AMONG NON-BEATLES EFFORTS:
Male: Harry Nilsson (John and Ringo's pal) on "Without You," the Badfinger cover for which he actually did win a best-vocal Grammy; Runnerup: Carl Wilson on one of Paul's favorite songs "God Only Knows" ("So what good would LIV-ING DO ME?") Also Rod Stewart on "I Don't Wanna Talk About It" and the Everly Brothers on "Devoted To You." Mick Jagger is also surprisingly affecting on "Angie" (which, contrary to latter day popular belief about "Satisfaction," is actually the Stones' all-time biggest seller in America.) Elton John's best is "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me."
Female: Dusty Springfield on "Goin' Back" (the Goffin-King masterpiece) -- "And every DA-AY can be my magic carpet ride." Next: Karen Carpenter on "Hurting Each Other." (Lennon's friend and best biographer, the late Ray Coleman, with whom I once had the privilege to chat at Beatlefest, also wrote her biography and recoounts an incident when John ran into Karen in L.A., effusively praising her talent, which, understandably, floored her. During his California period John also attended a special performance by another of my favorites, Anne Murray, who was a frequent coverer of Lennon-McCartney songs, as were the Carpenters.) My favorite Streisand effort is "Songbird." And I love Dionne Warwick's vocal on "Take A Message To Michael" (as usual for her, a Bacharach-David composition/production) Among recent ones, the only Whitney Houston record I like is "One Moment in Time" from the 1988 Olympics. Maraih Carey and Celine Dion certainly have some impressive ones as well.
I assume that anyone saying Roger Waters, who can't sing at all -- just listen to his croaky solo material -- actually means David Gilmour, on such brilliant Pink Floyd efforts as "Comfortably Numb." (So many rock group albums deliberately leave off vocal credits that any confusion is understandable.)
