The vocal range of Elvis Presley

Written by: jowox Channel YouTube

"My first musical influence thanks to my father. A once in a lifetime voice which if one were to classify it in pitch was a lyrical baritone. Many people think that Elvis was a deep baritone but his low register wasn´t so low as one might think. Here is just a narrow selection of all his high and low notes but I don´t think there are any higher or lower by him (I don´t count vocal fry and falsetto).

1. The classic opening to "Hurt", a F#4.
2. The end G4 in "It´s now or never".
3. A very good G4 from "Unchained melody" (live version) from the Moody Blue CD.
4. Excellent G#4 from the opening of "Rags to riches".
5. An A4 from "Surrender", a rare high note from his early career, circa 1961.
6. An A4 which then lands on a G4, from "American trilogy" from the live Aloha Hawaii CD.
7. Very powerful A4 from "How great thou art" live from the CBS special in 1977. This picture actually shows an elvis impersonator, sorry for that, it fooled me! I wouldn´t have been fooled by his voice though!
8. The classic live ending to "How great thou art" where Elvis goes one way (up to Bb4) and JD Sumner goes another...elvis often repeated this ending and this clip is actually the 2nd ending.
9. A rare extra high note from a live version of "Rags to riches" from New year´s Eve 1976.
10. An A4 to B4 from the Elvis 1977 CBS special, song is "Hurt".
11. A fantastic B4 from his last concert, 26th June 1977, song is "Hurt".
12. A rare extra note from the "hurt" ending (which he often repeated, sometimes the whole song!), a short C5 (tenor high C). From Buffalo June 25th 1976.
13. a somewhat more sustained C5 from "America the beautiful" live 21st March 1976. the impersonator picture once again!
14. His highest full voice note ever, a C#5 (the last "You") from "Big Bossman" from 19th July 1975.


Now time for his lower register:
15. a G2 from "Teddy Bear".
16. a G2 from "He´ll have to go".
17. a short F2 from "Trying to get to you" from the 1977 CBS special.
18. here it starts to get debatable...some whispery E2:s with an occasional help from JD Sumner, the intro to "I got a woman" live.
19. same here but a D2 by JD which elvis possibly adds to.
20. Great clip from "It´s now or never" live june 1977 where Elvis does a short B4 and a short E2!


Enjoy the King and his voice!"