Which singer has the highest recorded vocal range, according to science?
We’ve all heard it touted on talent shows and by stuffy critics, but exactly is a vocal range? Well, simply put, vocal range refers to the spectrum of notes that a singer can phonate. The singers with the greatest spectrum can smash a glass with a wail and blow the roof off with a bellow. But that’s not something that you can actually put all that simply, in truth. The fleeting notion doesn’t necessarily tell the whole tale in music; vocal delivery is a more complex equation than you might think.
You see, there are also singers out there like Jeff Buckley – who, spoiler alert, doesn’t make the top ten in the study below – however, he has a larger ‘chest voice’ vocal range than just about any of his contemporaries. Chest voice is typically the notes that carry a greater resonance because they seem to come from a singer’s gut; then there’s the ‘head voice’, which has a high register but perhaps doesn’t carry quite as much.
And neither of these elements even come close to equating to the ‘greatest singer’. In fact, many people in classical music, where vocal training is at the Olympic level, have a limited range; for instance, a Soprano is the highest registered female voice, with a range typically between C4 and C6. Such singers don’t waver too far out of their comfort zone in order to maintain a performative capacity to their voice, even when they’re bellowing without a microphone. Ironically, they train endlessly to impart a story rather than pull off a gymnastic feat.
A great modern singer on that front would be someone like Billie Eilish, who barely shifts her voice in pitch and uses the technology available to ensure she doesn’t have to strain above a whisper, but this outlook allows her to emotively convey a lot. There is also innovation to take into account. How much does originality and distinctiveness matter when it comes to singing?
In short, please don’t take the list below to be an arbiter of greatness. It is no doubt a show of skill, but the science of pitches does not necessarily make anything beautiful. It’s just a study of notes on a dial. Nevertheless, barring masters like Al Green, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, and Joe Cocker, the names below don’t stray too far from already accepted greats of the game. The inclusion of David Bowie adds yet more weight to the paradox of whether he can be an underrated vocalist when everybody now agrees that he’s an underrated vocalist, surely meaning that he is now a ‘rated’ vocalist.
The results for the list come from a study by Concert Hotels, who ran the records of just about every classic pop culture artist through a monitoring system and clocked the highest and lowest notes they’ve sung to create a vocal range league. The highest note they clocked was from Mariah Carey, while the lowest was from the typically falsettoed Axl Rose, who even eclipsed Barry White in the deep end stakes.
The study does not state how many artists were tested, so more obscure acts like Harry Nilsson, with a notable octave range, may not feature by virtue of unfortunate obscurity. Alas, there were hundreds tested and Mr Rose fairly triumphed. The results also seem to enforce this seeming Axl Rose oddity: those who usually sing higher have larger vocal ranges. For instance, I’m not sure Leonard Cohen ever slipped out of an anchored baritone for a second of his golden discography. However, people like Prince could chirp away and then growl without too much issue.
Another oddity in the mix when it comes to Rose it the fact that the athletic element of suc singing requires constant work and upkeep. Robert Plant referred to performing as a sports-like pursuit, but Guns N’ Roses were far from the TLC touring types. According to Foreigner frontman, Lou Gramm, this was Rose’s downfall. “Axl’s voice — he had a great range, but I could tell, because they toured a lot too, I could tell that he was damaging his vocal cords simply by the way he sang. And I know that when I sing, towards the end of the night, some of my high range starts to go a little bit,” he said.
Adding, “You kind of have to acknowledge the characteristics of your voice, and when they’re tired, if you keep pushing them at that level, they’re damaged and you shouldn’t be singing for the next six months.” Rose might have showed up an hour late and drunk, but there is nobody who doubts he pushed his singing to the limits—he even has a scientific tick to prove it, but he may have done so to such an extent that sustaining that lofty height proved impossible.
The 10 singers with the greatest vocal range:
- Axl Rose
- Mariah Carey
- Prince
- Steven Tyler
- James Brown
- Marvin Gaye
- Christina Aguilera
- David Bowie
- Paul McCartney
- Thom Yorke
