Once-good singers who can't sing well anymore

[kkt]

I guess the lesson is that as a young rocker you should make sure to write some songs without any high notes, so you'll still be able to sing them when you're 64.

[roadman]

One of my favorite artists, Gordon Lightfoot, immediately comes to mind.  I grew up listening to his albums in the 1970s, and saw him in concert at Boston's Symphony Hall in 1975.

A couple of years ago, I caught the tail end of his "Live In Reno" special on PBS (which was taped about 2002).  Sadly, he was barely recognizable in both appearance and voice from the Lightfoot of yore.

[Roadgeek Adam]

Air Supply's Russell Hitchcock sounds utterly terrible. The light, feminine voice has slowly become just yelling that sounds un-harmonious. "Lost in Love" and "All Out of Love" just sound like two old guys yelling. "Even the Nights Are Better" is fine when Graham Russell is singing, but when he isn't, Hitchcock is terrible.

[skluth]

Can Todd Rungren sing his songs Hello Its Me and I Saw The Light like he once did?  I think his voice is no longer feminine anymore? 

I am asking cause I myself have not heard him sing lately and when he did I Don't Want To Work his voice sounded more like a man.

BTW I am not knocking his voice at all as I liked the way he sang his classics just as I like Roger Hodson of Supertramp who sings still like Rungren did and most of all enjoy Take The Long Way Home and Give A Little Bit.

You can hear Todd sing I Saw The Light on Daryl Hall's Live from Daryl's House. His voice can no longer hit the high notes, but at least he can still sing in tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMyneh_5ooI

[Laura]

Can Todd Rungren sing his songs Hello Its Me and I Saw The Light like he once did?  I think his voice is no longer feminine anymore? 

I am asking cause I myself have not heard him sing lately and when he did I Don't Want To Work his voice sounded more like a man.

BTW I am not knocking his voice at all as I liked the way he sang his classics just as I like Roger Hodson of Supertramp who sings still like Rungren did and most of all enjoy Take The Long Way Home and Give A Little Bit.

You can hear Todd sing I Saw The Light on Daryl Hall's Live from Daryl's House. His voice can no longer hit the high notes, but at least he can still sing in tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMyneh_5ooI

Having seen Todd Rundgren five times in concert, I can say that his range is not as high as it once was, but he can still partially pull off his falsetto. That said, he does generally sing his most known hits in a lower octave from when they were originally released.

Here's an example of a song that he can still nail at a higher octave: Zen Archer, from his 1974 album A Wizard, A True Star:
Original studio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kYgsELoMNE
Live on the AWATS Tour 2009 (which I saw live, but in DC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqHKb1Neqyc

[hm insulators]

Steve Tyler from Aerosmith and Brian Johnson from AC/DC. There's a couple of singers whose voices are shot.

[Stratuscaster]

Ian Gillan of Deep Purple.

In the studio, with all it's magic, all is well.

Live, not so much. Not every song, though. "Highway Star" has become quite painful to listen to - partly because of lost range, and partly because of a change in enunciation.

[Roadrunner75]

We saw a Def Leppard/Journey double bill a few years ago.  DL's singer has really lost it.  As for Journey, well they'll just keep getting new singers.  At our particular show, however, Journey's singer at that time disappeared about half way through, and then the rest of the band cycled around singing lead on their various hits, including the drummer who wasn't bad.  We found out later that the signer had some problems with his voice that night and left leaving the rest of the guys to fill in for him...

[Stratuscaster]

Joe Elliott from Def Leppard is indeed another vocalist that benefits greatly from in-studio wizardry - and that's nothing recent.

Journey's current lead singer - Arnel Pineda - has been with the band since 2007.

Perhaps you saw them when Steve Augeri was lead singer - allegedly they parted ways with him due to his chronic throat infections.

[hbelkins]

Ian Gillan of Deep Purple.

Is he back with them?

Kinda off on a tangent, and inspired by the comment about Journey's members filling in to sing various songs, one of my all-time favorite bands is Chicago. They had three lead singers: keyboardist Robert Lamm ("Saturday In The Park," "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is," Beginnings"), guitarist Terry Kath ("Colour My World," "Make Me Smile," "Wishing You Were Here") and bassist Peter Cetera ("Questions 67 and 68," "25 or 6 to 4" and every hit from their sixth album until he quit the band).

