Credit: Far Out / Apple Corps / Raph_PH

The best singer in The Beatles, according to David Crosby

Mon 19 May 2025 17:30, UK

Part of the appeal of Beatlemania was picking your favourite member. It is a frivolous proposition, but that is why it appeals—amid the dismal daily grind of modern life, some decisions ought to be daft. In many ways, The Beatles pioneered this simple joy, and since then, everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Friends has posed an audience a similar question of where your allegiance lies.

However, when it came to David Crosby, a figure who knows a thing or two about singing alongside prominent peers, the question of who his favourite singer in the Fab Four was wasn’t quite so frivolous after all. He was in a prime position to answer this question in more ways than one. Not only was he folk’s leading harmoniser, but he also had very close contact with the band whenever they were on the West Coast of America.

“The best thing that ever happened to me was visiting The Beatles when they were making Sgt. Pepper,” he once recalled.

The stoned-as-a-bat musician continued: “I came in, and I was very high. They sat me down on a stool in the middle of the studio and rolled up two six-foot-tall speakers on either side of me. Then, laughing, they climbed the stairs back to the control room and left me there. And then they played ‘A Day in the Life.’ At the end of that last chord, my brains just ran out my nose onto the floor in a puddle. I didn’t know what to do, I was just stupefied.”

In some ways, this mind-dripping moment was kind of a paradigm of the three-way relationship between The Beatles, Crosby and “hippy salad”. Crosby supplied the substance, the substance inspired the band, and then the band inspired Crosby. All of this eventuated in the biggest group in history shifting the centre of popular culture towards something a little more avant-garde, and they just so happened to have a preeminent peer as a dealer.

So, Crosby would frequently pay the band a visit with an illicit substance in hand. In doing so, he got to hear them perform first-hand. Needless to say, he was stirred by the prowess and quality of both their lead singers, ranking them as his third and fourth favourite voices of all time. However, it was John Lennon who just about pipped poll position in the band, according to Crosby.

The gritty, gruffness of Lennon’s more guttural growl appealed to Crosby, who always craved a bit of rough and smooth in his music. While he admired McCartney’s powerful tones just about as much, it was Lennon’s earthiness that moved him most. Beyond his vocal ability, he also imbued his performances with a certain sense of swagger—a semblance of stardom that dragged Crosby towards a career in pop music in the first place.

“I wanted to be a folkie,” Crosby recalled of his early musical leanings. “I liked pop music because of The Everly Brothers, but seeing The Beatles made something else click. It changed my life. They changed my life. Let’s be very specific about that.”

Little did he know he would go on to change theirs. But along the way, Lennon never once stopped being his leading, shimmering, soulful inspiration.