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ArishMell · 70-79, M
You are only going to elicit samples of people's tastes but as sheer bad singers by mine, I'd rate in no special order,
Elvis Costello - oddly, as he is a very good, clear and coherent speaker in interviews. He sounded drunk, the way he slurred the songs.
Frank Sinatra - all the right notes, etc, but speaking the words rather than singing them.
Elton John - nothing wrong with his songs, just his singing ( a bit like Costello's).
Bob Dylan - I've heard worse but don't think he was a particularly good singer.
Me - if I'd tried being a recording "artiste".
For a long time I'd have included the actor Lee Marvin until I realised his one-hit wonder murdering of Wanderin' Star far more true to the character in the film, than an art-song style would have been. Indeed, I thought it ruined by the full orchestra and "angelic choir" who come in about halfway through the hit single version. (I don't know if that arrangement's all-Hollywoood pseudo-sentimentality was also in the film.)
As for Dick van Dyke... Hollywood actors do not sound like Cockney chimney-sweeps, I'm sure!
Recently I heard a snippet of Ringo Starr trying a Country & Western number. It seems he's quite a fan of the genre. He tried, for no good reason, affecting an American rural accent. Come off it, Richard Starkey, you are a Liverpudlian and you have not lost that proud N.W. English city's distinctive accent.
The strangest I've heard was an American soprano - sorry, I forget her name - with Sandy Denny's beautiful Where The Time Goes. She was not trying to affect Alexandra's English accent, nor the 'American Rusticana' that made so much C&W stuff so faux. Properly-trained in very advanced singing techniques, unlike most pop and rock singers, but I think she was trying to sing in a natural voice rather than inflated operatic style. It did sound peculiar.
Elvis Costello - oddly, as he is a very good, clear and coherent speaker in interviews. He sounded drunk, the way he slurred the songs.
Frank Sinatra - all the right notes, etc, but speaking the words rather than singing them.
Elton John - nothing wrong with his songs, just his singing ( a bit like Costello's).
Bob Dylan - I've heard worse but don't think he was a particularly good singer.
Me - if I'd tried being a recording "artiste".
For a long time I'd have included the actor Lee Marvin until I realised his one-hit wonder murdering of Wanderin' Star far more true to the character in the film, than an art-song style would have been. Indeed, I thought it ruined by the full orchestra and "angelic choir" who come in about halfway through the hit single version. (I don't know if that arrangement's all-Hollywoood pseudo-sentimentality was also in the film.)
As for Dick van Dyke... Hollywood actors do not sound like Cockney chimney-sweeps, I'm sure!
Recently I heard a snippet of Ringo Starr trying a Country & Western number. It seems he's quite a fan of the genre. He tried, for no good reason, affecting an American rural accent. Come off it, Richard Starkey, you are a Liverpudlian and you have not lost that proud N.W. English city's distinctive accent.
The strangest I've heard was an American soprano - sorry, I forget her name - with Sandy Denny's beautiful Where The Time Goes. She was not trying to affect Alexandra's English accent, nor the 'American Rusticana' that made so much C&W stuff so faux. Properly-trained in very advanced singing techniques, unlike most pop and rock singers, but I think she was trying to sing in a natural voice rather than inflated operatic style. It did sound peculiar.