The New Guy Covering The Classics

We've all seen it. A band changes lead singers and now the "new guy" has to sing the songs of the guy he was hired to replace. Do you try to do your best to keep it the same to appease the fans or do you put your own spin on things?

Talking strictly in the "live setting", be it a cd, dvd, or someone you've actually seen live in concert, in your opinion, which one of these singers did the best job covering the hits of his predicessor? I tried to pick singers that had come into a sucessfull band already and had something to prove. Did he improve on them in anyway? Make them worse?

I avoided Bruce Dickinson covering the Paul Di'Anno stuff for 2 reasons:
1. I figured he'd run away with this poll anyway, so I wanted to give some other guys a fighting chance.
2. Bruce came in relatively early enough where Maiden hadn't reached their peak yet and didn't have as much of an uphill battle to win over the fans.

Forgot the 'ryche. Anyways, I went Ripper as i'm a fanboy.

Then of course there's Dio, Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Ray Gillen and Tony Martin covering the Ozzy-era Black Sabbath material.

Dark Horseman wrote:

Forgot the 'ryche. Anyways, I went Ripper as i'm a fanboy.

Dang. You know, he was the whole reason I thought of this topic awhile back and poor Todd got denied.

Quote :

Then of course there's Dio, Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Ray Gillen and Tony Martin covering the Ozzy-era Black Sabbath material.

I considered putting RJD in there, but like Bruce, I thought it might come out a bit lopsidded. And he had enough strong material with the band at the time (and past recognition) that he didn't need to rely on the classics as much. The guys I put in there really had their work cut out for them.

Not sure I've ever heard any of those other Sabbath singers cover the Ozzy stuff. I'm sure it exists, but outside of boots, there isn't much documentation of live recordings that I'm aware of.

Not on the list, I would vote either Bruce Bruce, with La Torre in second. Bruce really took those Di'Anno songs and made them his own. If you had only heard the live Bruce versions, you would have never know there was a previous singer. He also did the exact same thing to the Blaze songs when he returned, except his vocals breathed new life into those tracks as opposed to just doing a great job on the Paul tracks.

Saw Queensryche with La Torre back in March and he killed it! Also caught the second to last Tate show with Queensryche and La Torre blew The Geoff out of the water in the live setting!

From that list, would have to go with Ripper - he nails it on every single Halford track on the Live In London CD/DVD.

Sammy never really covered any DLR songs (outside of Jump and one or two others). He didn't want to sing DLR stuff at all.

Sollinger - lived though him butchering Bach stuff once (KISS "farewell to Ace and Peter, don't let the door hit your a$$es on the way out" tour) and his version were cringe-worthy. They played M3 festival in 2012 and I skipped their set... heard him over the PA (they played the side stage between Queensryche and Ratt) and he still butchers Bach tracks.

Blaze covering Bruce - I have a pro-shot boot of the Virtual XI tour and he's horrid on the Bruce tracks.... even worse than Sollinger covering Bach. Trooper on that boot sounds like really bad karaoke over the original tracks... Hallowed - ouch..... I thought he would do a great job on the Paul tracks, but he didn't. He was trying to sing them like Bruce...

Brian does a good job singing Bon's stuff - it sounds better in person than on album.

Bush - I like him in Armored Saint, Sound Of White is a good album, Bush sounds fine covering Joey, but not amazing. I prefer Joey in Anthrax.

I've seen Brian Johnson live with AC/DC twice and he's always wailed on the Bon Scott era stuff.

When it comes to Ripper covering the Halford era, I only have the 98 Live Meltdown live album to go by (never heard Live In London) and he sounded fine on that one. In fact, Ripper's performance was the one thing I didn't complain about on that record. I didn't like the way the classic songs had seemingly been tuned down several notches to match the "br00tal" tone of the Jugulator material on that album, so even though the new stuff sounded fine and Ripper killed it all the way through, instrumentally the vintage tracks sounded weird and out of key to me.

Look at the choices available, hmmmm...

Brian Johnson is "ok" covering the Bon Scott stuff but I never listen to live AC/DC from the Johnson era.

*No comment* on Sammy Hagar covering the DLR era stuff.

You couldn't pay me to listen to Ripper-era Priest.

You couldn't pay me to listen to Blaze-era Maiden.

I stopped paying attention to Skid Row before Bach left.

