When was the singing voice of each individual Beach Boy at its best?

[El Molé]

I think Mike's vocals were best between Friends and Holland. His lead vocals in the earlier years work extremely well in their context and he was always a great front man for the live shows, but his studio vocals improved significantly in the late 60's and early 70's. 'Meant For You' and 'Big Sur' demonstrate this particularly well, but 'Aren't You Glad' might be a slightly earlier example (and Pet Sounds has some great Mike vocals too). The change between Holland and 15 Big Ones isn't a good one in my opinion and he suddenly seems very nasal and harsh. I don't know why this is but I do wonder if part of it was down to how much time and effort was put into vocal work and engineering up to Holland, that might not have been so rigorous afterwards. I find Mike hard to listen to at times after Holland, but absolutely love his work up to that point.

Carl is simply outstanding from Pet Sounds through to Holland. His vocals were always excellent, but I do think he peaked up to Holland and didn't quite hit the same magnificent heights afterwards. That said, his vocals after that point are still better than anyone else in the band and he remained one of the best in the business right to the end. There are some strange moments in the late 70's, particularly where his vocal appears to be slowed down slightly, but I still enjoy his voice. He's still sounds wonderful on '85, Kokomo, Somewhere Near Japan, Soul Searchin', I Wish For You etc etc. He even manages to prevent the Stamos/SIP version of Forever from being a complete and utter disaster. Irreplaceable.

Brian was the best singer in the group until Pet Sounds/Smile. After that we hear far less in the way of lead vocals, but I think he peaked in 66/67, with some good moments afterwards. I enjoy his 15BO and Love You Vocals despite the obvious the change in tone. There are some great moments later on after he'd lost the 'gruff' thing. I don't know exactly when it was recorded, but his 'Don't Let Her Know' demo vocal is beautiful and shows the he could still sing well, but some of the studio vocals don't sound quite so pure in the late 80's. He still had great delivery  and I think his vocals on things like 'Spirit of Rock and Roll' or 'Let's go to Heaven in My Car' are excellent, along with some of '88 (where he often sounds quite mechanical). Who knows what changed later, but at some point in the 90's he seemed to develop the slur and lost some of the power in his delivery. The OCA vocals are still strong and powerful, but by the time of Imagination his voice seems weaker, despite those vocals being pretty good. Comparing the 'Don't Let Her Know' demo with his some of his later solo work, he seems unable to sustain notes at the end of lines for any reasonable length. It's very obvious in live settings, but seems covered up somewhat in some of the studio work (although there are example that show he can still do it). It's almost as though he doesn't have the breath to do it like he used to (which is perfectly reasonable now, given his age).

His studio vocals have improved significantly in recent years and I think he's found a great style to fit his range and tone with the Gershwin/Disney albums. The only thing that bothers me slightly now is the slurring, which is often less obvious in the studio. He's definitely back in form with his recent run of work and I think he's reached a level of quality he hadn't shown since OCA. I wonder if he's able to devote more time to his lead vocals now that his band help so much with the backgrounds. I'd all but lost interest in solo Brian with GIOMH because the vocals were so poor (and they weren't the only problem). I wouldn't have bothered listening to any other artist putting out an album that shoddy and I honestly though he should give up as a singer, because almost anyone else could do better. It almost extinguished my interest in him as a solo artist, but I'm glad I didn't give up completely because his run from TLOS has been excellent and I think he's back to being a really good singer. There's always been a beautiful tone to his voice, and his technique seems to have improved enormously in recent years.

I think Al's voice might be at it's best now. The only time I'm not so keen on it is when he covered higher background parts in the late 70's (at least I think it's Al's voice in the blend that bothers me). His leads were always great and I think he sounds as good as ever on Postcards, with an added level of maturity that really suits his style. Given his work on TWGMTR I think these later years might be his peak.

Dennis was great between 20/20 and POB/Love You. After that it get's harder to ignore the obvious decline which seems to mirror his own personal decline, which makes it harder to listen to. He's seems to start to struggle at certain pitches which almost sound whispered. I don't know about vocal recording dates for POB material but 'Rainbows' is probably my favourite Dennis vocals, so I'll pick that as a peak.

Bruce - no idea. I don't personally think he's well suited to lead vocals, but he was incredible in the studio blend when Brian withdrew. A good singer, but I don't particularly enjoy any of his leads.
He sounds very good on TWGMTR, so all credit to him for his background work throughout the ages. His falsetto in the 60's and 70's was excellent.

