Battle of the Music Stars! (Nominations Open)

[trilobite]

Talgian's Greatest Character Showdown got me to thinking. How about a greatest musical star showdown? They should be a singer though.

Well here are the rules. We will nominate 128 musical stars and then we will have a series of votes to get down the greatest singer ever! The voting will be limited to singers from the 20th and 21st century. The elimination rounds will be head to head contests between different singers. Different genres of music are allowed though no classical music or opera please. You may nominate male or female singers.

When you nominated give a brief bio of the singer and a picture would be nice. Don't make the pictures too big though. Please number your nomination.

 

[trilobite]

1. Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury (5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a musician, best known as the frontman, pianist, and vocalist for the English rock band Queen. He was noted for his powerful vocal abilities and for his charisma as a live performer. As a songwriter, he composed many international hits such as "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," and "We Are the Champions." Mercury died from complications of AIDS, greatly increasing awareness of the disease.

Widely considered one of the greatest vocalists in popular musical history, Freddie Mercury possessed a very distinctive voice. Although his speaking voice naturally fell in the baritone range, he also maintained good tone in the tenor range. His recorded vocal range spanned nearly four octaves (falsetto included), with his lowest recorded note being the F1 (F2 in U.S.) and his highest recorded note being the D5 (D6 in U.S.). In addition to vocal range, Mercury often delivered technically difficult songs in a powerful manner. However, due in part to the fact that he suffered from vocal nodules (for which he declined surgery), he would often lower the highest notes during many concerts. Mercury also claimed that he never had any formal vocal training. As a songwriter, Mercury wrote ten out of the seventeen songs on Queen's Greatest Hits album.

 

[Geoff]

The thread title says musical star, but the post says singer; if the former, I nominate SRV!

2) Stevie Ray Vaughan

Vaughan was born and raised in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, but dropped out of Kimball High School and moved to Austin to pursue music. After playing in a series of bands, Vaughan formed the blues rock combo Double Trouble with drummer Chris Layton and bassist Jackie Newhouse in the late 1970s. Tommy Shannon replaced Newhouse in 1981. A popular local draw, Vaughan soon attracted attention from David Bowie and Jackson Browne, and played on albums with both. Bowie first caught Vaughan at the Montreux Jazz Festival where initially a few members of the audience, who disliked his hard blues sound, booed Vaughan during his first visit in 1982, though most of the crowd cheered him during his second visit in 1985, as can be witnessed in the "Live at Montreux" DVD. Bowie featured Vaughan on his Let's Dance album in the songs "Let's Dance", "Modern Love" and "China Girl".

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble's debut album was released in 1983. The critically acclaimed Texas Flood (produced by John Hammond) featured the top-20 hit "Pride and Joy" and sold well in both blues and rock circles. The follow-up albums Couldn't Stand the Weather (1984) and Soul to Soul (1985) also sold well, though they did not become as respected as the debut album. Drug addiction and alcoholism took a toll on Vaughan in the mid-1980s, and after suddenly vomiting blood while in Germany on tour, he managed to struggle through three more shows before entering a drug rehabilitation program in Atlanta, Georgia later that year. He ultimately recovered fully from his addictions, save cigarettes, and became a teetotaler. Upon his return from rehab, Vaughan recorded In Step (1989), which is often considered his best work since Texas Flood; it won a Grammy award for Best Contemporary Blues Record.
[edit]

Musical influences and style

Vaughan's blues playing style was strongly influenced by Albert King, who dubbed himself Stevie's "godfather", and by other blues musicians such as Otis Rush and Buddy Guy. Stevie is recognized for his distinctive guitar sound, which was partly based on using heavy thirteen-gauge guitar strings. Vaughan's sound and playing style, which often features simultaneous lead and rhythm parts, also draws frequent comparisons to that of Jimi Hendrix; Vaughan covered several Hendrix tunes on his studio albums and in performance, such as "Little Wing", "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", and "Third Stone from the Sun". He was also heavily influenced by Freddie King, another Texas great, mainly through the use of tone and attack. King's heavy vibrato can clearly be heard in Vaughan's playing. Another stylistic influence was Albert Collins. His right hand attack, by using his index finger was utilized extensively by SRV, snapping the string against the fretboard. Stevie's brother Jimmie Vaughan has stated that Johnny "Guitar" Watson was the guitarist he and Stevie studied the most. SRV preferred to make use of the tonal capabilities of his amps with very minimal effects, such as: Ibanez Tube Screamer, wah wah, octavias and occasionally a flanger/chorus. His use of volume was also a tool he applied, coaxing effects through the natural internal capabilities of his amps when overdriven.

 

[trilobite]

The thread title says musical star, but the post says singer; if the former, I nominate SRV!

2) Stevie Ray Vaughan

It should be singers only but Stevie Ray Vaughan is fine.

 

[Templetroll]

3: Elvis Presley

Quoted from Wikipedia

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), often known simply as Elvis and also called "The King of Rock 'n' Roll" or simply "The King", was an American singer and actor.

Presley started as a singer of rockabilly, borrowing many songs from rhythm and blues (R&B) numbers and country which morphed into rock & roll. He was the most commercially successful singer of rock and roll, but he also sang ballads, country music as well as gospel. In a musical career of over two decades, Presley set records for concert attendance, television ratings, and record sales, and became one of the biggest selling artists in music history.[1]

The young Presley became an icon of modern American pop culture, sometimes held to represent the American Dream of rising from rags to riches through talent and hard work, more often representing teen sexuality with a hint of delinquency. During the 1970s, Presley reemerged as a steady performer of old and new hit songs on tour and particularly as a performer in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he was known for his jump-suits and capes as well as massive attendance figures. Until the last years of his life, he continued to perform before sell-out audiences around the U.S. He died, presumably from a heart attack combined with abuse of prescription drugs, in Memphis, Tennessee. His popularity as a singer has survived his death at 42.

 

[Talgian]

4. Elton John

Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE (born 25 March 1947) is an English pop/rock singer, composer and pianist. In a career spanning five decades, Elton John has sold over 250 million records and has had over 50 Top 40 hits, making him one of the most successful musicians of all time.

John was one of the dominant commercial forces in the rock world during the 1970s, with a string of seven consecutive #1 records on the U.S. album charts, 23 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10 ones, and six #1 hits. His success had a profound impact on popular music, and contributed to the continued popularity of the piano in rock and roll. Key musical elements in John's success included his melodic gifts matched with the contributions of his lyricist partner Bernie Taupin, his rich tenor and gospel-chorded piano, aggressive string arrangements, and his flamboyant fashion sense and on-stage showmanship.

In the early 1990s, John publicly revealed the personal costs of his rock-star extravagance: his ongoing struggle with drug abuse, depression and bulimia. He continues to be a major public figure, and has been heavily involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and was knighted in 1998, and has remained an enduringly successful artist.

-Talgian