Morrissey's emotional performance on the coda of I Know It's Over.

In the Ben Folds /Captain Kirk version he adds the Are you sure to the chorus, so it changes the meaning 'Are you sure you want to live like common people?', or at least that's how I heard it. I liked how not changing the words but just changing the gaps between the words could change the meaning. Jarvis' whisper is great, I heartily agree.

A fave moment of mine is in Stevie Wonder's As when he comes back in after a lengthy instrumental bit with a kind of grunt then 'We all know...'. Heaven help anybody in the car with me when that kicks in. It's a horrible skinny bald white non-singer's attempt at funky soul. It isn't pretty.

Merrie Clayton's "murder" on Gimme Shelter? Always comes up when these "moment" discussions are posted again.

Also:

Liz Frazer's wobbly in-breath just after she sings "I'm as puzzled as a new-born child" on This Mortal Coil's version of "Song To The Siren".

John Cale's throaty South Walian claim that "it will be sooooon" on "The Gift" by The Velvet Underground.

And time and overexposure have yet to squeeze the joy David Ruffin's "Ahhhve Got Sunshii-eine" on "My Girl" by The Temptations; Motown in a moment.

"BAY-BEH! Baby you're a rich man etc etc"

Bono from about 4.40 onwards

The high register 'loo-oo-oose' in 'Your Gonna Lose That Girl' is one of them. A vocal to match the impossibly melancholy melody...

in 'Heroes' when Bowie steps it up a notch on the vocal later in the song and it sounds so powerful and emotional.

Hey Nineteen. Donald Fagen, after a twiddly bit, a perfectly-timed "Nice!".

Understated brilliance, as you would expect.

when he says the line;

'I can still hear that old brass band playing down the hill'

and from the same song

'feel the touch of oil from the tapers upon the breeze'

and also, still in Alt country mode, from Return of the grevious Angel

'and the man on the radio won't leave me alone'

All of these lines are sung fantastically well.

Little Richard when he first sings 'Lucille' at the start of the song of the same name. He stretches it out and shrieks - still sends a shiver down my spine.

Also a current favourite (don't know why)

The Ronettes - 'Baby I Love You' - when Ronnie comes in with 'Woh oh - Wo-o-o-oh' after the intro.

Roger Daltrey's scream in "Won't Get Fooled Again" ?

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah....

I love the bit in "Young Americans" when it slows down and he sings "ain't there one damn song that can make me break down and cry"

Another one that does it for me is the ironic "You're my guitar hero" in the Clash's "Complete Control"

...The whole of the middle section is a highlight but the following passage always brings a lump to the throat:

"we're gonna get to that place
Where we really wanna go
and we'll walk in the sun"

Incedentally - I've always felt that Common People had something of the spirit of Born To Run about it..

The answer must be Aretha in 'I Say A Little Prayer'. It is scientifically, physically, ethically and morally impossible not to sing along to that bit after the chorus. Just perfect. In fact, that goes for the whole song really. The backing vocals are better than most songs' lead vocals.

Can't do the youtube thing thanks to work's firewall...

Walk Out To Winter - Aztec Camera. Not the album version, but the single version which isn't available anywhere officially unfortunately, so might not be on Youtube for your perusal. But the whole song is one of my favourite ever, and Roddy has to my mind never sounded so emotional as he does on this version. Cracking guitar solos in the middle and at the end too.

Forest Fire - Lloyd Cole & The Commotions. The middle section when Lloyd 'doo-doo's and the slightly dodgy falsetto on the rip you up line afterwards. Another of my favourite guitar solos too...

Come On Train - Don Thomas. Cracking slice of soul, with a vocal that I love even though it sounds like it was recorded with a mouthful of cotton wool. Like a cross between Brando in the Godfather and Kevin Rowland.

And talking of Kevin:

This Is What She's Like - Dexys Midnight Runners. The 'la-la' section just over a third of the way through the track, when Kevin runs out of words. Absolutely stunning.

And one more from Dexys: "everything I do will be funky from now on". If you know Dexys you'll know that moment..

