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Which rock and pop singer has the highest vocal range out of any singer in the UK?

That's what we wanted to find out, because it's really important that we all know the answer to this question.

What we discovered rocked us to our very core.

If you were thinking Freddie Mercury, Robert Plant or Kate Bush would be at the top of the list, then you are mistaken (as is everyone else in the world - probably).

So, here are the top 20 bands or singers in the UK with the highest vocal ranges. You have been warned.

20) John Lennon (The Beatles) - Vocal range of 2.83 octaves

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Before we go on, let's explain quickly: An octave is eight musical notes.



19) Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) - Vocal range of 2.83 octaves

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Mark Knopfler - good at singing, bad at headwear fashion.

18) Cheryl Cole - Vocal range of 2.83 octaves

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We always knew Cheryl Cole had a similar voice to Mark Knopfler... wait.



17) Laura Marling - Vocal range of 2.83 octaves

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16) Roger Daltrey (The Who) - Vocal range of 2.83 octaves

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Roger Daltrey has the same vocal range as Cheryl Cole too...



15) Freddie Mercury (Queen) - Vocal range of 2.92 octaves

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Oh, Freddie. You're so great.



14) Ed Sheeran - Vocal range of 3.00 octaves

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It's true.



13) Guy Garvey (Elbow) - Vocal range of 3.00 octaves

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Don't run, Guy. Thirteenth is respectable.



12) Mick Jagger (The Rolling Stones) - Vocal range of 3.00 octaves

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Slick Mick.



11) Elton John - Vocal range of 3.00 octaves

Well done, Elton.



10) Bono (U2) - Vocal range of 3.08 octaves

An Eb is the Edge of Bono's vocal range.



9) Chris Martin (Coldplay) - Vocal range of 3.17 octaves

8) Kate Bush - Vocal range of 3.17 octaves

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Never change, Kate. Never change.



7) Matt Bellamy (Muse) - Vocal range of 3.25 octaves

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Matt Bellamy doesn't know how to feel about only being 7th.



6) John Fratelli (The Fratellis) - Vocal range of 3.25 octaves

5) Paul Weller - Vocal range of 3.33 octaves

Bit of a surprise, no?



4) David Bowie - Vocal range of 3.58 octaves

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He has such a brilliant vocal range that he often double-tracks his own vocal melodies in two different octaves.



3) Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) - Vocal range of 3.92 octaves

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Phwoar... settle down, Robert.



2) Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) - Vocal range of 4.25 octaves

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Bruce Dickinson - really nice bloke. He flies planes, you know!



1) Tom Smith (Editors) - Vocal range of 4.75 octaves

That's right, the artist with the highest vocal range in the UK is Editors singer Tom Smith, and you can be forgiven for never having heard of him, because he's better known as "the singer out of the Editors".

Indie supremo Tom Smith, who channels Joy Division legend Ian Curtis with his low frequency rumblings, has a SUPERHUMAN vocal range of 4.75.

To put that into perspective, that's a wider tonal range than an electric guitar (in standard tuning).

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Methodology

In case you're wondering, this list is based on sheet music data from musicnotes.com, a website with over 260,000 sheet music arrangements. We took vocal melodies from UK bands and artists and plotted the highest and lowest notes each singer has recorded.

Of course, this does mean that some of the singers *could* achieve higher of lower notes than those recorded throughout their careers, but without turning up to each of their houses with a Casio keyboard and a dictaphone, we'll never know.

And with many of the bands in the list, their back catalogues are significant enough to provide a very good bank of data.

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