Deano
Are you high or stupid? She was good but she isn't no Celine Dion, Leanne Rymes or Barbra Steisand. .
None of these come close to Karen Carpenter. Are you saying Phil Ramone ( if you know who that is ) who produced her solo album is wrong too. Phil was a big fan of her voice, a few years ago a tribute album of carpenters music was released, a heavy metal version of their songs, try that with Dion/Streisand. Everyone involved said how much they were influenced by The Carpenters music.
Its ok to come out of the closet and admit you " get it " I'm not limited to one genre of music,...... Doh!
Edit : Most bands mentioned so far are the usual by the book. Get real and tell whom you really admire. Everyone knows Journey, Chicago, Nightranger. The original poster mentioned there must be bands out there that can harmonise as good as Queen. We all know and love the ones already mentioned, maybe list a few closet classics, so what if you get a bagging, who cares.
What about Abba for harmonies, writing, producing and studio innovation, not cool enough, yet any musician worth his salt will tell you ( if their honest ) they were influenced by them too. Remember The Black Sweden a cool ( tongue in cheek maybe ) Rock CD version of Abba music.
Oh yep, I like The Sweet for layered falsetto harmonies too, another big innfluence on bands today and on the by the book bands listed.