Is There or Will There Ever Be Another Singer Like Ann Wilson (Heart)?

[BigVU's]

I can't find another female vocalist half as good as Ann Wilson of Heart (Early Years). I've looked high and low and there is just no one out there with those details. We really need a good ol' fashioned revival of the great bands of the 70's. Most stuff these days just misses the mark. Some good stuff out there but not even close to the chops Ann had/has.

 

[Chrispy]

Did she die?

 

[sam_adams]

Did she die?

No. But she has not been well as-of-late.

 

[Chrispy]

Wasn't sure what you were going for.

 

[MattHooper]

I can't find another female vocalist half as good as Ann Wilson of Heart (Early Years). I've looked high and low and there is just no one out there with those details. We really need a good ol' fashioned revival of the great bands of the 70's. Most stuff these days just misses the mark. Some good stuff out there but not even close to the chops Ann had/has.

Huge Heart fan here. (I saw them live a couple times in the late 70s and did my teenage boy heart break being at the front of the stage, looking up at Nancy Wilson!).

Anne is certainly one of the Titans in terms of female pop or rock vocalists.

But look into some of Linda Ronstadts recordings and live performance. She is astounding. And in many of the similar ways that Anne his incredible : fabulous vocal control, can sing like an angel at whisper levels but belt it out with the best just like Anne.

I always really liked Nancy’s voice as well, although it was much more delicate.

In terms of singing skill, individuality, and sheer natural talent. I would certainly put Karen Carpenter up in the top rank. Though she never really sang with the power you get from a rocker like Anne.

Since we’re talking about the 70’s, as it happens over the past several years, I’ve become smitten with who has become my favourite female singer at this point:
Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA (“the blonde”).
She was possessed of an incredibly pure, musical, bell-like tone, and she could sing the most delicate parts with a disarming sincerity, and also hit power notes like a Diva when required. But with none of the horrible show offy melisma that came to infect female singing for quite a while. She always just sang musically, just with the lyrics needed and no more. And if you start to delve in to the ABBA production, you find that both women produced an astounding variety and range in their vocals.

 

[G|force]

I'm saddened to hear of Annie's troubles.

On the basis of vocal talent and range I'd put Pat Benatar up with the others mentioned.

 

[Soandso]

Ella Fitzgerald's singing set the western female vocalist standard to live up to before any of us were even likely born. I grew up in the USA and fortunately saw her perform a few times in the 1960s on the Ed Sullivan television variety shows. In case the nicknamed "First Lady of Song" whose 1938 song sold a million records at age 21 is obscure to anybody every streaming music service will provide her legendary recordings.

 

[Somafunk]

I can't find another female vocalist half as good as Ann Wilson of Heart (Early Years). I've looked high and low and there is just no one out there with those details. We really need a good ol' fashioned revival of the great bands of the 70's. Most stuff these days just misses the mark. Some good stuff out there but not even close to the chops Ann had/has.

Sounds remarkably like a “music is shit these days” Ill thought out rant

Music is bloody great these days, much as I loved experiencing my 20’s throughout the 1990’s for the emergence of Brit pop and dance music (here in UK) I don’t hark back to such “halcyon days”, I’ve spent the last couple of days blasting out Wet Leg (female vocalist), Bob Vylan, Kneecap, Four Tet, Floating Points and others from the Glastonbury Festival….i’m just bloody annoyed that there’s only 24hrs in each day as I can’t possibly listen to everything I want to.

 

[BigVU's]

Sounds remarkably like you are projecting. I said there is some good stuff. But I stand by my statement there is no Ann Wilson.

And no vibe in today's music scene like yesterday. You have your take and I have mine. The last run of great music to me was the grunge era or late 90's - 2K's ending perhaps with Audio Slave.

Wet Leg - meh... to me. There is no chops to her signing.

