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Fri 5 December 2025 15:00, UK
When talking about the classics Elton John has given the world, not many people go to his singing voice first.
He’s known as one of the greatest keyboardists of his time, and he could easily put together a piece that could be on the same level as a classical invention, but there was a lot more soul in his voice than you would have expected from someone who had made something like ‘Crocodile Rock’ one of the biggest songs in the world. He always took special care of his voice, but he knew that there was no point in competing with the true greats every time he played.
Even when he first started making his own tunes, though, John never imagined that he would be the singer on all of his songs. He saw himself as a songwriter alongside Bernie Taupin, and even if they could make the greatest rock and roll tunes known to man, John felt that he had to sing his tunes because they could never find anyone else that saw any substance in their music. That sounds insane thinking about tunes like ‘Your Song’, but really, John was the only one who could sing those tunes.
While he could do a lot of things with his voice, John was also one of the few that did a great job in working around his vocal peaks and valleys as the years went on. It’s no secret that his voice is considerably deeper than it was before, and there’s no way that he’s going to be hitting the high notes in ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ like he used to, but he’s always found a way to work around the melody than embarrassing himself trying to sing like he used to.
Then again, the reason why so many people try it is because they’re shellshocked with those that have kept their voice in shape for so long. It’s practically unthinkable for someone like Freddie Mercury or George Michael to maintain that same level of singing throughout their career, but even if they managed to keep up their incredibly high standards, John knew that no one could compare to what Stevie Wonder could do.
There had been plenty of soul singers that brought something new to the table from Ray Charles to Little Richard, but if Richard shook people up, Wonder was the complete package of what a musician could be. He could have easily been one of the best pianists in the business if he stuck with one instrument, but when he opened his mouth on tunes like ‘Sir Duke’ or ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’, there’s hardly anyone who could ever compare with him.
And even into the modern age, John said confidently that no one was ever going to come close to what Wonder did, saying, “He’s so multitalented that it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes him one of the greatest ever. But first, there’s that voice. Nobody can sing like he does. I know: I actually recorded a version of ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ when I was young, and I really had to squeeze my balls to get those high notes.”
If that’s the kind of problems that John was having at the peak of his voice, though, most other singers don’t really have a prayer. What Wonder was doing is enough to boggle the mind half the time he played, and the fact that he’s singing the most acrobatic vocal lines anyone has ever attempted, all while playing piano lines that are on the same level as Duke Ellington, practically puts him on the same level as the true geniuses of American music.
So while John can try all he wants to take a few cues from what his favourite soul artists could do, there’s a reason why Wonder’s track record has been untouched by anyone else in the industry. His run of albums in the 1970s might be a perfect guidebook for anyone wanting to get into the real technical aspects of being a musician, but anyone listening to Songs in the Key of Life should know that it doesn’t really get much better than that.
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