That leaves Bush covering the Belladonna stuff. Now, when "The Greater of Two Evils" came out I hadn't heard an Anthrax album since Sound Of White Noise (which I dig) but my roommate had a copy and I decided to jam it out of curiosity. I ended up loving it. To be honest I've never been a Belladonna fan, one of the reasons Anthrax never really jumped into my list of favorites at the time, but lo and behold I loved hearing classic 'Thrax tunes sung by Bush.

thejokeriv wrote:

Sammy never really covered any DLR songs (outside of Jump and one or two others). He didn't want to sing DLR stuff at all.

They did 4 or 5 DLR songs on the Right Here, Right Now live album. But hey, at least he tried. Imagine DLR covering 'Why Can't This Be Love'?  

I haven't voted yet. I'm still trying to decide. I'm leaning towards Owens or Johnson though.

I don't know if we can even say Ripper because Priest downtuned everything during that tenure, maybe they thought he couldn't do it night after night, could be possible, but I think that sort of makes it hard to judge there.

Brian Johnson, because I could not imagine anyone doing a better job then Brian in singing the Bon Scott material. I appreciate it the fact he did not attempt to be a Bon Scott clone and was his own man

Bush. He's a better singer than Belladonna (although the Belladonna stuff is my favorite).

manny wrote:

Brian Johnson, because I could not imagine anyone doing a better job then Brian in singing the Bon Scott material. I appreciate it the fact he did not attempt to be a Bon Scott clone and was his own man

   

I went with Dio covering the Sabbath classics. Way better than the originals hands down. Not even close.    


Next would be Kelly Hanson with Foreigner.
Then Todd La Torre with Queensryche.
Bash me all you want...Johnny Sollinger with Skid Row kicks the shit out of Bach.

bass63 wrote:

I went with Dio covering the Sabbath classics. Way better than the originals hands down. Not even close.    

Nah.  I love the original songs Dio did with Sabbath but I've never liked his interpretations of the Ozzy material. I was happy when the H&H thing happened because they no longer had to play any of those songs.

S.D. wrote:

bass63 wrote:

I went with Dio covering the Sabbath classics. Way better than the originals hands down. Not even close.    

Nah.  I love the original songs Dio did with Sabbath but I've never liked his interpretations of the Ozzy material.  I was happy when the H&H thing happened because they no longer had to play any of those songs.  

You weren't the only one - Dio was very happy to not have to sing Ozzy songs anymore!

thejokeriv wrote:

You weren't the only one - Dio was very happy to not have to sing Ozzy songs anymore!

Definitely. I'm one of the few people that liked them changing the name to Heaven & Hell and actually wish they had done that from the very beginning.

Went for Ripper simply for his stunning performance of Diamonds & Rust!

ultmetal wrote:

Went for Ripper simply for his stunning performance of Diamonds & Rust!

Nice, although I went with Ripper for his performance of Exciter.

Off the list Brian Johnson. I like Bon a lot, but I think Brian does a fantastic job. I've not heard Blaze live with Maiden so I can't comment on that, but I like his solo live album. I agree about Dio and Sabbath in that changing the name to H&H was the best thing since it seemed Dio never really was too happy doing Ozzy songs so yeah, better all around. Ripper and Skid Row, not a clue. I've only seen Anthrax with Joey, so again, can't comment. Sammy, no comment.

Blaze on his own stuff is good, he never had a chance with the crappy songs he did for Maiden.

Between Ripper and Brian, I chose Brian because he was so faithful to Bon's attitude and style. Ripper did the same with Halford material, but he's kind of an idiot on stage--judging from a handful of youtube videos, that is.

Blaze is--well, it goes without saying.

Bush did a decent job; I'm not big on Belladonna (his voice only slightly irritates me) and Bush seems to carry those tunes with a unique interpretation.

Dio was at his worst singing Sabbath songs, and even he knew that. His voice was way too powerful and refined.

Sollinger hasn't Bach's (previous) range to carry over the classics effectively; just watch any of the Youtube videos. Blegh.

Sammy can go to hell for all I care.

Zach Stevens singing Oliva material was good I think. On the poll I'd go with either Johnson or Bush.

Bush was a better singer than Turbin or Belladonna and I really love "The Greater of Two Evils" probably my fav Anthrax record.

Don't think any of the others come close to the original guys

Went with Ripper!