Lennon's High Notes
ian hammond
>Well, I can't recall any songs were Lennon hit any high A's in full
>voice. I'm just going by the range I've heard from Lennon on Beatles
>recordings to formulate my opinion.
Here's what Lennon said about the bridge in _A Hard Day's Night_:
The only reason he [Paul] sang on Hard Day's Night was because I
couldn't reach the notes. [Singing] "When I'm home, everything
seems to be all right. When I'm home...". -- which is what we do
sometimes. One of us couldn't reach a note but he wanted a
different sound, so he'd get the other to do the harmony.
Lennon DSL148
We know that Lennon gave away at least two other parts with a
high A: "No Reply" third clause and "Day Tripper" first half of verse.
Here's my working notes on the topic:
We distinquish between "full voice", "shouting/calling" and "falsetto".
"I Saw Her Standing There" - crossover falsetto B in bridge
"Please Please Me" - ditto in tag chorus
"Twist And Shout" - "BABy" short A, and he tends to crack
"Money" - held A's on last verse. Shouted.
"Rock And Roll Music" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" are in A
but the high note is generally the tonic 7th G,
"This Boy" has a full luscious high A-G-F# in the bridge. This
would have been more than suitable for AHDN.
"I Should Have Known Better" - lots of high G's. Held.
No A. Great leap to a B - but it's not full voice.
"No Reply" demo - "light" - high A. Unison with Paul.
But in the final session he gave the line to McCartney.
"When I Get Home" - "whoa-ah" - high held A. Is that Lennon?
Lennon sings a high G in the bridge. It's an uncharacteristic 2nd.
Perhaps he had trouble hitting the third.
"Tell Me Why" - gap between F and falsetto A-B in bridge.
"Day Tripper" begins on a high A. Lennon says he wrote it.
McCartney sang lead in the first half of the verse.
Lennon takes back lead for the second half where he
goes up to a G. In the last verse he hits a falsetto C.
"Help" has a high held A for the feature "please" at the end
of the chorus. Is this full voice? It's wrapped in harmony.
"Lose That Girl" - high A in harmony leading to bridge.
"Rain" - held G. Voice strained.
"I'm So Tired" - "I'm going insane" is not falsetto. Shouted.
"Monkey" - "take it easy" - held A. Shouted?
"Sexy Sadie" - falsetto A, B and C. D in coda.
"I Want You" - falsetto A, B and C.
"Yer Blues" - lots of A ("you know what its worth")
Generally speaking: G was the upper limit of his usual range.
He could get A for short notes or possibly for particular vowell
sounds, note how he sings "but oh MY" in "This Boy".
B and C were the preferred falsetto notes. He leap to these,
crossing harmony parts, even taking over the lead vocal,
early on.
Around the White Album he started using the high A more,
still usually by shouting/calling.
McCartney and Lennon followed Mick Jagger ("Sympathy
For The Devil") up into the 'stratosphere' on "Hey Jude"
and "Don't Let Me Down".
In his solo career Lennon went for higher notes, possibly
because there was no-one else to do them. We all have to
peel our own grapes sooner or later.
--
ian
wtripp
range. My Volume I, under construction, has the following notes on the
vocal ranges of JL, GH, and PM, in their pre-1964 solo recordings.
Note how rarely JL hits a1 full-voice. We don't have a pre-1964
recording of John singing "Words of Love," where he reaches comfortably
down to low A:
Given in Exx. 1.23-5 are representations of the
[insert Exx. 1.23 through 1.25 about here--sorry; not in ascii format .
. .]
vocal ranges in lead vocal performances as recorded before 1964, of
Lennon (Ex. 1.23), McCartney (Ex. 1.24) and Harrison (Ex. 1.25). The
strongest, most characteristic part of each singer's range is given in
open noteheads connected by a vertical line; this characteristic range
is surrounded by several filled noteheads which represent occasional
highest or lowest notes in songs with extreme ranges. Diamond-shaped
noteheads are the highest falsetto pitches in specific songs.
Presented along with Exx. 1.23-5 is Table 1.1, listing the pre-1964
songs performed by each of the singers (thus suggesting individual
style preferences), arranged from lowest to highest ranges. The range
contains only notes sung in full voice; any pitch shown after a slash
represents the song's highest note sung in falsetto. Not included are
songs that have vocal parts by two or more singers throughout. Those
that have no backing vocals whatsoever are marked "S."
