HOW DID I ARRIVE at THIS LIST and RANKING?

Here are my credentials. My love of all kinds of Music transcends my inability to play any musical instrument. When I sing I can carry a tune…but not that well. In fact in my research of over twenty years on the project, it has led me down many new pathways, listening and absorbing the unfamiliar—from opera to reggai, from Broadway to heavy metal. I started arranging lists by category around the year 2000. After much research I came up with a list of the top 200 songs in Rock, Rhythm & Blues, Country & Western, Folk & Folk-rock, and Pop Standards.

However, this ranking was mostly according just my personal taste and opinion, not real data. First of all, I didn’t just select all these entries at random based on my personal likes or dislikes. Many selections on my list are not even songs I would necessarily play on my own. However, these vocal selections I have closely listened to, and critiqued, some many times, in order to be fair-minded in my choices. The purpose of this website is to promote dialogue and rank many of these great vocal performances for public enjoyment and appreciation.

My list is comprised of 1200 song selections. One thing that surprised me—many of my favorite songs and artists did not make the list or even my 200+ Honorable Mentions! This includes some of the world’s greatest vocal artists! I focused on distinctive identifiable voices considered UNIQUE. Some sing with power, some almost whisper, some yodel, some emote, some growl, some harmonize, some sing in 4 or 5 octaves. I also focused on how the public accepted them within their generation and how they affected the culture of their time and age. Some are very obscure, some are world famous. Some artists are on the list multiple times, some only once. Some songs are on the list twice, with different interpretations of that song. Some singers re-invent the song, bringing it to a new generation.

I used a formula to give all genres of vocal performance equal opportunity. Writing in a 12 font format, (Times New Roman) I placed the 1200 songs on 48 pages with 25 songs per page, one from each category. Thus a grid pattern was accomplished by taking all the genres of music and comprising it into 25 genres. I catalogued them on a spread sheet. This allowed me to pick one song from each genre for each page—48 pages, only 25 selections on each page.

Some of this method is fair, some unfair, because some types of music have been1 around now for a century, other modern music less than half that time. Also most forms of music were dominated by males instead of females. Perhaps the only real solution would be to take a popular vote of your 5 favorite songs for each category. Maybe someone will do that one day, not me. Below are the 25 Categories to match each page..

1 WORLD MUSIC – MALE or CHORUS (Opera / Classical / Foreign)

2 WORLD MUSIC – FEMALE or DUO – (Opera / Classical / Foreign}

3 MOVIE SONGS – MALE (Selections from FILMS)

4 MOVIE SONGS – FEMALE (Selections from FILMS)

5 THEATER SONGS – MALE (Broadway or U.K. Original Performances)

6 THEATER SONGS – FEMALE (Broadway or U.K. Original Performances)

7 FOLK / FOLK ROCK / TRADITIONAL – MALE or DUO

8 FOLK / FOLK ROCK / TRADITIONAL – FEMALE or GROUPS

9 COUNTRY & WESTERN – MALE – From 1970

10 COUNTRY & WESTERN – FEMALE or DUOS – From 1970

11 EARLY COUNTRY & WESTERN – MALE / FEMALE – Before 1970

12 RHYTHM & BLUES. / SOUL – MALE – From 1970 on

13 RHYTHM & BLUES / SOUL – FEMALE – From 1970 on

14 RHYTHM & BLUES / SOUL – MALE / FEMALE – Before 1970

15 JAZZ / SWING — MALE

16 JAZZ / SWING — FEMALE

17 JAZZ / SWING – ALL / DUOS - Before 1970

18 ROCK & ROLL / MODERN – MALE or BANDS – From 1970 on

19 ROCK & ROLL / MODERN – FEMALE or BANDS – From 1970 on

20 EARLY ROCK & ROLL – MALE or GROUPS – Before 1970

21 EARLY ROCK & ROLL – FEMALE or GROUPS – Before 1970

22 MODERN POP – MALE or GROUPS – From 1970 on

23 MODERN POP – FEMALE or GROUPS – From 1970 on

24 EARLY POP STANDARDS – MALE – Before 1970

25 EARLY POP STANDARDS – FEMALE – Before 1970

These selections also have very few spoken words and for this very reason you will notice that Rap and most Hip-Hop is not represented here. The list is more about singing songs rather than recordings. It’s about the VOICE, or VOCAL DELIVERY! To be fair, rap and hip-hop earns its right to be on a separate music list.

Also omitted are Christmas and / or traditional holiday songs, a different category altogether. Some of these songs have been recorded by multitudes of singers. Omitted also are patriotic songs, national selections and most novelty songs, and for the same reasons, a category unto themselves.

