Wednesday Wondering: Ladies Night

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In honor of Dolly, today’s Wondering is about the ladies…as in, who is your favorite female recording artist?

I’ll start:

Norah Jones

Ah, Norah. Sweet, sultry voice that lands somewhere soft between your ears and helps your head hit the pillow filled with sweet sounds and sweet dreams.

Ella Langley

Yes, she’s getting a ton of airplay lately and was a favorite of recent German World Cup visitor, Freddy, but that’s a damn fine song right there. Admittedly I get happy when the girls choose to listen to her on Spotify when they’re in the car with me.

Annie Lenox

I was a bit of a Eurythmics fan when I was younger and grew to like Annie’s voice. Just an old Gen X memory, I guess.

Tina Turner

Yep, another Gen X throwback, I knew Tina in her more pop days of the 80s, but her version of Proud Mary is something to behold.

So how about you? Who were your favorite female lyricists?

70 thoughts on “Wednesday Wondering: Ladies Night”

  3. Some great choices there, JP.

    I’m sure she played other colleges as well, but Ike and Tina played the fraternity scene back in the sixties at UGA. My dad told me stories of staying up late after they played at the Phi Delt house drinking whiskey with Tina. That must have been pretty cool.

    I always had a thing for Natalie Merchant’s voice from 10,000 Maniacs and I’ll throw the Go-Go’s in there too. Man did I have a crush on Belinda Carlisle as a teenager.

    • Willie Nelson said there are two kinds of guys, the ones that had a crush on Linda Ronstadt and the ones that had did not know who she was. my wife and I have been married 43 years and Linda is the only “hall pass” I’ve ever needed.

  6. I’m into distinct voices. May I add:
    Patty Loveless
    Joyce Kennedy of Mother’s Finest
    Ann Wilson of Heart
    Maria McKee
    Sass Jordan (Canadian – if Kim Carnes could rock, she’d be Sass)

  7. Damn I love Norah. I’ve seen her in concert. Beautiful.
    I like Sheryl Crow, the Pretenders, and I dig on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs some (Karen O).
    Plus also like a lot of the classics mentioned above.

  8. Gwen Stefani from the No Doubt days. Before she turned into a home wrecking reality TV cartoon.
    Alicia Keys
    Alanis Morissette
    Grace Potter
    Florence and The Machine
    I will sing Whitney Houston ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ at the top of my lungs in the car (old memory from middle school – my best friend’s hot sister and I would watch that video together on MTV. She’s still hot_.

  12. Mine is a mix of old soul and outrageous vocal range.
    Etta James
    Hayley Williams
    Kelly Clarkson
    Amy Lee
    Gladys Knight
    Mariah Carey
    Merry Clayton

  13. Linda Ronstadt, Carly Simon, Brandi Carlisle, lots of others. I love listening to the ladies sing. Anne Wilson wasn’t mentioned, so I’ll add her.

  14. My joke was always: I only listen to Country Singers that can kick my arse, and Patsy Cline is HIGH on that list. However, being Gen X through & through, Pat Benatar and Debbie Harry taught me how to be an amphibian – able to dig blondes and brunettes.

  18. Not sure how this will go over on this page, but for me it’s Madonna. She isn’t the best singer by a long shot, not saying she’s bad, but she is really the whole package. Singing, dancing, song writing, even some decent acting. And 13 year old me watching her “Material Girl” video just confirmed my affinity for the opposite sex. There’s a part of that video where the dancers lift her up and hold her kind of upside down. Those puppies were struggling to stay in her dress, but they never came out (damn two-sided tape.) But I knew the next time I watched would be the the time they finally escaped. Alas, they still haven’t, at least not in that video.

  22. Many of the ones above. Carpenter was amazing, her voice is effortless. Stevie Nicks, Norah, Kristy Hinds, Grace Slick, Tina Turner.

    A couple people may not know

    • Bonnie, as with others posted her, has released loads of good music which didn’t get play on the mainstream outlets.

      I prefer physical media and rip my CDs to a server which I can play any time at home. I say this as CDs are relatively inexpensive and I’ll pick up something if it strikes me for less than $10 knowing I may only like a few songs.

  26. A few that may not be mentioned otherwise: Harriett Wheeler (The Sundays), Kelly Willis, Nanci Griffith, Sara Evans

    • Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is a good album. She’s insufferable as a person but so are a lot of entertainers.

      • Don’t know anything about her, but I was thinking of going to her concert in Atlanta in September. Are her concerts bad?

  30. I’m a big fan of Dusty Springfield and Juliana Hatfield. Definitely a fan of Norah Jones. Also, Suzanne Vega and Marti Jones.

  31. I’ll add a couple more old favorites that probably haven’t been named. Susi Quatro, Janis Joplin, Rickie Lee Jones, Ann Peebles, Joan Baez and Nena.

  32. I’m with you on Annie Lennox and Tina. The first concert I ever attended Ike and Tina opened for Steppenwolf. I’d add Christie Hynde of The Pretenders. As others have mentioned, Linda Ronstadt, Etta James, and Emmylou. For a couple you may not have heard of, listen to Johanna and Klara Söderberg. They are Swedish sisters that sing in a band called First Aid Kit. Their music is different and not for everyone. I first heard them at a performance they gave for Emmylou.

    • And how is it we’re on a Georgia blog and no one has mentioned Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson?

