Owen Korzec

Thanks for pointing that out, that's awesome to know. Extraordinary songwriting in this tune, both the lyrics and the music, and especially how they fit together.

May I humbly recommend the moderators of Vocalist world forum to create a new section called "This is awesome, just come and applaud" and move songs like this to this section!! 

Let me ramble a bit to help understand how Bolton got to where he was. I have read his memoirs and I suggest everyone should, whether you are fan of his music, or not. 
Anyway, he started out as a rock singer and he plays a number of instruments. 8 albums that went nowhere and 8 tours that were abysmal and ended in the red.
He was planning his 9th album and the producer he always worked with made a simple suggestion. He had done a demo of "Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding, pretty much how he would sing it as a "ballad" on his club dates. And the producer mangaged to convince him to put out a "soul" album. And, after 20 years of being a non-successful rock singer, he became an "over night" sensation as a soul singer and that album blew up on the charts.
So, don't be afraid to go where your voice takes you, even if it is not what you were expecting, at first.
 

This is a great song to work on, I'm working on it too but you will get the most benefit if you practice it the way my coach has told me to - trying to imitate every little nuance and subtlety that Peabo does. You can always go back after you've learned the exact way he sings it and make it your own but the main problems with you are NOT range - your range is completely there and fine and your mindset being caught up on that (btw this is happening to like 75% of the people on this forum, either with range and/or power) has distracted you from other subtle weaknesses you have as a SINGER and if you compare back and forth between yourself and Peabo you will hear them very profoundly and you will be like WOAH that's why Peabo is so amazing and I'm just another singer. So then you practice those amazing things he does and try to learn them exactly and you become a better singer! This is a commonly overlooked aspect of vocal training some folks don't seem to be aware of.

Your main areas to improve to bring your singing ability closer to the original version are:
 
-singing the exact lyrics with good diction. 
-learn every "riff" he does exactly, nail every little pitch even if it's fleeting.
-learn every dynamic subtlety (changes of volume anywhere in the phrases) he does exactly. You are already doing okay on this but there are a few key moments you missed
 
Work on this song phrase by phrase (play a phrase of the original, pause it, listen back and imitate and keep working to do all of the above at the same quality he is, repeat this until it sounds the same, then move to the next phrase. You will become a KILLER singer if you work on ALL your songs that way!!!
 
Just some main critiques to start you off:
-really nail the pronunciation of "shimmering", he sings it as three syllables not two.
-On "tell me Princess" notice how Peabo backs off to nearly a whisper on the syllable "ess" - make sure you catch that
-The lyric is "when did you LAST let your heart decide" (you sang JUST). Also, pay attention to the transition from "did" to "you", you are not doing it as smooth as he has
-you didn't do his incredibly beautiful riff on "ride"
-you didn't do his incredibly beautiful riff on "world"
-(there are some other incredibly beautiful teeny riffs and subtleties you missed, i want you to see if you can find them by ear  )
-the lyric is "where to go" not "where we go"

Now I don't really know what kind of person you are but there are a lot of people who will look at this type of training negatively as trying to become a carbon copy of the original and thus losing your originality. The problem is that all the greatest singers in the world have carbon copied a handful of singers and mixed that with their original style too and blended those qualities into a refined original style and THAT'S how they sound unique AND amazing. A lot of people use the desire for uniqueness as an excuse to never pay attention to anything other brilliant singers are doing and frankly that's why they just never become good singers. And since Peabo is really a master, I highly recommend you really STUDY what he does and CRAVE to live up to it rather than just ignoring his mastery in fear it will take away your uniqueness. It will not, it will make you a way better singer. As far as the risk of carbon copying - this is why you do this kind of practice with 5 or 6 master singers and combine it into your own style. And be sure not to ignore your unique strengths as well, just don't let your unique weaknesses bring you down! I'm not sure what your unique strengths are from hearing this, maybe your tone (usually I recommend imitating Peabo's tone too and that's what I'm doing, but yours seems great for the song too so maybe keep it) but I'm sure you'll figure them out over time. Most singers have no problem maintaing their individual strengths.

To be perfectly clear, you still did a good job overall. I just wanted to drive home the point that Peabo is still MILES ahead of you and I and everyone on this forum, in his mastery as a SINGER - he is nearly a perfect model singer, and you have a golden opportunity to become a much closer to that, right in front of you, ready to study, the second you stop being afraid of imitating him. I've just learned a lot personally from working on singing this song with the intent to absorb Peabo's mastery rather than just singing through it in with the same mediocre habits I've been singing with for years.

Cheers and have fun with this tune. If you seriously work on improving it for a long time it will build your voice extremely well. Great start 

You're WAAAAY too nasal, that's why the tone doesn't sound great. The back of your throat is extremely pinched up, just take a look in the mirror singing with a tall mouth and you'll see it. You need to work on raising your soft palate a lot more, and perhaps relaxing your tongue down a bit too, but mainly the soft palate needs to raise and close up the nasal cavity so you can place the resonance in the back of your head instead of forward through your nose. Aim for an very tall opening in the back of the mouth behind all vowels and for none of the air/sound to come through your nose, you want to get it to where the tone doesn't change if you pinch your nose while singing vowels. It's a very hard thing to coordinate and may take you many months to fix completely but good luck on your journey!!!

To answer some of the questions you asked Jarom - it's happening through the entire song and lowering the larynx is NOT the solution. It can sometimes be a symptom of the solution, it is natural for the larynx to lower as the soft palate raises, but to keep a long explanation short, lowering the larynx alone won't fix the tone problem for you.

Your vowel mods are hard to hear through the nasality but I would bet they aren't that weak - you are actually doing pretty well, this nasality is just covering up the beauty of what you've developed - once you open up that back of the throat over months of really focusing on that concept, I think you'll be pleasantly shocked by the difference!

You're WAAAAY too nasal, that's why the tone doesn't sound great. The back of your throat is extremely pinched up, just take a look in the mirror singing with a tall mouth and you'll see it. You need to work on raising your soft palate a lot more, and perhaps relaxing your tongue down a bit too, but mainly the soft palate needs to raise and close up the nasal cavity so you can place the resonance in the back of your head instead of forward through your nose. Aim for an very tall opening in the back of the mouth behind all vowels and for none of the air/sound to come through your nose, you want to get it to where the tone doesn't change if you pinch your nose while singing vowels. It's a very hard thing to coordinate and may take you many months to fix completely but good luck on your journey!!!

To answer some of the questions you asked Jarom - it's happening through the entire song and lowering the larynx is NOT the solution. It can sometimes be a symptom of the solution, it is natural for the larynx to lower as the soft palate raises, but to keep a long explanation short, lowering the larynx alone won't fix the tone problem for you.

Your vowel mods are hard to hear through the nasality but I would bet they aren't that weak - you are actually doing pretty well, this nasality is just covering up the beauty of what you've developed - once you open up that back of the throat over months of really focusing on that concept, I think you'll be pleasantly shocked by the difference!

Killer Ku, he has great pitch here. It's riding on the center of the pitches (that's what you want 98% of the time) but he's still allowing it to have some freedom either way for a more soulful bluesy quality, very consistent with the stylistic expectations. So I don't really know what you're getting at.