I think my list is mostly the same as the last time we did this (lost that list); new to it is Elvis though.

Of course, I love John Cale and Nico as well as Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo too and dig Iggy Pop, John Lydon and David Yow.

People who didnt make it onto the list but have every right to be on it:
Julie Cruise
Peter Perrett
Aretha Franklin
Liz Frazer
Stevie Wonder
David Tibet
Joan Baez
Joni Mitchell
Vashti Bunyan
Jim Reid
Lydia Lunch
Missy Elliott
Simon Le Bon
Jarvis Cocker
Trish from Broadcast
Mimi Parker
The Ronettes(all of them)
John Lennon(i don't like The Beatles but i like his voice)
David Sylvian

John Lennon
Joey Ramone
Lou Reed
Thurston Moore
Kim Deal
Iggy Pop
Neil Young
Freddy Mercury
Kurt Cobain
ABBA

That's right, John Lennon is #1!
I love Neil; like his roadie Bruce Berry from "Tonight's the Night" he's got that "shaky voice that was real as the day is long."
Freddy, man, he had some serious pipes. I can't think of any male rock singer that is technically more operatic or has more of a range...I suppose some people might say Tim or Jeff Buckley or maybe even Robert Plant. Kurt's vocal performance on his reworking of Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" from Unplugged in New York is amazing. I like Diana Ross more than Aretha Franklin. I like Billie Holiday more than Sarah Vaughan. Those gals in ABBA are gifted. It's not just a studio trick, either, because I've seen Live at Wembley Arena. These are my ten honorable mentions:

Marvin Gaye
Roy Orbison
Ronnie Spector (edit: oh just noticing you picked her, p)
Brian Wilson
Mike Love
Van Morrison
Chan Marshall
Stevie Wonder
and I know Simon Le Bon isn't a great singer technically, but I just love his voice (too--I did notice that one).
Al Green --- I've been on this kick lately where I have to listen to his "Light My Fire" cover at least once a day. He has the best falsetto...ever.

maybe i'll add some female vocalists:

nancy sinatra
vashti bunyan
samara lubelski
christina carter
amelia fletcher

probably not the final list but i can't think right now.

I know this wouldn't sound indie at all, but I really really love the voice of Kelly Jones from Stereophonics. The music is crap though.

There are many that I find good. Here are a few.

Tom Waits
David Byrne
Eric Paul
Perry Farrell
Kate Bush
Lee Ranaldo
John Lennon
Chet Baker
Chris Connelly
Björk

some more that I really like, from the top of my head:

Sam Beam of Iron&Wine
Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance
The guys and girls from Ida
Alan Sparhawk from Low
Cat Power
Scott McCloud of Girls Against Boys
and also Lee Ranaldo of that band whose name I can't think of right now.

Some more who didn't make it onto the list:

Valerie Trebeljahr (Lali Puna)
Patti Smith
Jimmi Sommerville
Genesis P Orridge
Nick Cave
Haddaway
Simon Bonney (These Immortal Souls)
Alan Vega
Suzanne Vega
Tracey Tracey (The Primitives)
Grant Hart

uh,there are so many, here is today's top 10 list.

first of all,i second the votes for thom yorke,mike patton,james brown...

mark lanegan
sara lov - devics
arrington de dyoniso (sp?) - old time relijun
lady sovereign
berry white
peter murphy
diamanda galas (edit: since porky already mentioned her,i'll switch with Hope Sandoval)
pall jenkins (black heart procession)

and i hate you all for not mentioning grace slick

Andre Young
Thurston Moore/ Kim Gordon
Bjork
Ghostface Killah
Stephen O'Malley
Snoop Doggy Dog
Dennis Lyxzen (Refused)
Robert Johnson
Tupac
Kurt / Curt

Good call on SOV too!

uuuuuuuuuuh i forgot Martina Topley Bird !!!!!

How could i forget her?
Dorothy Moskowitz (The United States Of America)

bjork
nina simone
neil young
chuck d
odb
prince
freddie
thurston
sinatra
pj harvey
girl from the gossip
phil anselmo

neil young? hes the master!

Diamanda G, Sainkho Namchylek, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Laura Cantrell, Stina Nordenstraum [sp?], Lady Saw, Bjork, Courtney Love (seriously though, I do love her voice), Lauren Laverne.

I might make a list of men if I still care again ever.

They reached their commercial peak during that time, sure...but not their artistic peak.

So did the Cure, but they're not confused with grunge.

SY is such a long-running band, I don't think you can say it's natural for "most fans" to listen to anything else in particular. A lot of longtime SY fans in 1991 never really warmed up to the grunge bands, seeing them as inferior to SY in originality. You can call it an elitist attitude if you want, but it was an informed one.

Certainly, if your first exposure to SY was during that era on MTV or in Spin magazine, you were learning about SY as if they came in on Nirvana's coattails. I do understand that.

But now, it's been over a decade since grunge became a joke, and I find it sorta laughable--having grown up through that period--that anyone who's too young to remember it all of a sudden has nostalgia for it. It's like VH1's "I Love the [fill in the decade]" series has everyone so confused about what's worthy of nostalgia.

Nirvana was a great band. Tad made an awesome record with "God's Balls." The Melvins were great. But little else of so-called "grunge" (which makes more sense as a marketing term than a name for a genre) has aged well at all.

So, it seems rather ill-fitting for SY to wear the grunge tag, or even to be compared to it, and it especially sells short the impact SY has had on so many other bands and artists. It also sell short the quality and variety of SY's music and related projects reaching back to their formative days a full decade ahead of the media's appropriation of the word "grunge."

Please pardon the grizzled tone of correctiveness here. I'm only trying to help you enjoy your favorite band a little bit more.

Now that I'm ancient by message board standards, I wish there was a better way to share history in a way where younger people would actually wanna receive it. Also, I do strongly believe that dwelling so much on a bygone era (such as the mostly sucky 90's) deprives young people of the chance to enjoy more of the best stuff that's happening today, so please only appreciate the history strictly for what it's worth...that being, it helps everyone young and old understand how everyone's music actually relates to everyone else's music.

Oh, Trasher02....in addition to my apologies for the corrective tone...have a happy birthday!

I completely forgot about these two when I made my list, and nobody else mentioned them yet, so there you go:

Graham Nash
David Crosby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSEQevKzkpg

I don't like Stills that much, especially his live voice ain't always that good. Crosby and especially Nash are such great live performers though.