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Who sings what at the high point of "Please Please Me"?
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At risk of starting another controversy similar to who's singing the transition into the last verse of "A Day in the Life," is it John or Paul (very much less likely George) on the highest note of "Please Please Me" (the 2nd "Please" after all the "C'mon's")?

The Beatles Complete Scores has John singing that note (the high B) with Paul dropping down to G#, having previously been singing an A, which would be proper voice-leading, which means John would be getting up to that high B, merely having come from a octave below, and moving into falsetto, not very difficult technically.

I'm wondering how to confirm this because

  1. This puts John's voice higher than Paul's, which was not standard procedure. Not dispositive, but still. . . .
  2. The Beatles Complete Scores has some errors, so we can't take it as infallible.
  3. I can't tell who is singing it just by listening. This YouTube has the isolated vocals, but it's still difficult to tell, especially since the very next note ("me") is in unison between the main melody and the high note of the harmonization (between John and Paul, assuming George is on the lower harmony part). The version on Anthology 1 doesn't help much.

A version without harmonization would be strong evidence. Anyone know if that's out there somewhere?

Comments, help, opinions, links, etc., all welcome.

Comments

It’s definitely John in falsetto . That’s his Roy Orbison bit.

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1 year ago