Hey everybody welcome back again to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy where the proof is in the singing.
I'm continuing my series on a really interesting thing for me personally and that
is Replacement singers- Who Did It Better. Next up is Foreigner. Of course we know the main vocalists
are Lou Gramm first and then Kelly Hansen second. Now this is going to be a tough one for
me because I have such man love for Lou Gramm that I'm probably not gonna be as unbiased as I'd
like though I'll try to be fair and then you guys can bust my chops in the comments sections and
tell me how you think but before we get started if you wouldn't mind, please like and subscribe to my
channel that would be great. If you're interested in singing I have a singing course called How to
Sing Better Than Anyone Else. You can find it right here at KenTamplinVocalAcademy.com where
I also have a free singing forum over there with over 25,000 singers all talking about this stuff
so I want to dive right in. Now Lou for me is one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time. I love
his tone, I love his range, I love his songwriting, I love his phrasing, I love his melodic structure.
Not necessarily the best live singer and not necessarily you know the the best front man moving
around kind of guy but he was a blue jeans, Bryan Adams-y kind of guy or whomever you know just,
a really great, by the way in the, in the 70s, late 70s, early 80s, especially the 70s,
it was more hip to be a blue jeans t-shirt guy and not be super glammy so that's kind
of more the school that he came from through that so I, I totally respect and appreciate
it, appreciate the fact that musicians back then let their music do the talking rather
than the frenetic running around on stage so. Let's dive right in. Lou Gramm here we go.
Okay want to point some things out along the way of course. Now
he's a lot younger than Kelly so there is a definite age thing early on. There's a lot
of factors though we talked about this and I want to go over them again just really quickly.
Did the replacement singer Kelly Hansen bring the band up a notch. First question it's, or at least
take it laterally somewhere in some way that it contributed significantly to the band and from
a vocal, at a vocal level, a showmanship level, a songwriting creative level, did they go on to write
other songs. Now in fairness, a lot of these bands, once the replacement singer left they had very
few opportunities to do new music and I, I like to keep bringing this back to the Van Halen era
that when Sammy came in he was a very different singer, it wasn't really appropriate for him to
sing kind of all the David Lee Roth stuff. He could do it but it would just kind of be like stuffing a
marshmallow into a piggy bank or maybe pounding a square peg into a round hole so to speak
and then in contrast you know David couldn't really sing his stuff either but Sammy did go on
and he did have a tremendous career. By the way he had a career before that and then you
know Montrose, solo and then of course you know Van Halen and then after. This is important because
he went on again to continue to create music and, and, and grow as an artist. David Lee Roth not so
much he did his solo album and stuff but I don't think he really progressed really much beyond Van
Halen other than you know the original solo album stuff that he did so. I want to point that out. Now
Lou didn't really go on and do really much of anything after leaving Foreigner either. We all
so know he has some health issues and whatnot but again just a phenomenally talented guy but we've
got to ask those questions along the way of you know just because we have to okay. Here we go.
Okay we're gonna get some more in a minute. Now I've seen, this is one of his better performances
actually. I have seen Lou blow some chunks in some live stuff so he wasn't always like this on
and but I just again I'm trying to find footage that I'm allowed to use from
publishing companies and that I think showcased the artist in the best, best possible light
just washed my tongue and I can't do a thing with it but the other thing is like, you
know his version of "I Want To Know What Love Is" at Farm Aid and stuff was killer.
So, so there's genius moments for sure but he was a little bit of a hit or miss guy
in the live world but play a little bit more and then we're gonna move on.
Okay so we, we've got a pretty, pretty good taste to this. I want to move on, I actually have a lot more
footage of this and a couple more songs and stuff. Let me see what else I grabbed here I forget.
Okay same tune all right so. Let me move on here. I want to move on to Kelly Hansen. Now
this is important because you know we've talked about, by the way I do have some more stuff.
Let me see what else is on here hold on. I should have previewed this a little more than this but.
