The one singer Bono called the greatest in the history of the world
It doesn’t take much for someone like Bono to start spouting about the importance of playing rock and roll music.
There are many singers who like to take their job a little bit too seriously whenever they start singing, but compared to every other rock and roll missionary, Bono was practically a zealot of the genre every single time he tried to talk about what music could do for someone in need. He definitely had the pipes to make those kinds of transcendental songs with U2, but even he had to admit that there were much bigger legends to worry about than a couple of rock and roll hopefuls.
Then again, Bono is also a little bit underrated when it comes to his singing chops. A lot of it ends up getting buried under the layers of pretension that he seems to give off every single time that he goes on a long-winded speech in the middle of a concert, but on those early U2 records, everything from ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ to ‘Pride’ to even deep cuts like ‘Drowning Man’ shows someone that is in firm control of their voice and an incredibly good ear for melody.
Having a steady diet of bands like The Beatles is bound to do that to a person, but a lot of Bono’s friends ended up going well beyond the average rock and roll legend. Anyone would have been perfectly happy being able to sit next to Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger for a few minutes, but it’s insane to think that the frontman was rubbing elbows with everyone from Frank Sinatra to Johnny Cash when he started shedding his ‘Fly’ persona.
He wanted to learn everything he could from these people, and while Sinatra taught him about how to perform properly, the real proof was going to show when they started writing for other people. No one could have imagined the members of U2 writing a song for someone like Tina Turner, but even if ‘Goldeneye’ managed to become one of the biggest hits of her career, it was going to be mortifying having to play and sing a song for someone like Pavarotti to perform.
Any other musician would have been scared to write a song for Freddie Mercury to sing, but Pavarotti was in a much different league. This was the epitome of what a singing heavyweight was supposed to sound like, and while ‘Miss Sarajevo’ did have everything that an operatic tune needed, Bono had talked about the weight he had standing next to someone who could sing at that level.
He could play through U2 songs with ease, but Pavarotti was unlike any other musician on the planet when he asked his father to go with him, saying, “[I told my dad] ‘We’re off to be a part of Pavarotti and Friends to support War Child in Modena. Adam and Larry are missing in action on this one, but would you like to go.’ He said, ‘Oh, alright. I suppose you should have one great tenor on your side.’ And then [we hear] one of the greatest voices in the history of the world.”
But even if you measure Pavarotti’s voice against some of the greatest pop singers that ever lived, you’re still going to be selling him short. There is no shortage of brilliant artists who have stratospheric ranges, but whether you’re talking about Robert Plant’s howl, Freddie Mercury’s precision, or even the soaring range of Whitney Houston, hearing Pavarotti sing anything in his native language was bound to tear down any of them and reduce any average listener to tears in an instant.
And when you have someone that talented willing to work with you, someone like Bono was never going to try to grandstand by any stretch. He knew his place as a humble rock and roll singer, and if all he needed to do was look on in awe at a master at work, that was more than enough for him.