Also notable, starting in the 1990’s more music vocals have been about showmanship, exhibitionism, and auto-tuned studio recordings with repetitious histrionics rather than meaningful delivery of melody. Many singing artists are great at video, but not so much at live performance. This accounts for fewer selections from the last 20 years. My cutting off year is 2020. In all fairness, I sincerely hope you can see it in the choices.

As we do with movies, vocal music allows us to absorb the beauty, intelligence and substance of the art form in an objective and judicious way. And, this is also a family-friendly website.

I hope you can open your mind to my simple formula. Our natural response is we can respond to each vocal performance or even react to it. Many Youtube channels do that very thing. You can pull all these songs up on the World Wide Web. In some cases there is no film footage of the older or more obscure artists. You just have to LISTEN! Enjoy the experience whether on record, radio, television, in concert or perhaps in a performance on a televised talent show with vocal competition.

  The 3 E’s.

1: ENTERTAINMENT 2: EXPERIENCE 3: EDUCATION.

How does its entertainment value hold up with the passing of time? Is it good enough to listen to repeatedly? Did its melody wash over you passively, did it move you, or even overwhelm you emotionally or artistically? What effect, if any, did it have on pop culture? Could it be considered a landmark song, perhaps permanently imprinting memories we may never forget? Did it change your perception of things?

Was the experience enriching? Was it a story song, or an opera aria? Did you identify with the characters? Did you even care about them? And if we are really “into” Music as an art form, how did the melody, the tone, the music instruments, and the visuals affect you? Did the lyrics move you? Did you sing along? Did the delivery touch not only your mind, but your heart? Did you react or respond to the experience as something new, or were you disappointed?

On education, what did we learn from the experience? Did we learn about another culture, or even another world? At a precise moment, did you feel enlightened? Was it poetic? If a story song, was it clever, moving or even funny? No matter what we think, songs influence our world view, our opinions, our tastes, and arguably, our behavior and personality. And feast on this statement that applies to films and Music—“Even when hope and science fail us, art survives.” – Janet Maslin

No Music is all good or all bad! However, when it comes to personal opinion we should exercise caution if we take in a steady diet of music. The message from the composer to the listener in some cases may promote negative feelings and responses. Ir remains an undisputed fact that Music historically through the centuries has accentuated and elevated a most common subject—love. But it also has promoted crime, misogyny, racial divisiveness, ideological social changes such as Nazi nationalism, drug addiction, even lack of moral responsibility (immorality.) And, if we have children we should ask ourselves, what do the artists stand for? How do they affect the culture? Remember, Music has power!

Last, but certainly not least, this list is based upon my JUDGMENT and my OPINION. As a Music lover or aficionado, I am not blown away by the in-your-face use of pyrotechnics, or the self-serving, egotistical performers who throw all caution to the wind and eagerly display their lack of character, dignity and respect for the audience or their families. Nor am I over-impressed by the talents, techniques, assaults on the senses or exhibitionism displayed by near naked costumes the performers and entertainers wear just to draw attention to themselves. I am more captivated by content, substance, artistic imagery, lyrical beauty, harmony, and delivery—even the new emotional experience. Most people I know feel the same way. And obvious to all —GREAT SONGS MATTER! They last beyond one person’s lifetime. They’re Generational!

  GREAT QUOTES ABOUT SINGING and MUSIC

1 When words fail, music speaks – Hans Christian Anderson

2 What I liked about singing was that, for me, it’s a substitute for the psychiatrist’s couch. – Patti Page

3 We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out. – Decca Recording Company in rejecting a recording contact with the Beatles.

4 “And there was a God in heaven / and the world made perfect sense / we were young and were in love / and were easy to convince / we were headed straight for Eden, / it was just around the bend / And I thought I had forgotten all about it, / And the song remembers when.” – Trisha Yearwood – THE SONG REMEMBERS WHEN – Hugh Prestwood

5 If music is the food of love, play on. – William Shakespeare

6 Always be a first rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. – Judy Garland

7 Music became a healer for me. And I learned to listen with all my being. I found that I could wipe away all the emotions of fear and confusion relating to my family. – Eric Clapton

8 His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the founder of all those who play the harp and the pipe. – Moses – Gen 4:21 – The BIBLE

9 You ain’t goin’ nowhere son. You oughta go on back to drivin’ a truck in Memphis. – Jim Denny of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville to Elvis Presley in 1954 after his audition.

