10 musicians that sing better than the frontman

Merry Clayton – Various

When anyone talks about the best vocal cameos on albums, it’s hard not to look at it as vindication for the other members of the group. The lead singer gets all the spotlight, and it makes sense for someone like Brian May or Keith Richards to take over vocal duties and see what they have to work off of. Everyone was always paying attention to individual members of the band, but if it weren’t for the session scene, half of the best vocals in rock would have never been made.

While Merry Clayton isn’t necessarily the first name that springs to mind in terms of phenomenal singers, the work she put in on classic rock albums cannot be overlooked. Outside of contributing the old backing vocal to records by Lynyrd Skynyrd, she will forever be known as one of the best belters to put Mick Jagger to shame, performing the co-lead vocal at the end of the song ‘Gimme Shelter’ and hitting notes that made Jagger look like a choirboy by comparison.

Though there were many tremendous backing singers on the session scene throughout the 1970s, Clayton deserves a mention, if only for her pedigree. She was not the kind of person to draw much attention to herself once the tape stopped rolling, but for those few seconds when she was screaming her lungs, she was an honourary member of every group she was performing with.

Bobby Whitlock – Derek and the Dominos

It was never that hard to see through what Eric Clapton was trying to do in Derek and the Dominoes. He was clearly falling apart after being rejected by Patti Boyd, and since he had all of those pent-up feelings, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was the kind of love letter that most people wish they could write to their other half. Although anyone not named ‘Clapton’ was going to get overshadowed by default here, Bobby Whitlock managed to hold his own and then some.

Since Clapton wanted to fade into the background and play his guitar on some spots on the record, Whitlock’s soulful voice works perfectly off of Clapton’s soft-spoken demeanour. If Clapton was the one writing down everything he wanted to say, Whitlock is the one who represents the passion in his words, making the most out of every single line as he pleads desperately for this “nameless woman” to not leave them alone in this world.

While Whitlock would also come and go throughout Clapton’s history, hearing them trading lines back and forth may be why Clapton ventured out on his own. The band was named after him, but if he wasn’t careful, he could have found himself in a situation where his own sidemen started taking over his group.

Moe Tucker – The Velvet Underground

Let’s get one thing out of the way here: Lou Reed was never the greatest singer in the world. He was by far one of the greatest sonic actors whenever he got up to the microphone, but when judging him purely on the basis of vocal ability, he was never going to beat Freddie Mercury in any of his Velvet Underground songs. While Nico did provide a great counterbalance to what he was singing half the time, Moe Tucker’s voice was far prettier than any other member of the band.

Most of her contributions may have been through backing vocals and the occasional lead vocal, but it’s criminal that her vocal output with the band was so short. Even when making something as simple and cute as ‘After Hours,’ Tucker practically invented the idea of someone making ukulele-driven bedroom pop, complete with the same lackadaisical vocal delivery that feels like her singing away as the rest of the band grab a smoke break.

For all of the great drumming that she could lay down on a track like ‘Sister Ray,’ Tucker’s voice might be something that gets better with time. Everyone might fawn over Nico when her voice echoed throughout ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ and ‘Femme Fatale,’ but the true sign of growing up is realising that Tucker is actually the better singer.

John Frusciante – Red Hot Chili Peppers

No member of Red Hot Chili Peppers were brought together with the intent of making “beautiful music.” They had a vision for what they wanted to do, but when Anthony Kiedis started singing, he was following the great funkmeisters that came before him like George Clinton rather than anyone with a proper vocal range. That was something that he had to grow into, and if it weren’t for John Frusciante, maybe the band would have stayed as a hip-hop-based funk band for the rest of their days.

While it’s a tragedy that we never got to hear Hillel Slovak in any massive capacity, Frusciante’s natural ear for melody was what guided the band through their best moments. Even when they had the odd moment where Kiedis hit a bum note, Frusciante could cover for him perfectly, whether that was playing the strange classic rock covers like ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ during the live show or creating a wall of voices behind him when they made songs like ‘Can’t Stop.’

Not every song may have been the most tuneful thing in the world, but if they hadn’t had that anchor, an album like By The Way would have been a complete slog. Kiedis is still the face of the band and has a knack for writing about California in an endless amount of ways, but if he is the one writing everything down, Frusciante is the one bringing the sunshine into every single track.

Jerry Cantrell – Alice In Chains

For as much as grunge likes to portray the Seattle scene as one big happy family, Alice in Chains were always a bit of an outlier. As much as Nirvana and Soundgarden were born and bred in the underground and loved bands from the world of punk and art-rock, Alice in Chains were the one group that actually seemed proud of their metal credentials, having rubbed elbows with people like Pantera and Slayer. While Layne Staley’s voice is a big reason why they pushed themselves over the line, Jerry Cantrell was always the grand mastermind behind everything.

Before Alice ever had a record contract, Cantrell had been the one woodshedding every one of the songs. While Staley would eventually add his signature spice to everything with that assive vocal range of his, a song like ‘Would?’ gets its strange mood from the way that Cantrell starts the song off. And out of every band on this list, this is the one instance where the harmonising is half the battle.

Compared to every other artist that fades back into the background, hearing both Staley and Cantrell’s voices balance each other out made them sound like Simon and Garfunkel by way of Black Sabbath, even bringing a shade of beauty to a song that sounds as ugly as ‘Rooster’ does. That doesn’t come from someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, and while Staley has been put down in rock and roll legend, Cantrell was always the grand puppeteer behind it all.

