The Falsetto Playlist

When I’m sanding I like strong sounding, distinctive music playing in my ear. I have an old-fashioned 60’s and 70’s guitar rock playlist that is getting a bit old and I need something else to listen to. My thought: great falsettos. If you could recommend and please, please include a YouTube clip (or however you can legally link the song).

I’ll start things off with the fantastically earsplitting Philip Bailey from Earth, Wind and Fire Keep Your Head to the Sky and, of course, the great falsetto classic Sherry which I saw Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons sing about a decade ago (maybe even longer-- these years start coming and they don’t stop coming!). They sang it about a whole octave lower and I really thought ole Frankie was going to burst a blood vessel in his neck, but it didn’t sound half bad.

I don’t have pop suggestions but you might also look for classical music with countertenors (Purcell, Tallis, etc) and try the recordings of Alessandro Moreschi, the only castrato to be recorded solo.

The first thing that came to mind when I saw the thread title was the Rolling Stones’ Emotional Rescue.

I don’t know how hard you like your rock, but King Diamond is well-known for his [del]falsetto[/del] head voice.

Scissor Sisters - [I Don’t Feel Like Dancin](Scissor Sisters - I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’)’.

Skip James had the most haunting falsetto in Blues.

Pick a track, any track (I prefer “Devil Got My Woman”) - Skip James - full album - Devil Got My Woman (1968) - YouTube

Other tracks - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Skip+James

Prince’s first hit song.

Jimmy Somerville - The Communards

Games People Play has three different parts.

Even after seeing the people performing, I still want the highest part to be sung by a woman

The Bee Gees Too Much Heaven. Or Stayin’ Alive, or Tragedy. Or basically, anything from Main Course and later albums.

Yep. Falsetto is basically their thing.

Also: Curtis Mayfield and Pusherman.

You and me both! This is one of my favorites and I just found out maybe 5 years ago that that wasn’t a woman. More trivia about this song. It’s actual original title is They Just Can’t Stop It-- which is ridiculous. The single came out with They Just Can’t Stop It (Games People Play) as its title. Everybody calls it Games People Play, even Wiki.

Pittsburgh’s Jimmy Beaumont & the Skyliners doing Since I Don’t Have You. That last word will run chills up your spine.

Roger Taylor (Queen’s drummer) has a powerful falsetto voice, and most of the highest vocals on their songs were him.

A few of the songs which feature his falsetto:
Seven Seas of Rhye
Ogre Battle
'39
In the Lap of the Gods
Bohemian Rhapsody
Under Pressure

My husband says that Nick Gilder (Hot Child in the City) doesn’t count because that his normal range. What’s the ruling or definition?

Old thread about this:

Male rock singers with the highest or most feminine voices?

Am I supposed to fear that the singer may. . . not. . . make that. . . note— aaaahhhh, whew!

Weellll. . . . it’s loads better than Cookie Monster Metal.

This site can’t be reached.

This kinda falls into my husband’s “natural range, not real falsetto” interpretation.

Well, duh!

Take On Me, A-Ha

Also, a LOT of the 60s-70s soul music, such as Smokey Robinson’s songs.

How about Mike Nesmith on Joanne?

Whoa, hold the phone. That Soul Train video is all kinds of wrong. According to the wiki there are three lead singers credited: Bobby Smith, Pervis Jackson, and Evette Benton. There is no way a man sang that part, but why would they fake it like that?

First thing I thought of.

Then I thought of “She Drives Me Crazy” (Fine Young Cannibals). And, maybe because the current Wings thread has me thinking of him, McCartney’s “So Bad”—not sure if it’s a true falsetto, but he sings pretty high on that one.