Like a Whitby trawler coming through the fog

Alison Moyet - also has a touch of the foghorn about her (although she seems to have curtailed this on the evidence of her excellent track on the recent Now Hear This CD)

Billy Bragg - good songwriter, horrible voice

That woman who sings on "Shiny Happy People" - manages to make a bad song even worse.

All-time worst singer has to be Simon Le Bon. Makes Tony Hadley sound like Al Green.

Heather Small of M-People 'fame'. Hooooooonk!

Him out of the Lighthouse Family. The aural equivalent of Primula Cheese Spread.

Any number of modern classical artists, headed by Katherine Jenkins.

Anthony from Anthony and the Johnsons. Nothing in particular, just grates to these ears.

Dido, Sinead, anyone who does that awful Eeyoring hiccup thing. Just stop it.

Simon Le Bon and Tony Hadley are the treble and bass of 80's pop.
Both equally unlistenable, Le Bon is at his worst on 'The Reflex' with the "why - yi - yi - yi - yi" - car on a cold morning motif.

Agree about Heather Small - always sounds like she's been poked in the throat

And

Tom waits - Like 45rpm played at 33rpm

Have to disagree re: Sophie E-B nowt wrong with abit of posh, Neil young affecting not whiny, as for Sir William Bragg surely the voice of people will always be discordant.

The voice that took me back recently was "amy macdonald" who has a very strange deap voice for a seemingly slight young woman. I fear she may be a novelty, Oh and Joanne Newsome, I voice so annoying i got out of the bath and threw the cd behind the sofa.

As a big fan of good ol' Janis Joplin I'd have to disagree there, although, sometimes her fag raged voice even annoys me... however the one that really gets my goat is that ruddy Macy Gray,a voice that has me begging to hear Mika instead, whom I also despise.....whining, high pitched purveyor of filth....

...Barbra Streisand singing is more than enough for me. As Joey from Friends said of Janice, "her voice is so annoying, it makes me want to tear my own arm off, just so I have something to throw at her."

I gotta go with his Bobness, Mr Zimmerman. He seems to have turned into a parody of himself.

Just can't sing his old stuff properly any more, tending to roar and bellow his way through the song instead. His duet with Blue on "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" bears a close resemblance to a grizzly bear rudely awakened from deep hibernation.

I may be alone in finding some of the various regional accents a bit grating, eg all the northern indie bands (Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks) but especially the likes of Lily Allen & Kate Nash - where the hell is Professor Henry Higgins of 27a Wimpole Street when you really need him ?

Jon Anderson - the Joe Pasquale of Prog'
Micheal Bolton - The male equivalant of Heather Small
Kelly Jones - OK until he puts on his 'Lee Marvin' croaky throat drawl.
And that bloke from Hootie and the Blowfish - one note fits all songs

Waxyl can't sing, just whines his nasally way through some decent hard rock from an Aerosmith tribute act, that baritone and warbly bits bloke from the thinking man's metalists Queensryche is another one who ruins a good band and finally, step forward Mr. G. Lee of Canada

Annie Lennox gets right on my tits but I have to agree that the poster who suggested Heather Small hits the nail on the head - imagine a duet of her and Mick Hucknall!

Nurse, the screens!

like Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey. Yes, they can sing. But that clearly isn't good enough. And you guys pointed out the chasm between early and late Rod Stewart; but Elton John's even worse. I love his voice until about 1974. But now I can't stand it. I'd love to hear This Train Don't Stop Anymore sung in his 1970 voice, like it was off Tumbleweed Connection.

A cat is in a sack, mewling in terror.
The sack is being thrashed with other cats, in the same state of panic.
Meanwhile, another cat, a giant cat, is joining in for the sheer bloody hell of it.

That's what Mutya means to me.

Always sounds bored stiff...but then I would be too if I had too warble the dreary, overrated nonsense his tedious band nurdle behind him. Radiohead - remind me of a firm of accountants: Terribly, Terribly Boring and Dull.

I hate the stupid way he spells his name as well.

I give you Ronan Keating!!! You say it Best When You Say Nothing At All, if only he'd listen to his own advice.

Mick Hucknell, when I hear those dulcet tones I have an overwhelming urge to rip my ears off. Mind you he's Pavarotti compared to the Lord Protector of the World, our beloved Bono. That man, that voice, those bloody glasses.

... would be my favourite band in the world if it wasn't for Brian Johnson (and, to a lesser extent, Bon Scott).

Totally agree about Roland Keating another one who sounds like they've been poked in the throat. (see also- Heather Small)

Ol' shouty trousers from Muse - the vocal tone of a singing Dalek.

Joe Cocker - gruff as all 3 billy goats and face like a troll (back in the 60's anyway).

Song by Leon Russell - trousers by Snug-U-Like

Joe Strummer - Not even the best singer in The Clash

David Byrne - Look, I know you're cleverer than me but sing properly

Elvis Costello - Doesn't so much sing as throw sugar at the glass case containing his precious words. Attractions usually save the day.

