Who is the greatest/most influential singer of all time?

[Kingpoleon]

A couple people I debated adding include: Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Garth Brooks, Prince, Freddie Mercury, Bob Dylan, Cher. But ultimately, none of those really have quite the quality of greatness. (Of course, in my opinion, 3-4 of these don’t, either. But amongst the general populace, and by the quantity of music bought, and by top records, they do.)

In my opinion, Crosby is the Eternal King of Music. He literally started the whole concept of the modern celebrity musician, and those who took after him are some of the greats: Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dean Martin... Heck, the Hot 100, which started in 1956 as his career was basically finished, places him at number three, ahead of Frank Sinatra, Kanye West, Perry Como, and many others.

[dead0man]

probably some black guy in the Mississippi Delta who died in 1914 and nobody remembers him, but I'll vote:

Other:Robert Johnson

as a stand in for that unnamed man.

[HillGoose]

Selena Gomez

[HisGrace]

Most of those poll choices are just pop singer who weren't really influential outside of a short period of time.

In terms of the sheer number of people who were directly influenced by them, it has to be Elvis or one of the members of The Beatles.

probably some black guy in the Mississippi Delta who died in 1914 and nobody remembers him, but

I was going to address this as a part of my main post above but this provides a jumping off point. To me, if artist A was influenced by artist B, who was influenced by artist C, then it is not accurate to say that artist C influenced artist A, especially if artist A has never even heard artist C.

So I think it's fair to say that Elvis was more influential than early black rock and roll stars like Bo Diddley and stuff simply because so many more people heard his music and were influenced by it. They may have been more original than Elvis, but that isn't the same thing as influence.

[Kingpoleon]

Uh, if you think it’s Other, could you specify who?

And I’m not sure if you guys know what influential means...

[RINO Tom]

Voted Sinatra...

... but Brad Delp deserves to be in these conversations, IMHO.

[Cokeland Saxton]

NOTA, can't think of an Other

[Progressive Pessimist]

No Elvis? I'm not even that big of a fan of his, but he is undeniably one of the most influential musicians of all time in many respects.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Heck, the Hot 100, which started in 1956 as his career was basically finished, places him at number three, ahead of Frank Sinatra, Kanye West, Perry Como, and many others.

What list are you refering to?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Guy Picciotto, Jeremy Enigk or Blake Schwarzenbach.

[James Monroe]

Guy Picciotto, Jeremy Enigk or Blake Schwarzenbach.

D-list singers can't ever be the greatest, nor the most influential of all time.  They are nobodies in the purist sense.

[Del Tachi]

Robert Johnson or Charley Patton.

The most influential living American singer is....Diana Ross?  Maybe Cher?

EDIT:  The most influential living American vocalist is probably George Strait, who redefined country music in the 1980s and has more number one hits than any other American solo artist. 

[Santander]

Johnson is the objectively correct answer, to the extent Johnson can be remembered as just a singer. None of the other titans of American music in Johnson's tier - Gershwin, Ellington, Coltrane, Monk - sang or directly influenced modern music as much as Johnson.

As far as living singers go, Dylan (again, to the extent he was a singer and not a musical poet like Leonard Cohen) is probably top. Strait is a hit machine and a legend, but not quite as influential as, say, Willie Nelson who's somehow still alive today.

Also, it's ing insanity to say Dylan is "not great". He's probably the most influential white musical artist in American history.