Greatest 70s female rock singer: Joni Mitchell or Stevie Nicks? | The Tylt

Joni does "A Case Of You" live, 1974. Listen and weep.

Stevie, just warming up with Christine before a Fleetwood Mac show. No mike, no audience, just pure gypsy brilliance.

David Crosby claims the first time he ever heard Joni Mitchell sing, he "thought [he'd] been hit by a hand grenade." Her three-octave range was modeled off of Joan Baez and Judy Collins, but she took her vocal stylings even further, incorporating influences from jazz and blues. 

"Joni Mitchell heard Billie Holiday sing 'Solitude' when she was about nine years old—and she hasn't been the same since," said long-time admirer and sometime-collaborator Herbie Hancock. Prince, Bjork, and Maynard James Keenan all considered her a major influence.

Nobody sounds like Stevie Nicks. "She's so tiny, and this big, deep voice comes rattling out," said Debbie Harry of the Fleetwood Mac front-woman. Rolling Stone called Nicks's vocals "strong, deceptively versatile...by turns husky, warm, velvety and childlike." It's hard to imagine the '70s (or our lives) without "Gypsy" or "Landslide."

Joni's fans think her voice has the power to heal illness, and they may be right.

Even kids today are struck by its purity and power.

But for others, Stevie is the true queen.

Stevie's voice has a witchy-angelic vibe so powerful that it makes her listeners contemplate becoming Wiccan.

Want serenity now? Put on some Joni Mitchell.

Stevie's singing is still leaving audiences awestruck.