You've just said basically the same thing to me I just said to Bruno. Where a vocalist's influence lies doesn't matter, only the size of it. And the White House thing really doesn't matter.

I guess I was trying to understand the point since I just happened to land on this thread ...LOL...

I'm still not sure, but it likely goes back to the the basics of many discussions here...who is MORE Rock (Rock & Roll) than the other guy based largely on generation, stylistic influence, and sub~genre preferences, and just how those cultural influences determine the criteria for selection at this site...which happens to attempt to take all influences into consideration ( when possible) in my opinion. So do Marvin Gayes musical and cultural experiences, which statistically may represent about 15% of the general population (although the genre impacts a greater proportion of American culture than those percentages would indicate, at least so far as thr Arts are concerned)...versus the numerically superior rock which stems from a broader culture. Who is to say which cultural phenomenon should garner more acclaim than the other, especially when trying to compare one artist to another...

It's not true that Buckley is far more skilled than Perry.

Interesting info, in a recent interview, Coldplay as a group, and particularly their lead singer Chris Martin, stated that the band's biggest influence was and still is Jeff Buckley. Not sure if that's commonly known info but it surprised me and then I looked at it and said never mind that makes total sense. Also I was always under the impression that both Buckleys were quite a bit more skilled than Perry.

That's not quite true, esp not for Jeff.

I think skill is close enough between Perry and Jeff Buckley to call it a tie.

Jeff Buckley is very overrated on the internet. Perry is comfortably more skilled, had much larger and sustained success and is easily the more influential singer. Most people on the internet tend to not give Steve Perry the credit he deserves because they consider Journey to be nothing more than a cheesy 80’s band, and whether or not this is true it should not take away from his greatness. I would personally move Jeff Buckley down if anything.

I have no idea what corner of the Internet you've been where Perry is underrated.

The corners where people are saying ludicrous things such as Jeff Buckley is more skilled than him.

Yes, obviously we criminally underrate Perry because we postulate that somebody might possibly be marginally more skilled than he is.
Try reading anything on this forum regarding Steve Perry.

I'd have trouble believing this is true. We were just discussing Perry's overall influence, and Jeff Buckely, who is undeniably the most influential singer of the last 20 years, and one of the most influential singers ever (I'd say top 20/30), I would really need to check up on Perry's influence. People don't know Buckley's influence by hearsay as much as other artists and vocalists, but once you start digging it's absurdly large and wide spread.

I'll never forget when some online music review site called Dio a "poor man's David Coverdale".

Yeah, how Perry is underrated is totally beyond me.

He may have had more 'sustained' success than Buckley, but that has nothing to do with this particular criteria. Buckley achieved greatness and acclaim from his peers much quicker than Perry, the guy released ONE fucking album and his influence and impact are still easily on par, if not greater than Perry's.
I will grant you, Perry has a much larger catalogue of historically great vocal performances, but that's it.

And Jeff SLAYS him in originality, since Perry's style was just basically a combination of Sam Cooke and Steve Winwood.

You're underrating Jeff here, pink. Imo.

Don't recall, it was some time back, but I remember being a bit taken back by it. I think it was in reaction to Rainbow's version of "Mistreated".