The singers from The Kooks, The Hoosiers, The Killers & The Thrills - Can't be arsed to look up their names but there's not a top register between them & that's where they insist on singing

Noel Gallagher - Honks like a goose

Katie Melua - words fail me as to why she's so popular!

I personally find Bob Dylan pretty boring to listen to, as well. Give me Leonard Cohen any day

Those gangs of pretty girls, most of whom have had their voice auto-tuned to buggery - if you need computer tricks to get you in tune it ain't singing.

James Blunt - strange pronunciation, very strange voice with no depth.

Kate Nash - estuary I can deal with, tunelessness I cannot.

Jack Penate - see Kate Nash.

Dolores O'Riordan - I loathe that hiccupy thing she does.

Skinhead O'Connor - same vocal tricks over and over again (and another hiccupy thing).

Macca's voice has gone - wonder what Lennon's would sound like today.

Ok, this is a few years ago now, but I would play it to anyone who thinks that McCartney can't sing any more.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=2...

Play the 30 second sample of Shake A Hand. Or, if you can afford 79p at this time of year...

He's still in tune, I'll give you that - but his voice is nothing like it was - listen to Ram - and then listen to Memory Almost Full (Should be called "Voice Almost Fucked").

Excellent, someone braver than me dared mention Lady Heather's ex.

Never liked his voice, I prefered his brother singing, ok, alright Ringo was better. Sod it I'd rather have heard Linda!!

If anyone disagrees I'll show my Mull of Kintyre and raise you a Frog's Chorus

As someone suggests above about Elton, the often ignored sad fact about a lot of the 'legends' is how age has diminished their powers. Recently I have witnessed: Roger Daltrey completely unable to reach the notes in Won't Get Fooled Again, McCartney at the Roundhouse straining to sing some of his best songs, Dylan's voice was shot about ten years ago, Plant struggling. Oh dear, looks like we don't live forever after all. But what price dignity and a civilised retirement?

But the popularity of Kylie Minogue and Jennifer Lopez provide crunching proof that talent has nothing to do with popularity. Can't. Sing. At. All.

To those buying their music, please stop. Give the money to charity instead.

That's astounding, the only one you missed out was Maria Carey - f****g shoot her!

Leona Lewis, can't stand her voice.

What about Freddie Mercury - awful voice and the only thing that sounded worse from that Band was Brian May's guitar solos.Jon Bon Jovi too.
Then there is Jack Johnson - total tosh.
Kate Bush deviates between brilliance and bollocks.
Bee Gees - truly dreadful,all of them.
Tom Jones - overrated and Welsh.
Oasis - no voice,no clue.

I find her incredibly piercing and irritating.

I don't think it helps that my first introduction to Joni Mitchell was on a holiday with an ex-girlfriend and her family in Italy. The ex's mother was telling us a story about her starting university in the 70s and how she had bonded with her new room mate over the album Blue. They would get together at night, swig wine red wine, talk about boys and sing along to Joni by candlelight- it was obviously a very important album for her. So much so that as we roamed the Tuscan countryside in our hired people carrier, she would play it on repeat and sing along. Badly. Her vocal range is some way short of Joni's, I can tell you. I grimaced and tried to tolerate it the best I could, not wanting fall out with the girlfriends family. After a week of this I was beginning to get really narked with this so I said to the girlfriend- 'Christ, your mum is really f*cking me off with her sh*te singing'. The realtionship ended soon after.

Joni Mitchell, and the album Blue in particular, have had bad associations with me ever since.

I love Tom Wait's voice but it is a matter of taste. Some might say he sounds like a tractor driving over a cheese grater after suffering from a very nasty cold.

Bjork's voice is all fine and dandy in The Sugarcubes, 'Venus as a Boy', 'It's Oh So Quiet', but when she starts pulling the adolescent space elf theatrics I start pulling this sort of expression.

I have been wearing sackcloth and ashes for three days now:
Matt Belendofme out of that Muse
Dolores O'Oirishname out of that Cranberrys

how could I forget them, Geddy I'm so sorry!

Boy George managed to fool nearly all of the people nearly all of the time. Mellow/treacley, but an incredibly limited vocal range singing songs especially written to fit his own limitations.
Bruce Springsteen. When I want someone shouting at me that he was born in the USA I'll ask for it thank you. Sounds like a poor version of Bob Dylan doing Stars In Their Eyes.
Stevie Nicks. So nasally, even Vics Sinex refused her offer to advertise for them.
Any 'Diva'. They might have a good vocal range, but I've got a superb guitar. Doesn't mean I can inflict it on the public.

Ali Campbell of UB40..
Why would anyone pay their hard earned earth pounds to listen nasal nonsense ?

Michael Bolton
Mariah Carey
Whitney Houston