Comments on: High note?

Question: High note?

Cosine — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 23:26:34 -0800

What's the highest note in a hit rock/pop song by a male vocalist?

I've heard different opinions on this, that Sheriff song, Art on 'Bridge Over Troubled Waters', the high note in the vocal solo in Mr. Big's 'To Be With You' or maybe when Roger Taylor tops the last note of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'with a B-flat, almost 2 octaves above middle C, in falsetto. Any other good suggestions?

By: Zaire4Ever32

Zaire4Ever32 — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 23:43:11 -0800

Chris Cornell hits a B-flat in "smokestack lightning" from Soundgarden's album "Ultramega OK," and an A-flat in "Say Hello 2 Heaven" from Temple of the Dog.

By: jimmythefish

jimmythefish — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 23:52:05 -0800

I couldn't find the notes but Justin Hawkins of The Darkness gets pretty high in I Believe In A Thing Called Love.

By: afx114

afx114 — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:11:05 -0800

Nitro ?

By: mattr

mattr — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:34:40 -0800

I'm guessing here - but anything by Jimmy Sommerville (Bronski Beat) should be pretty high.

By: divabat

divabat — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 01:00:57 -0800

Darren Hayes hits high notes in "I Knew I Loved You" and "Insatiable".

By: esilenna

esilenna — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 01:31:33 -0800

Morten Harket from AHA with "Take On Me" ?

By: yellowcandy

yellowcandy — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 01:37:05 -0800

I'd have gone with Morten as well. It's that last '...in a DAY' that awes me every time.

By: Brittanie

Brittanie — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 02:17:25 -0800

The guy from Led Zepplin supposedly has a 12-octave range but I heard that from some stoner so who knows.

By: chrismear

chrismear — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 02:33:30 -0800

As far as I can tell, Take On Me only goes up to the E a tenth above middle C. And I think I Believe In A Thing Called Love hits the G# above that. Which is just below that high B flat in Bohemian Rhapsody.

By: jbickers

jbickers — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 03:19:41 -0800

afx114 has it - Jim Gillette. Sounded so intense back then, so silly now.

By: Doofus Magoo

Doofus Magoo — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 03:45:19 -0800

I sure as hell can't identify the notes by listening, but what about something sung by Freddi Curci (of the power ballad bands Alias and Sheriff)? I remember being impressed by his range back in the day.

And, "the guy from Led Zeppelin?" Freakin' kids... :) BTW, eight is the world record, and Mariah Carey goes 7.

By: Doofus Magoo

Doofus Magoo — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 03:57:40 -0800

Whoops, sorry. Didn't notice you mentioned Sheriff in the question.

By: rxrfrx

rxrfrx — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 04:32:11 -0800

Yeah, if you count Michael Jackson's spontaneous vocal explosions, those are probably way higher than other high notes.

By: esilenna

esilenna — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 04:43:35 -0800

I've never heard of him before today so I don't know if he uses his full range in his pop music, but maybe something sung by Adam Lopez qualifies?

According to the wikipedia article about him "He is currently a Guinness World Record holder for singing the highest note by a male a half step above the C in the 8th octave (C#8)."

By: jessenoonan

jessenoonan — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 05:36:56 -0800

I don't know from these "notes" and "octaves" and such and such, but at the end of "World's On Fire" from The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death, Paul Heaton of the Housemartins makes a very high-pitched sound for a very long time.

By: pazazygeek

pazazygeek — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 06:10:36 -0800

I don't have the sheet music, but the high note that Freddie Mercury hits in "Under Pressure" (the duet with David Bowie) seems pretty freaking high to me. I'm a girl and I can't sing it, it's too high. Nor can I sing the high note in "I Believe In A Thing Called Love". If you're looking for extremely high notes sung by men in pop songs, I'm guessing that Freddie is your man.

You could also look back to 80s hair metal, that band Slaughter had a singer with an extremely high voice.

By: josher71

josher71 — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 06:19:42 -0800

This question has been answered. NITRO!!!

By: saladin

saladin — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 06:51:58 -0800

Boston's lead singer could hit some sensationally high notes, without resorting to falsetto.

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 07:17:11 -0800

I can't believe that nobody yet has mentioned Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 07:23:28 -0800

Cosine asks for a male vocalist, but doesn't specify post-pubescent. Would a boy soprano be cheating in this case?

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:05:13 -0800

According to the wikipedia article about him "He is currently a Guinness World Record holder for singing the highest note by a male a half step above the C in the 8th octave (C#8)."

I'd say there you have it, but you specified a "pop/rock" song, so maybe that's not good enough.

Middle C is C4, for the non-musicians, so this guy was 4 octaves plus a semitone above that. C8 is referred to as "triple top C" and has a fundamental frequency of 4186 Hz. A common range for a tenor only extends up to A4.

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:08:22 -0800

Minnie Riperton?

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:09:22 -0800

Oh, whoops, didn't notice the "male" part, doh..

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:23:24 -0800

How do we know that a pitch modulator, tape speed manipulation or any other technology was not used to manufacture any of these high notes?

