Little Richard
Tenor · Rock · R&B · Gospel · USA · prominent since 1955
What is Little Richard’s vocal range?
Little Richard's vocal range is commonly cited as F2 to A#5 (Bb5) — about 3.4 octaves, or 41 semitones, and is usually classified as tenor. Full voice is cited up to around C5; everything above that comes from falsetto or head voice.
Gospel shouter's tenor: hard chest attack, heavy rasp, falsetto whoops flipped in mid-phrase. That cited span is wider than 83% of the 357 voices in this library.
- Signature song
- Tutti Frutti
- High A#5 heard in
- Long Tall Sally
Reading the numbers
- 10 semitones — 24% of the whole span — sit above the cited full-voice ceiling, so much of this range is head voice, falsetto or whistle rather than chest.
- The ceiling clears the conventional tenor top of C5 by 10 semitones.
- The span runs 9 semitones past the median voice in this library (32 semitones).
- 6 other voices here carry the identical cited range — at the resolution these figures are quoted in, those voices are indistinguishable on the chart.
- Ranked by bottom note, it is the 44th lowest of the 357 voices here; by top note, the 116th highest.
Commonly cited figures, not lab measurements — extreme notes are one-off recorded moments, not the singer’s everyday range.
Take the free 2-minute range test — your mic finds your lowest and highest notes, then this page shows exactly how your voice lines up with Little Richard’s.
Also bottoming out on F2
66 other voices here are cited to the same floor.
Also topping out on A#5
43 other voices here reach the same ceiling.