What singers can really "put a song over"?

Another song from Nina Simone: Lilac Wine.

Nostalgia at its most tragic and isolating.

From the original thread debating whether Judy Garland was more of an entertainer than singer.

I argue she's a singer who approaches her work like an actress.

She goes from despondent to resplendent from one number to the next and sells them both.

Demi Lovato did it this night.

[quote]Singers like Whitney Houston could thrill a listener with what she could do with her voice, but when you stopped listening to the song, nothing had moved you other than the voice."

True. She did not understand phrasing. In most of her performances she had no connection to the lyrics. There was absolutely no sophistication there.

R3 That's pretty awful.

She should be building that song and taking us along to a grand finale. She blows her wad from the begining. There's no where to go from there.

True, R5 but she made me feel it and believe it.

And for that, I can forgive her transgression.

So many jazz, cabaret, or pop singers who had careers in the mid 20th century - tours, concert dates, recording contracts - could put songs over. I don't now how it is now, but in NYC in the 70s and 80s you could go out and still see these dinosaurs in cabaret concerts and they could all do it. That's why the public kept coming. Some of the fringe artists could do it. Yma Sumac in a cabaret setting. The old blues singers. Koko Taylor.

But wanted to say I like to see actresses who can't sing, manage to put over a song. Well its usually not live and of course lots of edits, and they have their bodies to help sell it. Jessica Lange did it a couple times in AHS. Here's Deneuve, who's done it a few times:

I meant to post the video of Cottage for Sale followed by Hey Look Me Over.

The artist doesn't need range. Here's Dietrich putting it over, live

r7, I agree on the appeal of actresses who can't really sing in a traditional sense but who know how to sell the lyrics through their interpretation.

I can't see the Catherine Deneuve video you posted in the US, but I am curious.

Speaking of French actors, one who CAN sing is Yves Montand, though he's usually remembered for his films. I think he brings a lot more than just his beautiful voice to his songs. For any Francophones out there, I really envision him wandering around the wintry town in a haze of longing.

More Dietrich - and more French.

I've read that she considered this her personal favorite of all her songs.

She could never actually sing. (I think it's called Sprachsingen.) However, she knows how to perform a song, be it sexy or sad.

This one is definitely the latter.

Dietrich never seemed to fake her connection with the audience. Often get the impression she is calling up these songs from a deep well of experience and sharing them with directly with me. There's an intimacy. Of course her live shows were fabulous artificial concoctions and perfectly designed orchestrated and rehearsed. But like Garland, she was fully present when live. Dietrich never really embarrassed herself singing, both live and recording, which is remarkable considering her limits.

Garland was a great singer and entertainer and actress- sort of a perfect storm- this the phenom

Dietrich: One for My Baby and One More for the Road.

I think a singer who can put over a song can also sell the setting. I believe she's sitting on a barstool chatting up a bartender as he's turning out the lights.

I doubt that anyone will claim that the latter-day Marianne Faithfull has a lovely voice, but I would argue that she matches what she has to perfect material.

Her zenith was the album Strange Weather.

She lacks Dietrich's humor, but ups her on world-weariness.

Kurt Cobain had that ability. No matter what he sang, his singing always sounded sincere and painted a picture of the character in the song. And on key, when he wanted it to be.

Sometimes a singer can also have technical precision.

I had a boyfriend who never liked Nat King Cole or Ella Fitzgerald, both of whom he claimed were emotionally bland singers best suited to background music for a Sunday brunch. I get that, but I think both transcended the surface loveliness on occasion.

Case in point: Nat King Cole's I Keep Going Back to Joe's: "our old waiter knows we're through / still he sets a place for you"

Mary Fahl

Sharon den Adel

WTF? R19 R18

Ok dear. Miss Piggy.

Dinah Washington comes to mind as someone who could "put a song cover." She did the original version of Drinking Again and it still remains the definitive version. The way she phrases the lyrics, it almost sound like she's hungover telling the story and painting the picture. Her phrasing remains precise and assertive throughout the entire song.

She was a phenomenal singer.

Melanie is now usually remembered as a silly or grating hippy, but I think of her as a fantastic songwriter and singer. She can be funny, biting, and intense.

Steppin': She starts out celebrating the end of a relationship, then mourns it, and then sadly ponders how easily she knows that she'll move on.

R17 I agree with your boyfriend. Ella Fitzgerald sang like a robot. NKCole was better but did not have the depth that Sinatra had. But that's a great number you posted.

