Lennon voted as greatest singer in Sixties-led poll
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Your support makes all the difference.AS THE millennium approaches, lists of everything are appearing. Yesterday, pop singers had their turn with the publication of a list of the top 100 singers of "all time". John Lennon topped the list, followed by Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin.
The music magazine Mojo published the list after a poll of 1,000 of its readers. True to the baby-boomer profile of the magazine's readership, the list is dominated by singers from the Sixties. The only singers from the Nineties are Tori Amos, 75th, Portishead's Beth Gibbons at 77th, Liam Gallagher, 85th, and Kurt Cobain, 98th.
Croaky-voiced white singers such as Bob Dylan (5) and Tom Waits (25) came ahead of themore mellifluous Nat King Cole (52) and Al Green (88). "The readers chose a more white selection of singers than did the singers themselves when we had a poll of 175 of them last year," said the editor, Matt Snow. "Blues and soul singers generally did better and Aretha Franklin came out on top."
But Snow rebuffed the suggestion that it was The Beatles' popularity rather than his singing which put Lennon at the top of the list. "Actually, I think the readers made a good judgement call. He was more than just a songwriter... Some of Lennon's more mundane solo numbers were lifted by the passionate nature of his singing."
But inevitably when you produce a top 100, people disagree with the pecking order. "John Lennon you can blame on Noel Gallagher," said Steve Sutherland, the editor of a rival music magazine, NME. "Before Gallagher no one was that bothered about The Beatles anymore."
He said lists of artists could be fun, but are ultimately flawed: "You cannot compare Bing Crosby to Lennon... Music is just too subjective."
Top 100 Singers of `All Time'
1 John Lennon
2 Elvis Presley
3 Aretha Franklin
4 Frank Sinatra
5 Bob Dylan
6 Roy Orbison
7 Paul McCartney
8 Otis Redding
9 Robert Plant
10 Ray Charles
11 Van Morrison
12 Marvin Gaye
13 David Bowie
14 Dusty Springfield
15 Sandy Denny
16 Mick Jagger
17 Sam Cooke
18 Brian Wilson
19 Joni Mitchell
20 Captain Beefheart
21 Eric Burdon
22 Freddie Mercury
23 Howlin` Wolf
24 Ella Fitzgerald
25 Tom Waits
26 Roger Daltrey
27 Nina Simone
28 John Fogerty
29 Steve Marriott
30 Jim Morrison
31 Richard Manuel
32 Morrissey
33 Michael Stipe
34 Billie Holliday
35 Smokey Robinson
36 Jeff Buckley
37 Ray Davies
38 James Taylor
39 Neil Young
40 Tim Buckley
41 Buddy Holly
42 Stevie Wonder
43 Emmylou Harris
44 Little Richard
45 Johnny Cash
46 kd Lang
47 Willie Nelson
48 Kate Bush
49 Peter Green
50 Thom Yorke
51 Barbra Streisand
52 Nat King Cole
53 Bessie Smith
54 Lowell George
55 Patsy Cline
56 Rod Stewart
57 Jerry Lee Lewis
58 Joe Cocker
59 Lou Reed
60 Karen Carpenter
61 Paul Rodgers
62 Scott Walker
63 Elvis Costello
64 Bonnie Raitt
65 Art Garfunkel
66 Bobby Darin
67 Bob Marley
68 John Martyn
69 Harry Nilsson
70 Charlie Rich
71 James Brown
72 Gram Parsons
73 Janis Joplin
74 Robert Wyatt
75 Tori Amos
76 Nick Drake
77 Beth Gibbons
78 Joan Baez
79 Ian Curtis
80 Donald Fagen
81 Patti Smith
82 Paul Buchanan
83 Prince
84 Roger Chapman
85 Liam Gallagher
86 Tracey Thorn
87 Paul Weller
88 Al Green
89 Levi Stubbs
90 Robert Johnson
91 Hank Williams
92 Aaron Neville
93 Dionne Warwick
94 Curtis Mayfield
95 June Tabor
96 Big Joe Turner
97 Diana Ross
98 Kurt Cobain
99 Solomon Burke
100 Tina Turner
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