Dynamic behavior of flexural-torsional coupled vibration of rotating beams using the Rayleigh-Ritz method with orthogonal polynomials as basis functions is studied. Performance of various orthogonal polynomials is compared to each other in terms of their efficiency and accuracy in determining the required natural frequencies. Orthogonal polynomials and functions studied in the present work are: Legendre, Chebyshev, integrated Legendre, modified Duncan polynomials, the special trigonometric functions used in conjunction with Hermite cubics, and beam characteristic orthogonal polynomials. A total of 5 cases of beam boundary conditions and rotation are studied for their natural frequencies. The obtained natural frequencies and mode shapes are compared to those available in various references and the results for coupled flexural-torsional vibrations are especially compared to both previously available references and with those obtained using NASTRAN finite element package. Among all the examined orthogonal functions, Legendre orthogonal polynomials are the most efficient in overall CPU time, mainly because of ease in performing the integration required for determining the stiffness and mass matrices.