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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: The Falsettometer

  • The Falsettometer: Jimmy Somerville

    I’d been having a hard time thinking of more singers to use in this column, when it hit me like a bolt of lightning. Well, no, it wasn’t that dramatic, but it did pop up on my iPod when I least expected it…a cover of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, performed by Jimmy Somerville, former lead singer of Bronski Beat and The Communards. A fixture of 1980s pop who has never stopped recording, Somerville also deserves notice as one of the first openly gay pop musicians.

    Having obviously taken stylistic tips from Sylvester, Somerville’s falsetto can best be described as piercing. He can sing higher than most female singers I can think of, which is pretty damn high. Come to think of it, unlike just about every other singer I’ve profiled in one of these columns, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him perform in his natural register.

    47-year old Somerville still performs, although his album releases are few and far between, and as far as I know, can still hit those high notes. Not bad, eh? Here’s one of the many disco-era covers Somerville’s recorded-a take on “Don’t Leave Me This Way”.

  • The Falsettometer Comes To Your Emotional Rescue

    Mick JaggerMichael Philip Jagger is many things. Frontman for arguably the world’s greatest rock and roll band. Serial bedder of hot-ass women (Bianca Jagger was a dime piece…and so was Jerry Hall back in the day…hell, he’s still bedding teenage Brazilian models and he looks like a raisin these days!)

    You can’t forget, as Eddie Murphy once said “Mick Jagger’s lips are so big…Black people look at him and say “he got some big-ass lips”. Ha!!!

    He is also in possession of a rarely used yet always effective falsetto, which has rared it’s head in three of my favorite Stones/Jagger songs. (more…)

  • Introducing the Falsettometer: Part 1: Philip Bailey


    Welcome to The Falsettometer, where we will look at Great Moments in Falsetto History. Please keep all glass objects out of reach when reading this column or playing one of the videos embedded in a falsettometer column.

    Of course, we have to begin with one of the All Time Falsetto Greats. Someone whose voice can hit notes so high, 5 year old boys look at one another in awe and ask “How did he do that?”

    At any rate, here are the three things that come to mind whenever I think of Earth, Wind & Fire:

    1) No one must have been getting paid in that band, because there were about 64 members. Anyone remember seeing them on Merv Griffin or Mike Douglas back in the day? There were literal *tiers* of members.

    2) Maurice White has one of pop music’s all-time biggest foreheads. Put him and Peabo Bryson together and you basically get a 10-foot tall skull.

    3) Philip Bailey’s voice was so high, he didn’t even sound like a girl. He sounded *unnatural*. Whether the song was “Can’t Hide Love” (“bet-TAH!!”), “September” (“bow-de-ow-de-ow-de-ah!!” or his own “Easy Lover” (if you don’t love “Easy Lover”, something is wrong with you), there was no doubt who was singing. I would say the man’s testicles up and ran away at some point during the Seventies, but Mr. Bailey has *several* kids. God bless him.

    Anyway, EW&F were one of the best at synthesizing pop and funk back in the day (although I’ll admit that they were a bit sanitized for my tastes-even Lionel Richie and The Commodores were grimier than EW&F), but their calling card was ballads. The combo of Maurice White’s ethereal growl and Philip’s falsetto was a hell of a two-pronged attack. And when it comes to slow jams, there are very few better than “Reasons”, which is all Philip. Enjoy, and stay tuned for future editions of The Falsettometer!!