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Incredibly Long Note: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''And thirdly, if I can sustain that long note in the middle without my eyeballs popping out or my trousers falling down... (audience laughs) ...I think we should be reasonably secure for the rest of the evening.''|'''Michael Crawford''', on why he opened a concert with "Gethsemane" from ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]''}}
A [[Music Trope]]. A character in a musical or band ends his song singing a long note.
A very long note.
An ''incredibly'' long note, in fact.
Jesus, ''how much breath does this guy have?!''
Can become an [[Overly Long Gag]] if held ridiculously long—and it often ''is''—unless, of course, it's not meant to be a gag at all. A parodic version, for instance, would demonstrate just how unbearably long the character is holding that note for, and other characters will probably try to stop it. Doesn't have to be the last note of the song, by the way—long notes tend to appear in the middle of the song as well.
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* In the [[Bugs Bunny]] short ''[[wikipedia:Long-Haired Hare|Long-Haired Hare]]'', Bugs [[Cartoon Conductor|pretends to be a conductor]] in order to torment an opera singer. Near the end he has the singer hold a note for 45 seconds, until it [[Stealth Pun|causes the collapse of the orchestra shell above the singer's head.]]<ref>In other words, Bugs literally "brought down the house".</ref>
** This scene was directly referenced in the ''[[SCTV]]'' "Godfather" parody, with Luciano Pavarotti (John Candy) holding an extended high note.
* In ''Klondike Casanova'' Olive Oyl pulls this off, her neck stretching all the while, as Popeye runs back to the kitchen to whip up sandwiches for the hungry crowd.
* In ''[[¡Three Amigos!|Three Amigos]]'' (with [[Steve Martin]]) as they sing their theme song there's one part where they hold one note for a comically long time before continuing.
* Given how much <s>[[PDQ Bach]]</s> Peter Schickele loves the [[Overly Long Gag]], it's not surprising that he has a bunch of these.
** Parodied in ''The Stoned Guest'': Carmen Ghia takes a breath in the middle of a long note and a voice cries, "I heard that!" In one of her duets with Donna Ribalda, an [[Intermission]] is taken as they hold their penultimate note ("Have you got a stopwatch?").
** ''The Stoned Guest'' also has Don Octave gearing up for one of these, but he screws it up partway through. (Appropriately enough, it is in his [["I Am" Song]], during which he laments that he can't do anything right.)
** Another P.D.Q Bach example: in ''The Abduction of Figaro'', Pecadillo gets two of these in a row, when he's calling Blondie in Act 1.
** There is no singer, but the first two notes in the Schleptet in E Flat Major are well over ten seconds each; in typical performances the horn player falls out of their seat by the end of the second note.
* In "Anything You Can Do" from ''[[Annie Get Your Gun]]'', Annie sings, "Any note you can hold, I can hold longer," and then proves she can.
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* ''[[Family Guy]]'':
{{quote|Peter: ''I'm doin' this for you / but it's really for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'' [Commercial Break] ''eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!''}}
* Lois: Peter, are you gay?
{{quote|Peter: Guiltyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!}}
* Joke example: A guy sees a sign for the "World's Longest Underwater Tarzan Yell Contest". He asks what the current record is, and is told "Dunno, last year's contestants still haven't finished yet".
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* While the power of Adam Lambert's vocal cords is common knowledge, the note he holds during the bridge of "Pick U Up" is, in a word, sublime
* Dumbledore, from [[A Very Potter Musical]].
* In the film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber [[Phantom of the Opera]] musical, everyone takes a deep, synchronised breath during the last note of Prima Donna.
* "Johnny One Note" from the Rodgers and Hart musical ''Babes in Arms'' is about a singer who can only sing one particular note, but does so very loud and very long.
** "Johnny could only sing one note, and the note he sang was this - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."
* In ''[[Chowder]] Grows Up'', Chowder holds the last note of his [["I Want" Song|"I Don't Want To Grow Up" song]] so long that a [[Time Skip]] occurs in the interim. He, in fact, grows up over the course of holding that note.
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* [[The Nostalgia Chick]]'s review of ''[[Les Misérables (theatre)|Les Misérables]]'' ends with a rendition of "One Day More" by a number of singers on the [[That Guy With The Glasses]] site. [[The Nostalgia Critic]] gets to hold the long note and plays it for laughs.
** There's also the one from her My Little Pony review.
* Balloon Shop made good use of this trope in both "The Sargentos" and "The Masked Avenger": In The Sargentos, Olan is overjoyed about the spaghetti that his chef has prepared for "Chris" that he lets out a long shriek similar to the most annoying sound in the world. In "The Masked Avenger", Senor Ortiz's bodyguard adds short bursts of "Oh no!" into the dialogue, at random, finally, he lets it all go for a full 13 seconds. Even Senor Ortiz is a little weirded out.
