The vocal range of Gene Simmons
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- Опубликовано: 4 июл 2024
- Though Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons both traditionally share lead vocals in KISS, Stanley has always played a greater role as the frontman in the band, which is why most would normally associate his voice with their music. However, over their career of forty years and counting, Simmons has actually showcased quite an impressive display of vocal range in the songs he's sung with the group, as well as on his two solo albums. Most of his singing sits in the third and fourth octave, and is styled around his signature raspy yet rather light sound. It is this approach that most listeners know him for, but it is often underestimated as to just how many other tones he can sing with as well. Possibly the most unexpected is the clean tone that he sometimes uses to sing high notes, which he can carry quite high while still sounding surprisingly pleasant. Unfortunately, his live singing can be very inconsistent, with him often eschewing the highest notes in songs, and cracking on notes as low as A4. Simmons also has a very solid low range, though he doesn't use it for actual singing all that often. His most common demonstrations of his low range occur during songs where he chooses to slide down to some low pitch on a word like "yeah" or "oww". Otherwise, he sometimes does spoken sections in songs intentionally around lower pitches, but actual melody singing in the second octave is somewhat uncommon for him. Thus, I've worked to compile the best examples of higher and lower singing in his discography with this video. Enjoy!
1. 0:00 - To start off, we have one of Simmons' widest displays of vocal range in a song: the final chorus of "Charisma", where he double tracks his voice and sings down to E♭2 and C♯2 in one track, then sings up to some clean B4s in the other! Sorry about the video quality; this was the best I could find.
2. 0:30 - A great chesty G♯4 from "Hate".
3. 0:40 - Powerful singing up to A4 from the chorus of "Within", along with some backing vocals that bottom at some short A2s.
4. 1:02 - A nicely sustained B♭4 from "Boomerang".
5. 1:14 - Some really strong gritty B4 singing from the chorus of "Unholy", one of Simmons' heaviest songs.
6. 1:40 - An impressively supported C5 (with a short trill to D5) from the ending of "Betrayed".
7. 1:55 - Some clean high singing topping at C♯5 from a verse of "Burn Bitch Burn".
8. 2:21 - A surprisingly well-sustained D5 (on an "ee" vowel, no less) from "Rock and Roll Hell".
9. 2:32 - Here we have one of the most classic high notes in Simmons' catalogue: the sustained E♭5 from the ending of "Deuce". This is one note that's given him a lot of trouble during live performances over the years!
10. 2:40 - A slide up to an immensely gritty E♭5 at the end of "Unholy". Quite an epic note!
11. 3:01 - Some singing up to C5 from the final chorus of "Dance All Over Your Face", before gliding up to a clean sustained E5!
12. 3:28 - Another great E5 (held for an entire eleven seconds!) from the closing of "Love's a Deadly Weapon".
13. 3:47 - Some excellent high singing from "Prisoner of Love", with several trills up to easy E5s, and one clean F♯5!
14. 4:24 - The ending of "Not for the Innocent", where Simmons sustains two E5s, one of which trills to a short G5.
15. 4:44 - Simmons' highest note: a short G♯5 from the intro of "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll".
16. 4:51 - Now to start off the lows section, we have some easy singing down to B♭2 and one A2 from the bridge of "Within".
17. 5:09 - Strong A2s from a verse of "Asshole".
18. 5:26 - A verse from a live version of "Domino", which is played half a step lower than the original studio version. Here, Simmons projects multiple G♯2s, then jumps up by two octaves and sings a few G♯4s as well!
19. 5:54 - Solid singing down to some A2s and a G2 from "If I Had a Gun".
20. 6:14 - Several good F♯2s from the ending of "Charisma". Again, apologies for the poor video quality!
21. 6:28 - Some exclusive footage of Gene (and his son, Nick Simmons) singing a bit of the first song he ever wrote, "My Uncle Is a Raft", and hitting some effortless F2s and E♭2s!
22. 6:34 - Some easy A2s from the ending of "Whatever Turns You On", before closing off with a solid melodic D2!
23. 7:05 - A melody down to G2 from "Dog", before sliding down to a short B1.
24. 7:16 - Simmons' lowest note to date: a strikingly resonant B♭1 from "I Love It Loud '08". This is immediately followed by some singing up to B♭4, making this clip a span of three octaves in just a few seconds!
25. 7:41 - As a bonus, here's a clip with some of Simmons' highest singing to date: the ending of "Always Near You/Nowhere to Hide", where he sings multiple F♯5s with a few quick trills to G♯5! 
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that long E5 on "Loves A Deadly Weapon" was incredible !! :^0
Boomerang! Theres a song I rarely ever see talked about, one of my faves of the eighties.
A G5 from "Deuce" (Live Cleveland 1974)A note around F#5-G5 from "Watchin' You" (Live New Jersey 1976)
Agreed, though I personally wouldn't say much of his singing is all that baritonish. His voice actually sounds lighter than Stanley's a lot of the time!
Agreed about the differences between his voice and Paul's! I pitched the "Charisma" notes as either flat C♯2s or sharp C2s, but I ended up siding with C♯2 since that fits the key. The "I Love It Loud" note is somewhat tricky to pitch, but I think I hear it match the pitch of the guitars on the chorus before it gets drowned out, which would make it a B♭1.
Great vocalist
Great post! Thanks! But there's'ONE MORE, that boggles my mind - the super high-super long falsetto note at the very end of "SHE'S SO EUROPEAN" off "Unmasked" album, that sounds to me like an E6 (!!!!!), sliding up to G#6 (!!!!!!!!) at the end... Check it out! Correct me if I'm wrong, please, maybe it's an E5 and the overtones make it sound higher? But I keep listening to it over and over and I hear an E6 into a G#6. Gene is one of my fave singers, very underrated, he's a man of a 1000 voices.
+alex korbukov Definitely an E5, sliding up to one of his typical "ow!" yelps, which I'm guessing is what you're hearing as a G♯5.
Naked City has a lot of B4s and D5s, all very clean and sustained.
Exactly. So I don't think "baritone" describes his singing style that well overall, though it definitely is one of the many sides to his voice.
The footage that you used in the beginning recently got deleted :(
Gene is 100 persent baritone but those pushed to the limit notes are excellent.
I just don't get how he can sing those high notes so chesty. Much prefer his singing to Paul's (his personality can fuck of however ).
Gene rules
some notes are clearly falsetto
I never said that they weren't. This video was more about the notes he's spanned than the register of them.
Samuel Campos so what
how’s the end of she’s so european on here!?!
Eugh
Some of those higher notes are obviously sped up. There's lots of trickery in there.
Like what?