The Smiley Smile Message Board

I would have to agree with you on Dennis. I've heard him reach, IIRC, from around D2 (on Steamboat) to about an E5 (Got To Know The Woman). To give some perspective, the D2 is a whole tone below the lowest note a bass singer will commonly be asked to sing, or three semitones below Mike's low note of the intro of Soulful Old Man Sunshine (F2). The high note is only a semitone below Brian's high Surf's Up note (F5). That makes for just over three octaves in total.

Carl is actually around the same, reaching a G2 in low extremes (Smiley Wonderful), and, assuming the harmony above Brian in Surf's Up is him, an A5 in high extremes (only a semitone below the high "me" in Bohemian Rhapsody). This makes for the same three octaves and a whole tone.

Brian has probably gone down to around an F2, and his highest is probably around G5 (Monkey's Uncle), or slightly higher. That makes him even with Carl and Dennis for size of range.

Bruce, as Cristoph said, had probably the weakest low range, reaching about Bb2, but also probably had the strongest high voice, reaching notes in the fifth octave quite comfortably, even now in his old age. His high extreme is probably around an Ab5 (Mission Pak from Smile). This gives him a range of almost three octaves (minus a major second).

The lowest note Mike has reached is probably around D2 (Hot Fun in the Summertime) to about an A4 (All I Want To Do, All I Wanna Do). That gives him 2 octaves and a diminished fifth (at least I think that's the term for six semitones...).

I can't think of an instance of Al going below a Bb2... and his highest is probably the Eb5 on Don't Go Near The Water. This gives him the smallest range, with only two octaves and a perfect fourth.

I would have to agree with you on Dennis. I've heard him reach, IIRC, from around D2 (on Steamboat) to about an E5 (Got To Know The Woman). To give some perspective, the D2 is a whole tone below the lowest note a bass singer will commonly be asked to sing, or three semitones below Mike's low note of the intro of Soulful Old Man Sunshine (F2). The high note is only a semitone below Brian's high Surf's Up note (F5). That makes for just over three octaves in total.

Carl is actually around the same, reaching a G2 in low extremes (Smiley Wonderful), and, assuming the harmony above Brian in Surf's Up is him, an A5 in high extremes (only a semitone below the high "me" in Bohemian Rhapsody). This makes for the same three octaves and a whole tone.

Brian has probably gone down to around an F2, and his highest is probably around G5 (Monkey's Uncle), or slightly higher. That makes him even with Carl and Dennis for size of range.

Bruce, as Cristoph said, had probably the weakest low range, reaching about Bb2, but also probably had the strongest high voice, reaching notes in the fifth octave quite comfortably, even now in his old age. His high extreme is probably around an Ab5 (Mission Pak from Smile). This gives him a range of almost three octaves (minus a major second).

The lowest note Mike has reached is probably around D2 (Hot Fun in the Summertime) to about an A4 (All I Want To Do, All I Wanna Do). That gives him 2 octaves and a diminished fifth (at least I think that's the term for six semitones...).

I can't think of an instance of Al going below a Bb2... and his highest is probably the Eb5 on Don't Go Near The Water. This gives him the smallest range, with only two octaves and a perfect fourth.

What's that high note that Carl hits in "Surf's Up" -- the one in "Columnated ruins domino"?

F5

Hasn't it been intimated that Carl only hit that note with some studio trickery?

I'm not sure as I've heard at least one live version with Carl singing that note.

Wasn't it the A5 in the background harmonies that was studio trickery'd?

Maybe. I was referring to the F5 though.

Re: Mike's vocal range:

On "All I Want To Do" (from "20/20") and "All I Wanna Do" (from "Sunflower"), he hits A4. On the former, he does so repeatedly and in full voice (it's more of an early James Hetfield-flavored yell than singing, as such) and on the latter @ 1:22 (the end of the line "Gentle thought comes in my mind") he does a bit of a falsetto that peaks on the A4. Granted, these are the exceptions on the high end for him, but...

On the lower end, he does a D2 in "Hot Fun In The Summertime" (on "Summer In Paradise"), which begins @ 0:06. Think that's the lowest part he's ever done (on record).

Re: Brian:

On "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" (from "Beach Boys Concert"), he manages to hit A5 towards the end of the song (@ 2:05). I think this song is a good example of the top end of his range in general, circa 1964, and the relative ease with which he transitions between natural/full voice and falsetto is always amazing to me. And I'm the one that always bitches about cover songs on BB records... :lol.

On the lower end, as already mentioned, when he's done "Good Vibrations" live in the last 10-15 years, he always seems to take Mike's bass part in the choruses.

