# Notable High Notes in Rock Songs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 13, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465 "2008-11-13T02:06:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/1 "2008-11-13T02:06:35Z")
Could be good, could be bad. I’ll start with the obvious…
Take On Me - A-ha
In Dreams - Roy Orbison
Only the Lonely - Roy Orbison
---
### Author:  [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/2 "2008-11-13T02:12:06Z")
Cygnus X-1 - Rush
Hemispheres - Rush
Xanadu - Rush
Time Stand Still - Rush
The Big Money - Rush
😃
---
### Author:  [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/3 "2008-11-13T02:14:26Z")
More Than a Feeling - Boston
"I closed my eyes and she slipped away. She slipped away-Aaaaay-AAAAAAAYY
:::Killer guitar riff:::
---
### Author:  [@rolandgunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rolandgunslinger)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/4 "2008-11-13T02:29:58Z")
Highway Star-Deep Purple
---
### Author:  [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/5 "2008-11-13T02:38:45Z")
“Lovin’ you” - Minnie Ripperton.
OK, not exactly rock, I know…
---
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/6 "2008-11-13T02:58:36Z")
Pretty much anything by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
“Hold your head up” in Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics. Maybe not high in the absolute sense, but given Annie Lennox’s pitch through the rest of the song, it stands out.
---
### Author:  [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/7 "2008-11-13T03:23:48Z")
> [@Darth\_Sensitive](#):
>
> More Than a Feeling - Boston
>
> "I closed my eyes and she slipped away. She slipped away-Aaaaay-AAAAAAAYY
> :::Killer guitar riff:::
ooooh good one
---
### Author:  [@Amazingrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazingrace)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/8 "2008-11-13T03:29:32Z")
“For meeeeeeeeeeeeee!”
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/9 "2008-11-13T04:17:59Z")
The last note Annie hits on “Scheherazade” by Renaissance.
---
### Author:  [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/10 "2008-11-13T04:24:40Z")
Well, I don’t know if you include 80s new-wave club disco gay dance tracks under the category of “Rock Songs”, but if you do the winner is in **The Communards** version of “Don’t Leave Me This Way”.
---
### Author:  [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/11 "2008-11-13T04:38:12Z")
The Darkness - “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” gives Freddie Mercury a serious run for his money!
---
### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/12 "2008-11-13T05:07:01Z")
Ian Gillan hits a lot of high notes on Deep Purple’s “Child in Time.”
---
### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/13 "2008-11-13T05:36:34Z")
Focus - “Hocus Pocus” ([seen here in a clip from 1973](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpV5InLw52U&feature=related)).
---
### Author:  [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/14 "2008-11-13T05:41:29Z")
Lou Christie: “The Gypsy Cried,” “Two Faces Have I” (both 1963) and “Lightnin’ Strikes” (1965).
And “Cryin’” originally by Roy Orbison (1961) and covered by Don McLean (1981).
---
### Author:  [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/15 "2008-11-13T05:44:50Z")
Rob Halford of Judas Priest hitting the opening scream of “Dissident Aggressor”. Yowza.
Oh and the closing note too.
---
### Author:  [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/16 "2008-11-13T06:21:32Z")
I thought that the obvious one was Rodger Daltry in “Wont Get Fooled Again.”
Not rock, but the scream in the background on “Love Rollercoaster.” You know, the one that according to urban legend was someone dying in the studio?
---
### Author:  [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/17 "2008-11-13T06:36:30Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> Ian Gillan hits a lot of high notes on Deep Purple’s “Child in Time.”
He hits even more on the live version of “Strange Kind Of Woman” off Made In Japan, where he starts scat-singing the guitar parts.
---
### Author:  [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/18 "2008-11-13T06:56:29Z")
What? This far in and nobody has mentioned Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers on Unchained Melody?
Time goes by so slowly and time can do so much.
Are you still mine?
I NEE-EE-EED your love, I need your love, God speed your love to me.
---
### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/19 "2008-11-13T07:01:41Z")
Led Zeppelin: The helium years.
---
### Author:  [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2008, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465/20 "2008-11-13T07:02:25Z")
Some of the latter-day incarnations of Hawkwind have pumped the high notes in “[Silver Machine](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5bO05C6N_s)”.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/notable-high-notes-in-rock-songs/472465.md?page=2)