So yeah he does the really cool ad libs if you guys get a chance to, seeing the show he does, he's
pretty spot on. Now the the next footage that I have. Again I don't want to predicate everything
and base everything on just these small snippets and say that's the total sum of what these guys
are all about but it's a pretty good indication especially you have some good recordings and stuff
so. Let's move on to Kelly Hansen. We know Kelly Hansen came from the band Hurricane. In fact I was
in a band way back in the 80s and we played with them a couple times at the Roxy and I want to say
the Whiskey or something I forget and great singer man, really good singer straight up so. Here we go.
Okay first thing you notice is it's tuned down which is not uncommon and I think even
Foreigner did that later too so we caught Lou on a good day in, in the original key. Kelly's tuned
it down a half step. Pretty common for that to happen. He's keep, you know he's moving
around a lot more than Lou and that's a lot harder to do anaerobically speaking you know
to be in the absence of oxygen move around and try to sing like this so let's continue.
Okay now I'm gonna say I'm guilty for favoring Lou already.
I like Lou's tone better. I don't like the throaty kind of cotton in the throat sort
of sound that Kelly's got going on maybe just this show. I don't like the lack of energy.
The energy's not as cool. Now I know it's not as fast, the tempo was faster than the other version
and this is more true to the album version but and then the mix is, is still kind of
tame for me and a little just lackluster. So I'm not, I'm not loving that about this.
He's really (sings) instead of (sings). So Lou
brings a lot more mask into the sound we've talked a lot about this
and he's really bright in the front end and he pushes the sound really far
forward whereas Kelly is a lot more throaty and girthy in this his sound.
All the notes are there, the band sounds good. I'm not hearing chunky mistakes anywhere.
See the (sounds). He doesn't have quite the same contiguous airflow coming out of his mouth where it sounds
real open throat and real easy for the notes like Lou did and Lou also had a lot more power energy
in his upper mid voice rather than trying to heave up the vowel sound so to speak or have a lot of
muscle mass in the throat. Kelly has a lot more mass in the sound. Now there's something else I
want to point out that's kind of tough when we do stuff like this. The version that we saw of Lou
were predominantly all the original members of the band okay and in this version if I'm not mistaken,
you guys can correct me on this one too, the only original member is Mick Jones the guitar player.
So it's kind of weird you're not hearing Foreigner you're hearing
a bunch of hired players even including the singer come in and just putting the name Foreigner on it
and you kind of get that feel it doesn't feel like the guys that, that's who's originally autographed
you know their heart into the music early on and that was their signature I know, I don't
get that in this. I get a replication, a good one but certainly not the original fire and energy
of the original group and members of Foreigner.
And that's not Kelly's fault.
And you know to his credit man he's really trying
to work it even with his funky stuff he's got going on. He's working the stage man.
See, see Lou would have never gone (sings) he'd go (sings)
right. He'd be really front and bright and just crisp and and clear on the tone and again
you know I don't know, like i said I don't want to grade everything on this one performance but we've
kind of seen you know what Kelly has here I know at the very end he tries to go for the ad-libs
and they weren't as cool as the performance that we saw Lou but he's a lot older too and I'm not
trying to play the old card but you know there was a lot of energy back then there's a 20, 22-3,
4, 5 year old compared to some guy in his 50s, 60, pushing 60 now I think or something.
Anyway but so again my personal vote still by, absolutely is Lou Gramm. Lou was around the
band at the time that all the "I've Been Waiting For A Girl Like You", all these hits were just
stunning songs and really Foreigner's kind of done nothing of any consequence since then and again
that may not be Kelly's fault because really Mick Jones was the, the principal songwriter in the band.
However it was really cheesy of Mick Jones to not give Lou Gramm credit, some kind of credit for "I
Want To Know What Love Is" because there's no way that song would have ever been as popular and just
maybe the greatest rock ballad, anthem ballad of all time without Lou Gramm at the helm vocally
speaking so. Thank you for joining me guys I got a few more of these coming your way, hope you're
liking you know, liking hearing them while I'm liking doing them (sounds) like I said I
just watched my tongue I can't do a thing with it but anyway definitely check out my next video.