The lead singer wasn't the best singer in the band

Somehow hit post before I'd finished - an incomplete answer and now deleted! (Still getting the hang of negotiating the 'Post Reply' and 'More Options' buttons in here).

 

I only owned the first album and always thought Orr was the main singer.

 

Have you heard Michael Anthony sing lead on some of those songs? It doesn't sound so good.

 

That was likely Joe Lynn Turner

 

Burn was with Coverdale, but Hughes sang the bridge, or pre-chorus or whatever it was

 

Ian Matthews was the best technical singer Fairport Convention ever had. Though he grew/peaked as a signer with his solo stuff.

 

Mike Love was probably the least gifted lead singer of all the Beach Boys.

 

Brian Wilson over Mike Love
Gene Clark over Rodger McGuin

 

Ike Willis was the lead singer for much of the last 10 years of Zappa's lineups, but you could argue that Ray White and Bobby Martin were better singers, even though Ike is pretty great.

 

He could have used a bit of restraint.
Imagine a band where Coverdale is the one exhibiting a greater degree of subtlety.

 

I liked Hughes in Trapeze much better.

 

RHCP

John Frusciante has a very nice voice. Obviously it wouldn’t be the chili peppers without anthony’s voice though.

 

Speaking of Zappa...how about on Overnight Sensation that dude Ricky Lancelotti who sings "Fifty-Fifty" Awesome! But definitely not a better singer than Frank. Which ain't saying much.

 

Al Kooper, who I didn't even know was a weak singer, until I heard him on a live recording early in Blood, Sweat & Tears' history. Steve Katz, who wasn't right for so many of their early tracks, still had some control and mellowness to his pipes.

I'm willing to bet Guercio was probably even easier to listen to in the shower...or, in the control room...

 

I agree but Roger has become a much better singer in his dotage than he was in his youth, IMO.

 

I would rather listen to Christine clear sweet voice than the principal vocalist Stevie Nick’s warbling

 

Flo Ballard had better pipes than Diana Ross.

 

I like both versions, the studio version and the California Jam version. Definitely more of a Coverdale fan with his work in Whitesnake, but Hughes still sounds great and did on Tony Iommi's Black Sabbath Seventh Star.

 

Derek St. Holmes with Ted Nugent.

 

Jethro Tull in this century.

 

From the fairly limited evidence (1990-1991 concert tapes), I would say original Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch was a pretty good singer - at least as good as Tom Petty. Lord knows "I Don't Wanna Fight" showed that Mike Campbell was not a better singer than Petty.

 

SO much better Nugent felt threatened by St Holmes rather than rising to higher heights together

Stranglehold was epic in his canon

 

Sure -- hence the fact that I didn't say Joy Division would have been better off with a different singer. Only that there was at least one more conventionally skilled singer in the band, which is pretty much the topic of the thread.

 

My son hates Steely Dan
That voice

One day Midnight Cruiser came on and he loved it
David Palmer of Jim Hodder

Just kidding Donald Fagen Is the voice of Steely Dan
Who could be so snarky, romantic and soulful?

 

Joy Division was more about the craziness of the performances than the singing anyway.