The Voice of The Beach Boys ?

[BillA]

Pre 1966 Brian or Mike

Post 1965 Carl

The difference between Brian, Mike and Carl is that when a song calls for soulful emotion the singer was either Brian or Carl.  On Mike's signature songs the least interesting part of the song is the lead vocal.  In fact, I have always believed that a Dennis lead on something like "I Get Around" would have given the song a little edge and been a cool contrast to the backgrounds.

[Magic Transistor Radio]

The website for Guilfest bills Brian as "the voice of The Beach Boys", which claim has excited a degree of debate on A. N. Other MB of an azure hue. True ? Not true ?  Well, it's all a matter of preference... or is it ? A quantative assessment is possible, if one takes into account the lead vocals on those songs that Joe Q. Public considers representative of the band's canon, the Top 40 singles.

There were 33 Top 40 charting titles (including 5 B sides and two Xmas chart hits that would most certainly have charted Top 40 were Billboard not so picky back then), and the statistical breakdown is as follows;

Mike - 57.8%
Carl - 19.4%
Brian - 11.3%
Alan - 7.3%
Dennis - 4.2%

All of which confirms what we all knew anyway, of course. 

I think if you take every song on every Beach Boys album the % of leads would be about the same. I haven't counted, but it looks about right. Maybe Brian would be much less and Carl, Dennis and Al would be a bit higher.

[Ron]

I think the variety of people singing Top 40 Beach Boy hits is what makes them special.  The simple answer to the question is Mike Love, but I wonder how many bands have had 4 different members sing lead or part lead on their number 1 hits.

The Temptations come to mind... and only the Temptations come to mind. 

[Zach95]

when I opened this thread and saw that the first post was from 2009, my first thought was "oh, I bet RangeRoverA1 responded to this".

 

It's cool with me, I wasn't around here in 2009 so I enjoy this!

[drbeachboy]

I think the variety of people singing Top 40 Beach Boy hits is what makes them special.  The simple answer to the question is Mike Love, but I wonder how many bands have had 4 different members sing lead or part lead on their number 1 hits.

The Temptations come to mind... and only the Temptations come to mind. 

As far as Top 40 hits go, did all 5 Temps have a full lead vocal? I know after David left they shared lead vocals, but I wonder if they did full leads like The Beach Boys did?

[Ron]

Not to the same extent, and someone more knowledgeable can chime in, but off the top of my head

David Ruffin - My Girl, It's Growin', etc.

Eddie - My Imagination

Dennis - Cloud 9

That's 3 distinct singers singing big hits, if we can find one more we're there

[BillA]

I think the variety of people singing Top 40 Beach Boy hits is what makes them special.  The simple answer to the question is Mike Love, but I wonder how many bands have had 4 different members sing lead or part lead on their number 1 hits.

The Temptations come to mind... and only the Temptations come to mind. 

The Beatles - all four sang atleast one number one song

Fleetwood Mac

The Eagles

The Doobies had 3 members sing top tem hits

[drbeachboy]

It is amazing that The Beach Boys had 5 different lead vocalists score a Top 20 hit record.
Except for Dennis coming in at #12, all 5 would have had a Top 10 hit.