Alright, my question is simply this: Does Lesley Gore have perfect pitch?
Now I know that's a silly question, and please don't just automatically assume Ms. Gore isn't anything legendary. For years, something about her voice has slightly annoyed me, and I've came to the conclusion that it's probably because she hits every note, dead on.
As I understand it, Relative pitch means most people sing notes relative to one another, so maybe each note is 5 vibrations short of being dead on, but since they're ALL that way, it sounds good. Some of the greatest singers in the world do this. Others have 'perfect pitch', meaning that they can hear exactly when the vibrations are perfect on a note. So if they have the ability, they sing perfect on note. Just because they have perfect pitch doesn't mean they sing perfectly, though, they may not have the ability, or flub a note.
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Last night, I saw a show on t.v. that was one of those pbs shows where they do oldies. Out came Lesley Gore. Remember she's a little younger than others because she started at 13. Anyways, Much of the power is gone out of her voice. However; she was still, dead on the melody all the way through the song, and it still sounded slightly annoying.
So my question to the music theorists is, is she in fact singing in perfect key and my ears just aren't used to that? Is it simply the tone of her voice? Is she in fact singing relatively shrill and I'm used to hearing most people sing relatively flat?
Please, for the love of god, keep autotune out of this, i'm just talking about vocal theory and Ms. Gore certainly wasn't using autotune back 'n the day.
Any experts care to chime in on their opinions? Just for background material, here's "Sunshine and Lollipops"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQmBXEZEYtgIn my opinion the strange sound of that double track is because she's singing in perfect pitch. At the end when the background chorus comes in, it also sounds strange hearing her disposed over that because she sounds slightly different than they all do.
Here's "Maybe I Know"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBBVkF7IV3oAgain, very strange sounding to me, especially the harmony part with the "I know it's Me! There! Talking About!" when she rises the melody up a little bit. Again with "He Really Loves Me!" etc.
finally, here she is live a few months ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QN6feGBQJcNOtice even her ad libs seem dead in key.
By 'annoying' I'm not saying it doesn't sound good, I'm just saying that it's noticeably different than most things I hear. I love her music and her voice.
Any opinions? I'm not much on Music Theory, just been annoyed by this for DECADES, lol.
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