Which Beatle Had The Best Voice? (In Your Humble Opinion)

Can you be specific by, "processed'? Thanks in advance.

 

I don’t know what “best” is, but John speaks directly to me and his songs are those that are my favorites.

 

Highly subjective, but I picked Paul because I feel he was the most versatile both with The Beatles and in his solo years. I'm surprised that John is doing so well in the poll... Don't much like his voice with The Beatles and I think his solo work sucks! I would have thought George would be doing better in the poll.

 

Ah, good one ! and she did!

 

you may need a battery check. : )

 

seriously?

 

... And he's currently ahead of George! Fun 'n' games goin' on!

 

Yes. I really do enjoy his voice.

The other three are incredible in their own right. But I've always preferred Ringo.

I've never claimed to have great taste. Decent taste maybe, but not great lol.

 

John 63-66 no doubt.
Paul 67-69.

Paul's voice got better with time and I think it's because he didn't over sing for so many years as John did in clubs and tours from 60-66.
Into the 90s Paul was able to sound great with range and good tone because he either purposely took care of his voice or he was able to protect it due to not rocking too hard too often.

But John on rock and ballads pre Pepper is one of the top voices ever.
It's on the level of Elvis and Sinatra in the 50s in it's own right.

 

if you say so! ; ) fine with me...LOL.

 

gotcha...well you sure didn't have much "Ringo" in The Beatles! ; )

 

I fully understand the technology. I'm talking about motivation.

The trickery that Lennon insisted upon augmented his voice in such a manner to make it sound (pick one) fuller, deeper, backwards, spinning, doubled, echoed, and on and on. Beyond the early '63-'63 tracks I can't think of five Lennon songs that weren't, how shall I say, artificial. That's the comparison I'm making to Auto-tune. Artificial. To disguise a deficiency.

 

Strawberry Fields Forever is a smorgasbord of Martin enhancing/augmenting Lennon's voice artificially.

Last time I read the Lewisohn book cover to cover I could have made a cool college drinking game out of every time it mentioned "ADT" (one shot) and "through a Leslie speaker" (two shots).

Back to the topic directly, the "best voice" is undoubtedly Paul. Because we could hear Paul's voice and he didn't need augmentation other than for artistic purposes. Lennon's actual voice? Thank God for Anthology.

 

Lennon didn’t need to use any trickery. His voice was great without it. Witness such songs as “Twist and Shout” (sung live), “This Boy” (which he also sung live on Ed Sullivan), “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”o, etc. I could go on and on. Lennon sang great duets also with Paul. They made a great combo. Lennon also sang harmony with himself on “Rain”. He could do it all. Lennon experimented with new techniques when he wanted to, such as using backward recordings, double soundtrack voicing (which all the Beatles did), putting his voice through a Leslie, etc.

Lennon was on the cutting edge of using new ideas and doing different things. The Beatles didn’t do the same things over and over like other bands. They were constantly changing how they sounded, which is one of the reasons they were the greatest band of all time.

In the mid 60’s during the psychedelic era, Lennon used various effects to keep the Beatles on the forefront of music. You obviously weren’t around when the Beatles were in existence because you mix up change with being a liability when it was actually an asset for the Beatles. Anybody that was there during the Beatle era realizes that.

 

Anthology is not a good example at all of how great John could be as a vocalist. When John made demos, he didn't try in the least to sing them well (if, in fact, this is what schnitzerphilip is referring to). If anyone wants a hint of the natural, expressive beauty in Lennon's singing voice, give a listen to the stripped down Double Fantasy CD. Granted, this is not McCartney-level "perfect" singing..but it's just about pitch perfect, and tonally expressive in a way matched by very few Pop/Rock singers. And most importantly, this is an inherent natural vocal beauty (and there are NO effects on these tracks, either).

 

I dont think Pete sang did he?


haha

 

10 pages in and Ringo Still > George

 

I’ll take John unembellished singing into a cassette deck over anyone else’s vox in the band

 

Davey Jones!

 

Early years it was John,latter years Paul

 

Paul, although I prefer John personally. Best does not equal favorite in this case.

 

I vastly prefer them singing harmony to any one of them by his lonesome.

 

Nothing can top John's covers from 62-65. Anna, Twist and Shout, Baby It's You, Please Mister Postman, Money, Bad Boy, You've Really Got A Hold On Me, Rock and Roll Music.

 

John Lennon is my favorite rock n roll voice. Ever.