The vocal range of Ozzy Osbourne

Considering how Ozzy has sounded while performing live in the past few decades, a lot of people would expect him to have a “one octave range at best”. In reality, though, he’s demonstrated a surprisingly wide range over the course of his career. Due to his excessive drug and alcohol abuse, he more or less always struggled live, but back when he was at his vocal prime in the ’70s, he was capable of hitting some very clean and strong fifth octave notes. This was best demonstrated on Black Sabbath’s Sabotage and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath albums. During his solo career, he’s continued to demonstrate capability of singing up to C5 and C♯5 quite regularly, but also began to utilize his low register more. Nowadays, there’s not much left to his high range, but he still has strong lows down to G♯2. Overall, though he definitely has his share of bad moments, I think Ozzy is a very underrated singer.

1. 0:00 – A couple of solid B♭4s, followed by a slide all the way from E♭4 down to G♯2, followed by a short B4. From “Whole World’s Fallin’ Down”.

2. 0:22 – Powerful singing up to A4 from a verse of “Tomorrow”, along with some harmony vocals up to C♯5.

3. 0:49 – Some intense melody singing on B♭4 followed by sustained A4s from “Symptom of the Universe”, one of Ozzy’s best vocal performances.

4. 1:21 – Entire lines on clean B4s from “Megalomania”. These were torture for Ozzy to attempt live!

5. 1:36 – Incredibly soft and light C5s from the hauntingly beautiful “Air Dance”. This is the only time I’ve heard Ozzy go this high with such a tone.

6. 2:09 – Great C♯5s from the classic “Sabbra Cadabra”. Unfortunately, this was another passage that he often had lots of trouble with live.

7. 2:33 – Verse singing up to strong C♯5s from “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”. Considering how well-known this song is, I’m surprised by how rarely people acknowledge just how difficult it is to sing!

8. 3:01 – A strong B4 and D5 from “Killing Yourself To Live”.

9. 3:12 – A gritty C♯5 from “Megalomania”, followed by a clean sustained E5! I wish Ozzy would’ve sung in this area more back in the ’70s; his tone really sounds great up there!

10. 3:30 – A couple of melody C5s from “I Just Want You”, followed by a slide up to F5, Ozzy’s highest note.

11. 3:59 – Some great dark lower singing from “Who’s Fooling Who”, mostly bottoming at C3, with a short B♭2 as well.

12. 4:26 – Lots of strong B2s from “Latimer’s Mercy”, also with one dip down to a solid A2.

13. 4:50 – Some very good melody singing down to B♭2 from “God Is Dead?”.

14. 5:27 – A rare clip of Ozzy doing some vocal warm-ups down to A2! Unfortunately, his fourth octave notes sound extremely shaky in the rest of this recording…

15. 5:45 – Great dark singing down to G♯2 from “Psycho Man”. I didn’t even recognize this as Ozzy’s voice when I first heard it!

16. 6:19 – G2s and B♭2s from the chorus of “21st Century Schizoid Man”.

17. 6:45 – Ozzy’s lowest sung notes: E♭2s in the backing vocals of the “Mr. Tinkertrain” verse!

18. 6:59 – As a bonus, here I have a long clip that showcases some of Ozzy’s best high singing ever: the first verse of “The Writ”, in which the entire melody is sung between B4 and D5!

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The vocal range of Ozzy Osbourne