The Funniest Singing Voice

I love music. People call "bullshit" when I tell them that I can find something I like about all musical styles and genres, then they hear what I listen to and immediately believe me, and subsequently wish they hadn't heard many of the songs. Due to this transparent musical filter I tend to be really into music many people find not only annoying, but downright painful to listen to.

One of these styles that never fails to turn away most friends is the "high pitched whiney voiced singer". I love it, can't get enough. It's that long drawn out ability to keep the singer's voice at a high pitch and form sounds, yet the sounds never quite metastasize into words. At least not when I sing along. Why try to figure out the lyrics in these songs, when its just as fun to whine along.

Here's a perfect example from the Fine Young Cannibals that I heard this weekend at a JCPenny. Andy Brown, you gotta hear this:



The genre became really popular in the 1970's due in large part to international superstar family band The Bee Gee's: This stylistic heyday was later immortalized by Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake on SNL:





I think it's hilarious. Not the skit, though it's really funny, but the style of singer. How has this become an acceptable and lucrative form of serenade? Or is the better question, why isn't more music like this? I can't stop laughing when I hear it, I know its rediculous, but I also can't stop listening either.

Here are my top five "high pitched whiney voiced singers" that I love:

#5. James Blunt - This guy is text book "whiney". I thought I was the only person who made loud ridiculous noises as I sang along to this song. But I was in a liquor store in Orlando, Florida a couple years ago when from a few aisles away I heard someone else singing the exact same way. It was eerie and awesome all at the same time, that guy knew what was up:



#4. Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons) - His voice tends a little deeper, but we all know what school it came out of. He's not fooling anyone. Actually I think he is fooling everyone, what is he? This guys has the weirdest and most awesome voice of the pack. Check it out:



#3. Van Morrison - I think this debunks what I said earlier about The BeeGees pioneering the "whiney" sound. I think Van has to be included as one of the godfathers. Jackie Wilson Says is a great example, but if you have heard any Van Morrison song you know that he utilizes whiney goodness throughout his body of work:

Van Morrison - Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heavn When You Smile) (mp3)

#2. The Bee Gee's - You have to give it to the originators. The Bee Gee's perfected it, and are still the benchmark. Spicks and Specks is a good one because its not one of the standards, and you get a great sense of how you could literally be making up sounds and it would sound like you were singing along:

Bee Gees - Spicks and Specks (mp3)

#1. Aaron Neville - Thank you David for this clutch, and clearly winning, addition to the list. Aaron's often unexplainable vocal bravado is unmistakable, and no one even comes close to matching it. Why try? It's laughable throughout, until you realize how beautiful it can be. I say it can be, because I once heard him sing the national anthem live at a TN Titans game. There are just some songs that don't need the Aaron Neville touch, and The Star Spangled Banner is definitely one of them. This one, however, is just fine:



Can you think of some more? I know they're out there.

OK, one more:


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