My Favourite Singing Voice Of All Time

I could talk about music for hours. I make no apologies for this. When I'm with like minded friends, now and again the obvious questions do come up for debate over a pint or two. Topics including best band, favourite ever concert, nicest live venue, and many more. There is one that requires very little thought on my part - favourite singing voice of all time.

As a child, my parents inexplicably allowed me to play with some of their records. One in particular that piqued my interest had a brown cover with gold writing on it. Using the hifi system in our house, I figured out a way to transfer what was on the record to a cassette tape. Playing this tape on my Sony Walkman kept me occupied during many 90 minute trips from Cheshire to West Yorkshire to see my grandparents in the early 1990s.

My parents and I don't share very many favourite artists but one very glorious exception to that rule is The Carpenters. I remember my Dad saying to me, "With all the great singers, you can hear every word". I think that it was a comment about music in general, but it very much applies to the voice of Karen Carpenter.

The majority of my music listening nowadays revolves around female artists and singer-songwriters. There are many that are amazingly talented but for me, none come close to the voice of Karen Carpenter. The purity, clarity and pained beauty in her voice is for me what sets her apart from so many others. She had a relatively soft voice, not powerful in volume but it was so strong in terms of conveying raw emotion. All this from someone who I suspect might have been happier being behind a drum kit, chipping in with some backing vocals now and again.

Sir Elton John described Karen as having, "one of the greatest voices of our lifetime”. British artist Rumer has been said to have a singing voice reminiscent of Karen and, having listened to several of her songs, I can definitely detect a likeness. I have been planning to buy a ticket to see Rumer live in Birmingham, a concert which has now been rescheduled for March 2021.

Karen's tragic passing at the age of just 32 came in the early part of 1983, roughly eighteen months before I was born. From a purely selfish point of view, this denied me the chance to ever see Karen singing live. Interestingly, I will never be able to see live any of my three favourite voices of all time. Elvis Presley died in 1977, Karen in 1983 and I was only 7 when Freddie Mercury passed away in 1991. Perhaps this is part of the allure? I can listen to albums and watch videos as much as I like, but to be in the presence of them performing is only ever going to be something that is in my imagination.

Karen Carpenter image:By Billboard Publications Inc (now owned by Eldridge Industries)(Life time: Published before 1978 without a copyright notice) - Original publication: Billboard MagazineImmediate source: Special Section page 24, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75073431