Put Your Records On: key, vocal range, and how hard it is to sing
Corinne Bailey Rae’s Put Your Records On is a 2006 soul-pop single people still search when they want the original key, the vocal range, and a straight answer on whether the song is hard to sing. This page reports measured stats from the sung vocal line of an uploaded recording of the track, then turns those numbers into practice advice. Upload the song to PitchHighway and work it phrase by phrase; the app is not a built-in catalog of this title.
The original recording is widely cited in B major. That matches how most karaoke tracks and published charts present the song, so you can treat B major as the reference key unless you deliberately transpose.
What makes it easy or hard to sing
Measured vocal range on this vocal line is F#3 to C5, an 18-semitone span. That is not a two-octave scream piece. The low end sits at F#3, a note many mixed-voice singers can speak-sing, and the top is C5, which is a solid but not extreme head-voice or mixed peak for a lot of female and high-male voices. Tessitura (where the line actually lives) is mostly B3 to F4. You spend the song in a mid-chest / low-mix pocket rather than camping on C5.
Phrasing tempo is about 67 BPM. That is a relaxed groove, not a patter song. Note density is 0.7 notes per second, so the challenge is sustain, vowel shape, and groove, not syllable dumping. Difficulty is rated medium. The longest measured note is A3 held 3.5 seconds. That is a mid-range hold, not a climactic high belt you have to park on. Track duration is 214 seconds, so stamina is a full-song issue more than a single-note issue: you have to keep the pocket for three and a half minutes without pushing the tessitura sharp or swallowing the ends of phrases.
What the medium rating is pointing at: an 18-semitone range with a C5 top, a B3–F4 home, slow-to-moderate phrasing, and short-to-moderate holds. If you crack, it is usually from oversinging the midrange or grabbing C5 with too much weight, not from an impossible interval map. If you go flat, it is often late-phrase breath on those 3.5-second A3 shapes and the 0.7 notes/sec lines that still need clean onsets at 67 BPM.
Who it suits
F#3–C5 with a B3–F4 center fits mezzos and altos in the original key. Mezzos can live in chest-mix through the tessitura and mix or head on C5. Altos who have an honest F#3 will find the low phrases comfortable; they need a free mix for C5 rather than a yell. Light tenors who can sit around B3–F4 without strain can sing it as written, but B3 is not a low comfort note for every tenor, and C5 is a high mix. Baritones will usually want a downward transpose so F#3 is not the floor and C5 is not the ceiling. Sopranos who dislike chest-dominant midrange may find B3–F4 heavy if they refuse to thin the tone; they still have head room at C5.
Match your passaggio to the stats: if your second passaggio sits near F4–G4, the tessitura is right under it, which is useful. You train connection without living on the break. If your break is lower, plan mix earlier on the way to C5.
How to practice it
Work at the measured ~67 BPM first. Do not race. Speak-sing a phrase on a single vowel (oo or uh) on the B3–F4 cluster until the groove sits, then add the real vowels without shoving air. For the F#3 floor, keep the larynx quiet and the vowel slightly narrower so you do not dump into fry. For C5, thin toward a mix on the way up; the span is only 18 semitones, so you do not need a separate “high voice” personality if the mix is honest.
Breath: the longest hold is 3.5 seconds on A3. That is not a marathon, but at 0.7 notes/sec you still need a silent inhale and a steady rib set so the phrase does not sag. Mark every phrase that ends near that length and practice the inhale as part of the line. If 214 seconds of medium singing leaves you pushing, split the song into verse-length blocks and only join them when intonation on B3–F4 stays put.
If C5 is the problem, isolate the approach from F4 rather than jumping from the bottom of the range. If F#3 is the problem, descend on a hum from B3. Keep the 1.0-scale difficulty drivers in view: range width, tessitura height, slow phrasing, and that 3.5-second mid hold.
Upload Put Your Records On to PitchHighway and learn it phrase by phrase, matching each chunk to the measured F#3–C5 line, the B3–F4 sit, and the ~67 BPM phrasing until the medium difficulty is under control in the original B major.