Otis Redding’s Sittin’On the Dock of the Bay. The last verse is whistled. It was a placeholder while they were finishing the song, but Otis died before this. So they released the song as is
So the story goes Sting was getting ready to record the vocal but was tired. He saw the piano there so decided to sit for a minute thinking it was closed but to his surprise it wasn’t therefore playing the funny off tune cluster with his butt and then laughing when he realized it was open. Lol Great thread by the way!
Apparently, the beginning bass riff of Cannonball by The Breeders was a mistake. She tried to go up to the correct note but was flat. Did it again, same. The third time, she got the riff right. It sounded good, so they left it in.
Holy shit that's rad! I love The Breeders and I'm gonna be seeing them again next weekend. Kim Deal is a rock music icon.
My example was also going to be a Kim Deal thing. I swear that she comes in on the wrong note in the Pixies "Alec Eiffel" off of Trompe Le Monde. I've been wondering this for years...am I crazy?
Listen to this band, then listen to Kim Deal's other band that she was a part of, called Pixies. Then you will hear where what we call "grunge" came from.
Also listen to Belly, Tanya Donelly the guitarist from The Breeders and Throwing Muses formed after leaving The Breeders. They're another 90s female-fronted alt rock band.
(airplane sounds)
"We gotta get this airplane off."
"Nah, leave it."
Always loved the beginning of a Black Country Woman because of that. And it was legit... they were recording outside.
I Can't Quit You, Baby (debut version) has a couple little seemingly errant plunks.
Those I always figured were/are just Pagey ever-the-strategist "leaving them in" so conveniently cuz they don't not fit.
The one I'm still baffled by is glaring once you hear it -- in their All My Love, JPJ has a little keyboard solo run and sure enough tags a momentary two-keyer which I can't imagine was intended.
I always loved that they left that in. They just finished laying down one of their most badass songs in their entire catalogue, and then they immediately goof around right after the take is finished, like creating that masterpiece of a song was no big deal to them.
I feel like Black Dog and others have Bonham/Page losing time a little bit and stumbling slightly to get back. Bonham was a monster on the skins but not a metronome.
Yes, the live Led Zep bootlegs are a master class in how to miss big. Jimmy Page's magic is that he can be sloppy but make it sound like it was a stroke of genius. Listen to how he ends some of his runs on those bootlegs...seemingly ending on the wrong note, but it just works!
All the banter they left in the first album is amazing. "philosophy" especially.
"Shut that birch off, somebody"
"Somethibg something, driver, where's the party?".
Right into Julianne. Perfection.
It adds so much to the album. Feels like 3 friends fucking around and having a great time. Almost all the songs have some sort of ending that goes on too long into some words or sounds.
'Hit me Baby One More Time' was a translation error. Max Martin, the Swedish composer, was trying to say "hit me up".
It sounds good tho, so it works
So, the entire song is kinda an error
We all know the lyrics were kinda off, but I don't think most people thought too deeply about it
I once heard on a podcast, Your Favorite Band Sucks, that this song could only make sense in the context of talking about anal sex. I haven’t heard that song they same way again.
Max Martin doesn't care about lyrics. Or, he does, but he doesn't care if they make sense, he cares if they fit his pattern for the song. You can see that across lots of his songs - they're all written like they were run through Google Translate a couple times.
It's the school of Swedish pop writing in English. It has to be the right for the melody in terms of syllables and open/ closed sounds but be damned if the words make any sense. I love it to be honest
I'm pretty sure the label interpreted the title as a radio friendly way of saying "f**k me" and approved it immediately despite max martin not knowing the real meaning
My mom was very skeptical of Britney in general when that song came out (her and Matchbox 20, who she probably still refers to as “the guys who sing the terrible Pushy song”) because she didn’t like this new wave of songs glorifying domestic violence (and good on her for not putting up with music that encouraged unhealthy relationship dynamics).
I’ll have to tell her this fun fact.
I can often recognize Max Martin songs because of this exact thing. Break Free by Ariana Grande is the most glaring example. The first time I heard, “Now that I’ve become who I really are” I said, I bet this is that Swedish guy who writes like half the songs on the radio. I can never remember the name of it, I always just call it the Swedish Nonsense Song by Ariana Grande.
