My apologies if this topic has been done before but I'm after some expert opinion.
Who sings lead vocals on the studio version of SHA?
I've always belived (and still do) that Freddie sings lead with RMT backing him almost like a duet. Obviously FM sung it live it's just the studio version on NOTW. I'm talking about.
Apparently it used to be on the official Queen website that the author sung the track.
The choruses are all Roger (lead and harmonies), as are both '-ticulate' utterances. 'Hey hey hey hey' seems to be both of them.
The rest is all Frederick.
Regarding the song being sped up, this was discussed back in 2014.
As I said at the time:
"Undoubtedly it was played in D and sped up a smidgen under a semitone.
As has been said, Rog is unlikely to have written it in Eb, and it has always been played live in D, which seems pretty conclusive on its own. Add to this the fact that this is exactly the kind of song where a slight speeding up of the original recording might improve the feel of the song, and that in the chorus you can clearly hear the open strings of the G5 chord rather than the fretted strings of an Ab5, and I'd say the evidence is overwhelming.
Whether Fred sang against the original version or the sped-up version is another question, though I'd imagine it's the former, given that he sounds almost unrecognisable on this song (although this is mostly due to his delivery rather than any tape manipulation).
Hopefully someone can be bothered with slowing the whole song down a semitone and posting the result here".
The shared rough mix was original speed.
Although, as I've seen previously, leaked stuff might not follow the instructions on the tape box - EG Freddie sung it sped up and then the shared version is the original tempo, therefore Freddie is 'slowed down'. Check almost every version officially released of Bowie's own version of All The Young Dudes featuring his voice incorrectly slooowed doooown.
But I doubt it. Just playing Devils advocate.
Hopefully someone can be bothered with slowing the whole song down a semitone and posting the result here".
I slowed it down. It didn't sound bad, just slower (shockingly).
Not sure what I was listening for, mind! I also sped it up by the same proportion and got a vocal that sounded more like Freddie to me, admittedly with slight chipmunk overtones.
In the demo version the second verse (from 1:17) is most definately Brian on vocals. Delivering in a sort of Elvis way, for sure, but very destinctly Brian.
I can't be the only one hearing this?!