Yes there is a calibre of information available on this change. We have discussed this numerous times over the years and the general concensus is that the change occured on the 9th August 1983.

Dilan said:

Most people mark the change at about Controversy, which was his first single sang almost entirely in lower register.

Do bear in mind that Soft and Wet, his first single, includes a line sung in his lower register as well.

The 1999 album was the first one were his lower register really came to the forefront. His chest voice can still be heard on For You, Prince, Dirty Mind, Controvery on certain songs, lines and backing vocals.

What was his first song that saw him actually stretch out though? Controversy is that sort of 'talking singing' which I don't really think counts.

Controversy is the start of the Prince 'sound'.

Firstly, it saw Prince drop the falsetto for the first time (bar a few spoken lines in other songs, ie, Just as Long, Sexy Dancer, Party Up).

Secondly, it was the first use of the Linn Drum.

tbokris said:

So to take our minds off the Pr remaster, I had a question to put to you all that I haven't seen discussed on the peg When did Prince's vocal singing style change exactly? It seems to me that he primarily (exclusively?) sang in a fairly weak falsetto (don't attack me) for his early albums up until Purple Rain. Am I right on this? When did he first record a song in the lower register? I always felt that there was a point where Prince went from being a great singer for his style of music to being an amazing singer generally circa 1983. Is there any info about this change?

Have you ever listened to Prince's music? It doesn't sound like you have based on your post. "When did he first record a song in a lower register?" Have you listened to Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999 at all? You should. Your answer is there.

TrivialPursuit said:

tbokris said:

So to take our minds off the Pr remaster, I had a question to put to you all that I haven't seen discussed on the peg When did Prince's vocal singing style change exactly? It seems to me that he primarily (exclusively?) sang in a fairly weak falsetto (don't attack me) for his early albums up until Purple Rain. Am I right on this? When did he first record a song in the lower register? I always felt that there was a point where Prince went from being a great singer for his style of music to being an amazing singer generally circa 1983. Is there any info about this change?

Have you ever listened to Prince's music? It doesn't sound like you have based on your post. "When did he first record a song in a lower register?" Have you listened to Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999 at all? You should. Your answer is there.

So much for friendly discussion. Next time someone posts a quesiton on the board, you should shoot them down for being such a Prince noob that they even have a question. All TRUE prince fans don't have any questions becayse they know everything. Or it sounds like you don't actually know either, and are taking your bad mood out on the internet.

So anyway...

Dirty Mind in my opinion doesn't have any songs in his low register - Do It All Night has double tracked vocals where he is trying out singing a whole song lower but doesn't the confidence to let it stand alone.

Controversy ditto - only Ronnie Talk to Russia seems to be a song based in his lower register, but again it is double tracked with gospel singers. Annie Christian is all in the lower register, but it's sort of talking and not really singing as such.

So maybe it was on 1999 the album then.

Seems later than I would have thought for Prince to start singing in a more powerful voice after 5 albums.

tbokris said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Have you ever listened to Prince's music? It doesn't sound like you have based on your post. "When did he first record a song in a lower register?" Have you listened to Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999 at all? You should. Your answer is there.

So much for friendly discussion. Next time someone posts a quesiton on the board [ima stop u right there snip]

Hey, it's all friendly. I asked, "have you ever listened to Prince's music?" How is that unfriendly? It's valid, based on your post, because if you had listened to at least the first two of those three albums, you'd know when he toyed with it, and when it went full on with his regular singing voice.

I then asked "have you listened to..." and listed three albums. That was also a valid question. It was also partly an answer because I said" "your answer is there".

If you listen to those three albums, you'll find out when Prince started singing in his lower natural register instead of his falsetto.

Besides, they're great albums. You should be listening to them by default anyway. (I'm listening to one of them right now.)

TrivialPursuit said:

tbokris said:

So much for friendly discussion. Next time someone posts a quesiton on the board [ima stop u right there snip]

Hey, it's all friendly. I asked, "have you ever listened to Prince's music?" How is that unfriendly? It's valid, based on your post, because if you had listened to at least the first two of those three albums, you'd know when he toyed with it, and when it went full on with his regular singing voice.

I then asked "have you listened to..." and listed three albums. That was also a valid question. It was also partly an answer because I said" "your answer is there".

If you listen to those three albums, you'll find out when Prince started singing in his lower natural register instead of his falsetto.

Besides, they're great albums. You should be listening to them by default anyway. (I'm listening to one of them right now.)

You can believe you were being friendly and back-track if you like but it was a snide comment.

This is a forum for Prince fans to dicuss Prince. If you don't have anything but negative comments then simply don't post and walk away. Do you point out on the street everytime someone does something you don't like? Probably not becuase you don't have your e-warrior shield to keep you safe.

Enjoy your pedestal.

[Edited 4/28/17 12:16pm]

Don´t know if this is the kind of info you´re looking for but as far as I know Prince had vocal training/coaching/singing lessons right before Purple Rain came out. I think it helped him protect his vocal chords and improved his singing style, too.

There´s also an early interview where he mentioned that singing in his lower register is difficult and even a bit painful for him but that was during a very early stage in his career.

tbokris said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Have you ever listened to Prince's music? It doesn't sound like you have based on your post. "When did he first record a song in a lower register?" Have you listened to Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999 at all? You should. Your answer is there.

So much for friendly discussion. Next time someone posts a quesiton on the board, you should shoot them down for being such a Prince noob that they even have a question. All TRUE prince fans don't have any questions becayse they know everything. Or it sounds like you don't actually know either, and are taking your bad mood out on the internet.

So anyway...

Dirty Mind in my opinion doesn't have any songs in his low register - Do It All Night has double tracked vocals where he is trying out singing a whole song lower but doesn't the confidence to let it stand alone.