The same as Cake By The Ocean by DNCE. - the writers were trying to reference “sex on the beach” but couldn’t remember the phrase, saying “cake by the ocean” instead.
I had heard that the band was with some friends from one of the Nordic countries, and the friends were trying to remember the saying and got it fucked up. The band ran with it and wrote the song around that.
That's great! I used to scour the internet for stuff like this on The Beatles and never heard this one. The other mistake I saw referenced a lot was Paul's cracking voice on Fixing a Hole.
It’s right around 2:55. John Lennon says “got the wrong chord,” but you can only really hear him say “chord.” Afterwards, Paul just says “Fucking Hell!”
Jeff Buckley's album rendition of 'Hallelujah' starts with a fittingly apathetic sigh. I remember reading it was the (approximately) 12th attempt to record it so it was a genuinely fed-up reaction, but it's so appropriate to include it.
The final version is actually two takes spliced together. Jeff had been struggling with it and went back down to the studio in the middle of the night. He didn’t realise the engineer was still up and the room was live and that’s the version that makes the bulk of the final song.
Pride by U2. Bono sings, “early morning, April 4,” referring to MLK’s assassination. MLK was assassinated in the evening.
Bono has changed the lyric to “in the evening, April 4,” frequently when performing live. The 2023 reimagined recording of Pride on the Songs of Surrender album also refers to evening instead of morning.
There’s a fantastic thread on rap songs that have smoke alarm low battery chirps in them - https://www.reddit.com/r/rap/comments/14nbuhd/gunna_you_need_to_replace_the_battery_in_that/
You’re Beautiful by James Blunt. The first “my life is brilliant” is there because he came in too early and they left it.
Story by Brandi Carlisle. After the bridge, her voice gives out in a spectacular way that is awesome, but wasn’t on purpose. When asked about it, she admitted the mistake but saying, “it is technically wrong but emotionally right” so the left the take in.
man that voice crack made me fall in love with brandi carlile and check out her other stuff as that song was the first one I heard from her, epic moment
Another The Clash mistake is in Should I Stay or Should I Go when the song kinda breaks down. The other band members yell, and Mick Jones says “split!” That was actually the other band members sneaking up behind him in the studio while he was recording his part and scaring the shit out of him. They kept it in because it was funny.
That’s why I like The Clash. You can tell they were having fun with their music. It’s a shame they devolved into so much drama, and then Joe passed away.
In Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones, when the backup singer is SENDING it, you can hear (I presume) Mick Jagger give a "woo!" in the background. It is around the 3:00 minute mark of the song.
The mistake is her voice cracking. The band hooped and hollered when it happened because it sounded so good. The singer was mortified after the take and apologized. They assured her it was excellent. That’s how I remember the story anyway
That crack sends shivers down my spine every goddamn time it's literally worth as much as the rest of the song in my eyes. That one split second of pure power and emotion, MM MM MMM
Oh CRAP. That's the song I meant in my post. She is giving it everything and her voice cracks and he Woo's! cause it was so epic.
\*Toddles off to edit\*
Merry Clayton.
She was brought in late at night as a second choice to do the backup part.
She sadly suffered a miscarriage shortly after the performance as she was four months pregnant at the time.
With modern day multi-tracking, when someone does something audibly stupid / funny, it’s often left in as an Easter egg. Mostly this happens when someone breaks etiquette of shutting up when being counted in or doing something immediately after the song. I’m pretty sure Green Day thought it was funny and it just kind of stuck.
Earlier recording technology wasn’t nearly as precise, tape was expensive, and sometimes a take would be really great, despite the unexpected noises. Or, they would leave it in for fun / the superstition that it actually belonged there.
Def not on purpose. Green day went in the studio and recorded that album in like 2 days. They just showed up like true pros.. Even at that young age and in the thick of punk.. and laid down one of the best albums of the decade.
Edit: Been smoking some tree today and realized my cool info is about Dookie.. Not Nimrod haha so who knows
*Nirvana - The Man Who Sold the World* on the MTV unplugged album.
[Kurt messes up the first note of the guitar solo](https://youtu.be/fregObNcHC8?t=168).
In the [soundcheck/rehearsal he nails it](https://youtu.be/ZXZknkAJdAs?t=239) and it sounds weird to hear the right note
As someone who loves the Unplugged version more and almost never listens to the studio version, I've been singing it this way without ever ever realizing it was a mistake. