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Singers that sound black (even though they are not)


chamcham

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My picks are:

 

Gin Wigmore - She sounds like Macy Gray (with some Amy Winehouse mixed in) to me. She's from Australia. Her most famous song is "Don't Stop", which is the song they are using now in the Lowe's (the home improvement store, similar to Home Depot) commercials.

 

Don't Stop

[video=youtube;gpkkbuzejR0]

 

New Revolution

[video=youtube;MeAgQVYvXg0]

 

Hey Ho

[video=youtube;_mGVr4uCMCQ]

 

 

Bobby Caldwell - His record company did not put any pics of the singer on his album artwork. They knew that most people though he was black (from the sound of his voice). To this day, many people are shocked when they see him in person and realize that he's white.

 

What You Won't Do For Love

[video=youtube;BgoTDGu8cho]

 

 

David So - He's Korean and posts videos on Youtube. Some people say he has a lot of "soul" in his voice.

 

Put Your Records On (cover)

[video=youtube;P1R9KNkI7QI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1R9KNkI7QI

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before our african american friends forsook singing in favor of rapping, they generally had much better voices than white folk. i.e. if you had 2 singers of equal ability - one black and one white - the black guys is going to just sound better.

 

i made a post about this a month or so ago, lamenting the loss of african american singers, but the haterz on here said i was racist and it was deleted.

 

It's hard to find better singers for tone, intonation and rhythm than Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Bill Withers, etc.

 

And even women, find a female today who can beat aretha franklin and chaka khan - good luck. kelly clarkson can kiss my ass.

 

Cat Powers blows that little blondie you posted away though, whose voice I find rather thin and piercing:

 

[video=youtube;XG11cFRoEso]

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Joe Cocker, Rick Astley, Van Morrison, Ali Campbell, Joss Stone, Dusty Springfield, Lisa Stansfield all have some of that "black sound" in their voices. Odd that they are all British.

Mick Jagger sounds positively black in the first half of "Let It Bleed".

For my money, the blackest-sounding white man is Billy Gibbons.

Jack Sheldon, Dr. John, Leon Russell, Tommy McDonnell, and Stevie Ray Vaughan all have (had) that quality, as well.

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Somebody forgot Elvis Presley and the Righteous Brothers. Elvis was the GIANT hit because he was a White kid who sang like a Black blues singer.

 

 

Elvis never sounded like a black blues singer. The music he was surrounded with, recording for Sam Phillips at Sun Records sounded somewhat "black", but Elvis - even at his most raucous ("Good Rockin' Tonight", "Baby Let's Play House", "One Night", etc.) never really sounded black, himself.

By the time the early 60's rolled around he sounded more like Mario Lanza than a rocker.

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before our african american friends forsook singing in favor of rapping, they generally had much better voices than white folk. i.e. if you had 2 singers of equal ability - one black and one white - the black guys is going to just sound better.


i made a post about this a month or so ago, lamenting the loss of african american singers, but the haterz on here said i was racist and it was deleted.


It's hard to find better singers for tone, intonation and rhythm than Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Bill Withers, etc.


And even women, find a female today who can beat aretha franklin and chaka khan - good luck. kelly clarkson can kiss my ass.


 

 

QFT

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Elvis never sounded like a black blues singer. The music he was surrounded with, recording for Sam Phillips at Sun Records sounded somewhat "black", but Elvis - even at his most raucous ("Good Rockin' Tonight", "Baby Let's Play House", "One Night", etc.) never really
sounded
black, himself.

By the time the early 60's rolled around he sounded more like Mario Lanza than a rocker.

 

 

Well, I sure agree with the latter part---bell-bottomed, scarfed Elvis as a lounge/torch singer, but the first part is just WRONG. Check your history. Sam Phillips was EXACTLY looking for a White guy who could sing Black music....Hound Dog was Big Mama Thornton and it's really a woman's song about a (what else?) bad man. Jail House Rock is similar. Elvis was the crossover between the Black R&B of the time and mainstream America....not that he didn't do it brilliantly, because he did (and I'm not even much of an Elvis fan).

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Y'all be hatin' on white folk...

 

 

 

... I would like to claim that this categorization is superfluous. Singers are persons, and as such unique.

 

We have an expression here in Sweden, that translated directly (i.e. losing the rhyme in the process) becomes something like 'preferences are like your anus'. The point is that opinions will often differ, and sometimes there is no point in arguing about it.

 

 

Smaken är som baken!

 

 

 

 

:thu:

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Y'all be hatin' on white folk...




... I would like to claim that this categorization is superfluous. Singers are persons, and as such unique.


We have an expression here in Sweden, that translated directly (i.e. losing the rhyme in the process) becomes something like 'preferences are like your anus'. The point is that opinions will often differ, and sometimes there is no point in arguing about it.



Smaken är som baken!





:thu:

 

do swedes even know what black people look like?

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Well, I sure agree with the latter part---bell-bottomed, scarfed Elvis as a lounge/torch singer, but the first part is just WRONG. Check your history. Sam Phillips was EXACTLY looking for a White guy who could sing Black music....Hound Dog was Big Mama Thornton and it's really a woman's song about a (what else?) bad man. Jail House Rock is similar. Elvis was the crossover between the Black R&B of the time and mainstream America....not that he didn't do it brilliantly, because he did (and I'm not even much of an Elvis fan).

 

 

I think Phillips was looking for a white blues shouter. Back then white singers crooned. Elvis's voice doesn't have the timbre of a black voice but he had the style of a blues singer.

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