10 Music expresses that which cannot be said and of which it is impossible to be silent. – Victor Hugo

11 I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called ‘Mother and Child Reunion.’ It’s chicken and eggs. And I said, “I gotta use that one.” – Paul Simon

12 As long as they look good, they can interior decorate their music. They don’t have to play anything, just build an illusion that they are creative. – Joni Mitchell on modern music

13 I think my fans will follow me into combined old age. Real musicians and real fans stay together for a long, long time. – Bonnie Raitt

14 I think we ought to make AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL the national anthem. It’s not about war, there’s no bombs bursting in air, no rocket’s red glare. It’s about the land, amber waves of grain. That sounds good to me. Plus, it’s a hell of a lot easier to sing. – Willie Nelson

15 Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one—Helen Keller is the other. – Erma Bombeck

16 I consider myself a poet first, a musician second. I live like a poet and I’ll die like a poet. – Bob Dylan

17 I’m a musician—before I’m a woman, no question. – Tori Amos

18 Without music, life would be a mistake. – Friedrich Nietzsche

19 Red (Morgan Freeman’s narration): “I have no idea what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best said left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and further than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapping into a drab little cage that made these walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank was free.” – THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION – Frank Darabont

20 Music can change the world because music can change people. – Bono (U2)

21 The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular? – David Sarnoff’s associates on radio’s future in 1920.

22 It’s a marvelous feeling when someone says,‘I want to do that song of yours because they’ve connected to it.’ That’s what I’m after. – Mary Chapin Carpenter

23 If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. – Albert Einstein

24 On stage I make love to 25,000 different people; then I go home alone. – Janis Joplin

25 The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doing now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them. – Elvis Presley

26 If children are not introduced to music at an early age, I believe something fundamental is actually being taken from them. – Luciano Pavarotti

27 I don’t make music for eyes, I make music for ears. – Adele

28 It used to be called boogie-woogie, it used to be called the blues, used to be called rhythm and blues…It’s called rock now. – Chuck Berry

29 If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however distant or far away. – Henry David Thoreau

30 When you sing, always tell the truth. – Billie Holiday

31 “No matter how close to yours another’s steps have grown, in the end there’s the dance you will do alone.” – Jackson Browne – THE DANCE

32 Imagine having Einstein talk to you, or Gandhi. In a concert, Mozart or Bach are talking to you, through time and space; you’re listening to the crystallizing of great minds. – Yo Yo Ma

33 The first time I sang in the church choir, 200 people changed their religion. – Fred Allen

34 “You ain’t seen nothing yet!” – Al Jolson repeatedly – THE JOLSON STORY – 1946

35 After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. – Aldous Huxley

36 “Woooo-weee! Boy, that was some mighty fine a-pickin’ and a singin’! I’ll tell you what, you come on in here and sign them papers and I’m-a gonna give you ten dollars a piece.” – Blind record producer, Lund (Stephen Root) to Soggy Bottom Boys. – O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? – Ethan & Joel Coen – 2000

37 I think I’m a vocal genius, not a musical genius. I like background vocals. I consider myself a voice, not a singer. A voice is a sound and a singer is what you do with that sound. – Brian Wilson

38 Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl back into my loneliness. – Maya Angelou

39 God bless the potholes on Memory Lane. – Randy Newman

40 Good authors, too, who once knew better words, now only use four-letter words writing prose…Anything goes. – Cole Porter

41 There’s so much about Dolly Parton that every female artist should look to, whether in reading her quotes or reading her interviews or going to one of her live shows. She’s been such an amazing example to every female songwriter out there. – Taylor Swift

42 Sinatra is a singer that comes along once in a lifetime, but why did he have to come in mine? – Bing Crosby

43 My version of “GEORGIA” became the state song of Georgia. That thing for me, man, it really touched me. Here’s a state that used to lynch people like me suddenly declaring my version of a song as its state song. That is touching. – Ray Charles

44 Country music is three cords and the truth. – Harland Howard

45 A lot of pop music is about stealing pocket money from children. – Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull)

46 You lose a lot of time, hating people. – Marian Anderson (the first black opera star)

47 I think music itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It is something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music. – Billy Joel

48 “I thought it was marvelous.” – Antonio Solieri (F. Murray Abraham) Mozart: “Of course! It’s the best opera yet written, I know it…Why don’t they come?” Solieri: “I think you overestimate the Viennese, my friend. You know you don’t even have a good BANG at the end of the songs, to let them know when to clap.” Mozart: “I know, I know…Maybe you should give me some lessons on that.” – AMADEUS – Peter Shaffer

49 Song is the heroics of speech. – Thomas Carlyle

50 John Lennon’s IMAGINE probably gets as close to transcending all cultural barriers as any modern song. It recognizes equality as mankind’s best measure for peace. Its universal appeal is personified in the desire for brotherhood, something so sadly lacking in this age of worldwide intolerance. – Gary Pulliam

So here is the list. So have fun. Discuss. Disagree. Agree. Drop your jaw in disbelief. Or rise above the differences and LISTEN to them for the first time, or again, and again, and again.

— Gary Pulliam