Quote Originally Posted by lucky2012 View Post
Lol, RanRan. I knew you'd comment on this. You and I have agreed in a past thread about the subjectivity of judgements on singers and vocal talent. We definitely agree about Diana Ross.
Dionne Warwick is a favorite [[top 5)but I appreciate her Bacharach/David work most, maybe because I'm older and grew up in the 60's. I do like her 1979 album produced by Barry Manilow very much. It is one of the few that I can listen to the whole album.
Gladys Knight is another favorite [[top 10) but I really didn't need the toilet seat image. You have offended my sensibilities once before, but thankfully I can't recall it.
Ha! What can I say? It's the best way I could put it in order to get my point across. Gladys possessed the type of voice that I think is excellently categorized as a "producer's dream". It's not that her voice isn't unique, it is. When you hear Gladys, you know it's Gladys. But what she's able to do with her voice, I think pairing her with any good producer would yield good results. Diana and Dionne have limits to their abilities- which doesn't make them any less of a singer- and couple that with how different they sound compared to many other voices and I think it's harder for a producer [[in the early days) to nail down a sound. After B&D I think many producers had an idea of what to do with Dionne, even when taking her completely out of that pop/MOR sound. Same with HDH, after them I think producers figured out a groove for Ross, so people as different as Ashford and Simpson, Michael Masser and Nile Rodgers could get hits off of her.