Lovely voices {male edition}.

I love voices.

I like to notice not only different accents, but the way that people speak and the expressions they use. I love how someone from the southern part of a state can say a phrase that completely baffles someone from the northern part of the state. And vice versa. :)

Maybe this is strange, but I've been meaning to post about my favorite voices for a long time. So here goes...my favorite male voices. In no particular order.

Cary Grant.
I have never, ever heard anyone else speak like Cary Grant (the Gilligan's Island episode where the Professor tries to imitate him doesn't come close). His unique voice is only a small part of his general awesomeness. :)

Gregory Peck.
Gregory Peck's soothing voice might not be one of a kind, but there's something very normal and familiar about it. You could know someone in real life who has a voice like his.

Frank Sinatra.
One of the most incredible, swoon-inducing singing voices ever. :) And it's not too bad when he speaks, either, though I'm usually not very fond of New Jersey and other northern accents. Anyway, just close your eyes and listen.

Gene Kelly.
There may not be anything special about Gene Kelly's voice. It may be possible that I'm just crazy about him and his voice is a part of that. I read once that his singing voice was a natural extension of his speaking voice, and I agree completely. I love how effortlessly he can go from speaking to singing. By the way, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a clip of him actually speaking instead of dancing? :) I decided to go with the best.

Jimmy Stewart.
Jimmy Stewart's voice is instantly recognizable, sort of like Cary Grant though in a completely different way. :) I once saw a clip from What's My Line? and Jimmy was the guest. Poor guy didn't stand a chance.

Elvis.
Since I used to be an obsessive Elvis fan (I'm still a big fan, I've just calmed down a bit :), I had to include him. I can't stand Elvis impersonators, because nobody can sing like him. Here's one of my favorite songs of his.

Now on to more modern faces...

Matthew Macfadyen.
I think I once devoted an entire post to Matthew Macfadyen's voice. :) Seriously, though. He has a gorgeous English voice. I could listen to him talk all day. In 2005 P&P, you get used to him speaking like the video below. So when I watched The Way We Live Now (an overall depressing mini series), I had to laugh every time his character opened his mouth. Because he didn't talk like this. He whined. And he was a spoiled mama's boy. It was hilarious, even though he was terribly obnoxious and unlikable.

Leonardo DiCaprio.
There's nothing extraordinary about Leonardo DiCaprio's voice. I guess I'm just fond of it because of the obsession I had with Titanic when I was younger. {I'm still fascinated with the whole history of Titanic, but not as much into that particular film. Unless I'm armed with TVGuardian on my DVD player.} I had forgotten how much I liked his voice and how familiar it was to me until I saw Inception a few months ago. I didn't blog about it, but it was a really good, though strange movie.

I was going to insert an Inception clip here, but embedding was disabled. Sorry, but now you guys get stuck with a cheesy Titanic scene. :)

{I previously wrote about the Titanic here and here.}

Tom Hanks.
Wow, I know you guys might think I'm crazy with these last two choices. :) But like I said, part of me liking a voice may be because it's so familiar to me. Like Tom Hanks. I never, ever thought of him as a leading man until I saw You've Got Mail for the first time a few months ago. It's now one of my most favorite movies ever. :) But I think one of the reasons I like his voice is because whenever I hear it, I automatically think of Woody. Because I love Toy Story. In YGM, at the end, when he speaks but you can't see him, I am temporarily pulled away from the sweet story in front of me and I half expect to see Woody and Buzz coming around the corner.

Having said that, I am not talking about Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump accent at all. I'm sorry, but I have never liked that movie.

Matthew Thiessen.
Also known as the lead singer of my favorite band, Relient K. I really love his singing voice. I don't know that I've ever heard him just speaking (except maybe years ago at a concert), so I can't say much about that.

I don't write about music too much here on the blog. And when I do, it's mostly oldies music. To be honest, pretty much the only modern music I listen to are the bands listed here. But Relient K has been my favorite band for around 7 years now. The music is great, and the lyrics range from quirky to very introspective "oh my goodness, has he been reading my mind?" type lyrics. Relient K is a genuinely original band. Which is why I'm at a loss (and very disappointed) as to why they're releasing a covers album next month...

Jon Foreman.
Lead singer of my second favorite band, Switchfoot. I love his unusual voice. He also seems like such a nice, real person. And because acoustic Jon Foreman is one of the best things ever, he deserves three videos. :)

And just when you thought things couldn't get any better...a long story-song by Relient K with Jon Foreman at the very end. It gives me chills. (If you can't listen to it all, at least listen to the last minute of it.)

I've been working on this post for days, because it's so easy to get distracted on YouTube! I've got a female version coming up soon.

So make me feel like this post wasn't that weird...what are some voices (of guys, this time) that you all like for whatever reason?

Until next time,