Brian Wilson – The Beach Boys

The idea of who The Beach Boys’ leader is has changed a few times. While the whole group started out as the brainchild of The Wilsons’ father, Murray, it was clear that Mike Love was the one showing them the ropes when they performed live, being the natural star and acting as the good-time spirit of the band all the way up to the present day. It’s easy to get swept up in the fun-in-the-sun demeanour that Love has, but Brian Wilson was always the reason why they had a career at all.

Before they got a single foot off the ground, Brian was the one crafting all the songs, even managing to turn himself into a hit factory once the surf songs started taking off. And despite Love’s insistence not to mess with the formula in some areas, Brian’s willingness to experiment on Pet Sounds and ‘Good Vibrations’ is half the reason why the band were thought of as being on the same level as The Beatles or Bob Dylan.

And as it turned out, no one realised what they had in Brian until it wasn’t there anymore, whether that was the years he lost thanks to Dr Eugene Landy or him not caring for himself in the back half of the 1970s. Love might still be an excellent salesman of Brian’s work most of the time, but when you leave him to his own devices, it’s not shocking why ‘God Only Knows’ has stood the test of time and ‘Summer of Love’ hasn’t.

Phil Collins – Genesis

There were always going to be limits on where Peter Gabriel could go when he was in Genesis. He may have had a wonderful imagination when it came to sculpting his lyrics, but how was anyone supposed to take him seriously when he was dressed up as a flower and couldn’t get the microphone to his face when dressed up as an STD? There needed to be another outlet, and once Gabriel left, no one could have predicted that the best singer for the group was already in the band.

Despite Gabriel and Phil Collins having fairly similar vocal timbres, Collins has proved that he can do a lot more with his voice thanks to his run in the 1980s. Although a lot of people blame Collins for turning the band into a teenybopper version of prog rock, his ability to pull off pop songs, children’s songs, and the occasional soulful jam is one of the greatest feats that anyone could have pulled off, especially while having to also sit behind the drums half the time.

But for as meanspirited as some people take this fight between Genesis singers, it’s not meant to be an indictment of Gabriel saying that Collins is better. Albums like So were perfectly suited to the kind of music that he wanted to make, but in terms of raw sales and technical ability, there’s a reason why we’re still singing ‘In the Air Tonight’ and ‘Take Me Home’ after all these years.

Christine McVie – Fleetwood Mac

For a large portion of Fleetwood Mac fans, things only got good when Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham entered the picture. For the longest time, the British blues act had virtually no hits in the US, and now with two rootsy rockers in their ranks, they finally had the ability to make the best music the world had ever heard. Like any great romantic comedy movie, one of the best choices for a frontman was sitting right in front of the band’s face the whole time.

As much as Christine McVie faded into the background behind her piano, her track record is one of the most solid in the group’s discography. While she did end up singing the most tunes, nothing was going to stop the allure of Nicks’s songs like ‘Dreams’ or the raw musicianship on display on ‘Never Going Back Again.’ For being under the radar, though, McVie didn’t have nearly the lows that her counterparts had.

‘Not That Funny’ may have been embarrassing by ‘The Mac’s standards, but McVie’s creative output has always been some degree of good, whether that’s the plaintive side of ‘Over My Head,’ the lovestruck wonder of ‘You Make Loving Fun,’ or the sound of her barely holding the band together on most of Time. She may have departed from Fleetwood Mac for years at a time, but the reason why they can’t carry on in the present day was because they lost the key link in the chain.

Michael Anthony – Van Halen

The track record of lead singers in Van Halen doesn’t exactly seem fair. The whole band managed to luck out with David Lee Roth as a frontman, and while they should have been dead in the water after he left, getting someone like Sammy Hagar on a whim feels like it’s too good to be true. No matter what singer may have been standing out front, though, who was the one that forgot to tell them they had a vocal Ferrari on the bass guitar?

For an instrument that’s all about holding down the low end, Michael Anthony was a sonic banshee whenever he took the backing vocals. Despite both iterations of the band sounding totally different, Anthony was the one that always soared above it all, with his vocals even managing to outshine what Eddie was doing on the fretboard like on the beginning of ‘Mine All Mine’ or the live version of ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love.’

And what’s even more tragic is the fact that none of the Van Halen brothers knew what they were missing, eventually leading to them treating Anthony like trash and blocking him out of the room by the time they reformed with Roth. There’s no denying that Wolfgang Van Halen helped bring the band back from the dead in many respects, but if there was no Anthony in the background, it was never going to be a true reunion.

Noel Gallagher – Oasis

When it comes to Oasis, most people are more liable to talk about the feuds between the Gallagher brothers rather than their music. They have some fantastic anthems in their catalogue, but looking at any of their interviews apart from each other, their vicious digs towards each other in the press are worthy of being classics unto themselves. Despite it being hard for them to have one kind thing to say to the other in passing, it’s about time we admit that Noel would have wiped the floor with Liam in the vocal department.

That said, Liam was still the rockstar of the group for a reason. His vicious snarl is what gave the band a lot of breath, and only he could have sung a song like ‘Live Forever’ and ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ and made it work. When left to his own devices, though, Noel always had ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ under his belt, and checking out his solo career, he was willing to push his voice even further than Liam’s, even managing to channel some of that John Lennon energy that ‘Our Kid’ had been chasing after.

Had Noel decided to do away with his brother, though, there’s a good chance we would have had a much more laid-back version of Oasis than what we ended up getting. They might like to talk about themselves as one of the greatest rock and roll bands to ever touch the stage, but despite Noel’s massive voice, losing Liam would have been like losing their rock and roll credentials.