My husband insists that Bill Withers holds the world’s record for longest sustained note on a pop song for his “a lovely daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay” in the song of the same name (Lovely Day). He offers no proof. He just “knows”.
Do they even keep track of this kind of thing? What other songs and singers would be contenders for this type of world record?
I know that there’s a pretty long note in the song Miracles in the Red Octopus album/cd by Jefferson Starship.
No clue. But that is a lovely song.
I was thinking about the girl singers around but they all bend notes - Whitney with I Will Always Love You, etc…
Annie Haslam holds a quite high note for quite a while at the end of “Sheherazade” by Renaissance.
Jay Traynor does the same on “Cara Mia” by Jay and the Americans.
I’m guessing Ethel Merman is probably the winner of this one. “Anything You Can Do” from Annie Get Your Gun was considered pop, in its day.
All I can think of is the end note in Guns and Roses’ Don’t Cry. But t’s only 20 something seconds, I can’t imagine it’s the longest one.
There’s a pretty long one in Always And Forever by Heatwave too, but I think you might have the winner. 
Vivian Stanshall in “My Pink Half of the Drainpipe” (though it does sound like there was some trickery involved, like a second person picking up the note midway).
Barbra Streisand, Woman in Love?
“No truth is ever a Lie, I stumble and fall but I give you it ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.”
According to my I-pod this goes on for 12 seconds.
Another long one (don’t have the time) is Ed Ames’ “My Cup Runneth Over.” Once upon a time Casey Kasem mentioned it for the length of time Ames holds a note.
Coincidentally, he mentioned Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” for the most cases of a repeated lyric, the “I know, I know. . .”
Now, this was all 30 years ago, so a lot has probably changed.
I dont know much about music and I’m going to sound like an idiot saying this. In fact, even as I type I know it’s not one knot but The Great Gig In The Sky by Pink Floyd came to mind when I read the title. Not a single note but still…
Ha ha, you beat me to it! I think it’s looped.
The incomparable Cyndi Lauper holds one note for quite a while near the end of Money Changes Everything. “Moneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…”
I don’t know if you could consider it pop, I just timed Jeff Buckley (one-one thousand, two-one thousand . . .) at 24 seconds for his Halleluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuujah at the end of Hallelujah from the Grace album. I’d be interested in knowing how that compares to other long notes by pop artists.
Hell, I don’t think I can hold my breath that long anymore.
“We are the three aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-migos!”
Timed Lovely Day. He holds the note for 10 seconds many times during the song over the refrain “lovely day, lovely day, lovely day–love-ly day”. Towards the end he does it over two “lovely day” refrains for 21 seconds. At the end he does it again from about 3:56 until fade out.
Don’t think it’s a record.
I think the “I know, I know. . .” may be even longer. It’s not one note but it’s one breath.
Another long note is by La Streisand again, holding “tears” for ages in “No More Tears.” Actually it’s about sixteen seconds, according to this video – the note starts at 1:24, so some of the others listed are longer. Still, it’s a good note! But that’s not a surprise – Streisand has some hella pipes.
I can’t cite a specific song , but Johnny Mathis was famous for holding notes. I saw him in concert once and he held one note so long the audience was standing up cheering before he was finished.
I was thinking of Donna Summer. There’s Dim All the Lights, and then that song with Barbra Streisand, No More Tears (Enough Is Enough). She holds long notes in other songs too.
And near the end of All Through the Night Lauper holds a high note for (and I did time it) 14 seconds.
If you think 14 seconds doesn’t seem that long, try it with a high note and sing it as loud as you can without it turning into a scream.