Table 1.1: Pre-1964 Vocal Repertoires
John Lennon:
"To Know Her is To Love Her" (B-cs1)
"Bad to Me" (B-ds1) [S]
"Soldier of Love" (B-g1) (widest)
"Where Have You Been All My Life" (cs-fs1)
"I Got a Woman" (cs-g1) [S]
"Anna" (cs-a1) (widest)
"How Do You Do It" (d-fs1)
"Baby It's You" (d-g1)
"Not a Second Time" (d-g1) [S]
"Mr. Moonlight" (d-a1) [S]
"A Shot of Rhythm and Blues" (d-a1)
"Ask Me Why" (ds-fs1/b1)
"This Boy" (ds-a1)
"Memphis, Tennessee" (e-cs1) [S] (narrowest)
"Ain't She Sweet" (e-e1) [S]
"Carol" (e-e1/a1) [S]
"Misery" (e-f1/e2)
"I'll Be On My Way" (e-fs1)
"All I've Got to Do" (e-fs1)
"You Really Got a Hold On Me" (e-fs1)
"Lonesome Tears in My Eyes" (e-fs1) [S]
"I Just Don't Understand" (e-g1)
"Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" (e-g1)
"I'm Talking About You" (e-g1/g2) [S]
"Sweet Little Sixteen" (e-gs1) [S]
"Money" (e-a1/fs2)
"I Got to Find My Baby" (f-g1) [S]
"Some Other Guy" (f-g1)
"Hello Little Girl" (fs-fs1)
"Please Mr. Postman" (fs-fs1)
"Too Much Monkey Business" (g-fs1/a1) [S]
"Slow Down" (g-g1) [S]
"Bad Boy" (g-g1/fs2) [S]
"It Won't Be Long" (g-gs1/b1)
"Please Please Me" (gs-e1/b1)
"Johnny B. Goode" (a-e1/a1) [S] (narrowest excluding falsetto)
"Dizzy Miss Lizzie" (a-a1/e2) [S]
"Twist and Shout" (b-a1)
Paul McCartney:
"A Taste of Honey" (c-f1)
"Your Feet's Too Big" (cs-a1) (widest)
"P.S. I Love You" (d-a1)
"Searchin'" (d-a1)
"Hippy Hippy Shake" (ef1-af1/gf2) [S]
"The Honeymoon Song" (e-e1) [S]
"Love of the Loved" (e-e1/gs1)
"I Remember You" (e-e1/a1)
"Falling in Love Again" (e-fs1)
"I Saw Her Standing There" (e-fs1/g2)
"Till There Was You" (e-g1) [S]
"I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)" (e-g1/d2) [S]
"All My Loving" (e-gs1/cs2)
"That's All Right (Mama)" (e-a1) [S]
"Like Dreamers Do" (e-a1) [S]
"Clarabella" (fs-a1/fs2) [S]
"Beautiful Dreamer" (fs-a1/g2)
"September in the Rain" (f-a1) [S]
"Love Me Do" bridge / coda (f-bf1)
"Lend Me Your Comb" (fs-g1)
"Besame Mucho" (g-a1)
"Little Queenie" (g-a1/a2) [S]
"Red Sails in the Sunset" (a-a1/fs2) [S]
"Hold Me Tight" (a-bf1)
"Sure to Fall" (b-fs1)
"Kansas City / "Hey Hey Hey Hey" (b-b1/g2)
"Lucille" (c1-bf1/g2) [S]
"Ooh! My Soul" (d1-b1/g2) [S]
"Long Tall Sally" (d1-d2/g2) [S]
"Shimmy Shimmy" (e1-a1) (narrowest)
George Harrison:
"I Forgot to Remember to Forget" (B-e1) [S] (widest)
"Don't Bother Me" (d-fs1) [S]
"Crying, Waiting, Hoping" (e-e1)
"Three Cool Cats" (e-e1/b1)
"Take Good Care of My Baby" (e-fs1)
"Nothin' Shakin'" (e-g1) [S]
"Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" (e-g1) [S]
"Glad All Over" (e-g1/b1) [S]
"Chains" (f-f1)
"Reminiscing" (f-f1/c2) [S]
"Sheila" (fs-d1) [S] (narrowest)
"Do You Want to Know a Secret" (fs-e1/gs1)
"The World is Waiting for the Sunrise" (fs-gs1/b1) [S]
"Devil in Her Heart" (g-e1)
"Sheik of Araby" (g-f1)
"Young Blood" (g-g1)
"Roll Over Beethoven" (a-f1/d2) [S]
The table shows that a large number of songs have only a single
vocalist; many others have minimal backing vocal parts (such as "I
Remember You," in which JL interjects just 5 shouted words in each
chorus). This fact reflects the necessary development of a solo
repertoire for each singer, so as to conserve voices during long sets
in Hamburg. The examples and tables show that Lennon and McCartney have
about the same characteristic range, but Lennon's extremes are about a
minor 3rd lower than McCartney's. Also significant are the facts that
Lennon's two widest ranges occur in Alexander songs discovered in 1962
and that his two narrowest are in Berry songs (one of which was
performed as early as 1958). All 4 of McCartney's earliest Little
Richard covers are among his 5 highest ranges.
--
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