How did this become a thread about the fuckin Jacksons? This is about Prince and El Debarge. Prince has a decent falsetto but it doesn't compare to Debarge. But Prince has more range than Debarge, he can sing bass, baritone, tenor, and he's a natural alto.

Well, what can El sing then? Is he just a tenor?
Here is an example of El singing in his lower voice

[Edited 9/28/08 18:05pm]

Yes. Unless you can provide some songs in which he's singing deep, baritone or bass. His brother Chico sings the deepest, he's an alto. All the brothers (Bobby, Tommy, Randy, James, Darryl) are tenors and sopranos, and they sound the same. Never heard Marty sing. But El was the strongest vocalist in the family. Prince has the range but Debarge has the falsetto.

I am very confused. I thought that Tenor was a deep voice. When did you ever hear Randy sing high? Bobby sounds nothing like Randy or James. James has the worst voice out of all of the Debarges. I mean, it is not bad, it is head and shoulders above a lot of singers today, but compared to the rest of his family it was nothing to write home about. Tommy and El sound just alike to me. It is hard to tell them apart. Chico has the most conventional voice out of all of the family. He can sing, but not like El, Tommy or even Randy.

Here is James singing.

Randy sung on "I Like It" You can hear him hit the high notes in the chorus until El comes in. But when I say they sound the same, I mean that they're all tenors but some are stronger than others. Just like Gerald and Sean Levert sound the same in terms of the style of Eddie Levert but Gerald was a stronger vocalist compare to his brother. Some Tenors can sing high and low but not as low as baritones and bass. The Debarge brothers couldn't hit low notes. Eddie Kendricks was a tenor that could sing high and low
[Edited 9/28/08 18:26pm]

Now I get it. I never knew till recently that Randy sang the beginning of that song. I thought it was all El

filmnoirdame said:

Randy sings the verses and the first half of the chorus. El takes over near the end.

El KILLS that song.

filmnoirdame said:

Well, I don't know their musical backround, but I doubt that they studied classical singing. They more likely have a church choir backround.
And the material they released is surely NOT classical music



Here's an example of a countertenor, http://www.youtube.com/wa...61MBAMOUWo

filmnoirdame said:

Au contraire, my friend

From lowest to highest,

Bass - Baritone - Tenor - Countertenor

Isn't Soprano the highest?

filmnoirdame said:

Those were male voices, soprano is used to describe a female voice.
But yea, you are right, soprano is the highest.

Female voices are, as follows

Contralto - Mezzo-soprano - Soprano

thanks!
Did you know El discovered Chante Moore and basically got her a record deal. Allegedly, they were an item, but Chante dumped El when she found out he was a player and that he was not as "godly" as she thought he was. She married and later divorced Kadeem Hardison and El married his wife Tracy on the rebound. El and Tracy later split

filmnoirdame said:

No, actually, I had no idea. Thanks for the info

Thanks to this thread, I've been listening to 'I Like It' quite extensively for the past few days. It's actually one of my favorite cuts from the 80's.
Too bad none of their other material (that I've heard) is on par with 'I Like It'.

You don't like All this Love or Stay With Me or Love Me in a Special Way?

filmnoirdame said:

I'll have to listen to 'Stay With Me' and 'Love Me In A Special Way' later on today, cause it's been awhile.
Just listened to All This Love yesterday though, nowhere near as good as 'I Like It', in my opinion
It's not *bad* per se, but I'm just kinda disappointed in every other cut they put out, since 'I Like It' was the first DeBarge song I heard and it set the standard so high. None of their other songs have quite lived up to that standard

Take a listen-you won't be disappointed.

filmnoirdame said:

Alright, I will. I must warn you though, I'm very biased toward anything that sounds too 80's

But yea, once I get home from work today, I'll give them a spin.

FuNkeNsteiN said:

oh and see, I like "All this love" better than anything on that album. Heck I really liked all the singles from that album.

Prodigal fan you mean you liked all the singles from the "All This Love" cd? There were only 3 that I liked, well that I remember. ""I Like It", "All This Love" and "Getting Stronger."

filmnoirdame said:

To answer your question ofcourse El Debarge has the better voice,Prince is a great artist, but his voice well is nothing special.
And El everybody can hear for themselves,
btw. Tommy sounds nothing like El.

See, I think Tommy and El sound exactly alike. To a tee. And they look like twins to me.

filmnoirdame said:

Nah, i think you mix Tommy with Bobby, which song do you think Tommy sings?

marzellus said:

I never heard Tommy sing, I've heard Bobby sing, lol.

Shit, I meant El and Bobby sound just alike and look just alike. Tommy is like Randy and Chico-you know he is a Debarge, but he don't look like the rest of 'em

filmnoirdame said:

I thought Time will reveal was on the same CD. I liked "I like it" and "All this love" They put out so many hit songs in succession, heck I thought some songs were on the same album but they were on different ones.

My mom thought Debarge were one hit wonders-she thought they only dropped one album and was shocked that I told her they had several hit lps. Back then, people dropped albums every year

prodigalfan said:

I just learned about that last night when I read the Vibe article from last year:

"The night we wrote 'I Call Your Name' was a strange one," says Williams of the achy slow-jam, which was sampled in 2006 by Polow Da Don for Rich Boy's big hit "Throw Some D's." "Bobby was dating LaToya Jackson," Williams says, "and she was the only girl on his mind. One night, he started fooling around on the Fender Rhodes. I started singing along, and next thing you know we had a song. I'm not saying the song was written for LaToya, but they were in love, and Bobby couldn't wait to play her the completed song."

http://www.vibe.com/news/...rge_epi_2/

I would agree with those of you who say that El has the better falsetto with Prince having the better range. Prince isn't as polished a vocalist as El but he uses his range well. However, El and Bobby definitely had "pretty" voices and they knew how to work them. I especially love El's voice on "Stay with Me." I think he does a good job showing some range there.

With all this talk about falsetto singers, I am shocked no one has mentioned Eddie Kendricks who had a fantastic falsetto. I also have to give props to William Hart from the Delfonics (btw I think Prince did a good job showing his range in covering their tunes).

I am a little confused about MJ being considered a falsetto, though. Can someone list songs where he sings in this range? I have to go back and listen to them.