Freddie Mercury

Name: Freddie Mercury (Born Farrokh Bulsara)
Life span: 9/5/1946 - 11/24/1991
Nationality: British/Persian

Voice Type: Low Tenor
Total Vocal Range: (A1-) C#2-F5 (-F6)
Sung Vocal Range: F2-F5 (-E6)

Notable high notes (studio):

C5 (Bohemian Rhapsody, Guide Me Home/How Can I Go On (Alternative Version), Machines (Or Back to Humans), Lets Turn It On, Barcelona, You're My Best Friend, Scandal, All God's People, Headlong, Play the Game, Don't Stop Me Now, Breakthru, We Are the Champions, Somebody to Love, The Fairly Feller's Master Stroke, The March of the Black Queen, The Prophet's Song, Let Me Entertain You, Flash's Theme, Back Chat, Life Is Real, My Baby Does Me, It's a Beautiful Day, Made in Heaven, I Guess We're Falling Out, Feel Like)
C♯5 (Hammer to Fall, Gimme the Prize, The Golden Boy, One Year of Love, Guide Me Home/How Can I Go On (Alternative Version), A Kind of Magic, It's Late, Rock It, How Can I Go On (Alternative Version), The Hero, I Want to Break Free, I Can't Live With You, I Was Born to Love You)
D5 (One Vision, In My Defence, Gimme the Prize, The Show Must Go On, Love is the Hero, Don't Try So Hard, Who Wants to Live Forever, I Want It All, Staying Power, Coming Soon, Dancer, It's a Hard Life, Princes of the Universe, Too Much Love Will Kill You, A Winter's Tale, Studio improvisation, Feelings, Feelings)
E♭5 (Innuendo, Let's Turn It On, Hitman)
E5 (Another One Bites the Dust, Was It All Worth It, Hang On In There)
F5 (All God's People, Barcelona)

Notable Low Notes (Studio)

F2 (All Dead All Dead, Don't Try Suicide, "Bijou")
F♯2 ("One Vision" studio documentary)
G2 (Bohemian Rhapsody, Somebody to Love, Bring Back That Leroy Brown, Bicycle Race)
G♯2 (Cool Cat)
A2 (Flick of the Wrist, The March of the Black Queen, I'm Going Slightly Mad, I'm Going Slighty Mad (Alternative Version), Ride the Wild Wind, Guide Me Home/How Can I Go On (Alternative Version))
B♭2 (Guide Me Home/How Can I Go On (Alternative Version), The Golden Boy, One Vision (Studio Documentary))

Notable High Notes (Live)

G♯4 (Plenty of times on Somebody to Love intros)
A4 (Too many times)
B♭4 (Bohemian Rhapsody, In My Defense, We Are the Champions, Play the Game)
B4 (Another One Bites the Dust, Liar, Spread Your Wings, Need Your Loving Tonight, Save Me, Play the Game)
C5 (Bohemian Rhapsody, Save Me, Somebody to Love, We Are the Champions)
C♯5 (Somebody to Love)
D5 (Under Pressure) 1st Montreal concert
D5 (Save Me) Edinburgh 1982 = 2nd night

Notable low notes (live)

A1 (Fryed-during interview)
C♯2 (Interview)
D2 (Interview)
E2 (Interview)
A2 (Teo Torriatte-1981 soundcheck: Tokyo)
B♭2 Knebworth Impromptu, Is This the World We Created...? (Live Aid)
B2 The Prophet's Song (Fukuoka 1976)
C3 Japan 1985 Impromptu

Falsetto notes

C5-A5 Numerous Impromptus/Studio works
A5 (Under Pressure--Studio)
B♭5 (Wembley 1986, Rock in Rio Blues)
C6 (Japan 1985)
C♯6 (Milan 1984)
D6 (Newcastle 1979-1st night)
D6 (Save Me--Studio, Japan 1985)
E6 (It's Late--Studio)
F6 (London 1984)


Best Vocal Performances
Studio:
1. How Can I Go On (Alternative version)
2. The Show Must Go On
3. Bohemian Rhapsody
4. Who Wants to Live Forever
5. Somebody to Love
6. Don't Try So Hard
7. All God's People
8. The Prophet's Song
9. Gimme the Prize
10. In My Defence

Live:
1. Somebody to Love (Live At The Bowl '82)
2. Impromptu (Live In Tokyo '85)
3. Save Me (Live In Hammersmith Odeon '79)
4. A Kind of Magic (Live In Stockholm '86)
5. My Melancholy Blues (Live In Houston '77)

Great singer (obviously). good call on Freddie being a low tenor. No way is he a baritone as most at DDD think Apparently his speaking voice is mostly between C-G3!

Curiosity wrote:Great singer (obviously). good call on Freddie being a low tenor. No way is he a baritone as most at DDD think. Apparently his speaking voice is mostly between C-G3!

When I stomped onto the DDD forum, some people SWITCHED to him saying "low tenor." LOL

Greg, remember the rumoured E2 in Bicycle Race? Do you think there's a chance it might be clearer to hear in one of the remastered versions? Was it even Bicycle Race? Can't hear anywhere where an E2 would fit listening back to it... doesn't even fit in the key... solid G2 in there though.

Ray wrote:Greg, remember the rumoured E2 in Bicycle Race? Do you think there's a chance it might be clearer to hear in one of the remastered versions? Was it even Bicycle Race? Can't hear anywhere where an E2 would fit listening back to it... doesn't even fit in the key... solid G2 in there though.

There's no E2 in any song! The lowest harmony in bicycle race is G2.

Timitzii wrote:"Gimme the Prize" is owning my technically, what a performance... Is the highest note there C#5? I always thought it's D5, but maybe I heard wrong.

D5 is correct!

Ray wrote:There was a rumour of an E2 in the harmony of a song. I asked Tarantino about it and he said you'd heard of it too but I can't remember the song...

I've heard rumors of E2s in songs in Bicycle Race and All God's People, but I can't find ANY notes like that. They wouldn't even FIT in the keys! lol

Timitzii wrote:Greg, what do you think about Mercury's "Barcelona" F5, full?

Could you time stamp the F5 part? Please?

Gregsynthbootlegs wrote:

Ray wrote:There was a rumour of an E2 in the harmony of a song. I asked Tarantino about it and he said you'd heard of it too but I can't remember the song...

I've heard rumors of E2s in songs in Bicycle Race and All God's People, but I can't find ANY notes like that. They wouldn't even FIT in the keys! lol

That's funny, whichever song I was thinking of I was sure E2 fit in the key, and it fit at one point in the harmony but when it was supposed to come in I didn't hear it.

Hmm

Ray wrote:

Gregsynthbootlegs wrote:

Ray wrote:There was a rumour of an E2 in the harmony of a song. I asked Tarantino about it and he said you'd heard of it too but I can't remember the song...

I've heard rumors of E2s in songs in Bicycle Race and All God's People, but I can't find ANY notes like that. They wouldn't even FIT in the keys! lol

That's funny, whichever song I was thinking of I was sure E2 fit in the key, and it fit at one point in the harmony but when it was supposed to come in I didn't hear it.

Hmm

It was probably a "dark toned" E3.

Probably, safe to say Freddie doesn't have an E2 in any case.

Ray wrote:Probably, safe to say Freddie doesn't have an E2 in any case.

Yep!

Ray wrote:There was a rumour of an E2 in the harmony of a song. I asked Tarantino about it and he said you'd heard of it too but I can't remember the song...

Greg said that there's some processed low clip in a song, and the note that Mercury hit in the original recording was allegedly E♭2...