re: Best harmonizing voices in music history

Beach Boys #1

Jan & Dean #2

Earth Wind & Fire deserve a mention

Little River Band. If you know anything about harmony, you understand how incredibly difficult those harmony parts on songs like Reminiscing are.

Kansas

Doobies

Ambrosia

Toto. Our boy from South Louisiana, Bobby Kimball made it possible for Toto to sing some pretty damned salty BVG’s

Not comparing them to those legendary artist, just saw sugarcane Jane…. They were amazing.

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Much room for debate!

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I guess it’s music so technically debatable,

However every artist listed is a 2 part, maybe 3 part harmony. 3-4 is always appreciated but the beach boys were 5 sometimes more. And live. And not expected notes, they were very technical, the musicality of their parts written by Brian Wilson were insanely complex. I’d be willing to bet every single artist that’s been posted here would point directly back to the beach boys as the alpha and omega of harmony in pop music.

I would have Simon and Garfunkel as the best 2-part.

There are so very many 3-parts out there and most have been mentioned.

I do think the Eagles Seven Bridges Road is a reference standard for a 5-part.

The Temptations and The Four Tops are way up there, as are the Supremes and the Staples.

Just looking at Elvis' backing singers for the later period - The Jordanaires and the Sweet Inspirations - just fantastic.

Some choices that haven't gotten much love in the thread are:

Heart (Ann and Nancy Wilson's voices blend nearly perfectly)

Fleetwood Mac - supremely underrated considering they have 3 lead vocalists and when not singing lead, all did fantastic harmonies.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

Realistically, everyone post 1958 copied this.