Another question

[ericcoleman]

IYNSHO who is the greatest blue eyed soul singer?

First of all let's eliminate the The Righteous Brothers from this, cause it's just not fair to everyone else. I mean really.

My current favorite is Peter Riviera from Rare Earth, who is also one of two singing drummers who should not shut up (the other being Levon Helm)

Comments

[blackpaladin.livejournal.com]

Never heard the term "blue-eyed soul" before, but clicked the link and immediately said "Oh! They have a genre name for that!" So there you go.

> IYNSHO who is the greatest blue eyed soul singer?

Eliminating the Righteous Brothers (which, yeah, you're right, this really is a race for second place), I have to put my weight behind either Michael McDonald or someone whose name doesn't actually appear on Wiki's list of blue-eyed soul singers: Michael Bolton. Say what you want about his crappy poppy stuff -- and I could say volumes -- but his covers of "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" and "When a Man Loves a Woman" are downright moving.

> Peter Riviera from Rare Earth, who is also one of two singing drummers who should not shut up (the other being Levon Helm)

I take it, then, that you'd categorize Phil Collins as a singing drummer who should shut up? :-) (Not necessarily disagreeing, just curious)

Blue-eyed soul

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Van Morrison, hands down. (Note, though: The Eagles and the Standells ("Dirty Water") both had excellent singing drummers. I don't flag these as often as I might, but back when my first wife and I had the best hotel lounge trio in town, we tried to get phone numbers for all the local singing drummers, because we needed to have them. (I played guitar and keyboards, and really was just a harmony singer at this point, though I sang a couple.) Since then, I have noted, when bands appear on our TV set, when the drummer is singing lead. It does not happen all that often. (But the Strawberry Alarm Clock -- their hits were "Incense and Peppermint" and "Tomorrow" -- were another band with an excellent singing drummer, so it can happen.)

Nate

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

Dusty Springfield.

[mike46.livejournal.com]

I know they're not one of your favorites, but I always liked Mark Farner from Grand Funk for blue-eyed soul. And yea, I know they're not actually doing soul music ...

[erik]

Rick Astley.

[ldwheeler.livejournal.com]

Van, of course. Plus Felix Cavaliere from the Rascals.