Widest vocal range in pop music?

Celine Dion? Didn't see her name on the list.

Another vote for Minnie Riperton. From Wiki:

Riperton's vocal range spanned four octaves. Riperton's rare ability to enunciate in the high registers set her and Mariah Carey apart from most other whistle-register singers. This feature is most notably heard in the song Here We Go, where she sings "here we go" in the whistle register [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmD95FUFKvI, 2:30 mark]. Whistle-register enunciation can also be heard in songs such as "Inside My Love", "Adventures in Paradise", "Expecting", "Only When I'm Dreaming", and also in "Teach Me How to Fly" and "Like a Rolling Stone" with the Rotary Connection. Riperton was also noted for her ability to sound almost mechanical or instrumental in the whistle register. In "You Take My Breath Away", she sang a portamento ending two octaves above the staff. She has also been credited for her ability to sustain notes in the sixth and seventh octave for long periods of time, as in "Reasons", "Could It Be I'm in Love", "Adventures in Paradise", and "Inside My Love", and also "Love Me Now" with the Rotary Connection. Having an innate ability to imitate many instruments helped lead to Riperton's discovery while she was a secretary at Chess Records. In her recordings, Riperton's highest recorded note reached in the whistle register was F7 on the third scale of "You Take My Breath Away". Riperton reached this extremely high note before on an early recording of "Teach Me How to Fly" and "Could It Be I'm in Love". Also in a live performance of the song "Ruby Tuesday" from Rotary Connection, she sang an F#7. In the song "Loving You" she sings a walkdown on the A Major scale from F#6 to A5. In a 1998 interview for Vibe magazine, Mariah Carey cited Riperton as an influence on her.

Captain Beefheart.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Beefheart

Pet Shop Boys ?

Faith no more lead singer the widest range.

Did he ever apologize to that fish?

Clearly range isn't everything, as Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Marvin Gay and others have much more interesting voices than Maria Carey and especially Axle Rose.

Neil Young has a bigger range than plenty of better singers. Although a brilliant songwriter with a "character" voice, he was often warbling off key when playing live and has an empty sort of voice....as does Paul Simon another great songwriter.

Morton Harket.

Oops. Should be Morten.

There are some claims that he's got a 5-octave range, and he actually has a clear singing voice (or did when younger), not a gravelly scream.

Just saw CTD live in Atlanta over the weekend. They didn’t play any of his falsetto songs (those numbers were a bit gimicky when they were losing their grip on mainstream appeal as I remember) but at 60 years old Brad's baritone vocals are identical to when he was in his 20s— a benefit of performing at the lower end of your range I suppose. IMO “God Shuffled His Feet” was a solid album through and through. While I’m always open to seeing what people do next, it’s too bad they couldn’t duplicate its success.

AxL does have good range but he sounds so whiney on a lot of songs.

Chris Cornell of SoundGarden fame had an amazing vocal range and could use it to great effect. He reputedly had an almost four octave range.

Here's one song from his Temple of the Dog days where you can hear him belting it out, stretching the limits, and he does reach those upper registers by the end of the song:

Wow, I sure owned this thread, which of course made some morans very angry. Now many will get hangry again as I gloat.

Hackett's famous high note from Take On Me is an E5. A damn good E5, but pretty much nobody can go credibly much lower than C2, unless you call some forms of monastery croaking singing.

Most developed countertenors can also fry, but even if you can go A1, just 4 octaves up is A5. Thats Paul McCartney's lifetime high note (Oh Darling) and a half step above Steven Tyler in Dream On and Prince in Kiss. And of course 5 octaves would be A6. I would believe maybe he could go a little above 4 octaves.

Anyhow, I can do that too... and that's no boast, because I understand anyone can learn how. You can do it. It's pretty easy, just takes training and time to learn to control the laryngeal muscles the right way.

Slim Whitman is still one of the GOAT 5th octave performers. Compare him at 1:38 to Morton Hackett

Bad is Back, Baby!

XO2600XOXO😘

Yma Sumac had close to a 5 octave range and was placed into the Guinness Book of World Records for "Greatest Range of Musical Value." She had a wildly successful musical career internationally and even in the United States. When I lived in Los Angeles in the late 80s I had many chances to attend her shows at local jazz clubs but never got around to it. I also sadly passed on the chance to hear Sarah Vaughan at the Blue Note in New York in 1989 because I didn't want to stand packed-in like a sardine in the roped-off area at the bar (all seats were taken.) Sarah passed away later that Spring at only 66 years old (she didn't have a wide range but had perhaps the most exquisite voice ever.)

en.wikipedia.org

Yma Sumac

Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo (born Zoila Emperatriz Chávarri Castillo; September 13, 1922 – November 1, 2008), known as Yma Sumac (or Imma Sumack), was a Peruvian-born vocalist, composer, producer, actress a...

Link:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yma_Sumac

My favorite Sarah Vaughan song is Key Largo though she of course she had many great performances. She was notable for never warming up before a performance and she never once in her career injured her voice - vocal experts attribute this to her absolutely flawless vocal technique. One of the great milers apparently never warmed before his races, I believe it was John Walker but my memory about that is spotty so it may have been Steve Scott (it was written about in Sports Illustrated.) So perhaps runners with excellent form don't need to warm up much (or at all.)

Was looking for this mention.😎