There's one note that comes to my mind that hasn't been discussed: Dennis' high note on "Slip On Through"

"Come on, won't you let me be, by your SIIIIIIDEEE for now to eternity"

... (particularly evidence of Bruce's and Al's low range, the weak points of the post). :-D

Thanks! I haven't even heard much of the band's solo stuff but I knew there'd be examples like those somewhere.

I can't think of an instance of Al going below a Bb2... and his highest is probably the Eb5 on "Don't Go Near The Water".

Dennis does basically falsetto all over the place on "Slip On Through" .... Greaf showoff for his impressive range. He even throws in some vibrato on both high and low parts.

I think you can make a good argument that this group had the finest collection of singing voices of any group of all time... and as pointed out, it was all natural without even any vocal lessons.  The weakest singer was who, Dennis?  Mike?  They both had fantastic voices.  Their worst singer was better than most bands lead. 

Closest collection of singing talent I can think of is the Tempting Temptations, but even they fall at the feet of the mighty Beach Boys....

yup, and I know this has been said before but even with 3 people instead of the regular 5 (or 6) sound just as great; I was just listening to "Wishing You Were Here" Al, Denny, and Carl  :listening beautiful

Dennis has has hit notes on record from D2 (on "Steamboat") to an E5 ("Got To Know The Woman"). To give some perspective, the D2 is a whole tone below the lowest note a bass singer will commonly be asked to sing, or three semitones below Mike's low note of the intro of "Soulful Old Man Sunshine" (F2). The high note is only a semitone below Brian's high "Surf's Up" note (F5). Some other impressive examples include "Shortenin' Bread" (F2) and "Slip On Through" (a very full C#5, and quite impressively sounds to be in full voice).

Carl is actually really close to the same, reaching a F#2 in low extremes (Smiley's "Wonderful"), and, assuming the harmony above Brian in Surf's Up is him, an A5 in high extremes (only a semitone below the high "me" in "Bohemian Rhapsody"). If that note is indeed a result of studio trickery, than his highest note is either whatever note he actually sang the harmony before it was sped up to normal speed, or the lead on the same song, hitting a very comfortably-sounding (albeit likely falsetto) F5.

Though there were early instances where he sang in the upper regions of the 2nd octave (like the bass part's Ab2 in the "Don't Talk" vocal snippet), the earliest instance of musical-sounding low notes from Brian I can think of is "Love To Say Dada", where he hits a G2 and touches an F2. Around the same period, the Rock With Me Henry version of "Wonderful" displays him trying to hit an Ab1 (though admittedly doesn't do a very good job), which is an octave below the bass part's lowest note in the "Don't Talk" vocal snippet. Later on, there was "Shortenin' Bread", where he hit an F2 quite comfortably, and nowadays he sings an F#2 often, in "Good Vibrations." His highest musical-sounding note is a G5 ("Monkey's Uncle"), or slightly higher. However, he has been known to scream notes higher than that for effect, such as his Bb5 at the end of the "Forever" A capella, or his A5 at the end of Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow from "Beach Boys Concert."

Bruce, as Cristoph said, had probably the weakest low range, singing down to a Bb2 on "Hey Little Cobra" by The Rip Chords, but also probably had the strongest high voice, reaching notes in the fifth octave quite comfortably, even now in his 70's. His high extreme is an Ab5 ("Mission Pak" from Smile).

The lowest note Mike has reached on record is a D2 ("Hot Fun in the Summertime"), and the highest on non-filler tracks would be about an A4 ("All I Want To Do," "All I Wanna Do"), but he also reached a C# during "Cassius Love vs. Sonny Wilson," but was likely trying to have it sound as bad as possible for comic value (parodying Brian), and hit a D5 while singing "Ticket To Ride" during the pre-song banter of "There's No Other" from the Made In California boxed set. Al later joins in.

The lowest note Al has sung on record is likely a G2, which he sung on his cover ("cover") of Cali Saga from Postcard. His highest on officially-released record is likely the Eb5 on "Don't Go Near The Water". However, on the Landlocked version of "Loop de Loop," he hits a lot of high notes in the verses, but tops out at F#5 (same note as the first voice peaks at on "Friends"). Some other, notable examples are his Eb5 on "Don't Go Near the Water" and as mentioned in the Al section, his D5 singing "Ticket To Ride" on "There's No Other" from MIC.

Agreed, even if I can only mainly recognize Carl's voice in that. It's a shame Denny got replaced by Mike in the video  >:(

BTW, hope no-one is bothered by me assembling this information in one place. Just thought it might be useful for others with the same question to refer to.