Nova

KISS legend Paul Stanley took to Twitter to share a list of who he considers to be the top 11 lead singers of all time. 

The majority of the singer’s on the list are rock icons from the ‘60s and ‘70s including The Temptation’s David Ruffin, who ranked in at number four on the list. 

The 11th spot of Stanley’s list went to Heart’s Ann Wilson, who was recently named Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson’s favorite female singer of all time in a recent interview. 

A shock entry on the list was Steve Marriott of Small Faces and Humble Pie fame, who took the second place slot, beating out Queen’s late-frontman Freddie Mercury. 

Stanley named Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant as his all time favorite lead singer. 

The full list curated by Stanley is as follows: 

01. Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin)

02. Steve Marriott (Small Faces, Humble Pie)

03. Freddie Mercury (Queen)

04. David Ruffin (The Temptations)

05. Rod Stewart

06. Paul Rodgers (Bad Company, Free)

07. Janis Joplin

08. Steve Perry (Journey)

09. Brad Delp (Boston)

10. Brian Johnson (AC/DC)

10. Lou Gramm (Foreigner)

11. Ann Wilson (Heart)

Daily News Hungary

Has it ever occurred to you while I was Made for Lovin’ You was bursting out of the radio or when you went crazy with the crowd at the first notes of Rock and Roll All Nite as Kiss took over the stage back on that magical summer night in ‘79 that the bassist/ leader co-founder of your favorite American rock band might be of Hungarian descent? No wonder you were immediately drawn to their music and religiously collected every album in your teens! But even if you have discovered this cult rock band just fairly recently (talking of the younger generation), we can all agree that it is no surprise it has a Hungarian member as we are known all over the world for creating extraordinary things, pulling out iconic tunes and, in general, writing history! Well, ok here we have exaggerated a little.. Anyway, let’s look at the fascinating story of Gene Simmons and the explanation behind his signature tongue-out antics.

It is fair to say that The Demon, as Gene Simmons calls himself on stage, had to travel a long, rugged road to success and fame. It took him a fair amount of courage and persistence to be able to leave behind his threadbare beginnings and become one of the most celebrated figures of rock and roll. Born in 1949 under Virgo ascendant, the ‘80s music icon first saw the day of light under the name Chaim Witz in an Israelian hospital in Haifa, a picturesque northern seaside town. His mother, Flóra Klein (née Flóra Kovács) came from a tiny Hungarian village called Jánd tucked in the Northern Great Plain region of Eastern Hungary. She was barely 18 when she was captured in a Budapest ghetto and dragged into a Nazi concentration camp along with her entire family. After years of great ordeal and unimaginable scenes of horror, the young woman was liberated by American troops at the Austrian Mauthausen camp. She married a fellow Jewish-Hungarian called Ferenc “Feri” Yehiel Witz, a skilled carpenter, and they changed their base to Izrael to leave behind the haunting memories of their dreadful past.  However, the new land did not deliver its promises. It was hard to make ends meet in a then underdeveloped country (it was around the time of the Israeli Declaration of Independence), besides there were also constant raging arguments at home. Simmons was still very young when his father walked out on his family for good. After his departure, the family plunged into poverty.

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