The verse which starts "Like a dog lying in the corner" is brilliantly sung, and hardly ever gets played on the radio (cos it's cut out of the single version).

Also, My Brother Jake by Free sounds so warm and soulful it's like a big hairy rock cuddle.

Is probably my all time favourite vocal performance though by anybody. At all. I'll take that one please, over anything I love by Aretha, Marvin, Scott, Al, Van, Patti, Kevin, Elvis and Elvis, Maria, Steve, Dusty, Diana, Joe.

(10 points to the person that gets the surnames of those folks, some of my favourite singers of all time. I'll give you Joe - Strummer is the one, not the best singer, but in Jimmy Jazz one of my favourite vocal performances. I just love singers that sound like they're chewing the words...)

So yes I guess I'm asking you
To back a horse that's good for glue

Genius

and Jeff Buckley - "So Real"...after the guitar solo, he whispers "I love you"...gets me every time.

One of the most underrated singers ever. Completely proves her place, earns my utmost admiration for Aint No Mountain High Enough, the part where everything comes to a climax. Best 'ow' of all time.

With just the bass & drums as accompaniment, General Johnson pleads once more for a little more time and then there's that "Brrrrrr!" Magic.

On Fairground Attractions' Allelulah Eddi Reader goes from low to high...and then higher... and then a whole octave above that.

And Pavarotti on Ms Sarajevo - he holds a note forever, then glides into another one

Sam Brown

the first album, any number of moments where the harmonies kick in, or when whoever is taking backing vocals at that point does some sort of percussive huh's and the like.

And "...on a night when I can see with my eyes shut"

"I don't pretend to know what you want, but I offer love...."

The sentiment, the quiet sincerity after the driving middle 8, the segue into the pleasing little guitar solo.

Stunning.

"I feel so helpless ..." on Neil Young's version of 'Helpless' on The Last Waltz.

And, although I realise it's not a "moment" as such, Rick Danko's vocal on 'It makes No Difference' from the same show - a great song for which he pulls out the definitive vocal performance, the last time he will ever sing it with that line-up. Unbelievable. The hair on the back of my neck stands up just recalling it.

I know, I know, but they way he keeps creeping up those octaves as the song goes on after the "Play it nows" just fills me with joy every time...

Levon Helm's vocal delivery of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down during The Last Waltz is astonishing as well.

All of Breakfast In Bed by Dusty Springfield.

Quite a few, but especially on River: "I wish I had a river so long, I would teach my feet to Flyyyyyyyyyyy and her voice does more than fly - it soars.

...but the bit in the second chorus of "King's Highway" by Tom Petty, where Tom changes it from "I await the day..." to "lover, I await the day..." really gets me. Goosebumps. Weird, music, innit?

Also, in "Hey" by the Pixies - which might be my favourite of their songs, or at least in a shootout with River Euphrates - the bit where Black Francis goes "UH! Said the man to the lady...", with a slight emphasis on "lady" which sounds insinuating and ironic and lecherous. Lazy evil - that old description of the Pixies' music - rarely seemed so appropriate.

Actually, a lot of my favourite vocalisations are on hip hop records. One would be the little sample on "B-Boys Makin' With The Freak-Freak" by the Beastie Boys which goes "Shit, if this goan' be that kinda party, I'ma stick MY dick in the mashed potata".

But probably the winner, for me, is the "aaaaAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOW!" at the beginning of "Get Up Offa That Thing" by James Brown. Never gets old, and is quite possibly the most danceable record ever made.

Tired of Being Alone - Sublime, never fails with me.

He sounds like a man who has had his heart broken too many times.

His vocals on the Highway album are just wonderful. 'Be My Friend' gets all the plaudits but I adore this as well. I defy you to find anyone who has said 'I love you so' with more passion and fire than PR does from 3'52" and for the next minute. I thought it was stunning 40 years ago and it still makes me go weak at the knees.

A great vocalist of course, but the way Belle ends, and especially the very high pitch yearning is I reckon without equal.