By: tsmo

tsmo — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:34:30 -0800

Klaus Nomi? He's pop, right?

By: lockedroomguy

lockedroomguy — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 09:04:03 -0800

By: klarck

klarck — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 09:13:03 -0800

In "Love, Reign O'er Me", I think Daltry hits high E...that is, if you have a loose definition of "hits".

By: fvox13

fvox13 — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 09:24:58 -0800

Full voice? Probably the C above middle C, maybe a 3rd higher. Head voice / falsetto? Probably another 5th above that.

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 09:40:17 -0800

This thread is making progressively less sense.

By: Flashman

Flashman — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:18:53 -0800

Somebody should offer a good answer so we can end it on a high note.

By: Cosine

Cosine — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:22:56 -0800

Freddie Mercury was a superstar for sure but his voice did not go as high as Roger's, that's why Freddie gave him those parts to sing.

Nothing on this list that I have heard is higher than the Roger Taylor notes in Bohemian Rhapsody (cue it up to 4:00 in the track for Roger's high-note), he also hits it as the opening to 'In the Lap of the Gods', first note of the song.

So far I think Roger Taylor (a drummer of all people!) hasn't been surpassed, remember we are talking about 'hit' songs here.

By: ericb

ericb — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:54:24 -0800

Morten Harket from AHA with "Take On Me" ?

I think you were thinking about the record he does hold.

"Morten Harket holds the world record for the longest note held in a song. During the song "Summer Moved On" Morten sustains a note for 20.2 seconds.^* "[He] managed to outlast Bill Withers' effort in Lovely Day..."^*

By: jbickers

jbickers — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 11:58:18 -0800

Hey josher71 and jbickers - maybe the guy in Nitro hit the highest note by a male in a hit pop/rock song, but if so - which note, which hit rock/pop song? Nitro is not enough information to answer the actual question.

I'm not knocking the Nitro answer, just saying we shouldn't discourage more details or different answers (by saying, "This question has been answered") until, well, the question has been answered.

Yeah, I certainly don't want to discourage other responses ... but I think the whole deal with Nitro was that he did it all the damn time, like on every song. I remember there being ads in guitar magazines back then about all the records broken on the latest Nitro record (the guitarist, if I recall, was a shredder going for the notes-per-minute thing).

Any any rate, here's sexy Gillette himself blowing a gasket.

More metal geek goodness from AMG:

Heavy metal outfit Nitro boasted "the fastest, loudest, highest sound around" -- frontman Jim Gillette's chief claim to fame was his ability to achieve a scream so high-pitched and piercing that it literally shattered the imported crystal wine goblets he carried on-stage for each performance. Gillette first met guitarist Michael Angelo at a beach party, and they soon collaborated on the former's 1987 solo album, Proud to Be Loud. While the singer was already known in metal circles for his instructional video series, Jim Gillette's Metal Power, Angelo was famed for inventing the Double V-Neck guitar, and in Nitro he pushed the concept to its illogical extreme with the Quad Guitar X-400, an axe with four necks in an X formation, each featuring seven strings.

Here's an interview that claims he can sing two notes at once (not even sure what that means, unless one of them is coming out of his ass - hell, I can do that). And you too can have a "mind-blowing 6-octave range," with help from his exclusive DVD. The Dream Theater kids have talked about this too, but it always ends in an argument about whether or not falsetto counts.

By: Cosine

Cosine — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 12:03:22 -0800

I would say of course falsetto counts, it makes no difference to the note you hit, falsetto is just a change in tone.

FWIW: The lovely note that the totally cheesy Mr. Big guy hits near the end of 'To Be With You' seems to not have the falsetto "tone" but that's just my uneducated ears speaking.

By: 6550

6550 — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 12:31:08 -0800

You might find the Wikipedia article on Castrato interesting. Obviously it's not rock/pop but they do link to have a links to songs by the only Castrato ever recorded, Allesandro Moreschi.

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 12:41:21 -0800

Here's an interview that claims he can sing two notes at once (not even sure what that means, unless one of them is coming out of his ass - hell, I can do that)

Overtone singing

By: Justin Case

Justin Case — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:36:23 -0800

I don't know anything about notes or octaves but I know that Rik Emmett of Triumph could hit some high ones.

By: afx114

afx114 — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:00:16 -0800

Nitro was also featured on the episode of Mythbusters where they tried to see if a human voice could really shatter a crystal glass. He was successful in doing so. Maybe MetaFilter's own asavage could chime in.

However, breaking glass is more about hitting the resonant frequency of the glass than hitting the highest note you can.

For some "singing two notes at once" check out Huun Huur Tu. Even more interesting than their throat singing are the couple of tracks they recorded on horseback. No shitting...

By: spitbull

spitbull — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 19:46:26 -0800

It all depends if you mean falsetto or chest voice, but you ain't heard shit until you've heard Gene Watson end "Farewell Party." Yeah, it's country.

By: josher71

josher71 — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:32:31 -0800

Ah, well I misread the question. I was pretty excited to talk about Nitro though.