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===Vocals=== Brian identified each member individually for their [[vocal range]], once detailing the ranges for Carl, Dennis, Jardine ("[they] progress upwards through G, A, and B"), Love ("can go from bass to the E above middle C"), and himself ("I can take the second D in the [[treble clef]]").<ref name="PopGenius"/>{{refn|group=nb|Starting with the 1970 sessions for the ''Surf's Up'' album, Stephen Desper remembers the emerging corrosive effects of Brian's incessant [[chain smoking]] and [[cocaine]] use: "He could still do falsettos and stuff, but he'd need Carl to help him. Either that or I'd modify the tape speed-wise to make it artificially higher, so it sounded like the old days."{{sfn|Carlin|2006|p=160}}}} He declared in 1966 that his greatest interest was to expand modern vocal harmony, owing to his fascination with a voice to the Four Freshmen, which he considered a "groovy sectional sound".<ref name="PopGenius">{{cite magazine|title=Brian Pop Genius!|magazine=Melody Maker|date=May 21, 1966|url=http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd420/kwan_dk/MMMay211966.jpg|access-date=August 17, 2014|archive-date=December 12, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212161705/http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd420/kwan_dk/MMMay211966.jpg|url-status=live}}</ref> He added: "The harmonies that we are able to produce give us a uniqueness which is really the only important thing you can put into records β some quality that no one else has got. I love peaks in a song β and enhancing them on the control panel. Most of all, I love the human voice for its own sake."{{sfn|Moorefield|2010|p=17}}<ref name="PopGenius"/> For a period, Brian avoided singing falsetto for the group, saying: "I thought people thought I was a [[fairy (gay slang)|fairy]] ... the band told me, 'If that's the way you sing, don't worry about it.'"<ref name=RCMSharp>{{cite magazine|last1=Sharp|first1=Ken|title=Christmas with Brian Wilson|magazine=[[Record Collector]]|date=January 2006|pages=72β76|location=United Kingdom}}</ref> In the group's early recordings, from lowest [[interval (music)|intervals]] to highest, the group's vocal harmony stack usually began with Love or Dennis, followed by Jardine or Carl, and finally Brian on top, according to Jardine,<ref name=Sharp2013>{{cite web|last1=Sharp|first1=Ken|title=Al Jardine of the Beach Boys: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About "SMiLE" (Interview)|url=http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2013/04/02/al-jardine-smile-beach-boys-interview/|website=Rock Cellar Magazine|access-date=July 2, 2014|date=April 2, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714111352/http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2013/04/02/al-jardine-smile-beach-boys-interview/|archive-date=July 14, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> while Carl said that the blend was Love on bottom, Carl above, followed by Dennis or Jardine, and then Brian on top.<ref name="HimesSurf">{{cite web|last1=Himes|first1=Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey Himes|title=Surf Music|url=http://teachrock.org/media/essays/surf_himes_with_maia_edits_2.pdf|website=teachrock.org|publisher=Rock and Roll: An American History|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125223127/http://teachrock.org/media/essays/surf_himes_with_maia_edits_2.pdf|archive-date=November 25, 2015}}</ref> Jardine explains: "We always sang the same vocal intervals. ... As soon as we heard the chords on the piano we'd figure it out pretty easily. If there was a vocal move [Brian] envisioned, he'd show that particular singer that move. We had somewhat photographic memory as far as the vocal parts were concerned so that [was] never a problem for us."<ref name=Sharp2013/> Striving for perfection, Brian insured that his intricate vocal arrangements exercised the group's calculated blend of [[intonation (music)|intonation]], [[attack (music)|attack]], [[phrase (music)|phrasing]], and [[musical expression|expression]].{{sfn|Moorefield|2010|pp=17β19}} Sometimes, he would sing each vocal harmony part alone through multi-track tape.{{sfn|Hoskyns|2009|p=106}} {{Quote box |width=25em |align=right |quote=[Love] had a hand in a lot of the arrangements. He would bring out the funkier approaches, whether to go ''shoo-boo-bop'' or ''bom-bom-did-di-did-did''. It makes a big difference, because it can change the whole rhythm, the whole color and tone of it. |source= β Carl Wilson{{sfn|McKeen|2017|p=131}} }} On the group's blend, Carl said: "[Love] has a beautifully rich, very full-sounding bass voice. Yet his lead singing is real nasal, real punk. [Jardine]'s voice has a bright timbre to it; it really cuts. My voice has a kind of calm sound. We're big oooh-ers; we love to oooh. It's a big, full sound, that's very pleasing to us; it opens up the heart."<ref name=HimesSurf/> Rock critic [[Erik Davis]] wrote: "The 'purity' of tone and genetic proximity that smoothed their voices was almost creepy, pseudo-[[castrato]], [and] a '[[barbershop music|barbershop]]' sound."<ref name="Davis1990">{{cite news|last=Davis |first=Erik |title=Look! Listen! Vibrate! SMILE! The Apollonian Shimmer of the Beach Boys |url=http://www.techgnosis.com/index_beach.html |access-date=January 14, 2014 |newspaper=LA Weekly |date=November 9, 1990 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204153729/http://www.techgnosis.com/index_beach.html |archive-date=December 4, 2014 }}</ref> [[Jimmy Webb]] said: "They used very little [[vibrato]] and sing in very straight tones. The voices all lie down beside each other very easily β there's no bumping between them because the pitch is very precise."{{sfn|Hoskyns|2009|p=65}} According to Brian, "[[Jack Good (producer)|Jack Good]] once told us, 'You sing like [[eunuch]]s in a [[Sistine Chapel]]', which was a pretty good quote."<ref name="PopGenius"/> Writer [[Richard Goldstein (writer born 1944)|Richard Goldstein]] reported that, according to a fellow journalist who asked Brian about the black roots of his music, Brian's response was: "We're white and we sing white." Goldstein added that when he asked where his approach to vocal harmonies had derived from, Wilson answered: 'Barbershop'."<ref name=GoldsteinSalon>{{cite web|last1=Goldstein|first1=Richard|author-link=Richard Goldstein (writer born 1944)|title=I got high with the Beach Boys: "If I survive this I promise never to do drugs again"|url=http://www.salon.com/2015/04/26/i_got_high_with_the_beach_boys_if_i_survive_this_i_promise_never_to_do_drugs_again/|website=[[Salon (magazine)|Salon]]|date=April 26, 2015|access-date=October 18, 2015|archive-date=November 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151110040136/http://www.salon.com/2015/04/26/i_got_high_with_the_beach_boys_if_i_survive_this_i_promise_never_to_do_drugs_again/|url-status=live}}</ref>
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