Controversy ditto - only Ronnie Talk to Russia seems to be a song based in his lower register, but again it is double tracked with gospel singers. Annie Christian is all in the lower register, but it's sort of talking and not really singing as such.

So maybe it was on 1999 the album then.

Seems later than I would have thought for Prince to start singing in a more powerful voice after 5 albums.

KoolEaze said:

Don´t know if this is the kind of info you´re looking for but as far as I know Prince had vocal training/coaching/singing lessons right before Purple Rain came out. I think it helped him protect his vocal chords and improved his singing style, too.

There´s also an early interview where he mentioned that singing in his lower register is difficult and even a bit painful for him but that was during a very early stage in his career.

Thanks, yeah that's the kind of info I was after. It seems such an obvious change in way, but I've never really heard people mention it before.

It seemed almost like a concious decision by Prince, that he tried it out on a few tracks but buried it in the mix. It basically changed his whole sound.

tbokris said:

KoolEaze said:

Don´t know if this is the kind of info you´re looking for but as far as I know Prince had vocal training/coaching/singing lessons right before Purple Rain came out. I think it helped him protect his vocal chords and improved his singing style, too.

There´s also an early interview where he mentioned that singing in his lower register is difficult and even a bit painful for him but that was during a very early stage in his career.

Thanks, yeah that's the kind of info I was after. It seems such an obvious change in way, but I've never really heard people mention it before.

It seemed almost like a concious decision by Prince, that he tried it out on a few tracks but buried it in the mix. It basically changed his whole sound.

You´re welcome.

We had a few threads about this topic and I think some orgers even found out the name of his vocal coach but it´s been a long time, maybe more than ten years, so I don´t really remember the details.

http://prince.org/msg/7/402373

See if the thread above can give you the info you want. It mentions a vocal coach named Seth Riggs and that he got his vocal training around 1981 but I think that´s way too early. Other threads suggested 1983.

KoolEaze said:

Don´t know if this is the kind of info you´re looking for but as far as I know Prince had vocal training/coaching/singing lessons right before Purple Rain came out. I think it helped him protect his vocal chords and improved his singing style, too.

There´s also an early interview where he mentioned that singing in his lower register is difficult and even a bit painful for him but that was during a very early stage in his career.

Singing in a lower register (chest voice) can be very difficult - especially for untrained singers. It's a lot harder to get power behind the voice - and being lower, the sound just doesn't carry as well.

It's less of an issue in a studio session - where the conditions are more controlled. It's when you try to do it live that it becomes much harder. I have to think that (at least initially) Prince would have been concerned with being able to duplicate his studio sound in a live setting. Falsetto would have made that easier.

Thanks KoolEaze - good to read those comments.

.

Genesia - I imagine one attractive aspect for Prince in singing in falsetto, is that it is hiding the sound of your natural voice more. I imagine being shy, this was probably an easier path to go down, and if you're lacking power behind your voice then people don't expect falsetto to have much power, so it's easier to carry it off. Plus you're right it cuts above the music more.

If you listen to some of his early live performances, he actually talks in his head voice - which is really interesting. It's almost like he's singing his between-songs banter.

That is a sign of someone who is trying very hard to control every aspect of his performance and make it as refined and perfect as possible from start to finish. I think it's in the live shows that you can really hear this transition at its most organic.

Genesia said:

If you listen to some of his early live performances, he actually talks in his head voice - which is really interesting.

.

woah that sounds crazy. id like to hear some of that. Makes me think he's deffinitely using it as a sheild of some sort

I don't hear any drastic change, just a slight change from each album. For me, his vocals were at their peak around Emancipation - where he still had the balls and power, and 15-20yrs worth of honed technical skill. I think there is a notable shift from Musicology onward, where he seemed to have lost some of the power he used to have (not to say he still couldn't belt it out in amazing fashion, just not with the same sustain as he used to have).

tbokris said:

So to take our minds off the Pr remaster, I had a question to put to you all that I haven't seen discussed on the peg When did Prince's vocal singing style change exactly? It seems to me that he primarily (exclusively?) sang in a fairly weak falsetto (don't attack me) for his early albums up until Purple Rain. Am I right on this? When did he first record a song in the lower register? I always felt that there was a point where Prince went from being a great singer for his style of music to being an amazing singer generally circa 1983. Is there any info about this change?

Prince has said himself that he didn't like singing in his lower register because it hurt him. I just don't think his lower register was developed yet and he just woodshedded while it did develop. He worked hard on it and when he felt it was ready, he used it on 1999. Before that, there are only a few times where he sang in his lower register, he felt it lacked power. Prince obviously improved his voice the same way he did just about everything, a mixture of talent, passion and hardwork. There were still certain registers where prince never had a lot of "power" but he developed some amazing screams and shrieks, i'd say some of the best on wax, rivalling any hardrocker or Little Richard himself.

The vocal delivery changed somewhere between Controversy and 1999, so somewhere in 1981 or 1982. Prince's vocals on For You, Dirty Mind, and Controversy are primarily in the higher register of his voice. Starting with 1999, he uses the lower register of his voice much more frequently, thereby displaying much more of his full vocal range.

[Edited 4/30/17 16:39pm]

What about the "Tell me that luh me girl" part of Soft N Wet?

rdhull said:

What about the "Tell me that luh me girl" part of Soft N Wet?

True, but that's the one baritone line in the entire song. The rest of the song he's singing soprano or falsetto. (And I love Soft N Wet, by the way).

[Edited 5/2/17 4:13am]

rdhull said:

What about the "Tell me that luh me girl" part of Soft N Wet?

And OMFUCK that is such a cool part of the song, too.