* At the start of the song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-JfIduytVs I Fuck Dogs], Paul McDermott pulls a very long note... And gets a headspin for his trouble.
* Somewhat done by Wayne Brady and Brad Sherwood in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9cOmf1D3BI this playing] of "Greatest Hits" from [[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]], but implied by Colin Mochrie that "they held that 'oooh' for 15 minutes".
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* [[Judas Priest]]: [[This Is Sparta|CAN'T! STOP! THE! PAIN!KILL!ER................................................................................................]] (Almost 20 seconds. Have fun with that on ''[[Rock Band]] 2''.) {{spoiler|PAIN!}}
* The [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] series has a [[Goldfinger|long]], ''[[Thunderball|long]]'', '''[[Tomorrow Never Dies|long]]''' love affair with this trope. See exhibits [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MagCoUYvIXE A], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTaLhbNQ34o B], and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyMH6q5Fq4w C] for more details.
* "Dim All the Lights" by [[Donna Summer]] once held (and may still?) the record for the longest note held in an American Top 40 pop hit.
* ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]'' has this happen a lot, in the form of [["I Want" Song|"The Wizard And I"]] (Twice!) and [[BSOD Song|"No Good Deed"]] ([[Serial Escalation|FOUR TIMES!]]) [[Stephen Schwartz]] explicitly said that while a mezzo-soprano, the vocal range for Elphaba's role in every other song, ''might'' be able to pull it off, she also needs to be a belter for the second number alone.
* The last "fly" in Martina McBride's "A Broken Wing" is held out for thirteen seconds. Martina has said that she can usually sustain it ''even longer'' in concert.
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** In the [[Dolly Parton]] original, it's more like "IIIIIIIII will alllllllll-waaaaaaaaaays love yoouuuu..."
* Anthony Stewart Head, of all people, gets a tremendous one in [[Repo! The Genetic Opera]], during the song Let The Monster Rise. Sarah Brightman, as seen below, also gets a few.
* In the [[Tool]] song "The Grudge," singer Maynard Keenan holds a primal scream for 24 seconds, though it degrades significantly by the end. At concerts, the audio technicians loop the live scream back on itself so it lasts longer and causes less strain.
* Warren Zevon enjoyed holding the last syllable of "Berkeley" in live versions of "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" -- in the album version it's only 2-3 seconds, but on Learning to Flinch it's a good 17 seconds.
* [[Manowar|Hold your hammers]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjhNWAo6DN8 HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH]
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* [[Boston (band)|Boston]]'s "More Than A Feeling". Particularly noticeable when the song keeps showing up in games like ''Karaoke Revolution'' and ''[[Rock Band]]''.
{{quote|Till I see Marianne walk awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...}}
* It is not uncommon for the actor playing Fyedka in productions of [[Fiddler
* [[Les Misérables (theatre)|TWO FOUR SIX OHHH OOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!]]
* [[Cats Don't Dance|"BIG! AAA~AND! LOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUD-ah!"]]
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** [[Beta Couple|Johanna and Anthony]] have ALOT of these.
** [[Jerkass|The Beadle]] has about 3 in "Ladies and Their Sensitivies"
** Also Pirelli. Oh Lord, Pirelli.
* What, no one's heard Clay Aiken's rendition of ''Solitaire''?
* Craig Morgan, "Love Remembers". He practically screams the last "remembers" and holds it for 15 seconds.
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{{quote|''"What else can you do, Tim?!"''}}
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apJYWg36LIo Here] he holds a note for 31 seconds.
* in למה את לא עונה לי (Why Won't You Answer Me?) the Israeli singer Yoni Bloh does a very long "WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY?!''
* During the final choral movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, he makes the sopranos hold a note long enough to make them pass out.
* Inspector Hans Kemp has one near the end of "He's Loose" in the musical version of [[Young Frankenstein]], and the entire chorus holds one at the end of the same song.
** But only on the CD.
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=== People Who Just Like To Hold Very Long Notes: ===
* Amy Lee of [[Evanescence]] uses this trope so much.
* Anthony Warlow
* [[Guns N' Roses|Axl Rose]], usually at the end of a song.
* [[Barbra Streisand]]
* [[Celine Dion]]
* [[Christina Aguilera]] will throw one of these in occasionally.
* [[Jan Peerce]].
* The late [[Luciano Pavarotti]]
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* Patti LuPone
* [[Kenny G]] holds the world record for the longest saxophone note--he did it via circular breathing.
* [[Jessica Simpson]], especially on her third album In this Skin.
* Corrine Drewery of Swing Out Sister, usually as an act of improvisation in live concerts, as she revealed in this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzZeU_SZ9NI&feature=player_detailpage#t=438s interview]
* [[Freddie Mercury|Freddie "Somebody to Love" Mercury.]] FULL. FREAKING. STOP.
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