The singer Elton John called one of the most beautiful voices in pop: “Thank you for your talent”
Elton John never wanted to see one generation as the moment where pop stopped being great.
There is always bound to be new talent out there willing to give their audience what they don’t know they want, and it’s not out of the ordinary to see him talking about being smitten by Leon Russell’s music and then talking up Lady Gaga as one of the finest pop stars he had ever heard. But when it comes to specific singers, there are certain voices that are head and shoulders above just about anyone else in the industry for him.
When looking through John’s record collection, all of his favourites were always doing something different with what rock and roll was supposed to be. No one was necessarily ready to hear someone like Aretha Franklin when she first debuted or hear the raw pain and taste in Nina Simone’s voice, but each of them was able to bring their own unique spin to some of the greatest songs on Earth. And John was going to do the same thing on every single song he made with Bernie Taupin.
He knew that the best singers were the ones that you could feel in your chest whenever they sang, and while the melody is certainly a big factor, it’s also about being able to sell a song just right. Linda Ronstadt might not have written a single one of her hit songs, but when looking through her back catalogue, there’s not a single tune throughout any of her records where she doesn’t sound 100% confident in every line she’s singing.
But you have to remember that this was the era when the vocal diva was just getting born. Even though we tend to think of the Mariah Careys of the world as being the true divas whenever they get up onstage, there’s a lot more nuance that goes into being a world-class vocalist like that. Carey didn’t wake up in the morning being able to hit those whistle notes, but there are also some who are just born to sing from the minute that they start humming along to tunes on the radio.
And compared to every other pop singer, there’s no real reference point for someone like Whitney Houston. Franklin may have prepared everyone for singers who could go above and beyond whenever they sang, but if we’re talking about pure precision, there’s no one else who could touch what Houston did. Her voice shook something deep inside of you whenever she sang songs like ‘I Will Always Love You’, and John couldn’t even pretend that she wasn’t one of the greatest of all time.
It was a tragedy to see her pass away so young, but when making a tribute to her, John admitted that there was no one else who could hold a candle to that angelic voice, saying, “All I want to talk about is her music. You forget through all the troubles that woman went through, how incredibly brilliant this woman was. She could sing Porgy and Bess, gospel, she could sing ‘I Will Always Love You’ and make you cry. And she was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Thank you for giving us your talent and one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard in my life.”
And even years later, there still doesn’t seem to be anyone who is able to take Houston’s place whenever she sang her tunes. There are certainly artists that have stratospheric ranges like Ariana Grande, but with no disrespect meant to Ms Grande, there’s a certain superpower that you have to have to make a song like ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ sound like one of the greatest pieces of music ever made after being the national anthem for so many years.
That’s the kind of talent that tends to get taken for granted a lot of the time, but when looking at Houston’s range, there was no one getting in the way of her putting on an amazing show whenever she could. John could hang with the greatest singers and hold his own, but rarely does one come across a singer who could manage to change someone’s life within the space of a few minutes of music.
