ConcertHotels.com — a business which does exactly what you'd think it does — had the clever idea to take Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest singers of all time, combine them with some current favorites like Taylor Swift and Adele, and see how their vocal ranges stacked up (or, at least, their vocal ranges for their recorded output). A lot of the results aren't too surprising (Barry White, it turns out, could sing very low notes indeed!) but I'm somewhat surprised that no singer even comes close to matching Mariah Carey's highs; I imagine a graph that included Ariana Grande would show less of a blowout. You can see ConcertHotels' interactive version, which shows the actual songs where the singers' hit their highs and lows, here.
No one can sing as high as Mariah Carey can sing, in one chart
Dylan Matthews was a senior correspondent and head writer for Vox’s Future Perfect section. He is particularly interested in global health and pandemic prevention, anti-poverty efforts, economic policy and theory, and conflicts about the right way to do philanthropy.
