Female: Sarah Vaughan Male: Otis Redding I hope the David Byrne choice wasn't for singing ability (he has none) and more for style or atitude or something.
Gene Vincent, Everly Brothers, Levon Helm, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Muddy Waters, Steve Perry, Lou Gramm, Joni Mitchell, Pat Benetar, Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Elvis....
He may not be the greatest singer of all time, but I always thought Paul Carrack had one of the best voices going around.
I understand liking people's voices, but a lot of these people aren't great singers. Otis Redding James from The Shins David Byrne I love them all, but none of them are/were great singers. Their voces fit their music perfectly and two of the three have/had incredible personality and stage prescence, but they're techincally not great singers. People are going to kil me on Otis Redding, but trust me he;s one of my favorites. Dude didn't have any range, though.
I understand Otis and Byrne, but James from the Shins has a great voice, does some amazing self harmonizing. He doesn't have much in the baritone range, but he does seem to hit hard notes, and harmonies, and does it an understated way that demonstrates the ease with which he accomplishes those feats.
Speaking of harmonizing,how about Crosby,Stills,Nash,and Young? ...and I guess David Byrne IS more about style,production,and stage presence.
Neil Young has one of my favcorite voices ever, but I wouldn;t call him a great singer either. Weird? He is also one of my favorite guitar players, which is funny because people constantly bag on him about his ability. I happen to love his sloppy, every day man solos.