Beach Boys Vocal Ranges

[zachrwolfe]

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[alf wiedersehen]

You mean Gb2?

[zachrwolfe]

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[Loves The Sunflower]

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... .

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.

[Fall Breaks]

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... .

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.

Slightly out of contest: Brian's slightly flat Bb5 at the end of "Forever (vocals only)".

[zachrwolfe]

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[Shane]

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"

[Amazing Larry]

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"

Dennis was sped up on that track, though.

[Jon Stebbins]

Example of Dennis hitting a high note at 1:51 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I0v2bVX8j4

[Loves The Sunflower]

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

The lowest vocal part I can find of Bruce are the "shut 'em down" lines in the choruses of "Hey Little Cobra" by The Rip Chords, which bottoms out on the already mentioned Bb2.

The lowest part I can find for Al is on his (officially unreleased, and far-too-mellow, IMO) 1996 re-recording of his own "California Saga: California". He bottoms out briefly (@ 0:59) on Ab2. I think the track is featured briefly in the "Endless Harmony" DVD towards the end. Haven't seen it in a while so I can't say precisely where in the DVD it is.   

[zachrwolfe]

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[Loves The Sunflower]

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

Welcome.

[Fall Breaks]

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".

On officially released product, you're probably right. However, since Al sang "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow" live circa 1966, his all time high could be there. Or maybe in the Landlocked version of "Loop de Loop"? Just going by memory here, unfortunately.

[alf wiedersehen]

I'm no good with this sorta thing, but Al certainly sings the coda of "Ticket to Ride" quite high on the beginning of the MiC version of "There's No Other."
Or at least I think that's Al.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

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

[retrokid67]

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.

Yup and Brian's falsetto (as usual) is very impressive on that song too and the acapella version is just...wow  great vocals

[runnersdialzero]

As I read through this thread, Jeezus, could a better group of vocalists have come about due to being family/neighbors?

Answer: No.

[zachrwolfe]

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[Ron]

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....

[zachrwolfe]

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[retrokid67]

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  beautiful

[bluesno1fann]

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  beautiful

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 

[adamghost]

Oh one thing I thought of after my post:  IIRC both Al and Bruce have done/did the ending "oo-woo" on "Fun Fun Fun" which I'm not mistaken the band played a half step up, in E.  If that's the case they both had a solid F#5.  Impressive!

[kookadams]

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.

didnt carl sing lead on steamboat? For years I thought it was dennis but Ive read many times it was carl.

[kookadams]

Wouldnt it be fair to say that Sunflower was THE last BBs album with their signature sound before brian and dennis' voices changed?