A master at putting a song over was Ray Charles in his prime.

r21, I think Aretha Franklin did right by this song on her Dinah Washington tribute album.

Lots of sad songs set in bars in this thread.

I think you have to be able to sell the fuck out the lyrics for this sub-genre.

Someone post Alfie from Streisand's 2000 concert. Sublime

R24, I LOVE Aretha's version! That's probably the one version I would say compare to Dinah's. Sinatra did a great job with the song, too, but I prefer Dinah's because she sells the song with her impeccable phrasing.

[quote] Someone post Alfie from Streisand's 2000 concert. Sublime

Dionne's version will always remain the best version. Sorry, Babs!

Dame Shirley Bassey, [italic]bien sûr:[/italic]

Thread Closed

Eartha Kitt.

She brought a self-awareness and sly charm to her songs.

I remember the ruckus when Madonna recorded Santa Baby and asked EK what she thought of it, who replied that she didn't care for it. Understandably. It takes a special singer to make a greedy golddigger an irresistible force.

[quote]Demi Lovato did it this night.

She did it this night with auto-tune.

Queen Janet owns this thread.

Janet SLAYS all these other bitches you mention. Not only does she have the most amazing voice of them all but she emotes and makes every fucking person in the room FEEL it, Hunty!

Thread Closed!

Stay PRESSED!!!

Here is how Data Lounge now works.

The thread is: "Which singers could do the most with the voice they had?"

Then, all the same people post their same favourite singers whether they have nothing whatsoever to do with the thread category.

It's like this every time. Sad fans sure their star fits the category. No distance whatsoever.

R31 like most today, confuse attitude with talent.

I think singers who can take some time out and get away with TALKING during a song fit squarely into this category.

That takes personality, not precision.

Esther Phillips had both, however.

R21, if you like Dinah Washington, you might like Esther Phillips.

lol at R33 who is a sad, pathetic, VADGE STAN typing from his mother's basement.

So PRESSED that nobody here would even mention your HAGDONNA. Just because you confuse WHORES with Artists.

Stay PRESSED Hunty.

Bette puts over "Drinking Again," Legend has it that when Bette first met Aretha - both were label mates at Atlantic in the early 70s - Bette asked her what she thought of her version, which Bette said was in honor of Aretha's. Aretha bluntly told her she didn't like it at all. Bette was devastated. This encounter was later used as inspiration for the scene in "The Rose" with the Harry Dean Stanton character.

Tony Bennett can still do it live at age 88

In the opposite vein, Aretha supposedly ran into Dusty Springfield in an elevator once when Dusty's "Son of a Preacher Man" was riding high on the charts. Aretha—who had been offered the song first but turned it down, then recorded her own version later on—loved Dusty's version. She put up her hand for a high-five and exclaimed "GUUUUUUURRRL!"

Juliette Greco. Not a conventionally attractive voice.

Here she commandingly instructs a lover how to please her with a sensuousness that might be laughable in other hands. Sometimes going over the top works for a song, but not anyone can do it.

Her breathiness is neither girly nor teasing. It's pure and unabashed sex and desire.

r37, I think a test of who can put a song over is whether they can still do it after their voice has been diminished (or seasoned?) by age.

Juliette Greco is 88 like Tony Bennett and still singing.

She still fascinated me. Maybe more now than ever, but for different reasons. She has a presence and an approach to lyrics that makes her quite unique and instantly recognizable despite her advanced years.

She seizes the listener. Sensuous or spooky, she is one of a kind.

I'm with your ex, R17. Ella and Nat make absolutely no positive impression on me. They don't affect me negatively, either. They're just bland and boring.

Well, now that we've turned to Euro chicks... the Italian singer Mina is something to see. Boy could she put over a song.

She wore exaggerated makeup...exaggerated theatrical gestures...quite a DIVA.

This song by Lucio Battisti and it's a beautiful melody.

In the past I would say Olivia Newton-John. When she sang "I Honestly Lo You" , you believed her heart had been broken.

Today I would say Adele. Same applies to "Someone Like You".

Juliet Greco is sort of to European sisters what JudyPeggyLizaBabs is to American sisters.

Most good singers have a few songs they can do that with. Why else would you sing?

Ok then, this thread has officially collapsed, so I'm going to insist on Baby Jane.

