Rolling Stone Top 100 Singers

Ave Tooley, a black moderate-conservative blogger, writes about the music magazine's list of the best singers of all time: "The whole list is here. I really can’t comment on 100 singers, partially because that takes way more time than I have. Second, because I don’t listen to that much of every kind of music. My tastes are eclectic, and I have representatives of most genres in my collection, but I don’t know enough about, say, John Lennon, to compare him to Aretha Franklin. I know some Beatles songs, but I can’t tell you who’s singin. At any rate, here are the top 10: 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"

Ave continues his commentary: " If James is in the top 10, then it’s obviously not about singing per se. And y’all know that ain’t no dis to James. I can probably count the number of people who dig James as much as I do, but he ain’t no singer in the same way that Aretha is a singer. They both got soul, and they both can jam, but Aretha is, as her father said on the Amazing Grace album, 'a stone singer!' James was more about gettin down than singin."

More from Mr. Tooley: "All in all, I don’t really have any complaints about the list, but there are a lot of people I don’t know. Elvis over Sam Cooke, though? I may hafta go back and check that one out. That one seems a little suspect. Oh. And Mike at #25? MIKE? Nah, B. Mike’s work with the Jackson 5 — shoot, on Maybe Tomorrow alone — sons most artists’ whole catalogs. I’m not sure who you’d take out, but he should at least be in the top 15."

My response: Elvis Presley was a better singer than Sam Cooke?! John Lennon's voice was better than Marvin Gaye?! Bob Dylan sings better than Otis Redding or Stevie Wonder?! Rolling Stone, put down the crack pipe. I smell affirmative action picks. At least nine slots on that Top 10 list - not just seven - should be black. Britain's Dusty Springfield or Italy's Luciano Pavarotti (the latter whom I didn't see on the Top 100 list?!) are the only non-black singers who would merit be mentioned in the same breath with the all-time-best black singers. The singing abilities of Presley and Britain's Lennon were so-so, and Dylan's singing ability is mediocre. That's an insult to put them up there with the likes of Franklin, Charles, Cooke, and Redding. None of those guys even contend with Black America's fifth-string singers. I can randomly throw a dart at a list of black churches in any city or town, go to the the church listed under the dart, and everybody in the choir will sing circles around Presley, Lennon, and Dylan. Puhleeze, Rolling Stone. No, James Brown shouldn't be in the Top 10. Steve Wonder doesn't belong there either (I like Stevie, but he is Top 20 material). I'd put Smokey Robinson in there first before either guy. Why aren't Mahalia Jackson, Paul Robeson or Billie Holiday in the Top 10?