 

[Somafunk]

Ha

 

[Timcognito]

I can't find another female vocalist half as good as Ann Wilson

Not knocking her but there have been many before and after her. Ralph posts a new one about everyday. Here's today's;https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/jazz-♫-music-only-in-the-now-or-recently-or-that-you-love.90/post-2340624
Here's my favorite

 

[BigVU's]

There are many female vocalists that I like and find interesting and really good. Linda R, Sade, Norah J, and love me some Astrud Gilberto for sure. Just nothing I can find that is in the same wheel house as Ann. I've been on the quest to find that unicorn. So far they illude me. I'll keep searching and in that finding many sweet heart notables.

 

[DVDdoug]

I really can't judge... I only know what I like... And I mostly listen to the music as a whole, not specifically the voice(s).

I like Heart but mostly for the way the band "rocks", and it's fun to see girls playing real rock guitar!

I tend to favor voices with "character" like Kim Carnes. ...But Janice Joplin is a little "too rough" for me... I like some of her music but not especially for her voice. And I like "men who sound like men", like Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings.

I think Aretha Franklin is GREAT in both Blues Brothers Movies. I'm not qualified to say if she has a "good voice" but she's got soul! And for whatever reason, I like it!

I also like Debbie Harry (Blondie), Belinda Carlisle (The Go-Go's) and Annie Lennox (Eurythmics).

And if you start to delve in to the ABBA production, you find that both women produced an astounding variety and range in their vocals.

At the time I thought they were just an "average pop band". They've grown on me!!!

On the basis of vocal talent and range I'd put Pat Benatar up with the others mentioned.

I love the way her voice soars on We Live For Love. (And the "good-old rock" sound of the band.)

 

[Timcognito]

More in the vain of your post Reb Fountain

 

[bluefuzz]

I can't find another female vocalist half as good as Ann Wilson of Heart

It was only a couple of years ago that I was first introduced to Heart and Ann Wilson (on this very forum). They were never particularly popular in Europe as far as I know. I certainly never came across them in the last 50 years or so listenening to all kinds of music. And to be perfectly honest, I don't hear anything particularly exceptional about Ann Wilson's voice or the music of Heart. Just some averagely competent 70s pop-rock. I could probably name at least a couple of hundred female vocalists from the last hundred years or so who I would rather listen to.

As someone famous once said: 'that was then and this is now'. Perhaps you should just accept that your musical taste stopped evolving in 1975 ...?

 

[Martin Takamine]

Lzzy Hale of Halestorm can belt is out

 

[BigVU's]

As someone famous once said: 'that was then and this is now'. Perhaps you should just accept that your musical taste stopped evolving in 1975 ...?

Not sure which famous person that was? I would say my musical tastes have only widened and expanded and contrary to your suggestion has evolved pre and post 1975. Which is exactly why I don't think there is a match to Ann's vocal skills that I have found yet.

I do admit however I think there was a cycle of magic in the artists from the 70's and perhaps that's my bias setting. And perhaps a bias against the question I pose. I will say again there are a lot of good ones from early years and even some potential mixed in today's Coyote Ugly marketing splash that I will spin from time to time.

If you think there is one out there please share them, if I haven't heard them I will definitely give them an ear.

 

[SKBubba]

Bonnie Raitt.

 

[mhardy6647]

I, too, was quite the Heart fan in my younger days (through about Little Queen, even Dog and Butterfly to some extent). But, there have been myriad better female rock-capable vocalists than Ann Wilson. She was (slightly) ahead of her time, but her voice quickly got thin and shrill when pushed.
Give a listen, e.g., to Fiona Apple's song Criminal, or Joan Osborne's Spiderweb.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

Annie Lennox, Joan Osborne, Rhiannon Giddens, Olivia Cheney, Tori Amos, and literally dozens of lesser-known talents come to mind as every bit as good as Ann Wilson, even at her very best, albeit in their own unique ways. I'm leaving out jazz greats like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and Diana Krall as well as country powerhouses like LeAnne Rimes and Patty Loveless. Oh, and then there are all the excellent female voices in modern R&B/Hip-Hop -- you might not appreciate their particular genre, but their pipes and vocal agility can't be denied.