[quote]Bette puts over "Drinking Again," Legend has it that when Bette first met Aretha - both were label mates at Atlantic in the early 70s - Bette asked her what she thought of her version, which Bette said was in honor of Aretha's. Aretha bluntly told her she didn't like it at all. Bette was devastated. This encounter was later used as inspiration for the scene in "The Rose" with the Harry Dean Stanton character.

I like the recording on the record, the way her voice crackles toward the end. Bette sounds like she's really feeling the song.

[quote]In the past I would say Olivia Newton-John. When she sang "I Honestly Lo You" , you believed her heart had been broken.

I also like her rendition of "Sam".

The only thing ONJ "put over" was the deliciousness of Lattanzi.

r32 & r46 - I see your point. (And I was waiting anxiously for Bette Davis to make her appearance.)

But a lot of what's posted here DOES involve storytelling and mood-setting.

That used to be a pre-requisite for country music, but it's been replaced by attitude and auto-tuning now.

Old country stars had to live the lyrics convincingly, no matter how maudlin things got. Sincerity and vulnerability don't get much return these days, but there was a time...

Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner seldom failed as interpreters of their own words. And while Porter Wagoner could indeed carry a tune, like Dietrich, he chose to speak almost as much as sing. In fact, a lot of what he did was outright recitation as at 1:40 in Mommie, Ain't That Daddy?

I don't think it gets more real than this, a big challenge considering how stylized and ornate the music and lyrics are. Of course, she writes her own songs, they are confessional, so the song and singer are naturally one already. There's a point in the song where all you hear is not sound but the pain of... well if it could be put in words, the song would be superfluous, no?

Judy Garland

Barbra Streisand

Carly Simon once had this. She did it over and over on the album Torch, despite her flat, reedy voice.

This Sondheim song usually gets a fussier treatment, but Simon's is the version that breaks my heart.

Carly Simon has a reedy voice, R53? I don't think you understand the meaning of the word reedy.

Thanks, R53. Carly's "I Get Along Without You Very Well" is the only version I need. What a great album TORCH is.

I love what she did to "Itsy Bitsy Spider," too.

r54 - I misused that word. What I meant was that I often find her voice strangely hollow, a sound that might be produced by a woodwind.

Marianne Faithfull.

Her voice, ragged and ruined from decades of hard living, but also full of experience and far more interesting than when she broke as a teenage folksinger in the mid-1960s.

Here doing Harry Nilsson's Don't Forget Me. She couldn't have put this one over in her sixties heday.

Disagree on r28. Janis Joplin doesn't put the song over; she squashes it with rampant caterwauling.

I envision her as a finalist on American Idol. And I hate American Idol.

Look to Nina Simone for a version from a singer who respects the lyrics and digs deep into the mood without grandstanding. It's fucking exquisite.

A bit more dramatic and doom-heavy from Judy Garland.

She never sold anything short.

And for real understatement as a counterpoint to Janis Joplin, Andy Bey.

Master of mellow melancholy.

Another vote for Shirley Bassey.

I said, Thread CLOSED you PRESSED, HUNTIES!

Discord on the JG thread over the meaning of the phrase. I think some posters here would concur with what follows:

I politely disagree with [R67]'s definition of what it means to "put over a song." The phrase is frequently used to describe someone who isn't a good technical singer but who "sells" the material by dint of being a compelling performer. Glynis Johns and Judi Dench are not strong singers, but they both succeeded in moving audiences as Desiree in A Little Night Music because they knew how to "put over a song."

Judy Garland lost much of her singing ability on the 1960s. There are many recordings late in her career where she is in ghastly voice. But she is still giving a great show because she knows how to put over a song. In other words, her singing didn't sound as pretty as it used to, but she still knew how to go out there and sell them a bucket of clams.

Still my all time favorite performance by any singer.

How grunty/bleaty/wispy, R65.

Yeah, that song is kind of put under, R65.

Linda Eder

Another vote for Bette Midler. Not a voice, but could really deliver. Her "One More For the Road" for Johnny Carson's farewell is a perfect example.

Bette Midler puts it UNDER.

Oh, Julie...

R65, I love Fiona's performance of "I Want You". Still remember seeing it for the first time and getting chills.

Great thread. This affects me at the cellular level...

Is the Janet Jackson troll just one person? I have to say, they are extremely prolific.

I don't think Courtney gets enough credit.

Doing a cover of 'He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)

Gladys Knight, without question.

Judy Garland singing "A Cottage For Sale" is one of the greatest song interpretations--of any genre--that I have ever heard.