The sibilance at the end of summer lawns. Only took me thirty five years before I noticed it.

from a vocalising POV, the last verse of Todd's 'Wailing Wall' has him effortlessly riding the melody on the word 'wailing':
http://open.spotify.com/track/3ri74G5JYJP0R7U5og118H
Lyrically, Randy Newman callously writing the wife out of Born Again's 'They Just Got Married' is a real WTF moment the first time you hear the song:
http://open.spotify.com/track/75vEcWpyFsv0D5BPtvfV5j

Satisfied Mind. I love all of it - even his cough in the intro. He can cough more musically than I can sing.

I've got loads but one I noticed as the iPod was on shuffle today was Carla Thomas (whom I love) from B-A-B-Y. The very first:

"When you squeeeeeeze me real tight/You make wrong things right"

It's a mega dramatic song anyway but his instrumental wailing taking it up to the outro-fade out is immense.

"..I must have one of those new fangled, new fangled backdoors, man"

The backbone of the song, and made even more awesome by the oh-so-brief shift into a major chord.

.. all you can get,
turning your orbit around

Just To Keep You Satisfied is probably my favourite Marvin Gaye song. It's an exquisite and heartbreaking performance throughout, but the killer is right at the end, when he drops from falsetto into his natural tenor range, and sings "It's too late for you and me..." Lump in the throat time. And that's not to mention the muttered "Well... I guess all we can do, is both try to be happy."

*Gulps hard, takes deep breath*

Jeff Buckley's been mentioned already; my favourite Jeff moment is that absolutely demented long note he hits towards the end of Grace - you know the one I mean.

And there's this, which I may have mentioned before: Mourning Air by Portishead, specifically the high note Beth swoops up to on the first syllable of the word "morning". Goose pimples every single time.

Dylan - Not Dark Yet: "Feels like my soul has turned into steeee-al (steel)"

Strummer - White Man: "They got Burton suits, HA! you think its funny, turnin' rebellion into money"

Chuck D - Black Steel.......: "I'm a black man, I could never be a veteran"

"I know you. Birthday cards and silent music. Paperbacks and Sunday clothes"

or

"Jesus I go to sleep and I pray for my kids, for my wife. Family Life"

Gulp.

For a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myseeeeeeeeeeeeeheheheheeeelllllfffff......

Sorry, it's impossible to write it down.

You know the bit.

The first 'Mist-ah'

I eulogised about this recently, but a version just like this of this song is the one that turned me on to music.

- The wee throaty bit near the end of Lloyd Cole's Like Lovers Do when he goes down low and sings 'I'm looking right at you now'. Lord I think that is magnificent.
- 'Fuckin' long, innit?' Magnificent Seven The Clash
- Bhindi Bhagee Joe Strummer
- Nearly everything Chuck D has ever uttered in recorded music
- 'Like a corkscrew to the heart' - Bob Dylan Youre a Big Girl Now
And this is the single dirtiest vocal in the history of soul, 'Woo, I like it, baby/ Like any good girl should.'
Marlena Shaw - Let's wade in the water from Sergio the Walrus on Vimeo.

From the nervous whispers in the first verse, over spastic stutterings in verse two and three, and then from the bridge onward desperate screams of angst that combined with the brilliant lyrics will turn you into a big knot of OCD...ending with a manic obsessive barking until he runs out of energy.
Bloody brilliant, possibly my favourite XTC song ( and that's saying something! )

...so smooth, so relaxed, so warm yet as sharp as surgical steel.
He dignifies a banal song with an astonishing slide upwards transforming the song from doggerel into poetry. From 2:35

http://open.spotify.com/track/5itpVCmRQ3v6Yb9dZI1C1y

singing "Love Has Finally Come at Last" off "The Poet II" is an absolute treat.

I love it when Patti Soars into "... and I can tell the WOOOOOOOORLD".

And I also love it when Bobby comes back, exhorting "I got you baby - that's all you'll ever need". Brilliant.

"The Poet II" was NME journalists' album of the year 1984. Hard to believe now.

