Editing Elvis Presley (section)

=== Vocal style and range ===
[[File:Elvis Presley first national television appearance 1956.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|alt=Publicity photo of Elvis playing guitar|Publicity photo for the [[CBS]] program ''[[Stage Show (TV series)|Stage Show]]'', January 16, 1956]]

The developmental arc of Presley's singing voice, as described by critic Dave Marsh, goes from "high and thrilled in the early days, [to] lower and perplexed in the final months."{{sfn|Marsh|1982|p=234}} Marsh credits Presley with the introduction of the "vocal stutter" on 1955's "[[Baby Let's Play House]]".{{sfn|Marsh|1989|p=317}} When on "Don't Be Cruel", Presley "slides into a 'mmmmm' that marks the transition between the first two verses," he shows "how masterful his relaxed style really is."{{sfn|Marsh|1989|p=91}} Marsh describes the vocal performance on "Can't Help Falling in Love" as one of "gentle insistence and delicacy of phrasing", with the line {{"'}}Shall I stay' pronounced as if the words are fragile as crystal".{{sfn|Marsh|1989|p=490}}

Jorgensen calls the 1966 recording of "How Great Thou Art" "an extraordinary fulfillment of his vocal ambitions", as Presley "crafted for himself an ad-hoc arrangement in which he took every part of the four-part vocal, from [the] bass intro to the soaring heights of the song's operatic climax", becoming "a kind of one-man quartet".{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=212}} Guralnick finds "[[Stand by Me (Charles Albert Tindley song)|Stand by Me]]" from the same gospel sessions "a beautifully articulated, almost nakedly yearning performance", but, by contrast, feels that Presley reaches beyond his powers on "Where No One Stands Alone", resorting "to a kind of inelegant bellowing to push out a sound" that Jake Hess of the Statesmen Quartet had in his command. Hess himself thought that while others might have voices the equal of Presley's, "he had that certain something that everyone searches for all during their lifetime."{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=232}} Guralnick attempts to pinpoint that something: "The warmth of his voice, his controlled use of both vibrato technique and natural falsetto range, the subtlety and deeply felt conviction of his singing were all qualities recognizably belonging to his talent but just as recognizably not to be achieved without sustained dedication and effort."{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=231}}

Marsh praises his 1968 reading of "[[U.S. Male]]", "bearing down on the hard guy lyrics, not sending them up or overplaying them but tossing them around with that astonishingly tough yet gentle assurance that he brought to his Sun records."{{sfn|Marsh|1989|p=424}} The performance on "In the Ghetto" is, according to Jorgensen, "devoid of any of his characteristic vocal tricks or mannerisms", instead relying on the exceptional "clarity and sensitivity of his voice".{{sfn|Jorgensen|1998|p=271}} Guralnick describes the song's delivery as of "almost translucent eloquence&nbsp;... so quietly confident in its simplicity".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=332}} On "Suspicious Minds", Guralnick hears essentially the same "remarkable mixture of tenderness and poise", but supplemented with "an expressive quality somewhere between stoicism (at suspected infidelity) and anguish (over impending loss)".{{sfn|Guralnick|1999|p=335}}

Music critic [[Henry Pleasants (music critic)|Henry Pleasants]] observes that "Presley has been described variously as a [[baritone]] and a [[tenor]]. An extraordinary compass&nbsp;... and a very wide range of vocal color have something to do with this divergence of opinion."{{sfn|Pleasants|2004|p=260}} He identifies Presley as a high baritone, calculating his range as two [[octave]]s and a third, "from the baritone low [[G (musical note)|G]] to the tenor high [[B (musical note)|B]], with an upward extension in [[falsetto]] to at least a D-flat. Presley's best octave is in the middle, D-flat to D-flat, granting an extra full step up or down."{{sfn|Pleasants|2004|p=260}} In Pleasants' view, his voice was "variable and unpredictable" at the bottom, "often brilliant" at the top, with the capacity for "full-voiced high Gs and [[A (musical note)|As]] that an opera baritone might envy".{{sfn|Pleasants|2004|p=260}} Scholar Lindsay Waters, who figures Presley's range as two-and-a-quarter octaves, emphasizes that "his voice had an emotional range from tender whispers to sighs down to shouts, grunts, grumbles, and sheer gruffness that could move the listener from calmness and surrender, to fear. His voice can not be measured in octaves, but in decibels; even that misses the problem of how to measure delicate whispers that are hardly audible at all."{{sfn|Waters|2003|p=205}} Presley was always "able to duplicate the open, hoarse, ecstatic, screaming, shouting, wailing, reckless sound of the black rhythm-and-blues and gospel singers", writes Pleasants, and also demonstrated a remarkable ability to assimilate many other vocal styles.{{sfn|Pleasants|2004|p=260}}