Joni Mitchell’s final line in “Big Yellow Taxi” shoes off her chops, stretching her range from quite high to quite low.
I’m pretty sure, though, the laughter (which came across to me as contrived, forced) was a separate track. (more of a novelty one, this example)
Brian Wilson gets absolutely stratospheric with the sublime title lyric from God Only Knows.
Patsy Klein’s opening line in Crazy for some reason always ‘gets me’.
Doesn’t matter what genre. Curious to hear operatic contributions.
Annie Haslam. The last word of “Song of Scheherazade.” (The last line of the song is the name repeated a dozen times or so as part of a musical phrase, each repetition adding more instruments, then shifting up a third, then Annie hitting a note only dogs and bright, hip people can hear.
2nd choice: Jay Black (Jay and the Americans) holding the word “time” for an insanely long period of time (heh!) during any live performance of “Cara Mia.”
I’m not sure if it was multi-tracked or not, but the long notes at the end of Jeff Buckley’s version of Hallelujah are pretty impressive (even if the song is quite overplayed at this point). Around 6 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4
The pain and angst of his unrequited love to be spilled out in the rest of the song is as powerful as any bluesman whom he’s been trying to emulate for decades.
Speaking of blues(woman), Ball and Chain - Janis Joplin
Any line you like out of this. Maybe, “I was born by the river, in a little tent, and just like the river, I’ve been running ever since,” at the start. Or “There’ve been times when I thought I couldn’t last for long, but now I think I’m able to carry on,” at the end.
Ah, true - Carl was definitely the lead vocalist for that one (and written by Brian W. and Tony Asher). Interesting that in the video it has Brian (with acoustic guitar) singing lead. (heh, or lip-syncing?)
That’s Carl and Bruce Johnston at that mic. Brian isn’t in that video although he sings backing vocals on the track. Mike Love, seen in the video, did not sing on the recording.
Every time she sings “breath” in Teardrop. Probably tied with it is the scat at the end of Birthday by the Sugarcubes but that isn’t really a “line” per se as it isn’t lyrics.