Jump to content

The best harmonies?


Sweet Jane 61

Recommended Posts

i agree with alot of what's been posted, simon and garfunkel, the beatles, the beach boys. lisa hannigan and damien rice harmonise really nicely together. tons of motown songs have really intricate harmonies. i backed my best friend in her music recital a few years back and we did 'let's stay together' by al green and 'if i ain't got you' by alicia keys - the harmonies in those songs are fantastic! but those are songs with harmony arrangements and backing singers rather than by a band who harmonise together which sets the like of simon and garfunkel et al apart.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, most of you are probably too young, but I think the Mills Brothers (Paper Doll, Glow Worm, etc) were the greatest 40s/50s harmonisers I've heard.

Old Fitty, I bought a compilation of the Mills Brothers for the song "Daddy's Little Girl" (I was making a CD for my daughter :grin:). Even at my tender age, I think they have great harmonies. Good choice!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

mamas & papas definitely!

and queen! :doh: when i was in school we studied queen in music. one question in the exam played a clip of bohemian rhapsody and gave a multiple choice question asking if the harmonies were provided by voice or synths or voice & synths - you wouldn't believe how many people wrote synths!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting trivia about Queen's harmonies:

Typically each harmony note would be sung by a different singer (CSN&Y - Stills/bottom, Crosby/middle, Nash/top - no jokes needed). This way you could make out individual voices. Supposedly what Queen did was have all four members sing each part together, and then overdub the next harmony, etc. So it's hard to decipher an individual voice, and the "big" harmonies ended up sounding like a choir.

Well, it was interesting to me, at least...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Old Fitty, I bought a compilation of the Mills Brothers for the song "Daddy's Little Girl" (I was making a CD for my daughter :grin:). Even at my tender age, I think they have great harmonies. Good choice!

My Dad sang Daddy's Little Girl at my wedding....It brought tears to my eyes...it was so sweet. :)

Two lovely stories by two lovely people.

I think it's great when one generation's music is passed on to the next. My Mother used to play their records a lot and that's how I came to know them. I was only 9 when "Daddy's Little Girl" first came out, although there have been other versions of it since.

The Mills Brothers first came to fame with their unusual style of imitating musical instruments. I suppose harmonising came naturally from there.

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...