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Deciding who sings lead
I know with the Beatles whether John or Paul sang lead was typically based, not always but most of the time, on who wrote the song or at least the majority of it. How do you guys decide who sings lead? Is it based on who had the idea for the song, who contributed the most towards writing it, or is it more on whose vocal it best suits?
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6 Replies
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Great question, Steve: I want to know, too!
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Hi Steve
I asked a similar question but didn’t receive a response. Maybe because it was in someone else’s topic and got missed or because they were saving it for a future Q&A. Or maybe they just want to keep some mystery there and keep us wondering!
The Topic was: Which 5 of your own song lyrics are FAVES !?
“Would it be asking too much if you could let us know who is the originator of each of your songs on both albums? For instance, was ‘One More Time’ a Lisa idea and ‘Won’t You Listen Now’ Mona’s?”
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I asked them this same question on FB some time ago. The answer they gave me was that they both try to sing the song and for whomever is works the best with sings the lead. Mike
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Thanks Mike. They are an eminently sensible pair. The end result is the goal then. If that’s the case, I don’t think we’re going to have the squabbles we eventually had between John, Paul and George over what was selected for each album and who sang what.
All the better for us as we are the ones who benefit most from their collaboration. When I say collaboration, we must not forget the awesome Papa Rudi!
Good question Steve.
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Yes, we approach this on a song to song basis, going with whatever sounds the best for each tune. We always try to serve the song so it doesn’t really matter who wrote it in the first place and thankfully there is never any ego involved 🙂 I tend to sing more of the ballads while Mona is a lot better at “raspy” but then again there have also been many exceptions to that too … I guess there isn’t really a method other than both of us giving a song a try and then simply choosing what sounds best for each song.
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Really nice to hear that Lisa even though it’s what I expected. The two of you seem to have an amazing rapport and somehow I couldn’t imagine either of you sweating the little stuff!
“Life is very short, and there’s no time / For fussing and fighting, my friend.”
I look forward to many more of your collaborations.
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