The singer Elton John and David Crosby agreed is the best: “The greatest who ever lived”
Everything that Elton John did was in service to the songs that he wrote with Bernie Taupin.
Every single singer-songwriter knew that there was some magic that came with capturing that perfect melody and lyric in one go, and even if John didn’t need to write a lyric in his life, he was happy to breathe life into every lyric sheet that was in front of them. But even if he wasn’t the same kind of folkie as the rest of the California rock scene, he and David Crosby knew when they were listening to a genius.
But a lot of what makes John and Crosby two of the most unique songwriters of their generation was how they pulled from everything except rock and roll. Both of them loved artists like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, but when looking through all of their biggest tunes, John has always pulled from classical music, while Crosby has pulled from jazz whenever he tuned his guitar in a different way.
Both of them were drawn to songs that didn’t have a traditional structure to them, but they also knew that the delivery was just as important as anything that they wrote. John knew that he needed to turn himself into the right singer for every single song that he wrote, and while Crosby would have been fine with making his own tunes on a solo record, those harmonies from Stills and Nash were the icing on the cake of every one of his songs.
All of their records were a group effort between them and all of their favourite musicians, but the true wonderkinds were the ones that could do everything in one go. Prince hadn’t yet come in to show everyone what one person could do, but aside from the solo Beatles turning in massive records on their own, everyone was shellshocked when Stevie Wonder kicked his solo career into high gear.
He was always a phenomenal singer, but Wonder’s run from Music of My Mind all the way to Songs in the Key of Life comprises some of the greatest soul music ever made. John may have had a firsthand account of what Wonder was doing behind the keyboard, but the idea of singing like him was completely out of the question every single time he stepped up to the microphone.
The British legend could bend his voice in a lot of different ways, but no one could touch what Wonder could do in his mind, saying, “He’s the greatest R&B singer who ever lived. Nobody can sing like he does. I know: I actually recorded a version of ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ when I was young, and I really had to squeeze my balls to get those high notes.”
And since Crosby loved everything having to do with jazz, he could definitely hear the influences from the greats in Wonder’s delivery as well, saying, “I’ve been saying for a while that probably the two best singers in the United States are Stevie Wonder and Michael McDonald.” But even if McDonald is one of the finest singers whenever he works with the Doobie Brothers, there’s a certain passion behind Wonder that no one else could ever attempt to copy.
The biggest names in soul have certainly tried to make something on par with Songs in the Key of Life, but when you’re talking about Wonder’s wealth of musical knowledge, it’s about more than being one of the greatest singers that had ever lived. He was the master of every instrument he touched, and when you look at his back catalogue, there’s a good chance that he could have put his best records next to people like Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, and they would still hold up.
