:

novabrkr said:

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Aretha was less a diva and more of a musician (or it seemed that way). It sounds like sometime after 1980 that's when the "diva" aspect started to take over her music whereas Stevie became more of an activist but he's still pretty much a deep singer and musician to this day. Not saying Aretha isn't but I guess Stevie was a hard act for her.

kellistarr120 said:

I wouldn't compare him to Sam anyway. Two very different singers.

I refuse to answer this. Too tough a call.

Timmy84 said:

I think Aretha's "inner diva" started to come out when she went to Arista. When I read the stories about Aretha and Luther arguing in the studio over his production style that's when I realized that her "inner diva" was front and center. She should have been happy because Luther wrote one of the biggest hits of her career, "Jump To It".

daPrettyman said:

That's what I said basically that her "inner diva" came around 1980 (the year she signed with Arista). She's been difficult ever since. Which is unfortunate because she can still make a bomb album but doesn't seem inspired nowadays.

Timmy84 said:

She is inspired....inspired by all of the modern music on the radio. Didn't u see her singing "Touch My Body" on yoo tube?

I actually liked her last album, "So Damn Happy". It wasn't over the top or anything, It was just classic Aretha, but radio wouldn't touch it.

daPrettyman said:

She needs to be inspired by something else besides the boring ass radio.

Timmy84 said:

Come on, dude, she's damn-near 70 and single. Do you really think she has a muze for inspiration?

musicjunky318 said:

Hmm, it's just your opinion. and that irks me too.
You may have your standard of best singer.
But remember that everyone has their own standard.
And if you wanna say who's the best, make your standard clear and give reasonable basis.
if not, your saying "someone is the best" only means "I love his/her singing best"

I stated my basises of "Why Steive is great singer" above, so if you wanna say 'Stevie's overrated singer' give me some reasonble grounds.