Cracked me up reading your review. My favorite singers of all-time were Roy Orbison and Marvin Gaye, so I do love the pure vocals. Still, I came to appreciate Waits's style after wincing a few times on a few songs initially. If "Elvis C" is for Mr. Dechlan McManus (aka Costello), I like him too. There is a conversation between him and Waits in "Innocent When You Dream (book of interviews with Waits)", he got Waits onto the Roy Orbison B&W special (with Springsteen and others), and he mentioned Waits in his Hall of Fame induction speech. Like you wrote, other artists love him.