[Ron]

Yup.  I'ts completely possible that Bruce's vocals have peaked on TWGMTR.  Check out the end of the song, i'm pretty sure that's him doing the "FOR FALLIN' IN LOVE!" line.  Sweet as hell, he's an inspiration for all of us who are slowly growing old as hell. 

[RangeRoverA1]

Bruce - all good except for BB85, go figure

For whatever reason, I really like that vocal on She Believes In Love Again. It sounds like he'd smoked a couple packs before hitting the studio 

I'll agree with Mr. Smith. Bruce's voice is terrifying on "She Believes...", would be better if he stuck to his mellow voice, however sappy it can be at times. In short, the toughness didn't work.

My choices:

Brian - 1966 (shining example - "Sloop John B", though technically it's 1965)
Carl - the 80s (shining example - "It's Gettin' Late". Such a terrific vocal!)
Al - the 70s (shining moment - alternate take of "Lady Lynda". Very impressive!)
Mike - the 70s (say whatever, but I'm really fond of his singing on "He Come Down", esp. the end of each verse. "Airplane" is another example, very beautiful performance)
Dennis - the 60s (bright example - "Do You Wanna Dance?" Believe it or not, but when I played this song for the 1st time, I thought it sounds very modern & recorded by some youngsters of current generation. Still think that way.)
Bruce - the 80s (I liked his vocs in "Endless Harmony" (though not a fan of the song itself). Dig those jazz flavors)

[Smile4ever]

El Mole, you believe Al did falsetto on the mid-70s Beach Boys work? Is he singing falsetto on "It's Ok" for example? I always thought that was Brian attempting to bring back his falsetto, but I could certainly be wrong.

[Smile4ever]

Also, I agree that Mike's vocals in the mid-70s certainly seemed to sound harsher. Almost like he was trying to exaggerate his early 60s style. Why did this happen? Was he literally trying to exaggerate his voice? Did he experience some sort of vocal degradation? What was going on?

[Nicko1234]

Carl - Up to 1973
Dennis - Ditto
Mike - Ditto
Brian - Ditto
Bruce - Up to 1980 or so
Al - In perpetuity

[southbay]

I honestly believe that, unlike Brian and Mike whose peaks were obviously much earlier, both Carl and Al got better with age. I would say that both peaked from 1985 onward; both had standout moments on the otherwise dreadful SIP album (Carl's harmonies on "Forever", and his leads on Lahaina, etc.; Al' vocals on Strange Things Happen and the Euro version of Boardwalk and Island Fever). In addition, Carl's live vocals from this era are stellar to my ear (GOK, Darlin, SOS), all stronger and grittier than in earlier years.  Jardine just keeps getting better. All subjective, of course...

[bluesno1fann]

Brian's peak was 1966-1967 vocally, he sounded the best then. The best example in my opinion would be "Surf's Up". After 67', he still sounded great, but sung fewer and fewer vocals. He went downhill after Holland. But even in his best, while he was undisputably the best falsetto singer of the band, he was always the overall 2nd best singer of the BB's. That honor of best singer goes to:

Carl. His voice never truely went downhill, but "God Only Knows" established him as the future main singer of the band, and rightly so. I'd say his vocal height would be the 70's. It's hard to give one example, there's far too many. As for 80's onwards, his voice got slightly deeper and rougher, but other than that, he still had his great voice. His death created a irreplacable hole in the band.

Dennis was never one of the best singers of the band. That being said, he was never one of the worst (even in his later years, mainly because he used his deterioating voice appropriatly, and to good effect). His stand out  vocally would be WIBNTLA. His height would be 1970 to 1973. Like Brian, his voice changed badly between 1974-1976, but unlike Brian, his voice just kept slowly deterioating, getting worse and worse until his death.

Mike's best vocally is hard to say, mainly because he sounds very similar for over 30 years. I'd say early 60's for him would be his vocal height. That being said, I can live without Mike, had he not been in the band, Al, Carl and Dennis could easily replace him vocally. Al and Bruce have the distinction of having the vocals that aged the best. Especially Al, whose vocals sound almost the same as he did 40 or so years ago. His vocal height would probably be the 70's, same with Bruce.

David, Blondie and Ricky i can't judge, as I haven't heard nearly enough vocals from them, past and present.

[hypehat]

Dennis' peak for me was 1969-1972 - typified by the very cool sound he gets on  Help Me Rhonda (1972), I mean, what a sweet sound he's getting. Or the way his voice cracks just so on WIBNTLA, or Forever. He always had a gift for making very intimate vocals. Of course that didn't change, but I prefer his voice less ravaged by coke and booze I guess.

[NateRuvin]

I really love Carl's voice in the 80's-90's. His voice saved so many songs like -cough-cough-KOKOMO