“Could out-sing anybody”: Bob Dylan on why Perry Como was better than any other singer
No one was exactly coming to any rock and roll song to hear a show-stopping singer in its earliest days. Little Richard and Chuck Berry had a way of captivating the audience with their raw performances, and while someone like Elvis Presley was beyond any of his contemporaries in terms of stage presence, it’s not like he had the most dynamic range out of any great singer from his time. It would take a while for rock to get its true virtuosos, but Bob Dylan knew he was listening to one of the greatest vocalists of all time when he heard them out in the wild.
But it’s not like Dylan was showing himself off as one of the greatest vocalists to walk the Earth, either. Despite people claiming that he was always a terrible singer from the first time he opened his mouth, there was no doubt he believed every single thing he sang whenever he had that acoustic guitar draped over himself, especially when taking people to task on tunes like ‘Masters of War’ or ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’.
Everything that Dylan sang always had a double meaning behind it, but being able to make something sound genuinely sincere was a lost art in many respects. Most people didn’t have to be as cerebral as Dylan when he came out with one of his records, and from the earliest days of pop singers like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, people were trying to find something that could touch their hearts rather than make them think.
Most of that kind of music may have been treated as lightweight fluff when rock and roll eventually started, but it’s not like it went anywhere, either. Adult contemporary radio exists for a reason, and even Queen found ways to bring showtunes into the mix, but for Dylan, it all came back to how someone like Perry Como sang his tunes.
“His performance is just downright incredible. There is nothing small you can say about it. The orchestration alone can knock you off your feet.”
Bob Dylan
While most people might single out Sinatra or even Sammy Davis Jr from around this time, there was a certain purity that came from the way that Como sang his tunes. It wasn’t as ultra-wholesome as the Christian pop music trying to find its way onto the radio, but listening to tracks like ‘Without A Song’, he seemed to be the innocent pop star who felt privileged to sing the songs that would make people happy.
And it’s that song that made Dylan realise the kind of genius that Como was whenever he performed, saying, “Perry Como was the anti-Rat Pack, like the anti-Frank; wouldn’t be caught dead with a drink in his hand, and could out-sing anybody. His performance is just downright incredible. There is nothing small you can say about it. The orchestration alone can knock you off your feet.”
But the power behind the song is that Como isn’t trying to be the show-stopping voice that most people think of. Anyone who wants to show off their voice these days normally tries to make those dramatic runs that people like Mariah Carey made famous, but the true power behind a good singer is taking the basis of any song and be able to deliver it in a way that makes them sound like they are next to you talking about their issues.
There’s no chance that any of Dylan’s vocal performances will ever match what Como did back in the day, but that was never his intention, either. He would always sing what was in his heart, but Como offered a nice guide for how someone should approach their craft. It wasn’t flashy, but it was always tasteful.
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