Top male artists of all time

[Earl Purple]

Ok, this is the list I have so far - listed alphabetically by first name.

Generally it is solo artists we are looking for, but sometimes a solo artist hides behind a band-name alias, in which case I have allowed it here, but I guess we can come to a consensus as to whether some of those should be allowed.

I have 133 now. I do not care for it to be a power of 2, i.e. reduced to 128 or increased all the way to 256, as there will be a preliminary round, consisting of groups of 3 in which 2 qualify (if there are between 129 and 192). If we end up with more than 192 but fewer than 256, there will be a certain number of first round byes.

Now for my list:

Adam Ant
Adam Faith
Alexander O'Neal
Andy Williams
Barry White
Bill Haley
Billy Fury
Billy Idol
Billy Joel
Billy Ocean
Bob Dylan
Bob Marley
Bobby Brown
Bobby Darin
Boy George
Bruce Springsteen
Bryan Adams
Bryan Ferry
Buddy Holly
Chris De Burgh
Chris Rea
Chubby Checker
Chuck Berry
Cliff Richard
Craig David
Damon Gough (Badly Drawn Boy)
Daniel Bedingfield
David Bowie
David Cassidy
David Essex
David Gray
Dean Martin
Desmond Dekker
Don McLean
Donny Osmond
Duane Eddy
Elton John
Elvis Costello
Elvis Presley
Eminem
Engelbert Humperdinck
Eric Clapton
Frank Sinatra
Frankie Laine
Freddie Mercury
Gary Glitter
Gary Numan
Gene Pitney
George Benson
George Harrison
George Michael
Gilbert O'Sullivan
Glenn Campbell
Guy Mitchell
Howard Jones
Ian Broudie (Lightning Seeds)
Ian Dury
Iggy Pop
Jackie Wilson
James Brown
James Last
Jason Donovan
Jean-Michel Jarre
Jim Reeves
Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Somerville
John Denver
John Lennon
Johnnie Ray
Johnny Cash
Johnny Mathis
Kenny Ball
Kenny Rogers
Lenny Kravitz
Lionel Richie
Little Richard
Lonnie Donegan
Lou Reed
Luciano Pavarotti
Luther Vandross
Marc Bolan
Matt Johnson (The The)
Max Bygraves
Meat Loaf
Michael Bolton
Michael Jackson
Michael McDonald
Mick Hucknell (Simply Red)
Midge Ure
Moby
Morrissey
Nat King Cole
Neil Diamond
Neil Hannon
Neil Sedaka
Neil Young
Nik Kershaw
Norman Cook
Otis Redding
Paul McCartney
Paul Simon
Paul Weller
Paul Young
Perry Como
Phil Collins
PJ Proby
Prince
Puff Daddy
R Kelly
Ray Charles
Rick Astley
Ricky Nelson
Robbie Williams
Robert Palmer
Robert Plant
Rod Stewart
Ronan Keating
Roy Orbison
Roy Wood
Russ Conway
Sam Cooke
Shaggy
Smokey Robinson
Steve Winwood
Stevie Wonder
Sting
Terence Trent D'Arby
Tom Jones
Tupac Shakur
Usher
Van Morrison
Will Young
Wyclef Jean

These include vocalists, instrumentalists, producers and band-leaders.

[Sofie]

Donny Osmond
Rick Astley
David Gray
Roy Orbison
Phil Collins
Don McLean
David Cassidy
Paul Young
Ian Broudie
Ronan Keating
Elvis Presley
Lenny Kravitz
Paul McCartney
Buddy Holly
Bob Dylan
Perry Como
Tom Jones
Eminem
Cliff Richard
Guy Mitchell vs David Essex - ?
Chuck Berry
Prince
George Harrison
Van Morrison
Paul Simon
Bobby Darin vs Sam Cooke - ?
Lionel Richie - ?
Lou Reed
Engelbert Humperdinck vs Johnnie Ray - ?
Johnny Cash
Boy George
Iggy Pop
Alexander O'Neal
Robert Palmer
Michael Bolton
Shakin' Stevens
Steve Winwood
Andy Williams
Norman Cook vs Lonnie Donegan - ?
Johnny Mathis vs Jean-Michel Jarre - ?
Bruce Springsteen
David Bowie
Midge Ure vs Kenny Rogers - ?
Michael Jackson Billy Joel
Robert Plant vs Ricky Nelson - ?
George Michael
Howard Jones
Luciano Pavarotti
Elvis Costello
Bryan Adams
James Brown
Bill Haley
Sting
Eric Clapton
Jimi Hendrix
Kenny Ball vs Jackie Wilson - ?
Neil Young
Morrissey
Chubby Checker vs Chris De Burgh - ?
John Lennon
Gary Numan
Wyclef Jean vs Gilbert O'Sullivan - ?
Paul Weller
Daniel Bedingfield

That was hard, unfortunately, I don't recall songs by some of the artists - that's the artists where I've left both names in and put a '?' at the end.

[Earl Purple]

It was hard picking them too. As I said there are some omissions but I'm prepared to absorb them into the next round if there's pressure. Billy Fury is one such artist - he was one of the biggest solo singers of the 60s. There were also Gene Pitney and PJ Proby though those two were not quite as big.

There were some I made a decision not to include, simply because I didn't think they were as significant (at least yet) as some others. For example Gareth Gates (though Will Young is on the list).

[Admin]

I dont mind you doing this, but we're in the middle of compiling the list , you could at least have waited til we had compiled that and asked if you wanted to do it, I'll gladly pass it over, but would prefer this to wait til the women's round is over, or at least towards the quarter finals, dont want to have too many things on at once, so can we put a halt to this for now please and check that we have the best 128 men before we go any further...

[Earl Purple]

Where are "we compiling the list"? I have now increased it to 132, but I will merge in any others in your list that are not in mine.

I am also happy to wait because I would like to see a list with no omissions, even if it means we have a preliminary round.

[Admin]

Also you cant have it too random, as you dont wantv elvis and cliff meeting in the 1st or 2nd round when they are the biggest 2 male vocalists in this country in terms of hits and weeks on chart, certain people have to be kept apart til the later stages (if they make them), else it makes a joke out of it...

[Earl Purple]

ok well let's change this topic then to becoming a nominations topic.

I don't want to see it necessarily restricted by numbers. We can have a preliminary round to determine who should stay and who should go.

However I'm not going to say it should be "if he's nominated we'll include him" which may then lead to getting insignificant nominations.

Do you want to close this and I'll list all those I currently have in alphabetical order? We will have 4 weeks to get the nominations in and then (and maybe we'll even have 256 but I doubt it) we'll be able to start the knockout phase.

(A preliminary round will probably consist of 3-way contests in which 2 qualify. So if, say, we end up with 140 nominees, we'll have 12 such 3-way contests to reduce the numbers).

[Admin]

We were discussing it in the main forum NM Gubbins, see the Top 64 male singers thread, we had a list of 89 I think, most are probably in yours, but best to check...
thanks.

[Earl Purple]

By the way, how will we determine the seeding? I think that Cliff Richard's success means he certainly should be included in the contest, but I don't think he is one of the favourites and therefore not certain he should be seeded.

[Admin]

I'll lock this and open up a new thread then NM?
As for seedings see who we end up with, it need only be a top 4, got to be based on sales and chart weeks/longevity in my opinion, if they are not good enough, they'll get knocked out earlier on anyway;)