The best singer of the Beatles, according to Alice Cooper
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With a singer like Alice Cooper, the best performances come from attitude. It’s impossible to put together a show that consists of boa constrictors, guillotines and simulated child murder on stage and say it’s all about the music, but Cooper still knew it would all fall apart if there wasn’t a good song at the center. Although he still keeps his voice in top shape in his later years, Cooper thought it all went back to Paul McCartney singing in the Beatles.
On the other hand, each member of the Fab Four had their own unique approach to singing when they stepped up to the microphone. John Lennon always came through with brute force half the time, and George Harrison’s voice was truly compelling, reflected in his best songs like “Something” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” And as much as people slam Ringo Starr, his greatest strength is the sheer charm that oozes from each of his vocal performances.
It’s not that Cooper didn’t have an affinity for all of the Beatles in one way or another, and in the 1970s he even became drinking buddies with Lennon and Starr as a member of the Hollywood Vampires. Although Lennon also landed in Cooper’s selection of the greatest singers he submitted, Rolling Stone, There was no competition as to what McCartney could do with his voice.
First, let’s get one thing straight: McCartney is perhaps one of the most versatile members of the group. Despite all the jokes that have been made about him for making nothing but granny music his entire career, not many people can transform their voices into different forms and still all sing really well.
It’s easy to judge this from the ballads he’s best known for, like “Let It Be” and “Eleanor Rigby,” but there’s a downside to this storyteller approach when he’s unpacking his screaming skills. Remember, this is a musician who cited Little Richard as one of his biggest inspirations during his early career, and it would be difficult for even most metal singers to hear him sing his version of “Long Tall Sally” or work his way through “Helter Skelter.”
Even after the group broke up, McCartney still found ways to use his vocal skills to keep things interesting. There were still plenty of ballads like “My Love,” but also weird fever dreams like “Temporary Secretary,” blistering hard rock like “Letting Go” and “Junior’s Farm,” and, yes, even old-school music like “You Gave Me the Answer.”
While it’s easy to see Cooper gravitating towards McCartney’s uptempo rockers, his influence can actually be felt in many of his own ballads. Seeing as the shock rocker first discovered his sensitive side, songs like “Only Women Bleed” are all over The Cute Beatle, right down to the melody that slowly moves alongside the chords, almost reminiscent of “Eleanor Rigby.”
It seems Macca was paying attention too, eventually teaming up with Cooper’s supergroup version of the Hollywood Vampires for a cover of Badfinger’s “Come and Get It.” Lennon and Harrison could do a lot with their distinctive vocal sounds, but McCartney was the only member of the group who could take his voice in any direction imaginable and make something of it.
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