The Best Female Voices Ever

We cannot fairly judge voices from before recording, or even from before high quality recording. I say, in no particular order:

Mariah Carey

Celine Dion

Aretha Franklin

Whitney Houston

Dolly Parton


These are not necessarily the female voices I most love to listen to. These are the best ones in a technical sense. These are the ones that can bring the house down.

Three of them are together in this clip:

Here are three of them in a row in their prime:

To be fair, here's Aretha Franklin's younger voice for comparison:

In case you don't believe she belongs in this llist, here is Dolly Parton singing her own composition "Jolene" slowed down to show the perfect phrasing:

Let Whitney Houston Rest in Peace

The recent death of Whitney Houston seems to have already spawned two hot controversies. First is whether her doctors were culpable for prescribing her tranquilizers that may or may not have been the immediate cause of her trip to the hereafter. Second is whether she deserves the honour of having flags in New Jersey lowered to half-mast, since she basically killed herself.

Of course, both these claims cannot be true. But I'd say it's pretty obvious neither of them are.

Haven't we seen this many times before? Aren't two things staggeringly obvious?

1. Great talent is a great burden.
2. “You ought to be famous” is a curse.

We are blinded to these universal truths by our own foolish envy.