As previously mentioned, Cetera quit in the mid-80s and Kath died in 1977. Current bassist Jason Scheff (son of Elvis Presley's bass player) has a vocal range similar to Cetera's, but they've never really been able to find a replacement vocalist to match Kath's style. Donnie Dacus (Kath's first replacement) wasn't quite the same and neither was Bill Champlin (a later replacement). The closest vocalists to Kath are trombonist James Pankow and trumpeter Lee Loughnane. In fact, I always thought it was Kath who sang "Song Of The Evergreens" on the seventh album, but it was actually Loughnane.

They've been shuffling things up a bit on recent tours. Lamm has been doing some of Kath's vocals, and I recently saw a video clip of Loughnane singing "No Tell Lover" and "Love Me Tomorrow," on which Cetera originally sang. I've also heard that Loughnane sang "Colour My World" recently.

[vdeane]

Joe Elliott from Def Leppard is indeed another vocalist that benefits greatly from in-studio wizardry - and that's nothing recent.

That must be how they re-recorded all their songs for digital distribution (due to a copyright dispute).

[Roadrunner75]

Joe Elliott from Def Leppard is indeed another vocalist that benefits greatly from in-studio wizardry - and that's nothing recent.

Journey's current lead singer - Arnel Pineda - has been with the band since 2007.

Perhaps you saw them when Steve Augeri was lead singer - allegedly they parted ways with him due to his chronic throat infections.

I think it was Augeri...it was probably mid 2000s that we saw them.

[ARMOURERERIC]

Geddy Lee was once a good singer?

Take off!

[Stratuscaster]

Ian Gillan of Deep Purple.

Is he back with them?

For the past 22 years, yes.

[hbelkins]

I thought Gillian only did "Perfect Strangers" and the following live album with them, then left again.

[NE2]

Amy Winehouse

[The Nature Boy]

Amy Winehouse

This is a given, considering the obvious.

[bugo]

Ian Gillan was in a band in the early '80s with Janick Gers who is now in Iron Maiden.

[hbelkins]

One of my favorite Black Sabbath albums is "Born Again," on which Gillan was the lead singer.

[Stratuscaster]

I thought Gillian only did "Perfect Strangers" and the following live album with them, then left again.

Perfect Strangers, The House of Blue Light, then Nobody's Perfect (live). Left in '89, back in '92.

[Stratuscaster]

One of my favorite Black Sabbath albums is "Born Again," on which Gillan was the lead singer.

The cover sucked, but the music was OK. "The Dark/Zero The Hero" is a favorite.

[bugo]

My favorite Black Sabbath albums are the Ronnie James Dio albums: Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, and Dehumanizer. I consider The Devil You Know to be a Black Sabbath album and I would put it on the list.

[hbelkins]

The House of Blue Light

I'd forgotten about that one.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The name that comes to mind for me is Greg Lake. ELP released their disastrous Love Beach album in 1978. Emerson, Lake, and Powell I believe came out in 1986. In just eight years Lake's light, airy voice was gone in favor of this deep, baritone growl-like thing. The first time I listened to ELP's "comeback" album from 1992, Black Moon I was certain at first it wasn't him.

[Brian556]

Quote from Roadgeek Adam:

Air Supply's Russell Hitchcock sounds utterly terrible. The light, feminine voice has slowly become just yelling that sounds un-harmonious. "Lost in Love" and "All Out of Love" just sound like two old guys yelling. "Even the Nights Are Better" is fine when Graham Russell is singing, but when he isn't, Hitchcock is terrible.

I've always found it odd how feminine their voices are. When listening to them, it's very easy to forget that they are not women. However, I still like their music.

On this subject, Ann Murray's voice sounds masculine to me. She sounds like a lot of the male singers of the 70's, especially Neil Sedaka.

As far as current music goes, Adam Levine (front man of Maroon 5) has a feminine voice in my opinion. I really don't care for his work. It's strange how few good male artists there are these days, especially when you consider that there were tons in the 70's and 80's.