I looked over my Queen collection recently looking for the highest notes sung by Freddie and Roger. I found that in Under Pressure, Freddie sings an A in the octave above middle, A6. He does this at 2:30. The highest for Roger was the famous "for me....", which was the Bb just above Freddie's highest, Bb6, occuring at 4:04. If you can find any higher notes, or if you happen to know "officially" their ranges, I would be interested to know.
Thanks
Highest notes found so far:
Fred - C# (Impromptu at Milan '84)
Roger - C (Seaside Rendezvous, the trumpet part, he does it with kazoo but he has to sing the notes)
Brian - F (obviously below R's and F's notes) in Resurrection
I think Fred's scream in It's Late (studio version) goes way up there too, his voice was certainly higher then than in the 80s, so if he could hit a Bb (the same "for me" note) in Let's Turn It On, he definitely could go higher in the 70s. Roger must have been able to get higher than what he sang in A Night At The Opera, but perhaps he never did on record. He did comment that when he guest sang for Fox in '75/'76 he sang some of the highest notes he ever did. So perhaps there we have a D or something... who knows, I never heard the album
I think 'Oh' in 'Oh on with the show' from near the end of TSMGO may have been Freddie highest proper (i.e. not falsetto) note on record.
deleted user 10.01.2005 08:57
Sebastian wrote: Highest notes found so far:
Fred - C# (Impromptu at Milan '84)
Roger - C (Seaside Rendezvous, the trumpet part, he does it with kazoo but he has to sing the notes)
Brian - F (obviously below R's and F's notes) in Resurrection
... what's a kazoo?? :$
Kazoo is a kind of ... mini-trombone (to put it that way), you use it to make those sounds, like in Seaside Rendezvous, or Lady Madonna. But there are people who can do the impressions without it as well.
Highest notes without falsetto:
Brian: D4 (Resurrection)
Fred - E4 (Hang On In There, Was It All Worth It)
Rog - E4 (IILWMC, TYMD, MOTJ)
Sebastian wrote: Kazoo is a kind of ... mini-trombone (to put it that way), you use it to make those sounds, like in Seaside Rendezvous, or Lady Madonna. But there are people who can do the impressions without it as well.
Actualy Roger does it without a kazoo
because he did it spontaneously
(spelling?? what a word) in a radio
show in the US in 1980 where he
explained how they did Seaside
Rendez-Vous (freddie and Roger
on vocals).
I agree that Roger didn't use a kazoo for his 'solo' on Seaside Rendezvous. The sound is close, but not close enough, to my ears.
Obviously it doesn't change the fact he hit that C though.
In "Hitman" it goes Baby baby baby I'm a Hitman, Hitman, hitMAN! (on that last hitman) he hits an E or something near it. His was an endlessly improving voice. Why couldn't he have been celibate?
Roger's screaming in ITLOTG & MFK, and Freddie's high notes in GKR (when he doubles the guitar solo at the end) & UP ("why") are the same note: A4 (880 Hz). Both Fred and Roger got higher than that in other songs.
Rick wrote: I like Roger's extremely high screaming voice, for example in My Fairy King and In The Lap Of The Gods.
What about Rogers note in 39 just before the last verse-seems pretty high to me. Mind you he was choir trained. Yeah think the F note in Under Pressure probably gets it.
I think Roger's highest was in '39...it's pretty up there. His scream in ITLOTG, in my opinion, is just louder than that in '39, maybe making it seem higher...or I'm just partly deaf.
That being said, it's amazing that such a raspy voiced guy could (i doubt he still has it after all that smoking) reach such clear notes in the higher octaves.