Underrated Singers

I was watching an episode of SNL from the third season (1977-1978), and was listening to Leon Redbone sing, and thought, 'He's an underrated singer. I should write a post about underrated singers.' So here it is.

I'll talk about Leon Redbone first.



He has a growly voice that reminds me of Tom Waits. Or Louis Armstrong. And it's hard to define what his genre is: blues? Bluegrass? Jazz? Or maybe a combination of the three? Anyway, I don't know much about him except that he's been on SNL a lot. I can't think of another musician who has been on SNL as much as Leon Redbone. He's like Steve Martin or Buck Henry, always appearing once a season. I'll have to look him up on Wikipedia and find out how many times he's been on SNL. I think he's great, but I had never heard of him until I started watching the first season of SNL. Robert Johnson I'd heard of, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, but Leon Redbone? Never heard of him until I saw him on season one of SNL.

Another underrated singer is Meatloaf.



A lot of critics hated his debut album, Bat Out of Hell. Why did they hate him? I think the two reasons are: people didn't understand his style, and he isn't a skinny pretty-boy. But I like him. Most of his songs were written by the epic songwriter Jim Steinman - at one point, though, they split due to creative differences, and Meatloaf wrote his own songs. I've never heard those songs, but my mom, a true Meatloaf fan, doesn't like them. I think critics have even said that he 'can't sing', but if he can't sing, then why does he fill stadiums?

Another favourite of mine is Frank Zappa.


Though he still has a huge fanbase years after his death in the early 90s, I still think he's an underrated singer. He had a knack for thumbing his nose at authority. Before there was Green Day, there was Frank Zappa.

I love his sound - it's so hard to describe. It's strange, rhythmic, jangly, bluesy... he took bits of jazz, blues and rock and fused them into a whole new genre that is way beyond description. It's difficult to think of another musician who's done something as surreal as this with music. Or with anything, for that matter.

So there you have it. Three singers that people either hate or have never heard of.

edited to fix a 'has' to a 'had' in the bit about Frank Zappa