Axl Among 'The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time'
AC/DC step aside to make way for Aretha Franklin, the top-ranked vocalist in Rolling Stone’s list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose came in at #64. Joining Franklin on other covers — hitting newsstands today — are John Lennon, Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley.
Click below for the full list of singers and thoughts on the greats from Bono, Robert Plant, Mary J. Blige and a host of others. Also check out the gallery of behind-the-scenes photos of some of the greats like Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye and Roger Daltrey in the studio. And before you get all bent out of shape over who’s on top and who didn’t rank, check out how the voting worked right here.
• The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time
1. Aretha Franklin
2. Ray Charles
3. Elvis Presley
4. Sam Cooke
5. John Lennon
6. Marvin Gaye
7. Bob Dylan
8. Otis Redding
9. Stevie Wonder
10. James Brown
...
64. Axl Rose
Born: February 6th, 1962
Key Tracks: "Sweet Child o' Mine," "Paradise City," "November Rain"
Influenced: Josh Todd (Buckcherry), Marilyn Manson, Chester Bennington
Photo: Busacca/Retna UK
"Axl sings the most beautiful melodies with the most aggressive tones and the most outrageous, freakish range," says Sebastian Bach. "There's maybe five people in the world that can sing in his range." Slash once described the sound of Rose's voice in slightly different terms: It's like "the sound that a tape player makes when the cassette finally dies and the tape gets ripped out," he said, "but in tune." It's immediately identifiable, with a combination of brute force and subtlety that is easy to overlook amid the sonic assault of Guns n' Roses. Ballads like "Patience" and "November Rain" reveal a startling intimacy, even vulnerability, but it's his fearsome screech on full-throttle metal like "Welcome to the Jungle" that can still peel paint off the walls, more than 20 years later.
Source: Rolling Stone
Comments
Number of comments : 19
11/12/2008 | 8:29:17 PM by Lair
Cool! Congrats, Axl!
11/12/2008 | 8:54:37 PM by sweet child o mine
go axl and sebastian!!!i love youuu!!!
11/12/2008 | 9:09:05 PM by Sam7
....greatest "singers"??? Why is Bob Dylan at #7? Lol...good musician...not the best voice. Axl should have been in at least the top 20. And Freddie Mercury should have been #1. Not even in the top ten! WTF? That list isn't right......
11/12/2008 | 9:15:28 PM by Cillian
I was thinking the same thing, Bob Dylan? His talents lie in writing more than singing if you ask me. Really cool comments on Axl's vocals :)
11/12/2008 | 9:19:41 PM by Darko Brownstone
Axl Rose No.1
11/12/2008 | 9:25:49 PM by saturnine
who's aretha franklin?
....hehe jus' kiddin LMAO!
11/12/2008 | 9:35:38 PM by DTJ
Axl is perhaps the greatest front man of all time..This list is BS..
Frontman incorporates persona, voice, songwriting, lyrics, stage presence, charisma..
Axl is clearly within the top 3 ever in this regard..He's my number 1 for sure..Robert Plant never came close to have the stage presence that an Axl Rose had..
In fact Axl has better stage presence now than Robert Plant had in his prime.
Slash is perhaps the most charismatic guitarist of all time too in my opinion..Any wonder why this band was freaking amazing
11/12/2008 | 10:17:13 PM by GNR fan 1987007891
The fact that Steven Tyler is #99 proves this list is whacked.
But it is nice to see Axl on there.
11/12/2008 | 11:24:00 PM by slane 92
Axl is the greatest ever frontman for Guns n Roses, :-) how do you like that? haha
To make it anywhere in the top 100 of all time singers is an achievement by itself,
Look at some of the names on that list, Pure class.
Axl is there because he is Fucking special, he is a talented singer, song writer, musician, etc etc
and he has that little something special that only a select few have... Axl has got the X factor, and if you could bottle it you would be a millionaire. It is so rare that, when you see it or hear it, you recognise it immediately, well thats how it worked for me the first time I heard Axl sing.
And all this is taking place even before he unleashes Chinese Democracy onto the world! Im sure after Chi Dems release he will move up a few places. ;-)
11/13/2008 | 1:22:28 AM by Aussie Scott
Thats Bullshit - Axl should be at least in the top 5 - My top 5:
1. Axl Rose
2. Billy Ray Cyrus
3. Milli Vanilli
4. Sid Viscious
5. Britney Spears
11/13/2008 | 1:30:51 AM by Angelica
He Should be on the top 10
11/13/2008 | 2:28:16 AM by fake pat
bob dylan?..fuck..dylan cant sing for shit....he can write songs..but he cant sing worth a fuckin cracker.
11/13/2008 | 5:45:41 AM by dude man
Really stupid list.
11/13/2008 | 12:28:45 PM by Spanx
Axl should definately be in the top 3.
Lets face it, he could sing a nursery rhyme and make it sound amazing!
11/13/2008 | 12:35:32 PM by Kalle-Maiden freak
WTF, Bruce Dickinson is not on the list...
11/13/2008 | 3:35:36 PM by Ivan
Well, all Rolling Stones' lists suck so I'm not surprised by this one.
11/13/2008 | 4:28:41 PM by Bibanu
Nah, the list is fine, it's not "wrong", with the exception of Freddie who should clearly be in the top 3.
Anyway, this list doesn't simply tell you who the best SINGER/PERFORMER is, it tells you how much these singers influenced music in general, and other singers, along the way. I see a lot of people bashing Dylan. Despite the fact that I'm not a fac of Dylan's music, I don't get that attitude; Bob Dylan is one of the most covered artists of all time. Even Axl took Kockin' On Heaven's Door and made it his own. His success and his reputation are a result of his composition, AS WELL as delivery. Sure he doesn't have Axl's range, but then some people could argue that Axl doesn't have Bach's range. Dylan DOES have a unique style and he obviously stood out overall, so much that some consider his one of the greatest artists of all time. That's why he's up there.
I think that the top everyone here wants is something like "Best VOCAL DELIVERER of all time" or something, in which case Axl Rose, Steven Tyler and many other comparable rock stars would rank a lot higher. But I don't think that's what Rolling Stone intended.
11/13/2008 | 9:46:42 PM by Jack Bauer
No Chris Cornell? Are you kidding me. Cobain is on there, but no Chris Cornell or Eddie Veder.
This list is worthless.
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