I’m looking to create a playlist of pop/rock songs from the '50s to early '00s in which the singer/musician uses a heavy amount of melisma (ad lib-ing, vocal runs or “gymnastics”; or “oversinging” as some would call it.)
For example, I know that Jackie Wilson was one of the pioneers of this type of singing, along with Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder back in the “Golden Age of Music”. Nowadays it tends to be overused and not done very tastefully.
Could you give me ‘specific’ songs and not generalized and vague examples like “any Mariah Carey song” or “any song by Christina Aguilera.” That would be much appreciated, thanks.
Do you mean something like “Under Pressure” by Queen/David Bowie where Mr. Mercury scats up a storm?
Or when singers perform a song live and throw in extra bits not heard on the studio version, such as working the name of the current city into the lyrics?
It’s a silly song, but it actually has gorgeous melismatic vocals, once you get past the spoken intro, and the goofy costumes and hair and choreography.
Regina Spektor’s Pavlov’s Daughter - the melismatic part starts around 2:45. Lots of other Regina songs use it, but in less noticeable ways.
Switching decades, how about Sam Cooke? He was strongly influenced by Gospel, and Gospel has the best melismatic singers outside of the classical world. I feel as though there are better songs of his that show it (which no doubt will pop into my head right after I post this), but you could check out “A Change Is Gonna Come”.