      • For UGA in particular, someone you’ve never heard of but who has the most amazing voice and graduated from UGA’s music department go to:

        https://www.jennholloway.com/

        Also started as a musician with the Redcoats until someone in the department convinced her she had more to offer.

  34. I will say this respectfully … my former wife loved Norah Jones and love to sing along with her – I refuse to listen to Norah Jones.

    There are some really great names here that I like as well. I will add a few that others haven’t mentioned:

    Wanda Jackson
    Amy Winehouse
    Sharon Jones
    Hope Sandoval
    Brittany Howard

    I know I could name a lot more but I will finish with one and I think it is one of the most underrated influences (not sure that is the correct word) in pop culture history – Kirsty MacColl. Yes she is the foil for Shane MacGowan in “Fairytale of New York” and she is now probably best known for that holiday tune. However, it was her song “They Don’t Know” that changed pop culture.

    MacColl wrote “They Don’t Know” as a 19 year old. Influenced by the harmonies of The Beach Boys, MacColl overdubbed her own voice to create a “60’s girl group” style sound for her first single as a solo performer. Released in 1979, the song went to number 2 on the UK airplay charts but didn’t chart on the sales charts because of a feud between MacColl and the head of Stiff Records AND a strike at the distributor so the single was insufficiently delivered to record stores.

    Four years later, UK comedian Tracey Ullman decided to cover MacColl’s “They Don’t Know” as the 2nd single for her debut album. MacColl actually was one of the backup singers for the production. Because Ullman could not hit the high note for the climax of the song, listeners actually hear MacColl’s original “baybee” in Ullman’s version.

    With music videos having a tremendous influence on the popularity of a song in the early 80’s and Ullman’s comedic presence, Ullman crafted a humorous video which included a cameo by Sir Paul McCartney. “They Don’t Know” went as high as #2 on the UK Singles Chart and #1 in Ireland. The video caught the eye of MTV founder Robert Pittman who invited Ullman to be a week-long guest VJ on MTV in Feb 1984, even though she had zero to minimal presence in the US.

    The guest VJ appearance plus the video featuring a cameo by a living Beatle catapulted “They Don’t Know” into a Top 10 single on the US charts. Most Americans knew nothing about Ullman’s success as a comedienne in the UK and thought she was a novelty/throwback singer, even though MTV parent company, Universal, signed her to production deal for a sitcom pilot to air on CBS. That deal fizzled over creative differences plus Ullman was pregnant. But she had generated enough buzz for her talent that legendary filmaker/producer, James L Brooks (also a former CBS employee) convinced her to let her CBS deal expire and then hired her to anchor a sketch comedy show that would end up being the 2nd original series on the fledging FOX network in 1987.

    Needing an interlude/filler between sketches, Brooks and his team hired animators to create some shorts to be shown as “palate cleanser.” One of the animated shorts was about a family called The Simpsons. The Simpsons shorts didn’t appear until episode three and appeared only 7 times in first season. However, when they became the most popular animated segments on the Ullman show, it ensured that a Simpsons segment aired in every Ullman show episode in seasons 2 & 3. The Simpsons was spun off into its own series in 1989.

    Ullman’s show ended after 4 seasons in May 1990. 37 seasons later, The Simpsons will debut season 38 this year on Fox.

    Ullman’s talent was undeniable and you could argue that even without the cover of Kirsty MacColl’s song, she would have broken through in the US. However, without her cover of the “They Don’t Know”, without the video featuring Paul McCartney, without the MTV guest VJ stint, Ullman doesn’t generate enough buzz in the mid to late 80’s to attract a legend like James L Brooks to create a sketch comedy variety show around a little known British comedienne which in turn brought adult-humor animated series to a generation(s.)

    Count me as one that perhaps none of it ever happens without a 19-year old Kirsty MacColl writing an homage to the Beach Boys about forbidden love.

    PS … Paula Abdul won the Emmy for choreography in 1987 for the Tracey Ullman show.

  36. First, this is one of those times I really miss the Senator because I’m certain he would pull up somebody that none of us had ever heard of and she’d be incredible.
    Many of the ones listed above are worthy and since I’m an old guy, I’ll go with the following,
    Patsy Cline,
    Linda Ronstadt,
    Ann Wilson
    Lesley Gore

    I’m assuming all of us are automatically including Dolly.

  37. Can’t believe Carole King isn’t higher on everyone’s lists. Stevie Nicks too.

    • Carole King is a great talent, but more so to me in the song writing part of the biz rather than the performance part imo.

      • I like her voice. She was one of my mom’s favorites. Mine too now that I’m old enough to get the lyrics.

  41. I’m old and my tastes are pretty varied. For me Annie Lennox, Ann Wilson and Carly Simon top the list. Mary Chapin Carpenter, Karen Carpenter, Natalie Merchant, Anita Baker and Christine McVie (not Stevie Nicks), round out my faves. Just love to hear their vocies.

    It would be interensting to do a Mumme Poll kind of survey of these.

  44. I want to toss in one more who is newer and happens to be from America’s Best College Town.

    I took the girlfriend out to Denver in May 2024 so we could see Lord Huron at Red Rocks. We got there early to check out the venue not knowing Clover County was the opener.

    She was fantastic.

    https://www.clovercounty.com/aboutme/

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