1. Jeff Buckley
Perhaps the only man who might have outranked Freddie Mercury in the status of "Actual Angel" is Mr. Jeff Buckley, and not much of Buckley's music is available because he didn't live long enough to make more than one studio album. Sadly drowning in the Wolf River of Memphis during the recording of his second album, all we are left with is his one masterpiece (Grace) and a series of incredible live, demo, and experimental tracks that were taped/filmed during the span of his all too brief career. But together, they tell a tale of a singer who had a voice unlike any that has ever existed. With a range of several octaves, a gravity that shifts instantly between weightless and inescapable, and an urgency to his ferocious talent that always seemed to be fighting against an unknowable end that would arrive only too soon, Jeff Buckley was and is a legend for the ages with his angel's (or perhaps it's a god's) voice.
References: "Hallelujah", "Last Goodbye", "Lover, You Should Have Come Over" (Grace) Who do you think deserves to be included on this list? Share your thoughts below.