11. Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry was almost 30 when she formed Blondie. In rock and roll terms, that’s old. So she didn’t waste a lot of time. Within five years, she and her band had multiple number-one singles and multiple top-twenty albums. Blondie came along during the heyday of dance music in NYC clubs, and her cool delivery was catnip. She could adapt her delivery to absorb a variety of influences.
Building off a very powerful rock voice, Harry provided one of the first cross-over raps in modern pop in “Rapture” and delivered dance rock with a ska beat in “The Tide Is High.” Of course, she was also sensational when simply serving snarling rock and roll of “One Way or Another.”
10. Hayley Williams
Hayley Williams has carried the torch for rock and roll frontwomen in the 2000s for most of the century. No one denies her vocal prowess. She has a voice big enough to push alt-rock into mainstream rock on songs like “Still Into You,” and she can sing ballads like “All I Wanted” without losing her edge.
And twenty years after forming, Williams can still deliver on songs like “The News” and the chilly dance rock of “C’est Comme Ca.”
9. Tina Turner
Should Tina Turner be considered a rock singer? I mean, she did lots of types of songs, and they weren’t all rock. But let me answer the question with two words. Proud Mary. That’s rock and roll on a molecular level. And if you want to argue that her version isn’t the same as CCR’s, I’ll agree. She adds soul and gospel colors.
But when she hits the rough part of the song, that is as rock and roll as it gets. “What You Get is What You See” or “Nutbush City Limits” from her Ike Turner days. “Nutbush” may have plenty of funk, but it’s got way more than your minimum daily requirement of rock and roll.
8. Allison Mosshart
Fronting The Kills, Allison Mosshart has all the drama and power you could want in a rock and roll singer. Like all the singers included here, she can control her delivery to achieve great build, as on songs like “Sour Cherry” and “List of Demands.”
And her voice is interesting enough to sell songs like “Cheap and Cheerful,” which doesn’t carry any of that build. It just plows forward. And she can keep grungy numbers like “Heart of a Dog” from getting ponderous.
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