The Greatest Female Rock Singers.

I spend a great deal of time in my car listening to classic rock on the radio. Who was the best female rock singer of the "golden age" (roughly 1965 to 1985)? Here's my take on the subject; I'm sure to have left out some obviously brilliant people that have slipped my mind, but then, you're free to write your own list.

First, here's who I left out, and why.

Folk singers are not rock singers, even if they occasionally sang a rock song. Same goes for "country-rock" pop, "contemporary" and all the Mo-Town greats. Sorry, I'm only interested in rock singers for the purposes of this list. That cuts out a lot of people who are, or were, immensely talented, and some of my favorite all-round singers as well -- people like Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Carly Simon.

So, here's my list:

Number 5: Grace Slick. Here's a woman who's vocals could send a shiver down your spine in the first bar of a song. She could sing low, sing high, and sing hard.

Number 4: Chrissie Hynde. Nobody better exemplifies the rock spirit in my book. For years and years, and right up until today, Hynde leads her band in the making of great rock and roll. The fact that she leads is a big plus, too -- rock is all about strength and power, and she's got both. Maybe she doesn't have the vocal range of others, her attitude makes up for it and then some.

Number 3: I stretched my time period for the golden age of rock into the 1980's just so I could cheat and include Melissa Etheridge. Listen to her early work feel the passion, the lust behind her songs. Talk about range -- low and deep, or screaming at the person in the last seat in the last row of an arena, Melissa can do it. She'd be number 2 if she hadn't followed...

Number 2, Janis Joplin. What can I say? Maybe better people have come after her, but nobody sang like Janis, with that tortured, blues-inspired voice. You felt she put every ounce of herself into every song, with nothing held back.

Number 1: I know I'm going to catch flack for this, but the best female rock singer ever is Ann Wilson of Heart. Song after song after song, her crystal-clear, highly musical vocals define great singing. She's not as edgy as Chrissie Hynde, nor as tortured as Janis, nor a scary as Grace Slick, but she does everything well -- she writes, she leads, she plays, she has great vocal range. If this were baseball, she'd be voted MVP.