Elvis Presley (50,451 views)

[BAZanine]

It was nothing to do with pitch/range. It was all to do with timbre, which was noticeably darker is what I'm saying. And uhhhh nah he pretty much always sounds like the higher-placed baritone he is throughout his entire range to me.

[Steingrim]

Jan 5, 2023 9:02:43 GMT BAZanine said:

It was nothing to do with pitch/range. It was all to do with timbre, which was noticeably darker is what I'm saying. And uhhhh nah he pretty much always sounds like the higher-placed baritone he is throughout his entire range to me.

Timbre and vocal color are the same, aren't they ? Here's an excerpt I had in mind when I talked about Elvis having a fluid timbre :

www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvis-presley-musical-prodigy.shtml

Elvis Presley has been described variously as a baritone and a tenor. An extraordinary compass- the so-called register -, and a very wide range of vocal color have something to do with this divergence of opinion. The voice covers two octaves and a third, from the baritone low-G to the tenor high B, with an upward extension in falsetto to at least a D flat. Elvis' best octave is in the middle, D-flat to D-flat, granting an extra full step up or down. Call him a high baritone. In 'It's'now or never', (1960), he ends it in a full voice cadence (A, G, F), that has nothing to do with the vocal devices of R&B and Country. That A-note is hit right on the nose, and it is rendered less astonishing only by the number of tracks where he lands easy and accurate B-flats. Moreover, he has not been confined to one type of vocal production. In ballads and country songs, he belts out full-voiced high G's and A's that an opera baritone might envy. He is a naturally assimilative stylist with a multiplicity of voices - in fact, Elvis' is an extraordinary voice or many voices. (Henry Pleasants, in his book 'The Great American Popular Singers' 1974).

[BAZanine]

I was really hoping we could avoid that particular excerpt, but if I must acknowledge it, then here I go.

I want to preface this by saying that I love Elvis' voice. With all of my being. He is one of, if not my absolute favorite, singer of all time. He speaks to me on levels that I cannot even begin to describe here. By most accounts, I talk about him way too much. But this is something that bugs me, so I'll talk on it.

Elvis, above many other singers, has this very strange cult of personality surrounding him. So many people oversell Elvis' voice, music, and person in very, VERY strange ways. No, Elvis is not artistically better than the Beatles. No, Elvis is not an opera singer. No, Elvis was not a pure-hearted, serene individual. People like their idols to be perfect because in a weird way that reflects on themselves, I guess. But this is where I'll speak more specifically about Elvis' voice.

Elvis is a moderately high-placed baritone. Maybe slightly lower-placed than Tom Jones. About the same placement as Dean Martin. People like to spread this notion that Elvis is some sort of voice type prism, showing you any voice type you want to see in him. It's just not true. Elvis' ability to growl a G1 does not make him a bass. Elvis' ability to hit a G2 is not the reason he's a baritone. Elvis' ability to belt a B4 does not make him a tenor. It literally just means that he can growl a G1, hit a G2, and belt a B4. Case in point, we are not having this discussion about any other singers with more than three octaves of range. Voice type discussions have, in large part, been fazed out on TRP because of their somewhat arbitrary nature, and some people would rather just not have that debate. I am not like that. I love opening up discussions about the singers I make threads for, voice type-related discussions included. However, a singer can only have one voice type at a time. Perhaps that voice type changes over the course of their career, perhaps it doesn't. Elvis', by most accounts, didn't. Even in his youth, most of us have agreed that he was just an unrefined baritone, and he only got deeper with age. Elvis' being able to hit a "tenor high B" in and of itself isn't really a commentary on his timbre so much as a fancy way of saying, once again, that he could hit a B4. "Tenor" in this instance is just a modifier that tells us the octave we're talking about. Elvis could also hit a bass high B, y'know. And the claim that Elvis had a "multiplicity of voices" is all fine and good, but really, what I get from that is simply that Elvis could reasonably sing multiple genres. And that he did. Rock, country, gospel, R&B, hell, he even dipped his toes in Dixieland once. I'm not denying that. I don't see what that has to do with his voice type, though.

Now, I want to touch on the whole "full-voiced high G's and A's that an opera baritone might envy" bit. Uhhhh...yeah I mean, if the opera baritone in question cannot hit G4s or A4s, maybe they'll envy Elvis' ability to hit G4s and A4s. But there are countless, and I truly mean COUNTLESS, singers that that opera baritone would be better off envying. Elvis was not a technically amazing singer. For how highly society rates him, you could reasonably expect a lot better. Same goes for Frank Sinatra and a few others. Their cultural impacts were IMMENSE, don't get me wrong. On that front, their places among pop singing's greats are more than earned. But going on to equate Elvis' high notes to "pseudo-opera" and/or grant his voice these strangely unique merits is very, very disingenuous. The man had no formal training. The fact that he got so far with what he did have is commendable. But I mean.....that's the long and the short of it, only one voice type (and no strangely praisey standards) in tow.

TLDR: baritone

[Steingrim]

I'm not discussing Elvis' voice type, if it's baritone or tenor or whatever. I agree with your classification of him. So does the author of the excerpt : "Call him a high baritone".

But there are reasons why his voice was praised. Not for general technical brilliancy, nor was it all hype. But it had, in my opinion, something to do with a fluid timbre and that he acquired an ability to exploit that fluidity. There was something physical to it. In the commercial sense, that fluid high baritone worked very well.

[Homelander]

Jun 8, 2020 1:18:25 GMT BAZanine said:

F5 ("Can't Help Falling in Love" live St. Petersburg 14/2/1977)

Finally, another falsetto bold!

[haeksk（ハクサク）]

I think the E1 isn't him. Sounds like he says "Thank you JD, I didn't need you to do that" right after... referring to his backup singer JD Sumner. LOL

[Baronessa]

The first one is Elvis. The second one is JD, after which Elvis says the line.

[Homelander]

If the A5 from Mystery Train can be counted, why not the B♭5 from I Feel so Bad? They seem like pretty similar quality to me. If anything, I'd say the B♭5 is slightly better.

(Also, I am hearing the A5 from Smorgasbord as a countable G♯5)

[BAZanine]

Both of those notes have the distinction of being random, shrill shrieks whereas at least the "Mystery Train" A5 has the merit of being directly connected to a completely countable E5 and being somewhat rhythmic. Still hearing A5 for the "Smörgåsbord" note although the song is in G♯ which may be the source of confusion there.