Doing "It Was A Very Good Year"

You can just tell through the vocal inflections just how much of his life the Chairman is investing into that one song.

Terrific.

Make No Mistake by John Martyn. He seems to cover every emotion in this song - remorse, rage, passion, darkness and light all in about 3 mins.Especially like the little " Hoo " he interjects near the beginning.
Also a mention for The Ghosts Of Saturday Night by Tom Waits. Always liked the way he 'sings' about the waitress with "scrambled yellow hair" - very evocative of the bleary small hours.

Mavis Staples. "Since I Fell For You". Stax Records. 1970.

1:03 in. A single syllable ("love") and a whole lot of notes - and surely the proof that although - especially in these post-Whitney "R&B" times - the use of melisma is generally to be derided with vim, vigour and venom, it can on occasion be quite, quite beautiful.

In fact, the whole line is an object lesson in Proper Singing. The three-step scooping descent of "misery", followed by the calmer, almost numb resignation of "pain" - pure class.

"Crossing the central, reservation, of my, imagination" (and most of the rest of the song) from Twilight Hour (I think), The The.
That and "Well, you didn't get up this morning cos you didn't go to bed. You were watching the whites of your eyes turn red." from This Is The Day

There's a real poignancy to the story of a truck-driving man who has been "kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet, had my head stoved in, but I'm still on my feet" - and he's still... willin

I didn't realise how much I loved this song until I found myself singing it at a Little Feat concert. And that line at the end where the mood suddenly picks up and the whole band sings "every time I go to Mexico" - that's the one for me.

So many to choose from but the first to spring to mind were Sandy Denny singing "Well she wrung her hands" and then "How can I live now my sweet William is gone?" on Fairport's "A Sailor's Life" and June Tabor, as she starts softly singing "Waltzing Matilda" at the end of her acapella version of Eric Bogle's "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda".

Another song with several good lyrical/performance moments is The Temptations' "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)". "Every night, on my knees I pray. Dear Lord hear my plea. Don't ever let another take her love from me or I will surely die. etc." There are a whole string of sensational heart-stirring moments in just that one verse.

'Well, well, I once believed' - Needle in a Haystack by The Velvelettes... the best of Motown in 3 seconds.

'Waaaalk' - Atmosphere by Joy Division.

The beginning of Little Deuce Coupe... how about that for a statement of intent?

And you'll find it difficult to find a tune that starts with a vocal better than this...

Brian Wilson on "Surf's Up": "I heard the word... wonderful thing.... a children's so-o-o-o-ng....." - a beautiful moment.

Echo and The Bunnymen, "A Promise" - the last verse, Mac sings with a kind of choking desperation.

REM, "Catapult" - for some indefinable reason, the whole of Michael Stipe's performance on this chokes me up, esp. the lines "ooh, we were little boys, ooh, we were little girls..."

HJH "Penny Lane" - "and she feels as if she's in a pla-a-a-ay"!

Grant Hart, "2541" (single version), the end, where Grant's voice builds to a climax and he ends up howling... passionate and incredibly moving, esp in the context of his band's recent break-up.

Laura Nyro, "Eli's Comin'" - "Woooooaaaahhh, you better hide your heart...." - pure soul!

"Aliiiive and kicking" from Club Country

and Macs "Never Sto-op"

The old in spirit fell over in shock, the young in spirit arose and Rock n' Roll was born. Without a shadow of doubt, the seminal vocal moment in the entire history of rock.

at the end of Brown Sugar.

I know this one's been, rightly, lauded on similar threads but the upward rush of emotion across these lines:

"I'm empty and aching and I don't know why... Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, they've all come to look for America'

is sublime.

I NEE,EE,EED your love.

case closed.

From Babies - "I know you won't believe it's true but I went with her 'cause she looks like you. My God."
It's the breathlessly yelped My God that does it.

