Also, and this may sound heretical, but one of the better singers in the past 40 years was Cass Elliott of the Mammas and the Poppas. Quite a bit of it was the bubble-gum of the time, but her rendition of “Dream a Little Dream of Me” is startling; she grabs the song in a way that only a few singers can. Aretha Franklin, whom I’ve not that much use for, has the same ability to grab a song.

Sarah Vaughn, not a Texas sound, but you can hear the experience in her voice. And that’s what singing is about, isn’t it? That’s why when opera singers like Kiri Te Kanawa, with a good voice, sing Cole Porter, they do a very good technical job, but it’s just another instrument in the orchestra.

Contrast the good singers to Barbra Streisand, my pet peve, who has wonderful pipes but doesn’t know how to use them. She attacks the song, to wrestle it to the ground, and kneel on its throat, and then lick the corpse to death while queens in the audience go wild in appreciation AFTER having paid $350 for a ticket.