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'ELVIS - The Greatest Singer of all-time'

As voted by 'Q' magazine in 2007

Britain's Q magazine (The Essential music guide) recently selected the finest voices in music history.

Presented as a list of the 100 Greatest singers, their 10 greatest songs were also nominated.

Johnny Cash made #14, Roy Orbison #23, Ray Charles #24, Tom Jones #71 and Smokey Robinson #95.

Here are the top ten with you-know-who at Number One!

1. Elvis Presley
2. Aretha Franklin
3. Frank Sinatra
4. Otis Redding
5. John Lennon
6. Marvin Gaye
7. Kurt Cobain
8. Robert Plant
9. Mick Jagger
10. Jeff Buckley.

Q Magazine's 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Number 1 - Elvis Presley
Rocker. Roller. Showman. Icon.

It's a story almost too good to be true. On 5 July 1954, Elvis Aaron Presley, originally from Tupelo, Mississippi, walked into Sam Phillips's Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. When he walked out again early the next morning things had changed forever. Taking Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's workmanlike blues, That's All Right (Mama), the 19-year-old truck driver had sung in a way no white country boy had ever sung before: high, clear, joyfully spontaneous, hip-shakingly rhythmic, almost exploding with youthful vigour and testosterone. Rock'n'roll music was born.

Over the next 23 years, Presley would become the biggest singing star the world has ever known. The swaggering, natural exuberance of his early Sun recordings, however, was short-lived. Snapped up by RCA for $35,000 in late 1955, coltish innocence was soon replaced by a reckless disregard for his own career brought on by the demands of Hollywood and a manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who regarded him as little more than a cash cow. Pop schlock and big sentimental ballads followed. But just when it seemed he could sink no lower, he bounced back.

In 1969 Elvis returned to Memphis and, sounding completely re-energised under the guidance of producer Chips Moman, made some of the best, most mature music of his life.

It didn't last. Instead, he saw out his remaining years as a bloated parody of himself, a Las Vegas cabaret act who, despite everything, still occasionally clawed something majestic from all the crushing tackiness and tragedy of his life. And in the end, maybe that's what made him truly great. - (writer: Peter Kane)

Elvis' 10 Key Songs - as chosen by 'Q' magazine.

1. That's All Right
Scotty Moore's stinging guitar helps take the boy where nobody had been before.
2. Baby, Let's Play House
So excited by the prospect of some naughtiness, he even acquires a stutter.
3. Mystery Train
Junior Parker's dark, ghostly original re-imagined as a pulsating, hillbilly rocker.
4. Heartbreak Hotel
No reservations necessary as he convincingly sobs his way to his first million-seller.
5. One Night
Hot stuff for 1958, leaving nobody in any doubt just what he's "praying for".
6. Jailhouse Rock
Irresistible Leiber & Stoller rocker, with a frantic El shaking everything he's got.
7. It's Now Or Never
His version of 0 Sole Mio owing plenty to Mario Lanza, an unlikely Presley hero.
8. In The Ghetto
Beautifully poised, with just the right amount of anger to suggest that he really cared.
9. Suspicious Minds
Proving that when given a song he truly believed in, he made it his completely.
10. I just Can't Help Believin'
Recorded live in Las Vegas, Elvis the mature balladeer at his most commanding.