1. Golden Years - "nothing's gonna touch you",
2. "Whole of the Moon" end bit,
3. Wild is the Wind - all of it really, but particularly "I hear the sound of mandolins" and the longest "youuu" ever recorded,
4. Thursday's Child - all of it really, it sounds like the voice of an older man (perhaps) in his final days. Like Louis Armstrong in "What A Wonderful World".
5. "Perfect Day" single which featured various artists. There are some great vocalists on that record, but the Bowie-sung line "you made me forget myself" sends shivers - unmistakably him, undeniably wonderful.

on Up Where We Belong with Joe Cocker is just staggeringly great. Her alto harmony is dominated by Cocker's voice, he carrying the main melody. What she manages to do, though, is to sing her lines and then SHUT UP. The significance of this is not to be underestimated: most vocalists can't/don't stop at the end of lines, they keep on warbling (think Mariah Carey, Jim Kerr, Matt Bellamy, hell most people with a microphone).

The effect is more than the sum of its parts. We hear the chorus melody and both singers more clearly, both giving the performance of their lives, and it stops the song tipping into the shrieky histrionic territory that many productions of this ilk tend to do, and all because of Warnes' control. Great woman.

Oo-er, sounds a bit rude. Shucks, she's gorgeous. Ahem. Anyway, Happy Sad, lovely song isn't it? When she sings "I'm not so strange" at about 42 seconds, and then a minute later, the way she sings the word "strange" does something to me.

The Roads Don't Love You is one of my favourite albums of the last decade.

Stevie Wonder's soft ooooh ooooh ooooh oooh ooh ooh at around 50 seconds into i don't know why ( i love you ) . I love how it contrasts with the rage in his voice as the song reaches it's climax.

Van the Man on Raglin road..."and she gave me the secret sign" delivered with a fine example of the aforementioned secret sign on his greatest hits video (a downward stubby fingered hand movement)...grumpy or not the voice is pure magic.

Most of my favourites have already been mentioned; but one omission (unless I've missed it) is The Greatest Christmas Song Ever (in my opinion) - Fairytale Of New York's final verse

from:

"I could have been someone
Well so could anyone ....

to:

Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you"

The emotional pathos in the vocal delivery after the more famous previous verse where they trade insults with each other make it or the more special. Especially since Kirsty's tragic and untimely death..

...second date and I get drunk - very drunk. So, I'm on the bar, all ra-ra skirt and pixie boots, looking like an explosion in a paint factory.

And when I belt out

"As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti"

without tripping over the words, he who became Mr Handcart decided I was a keeper.

I threw up on him later.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHT!
AAAAA!'

Nick Cave, The Birthday Party, 'Big Jesus Trashcan'

About halfway through.

Ruffin

The sublime falsetto as he sings "...before love breaks my heeaaart" on "Walk Away From Love"

Specifically when Campbell sings "I know I need a small vacation." If the longing in his voice when he stretches out "vacation" doesn't floor you, you have a gnarled walnut for a heart.

The answer is Donny Hathaway...

"Keep on walking tall..."

Awopbopaloobopalopbamboo!

Reading this hugely enjoyable thread and tho I know it may be getting tiresome, I simply have to award my vote to The Dame. It's the cheeky, giddy Oh Yeah! At the start of Queen Bitch.
Also, for sheer comic vulgarity: Graham Bonnet's lusty grunt before the last chorus of Since You've Been Gone.

Jagger's "Hey hey heyyyyyynoooowwww" - always sends a shiver down the spine.
As does Jeff Buckley's almost whispered "I love you......but I'm afraid to love you" from So Real.
One very masculine the other very tender but both hit the spot.

Gillian (sic) humming and screaming on the chorus of "Child In Time" (the Made In Japan version). Unparalleled.

Tracey Ullman on "They don't know" when she goes "Baby" just before the last verse - although she didn't sing that bit as it was too high and the song's writer Kirsty McColl did it.

And another "baby" bit I've recently fallen in love with is Lily Allen on "Who'd Have Known" in the line "And today you accidentally called me baby". She somehow manages to get a sort of oxymoronic sexy innocence and happiness into the word "baby" that just does something to me.

"Caw-caw-caw-caw-cause I'm a Love Man..."

Have just been listening to this.
Extraordinary vocals at 2:42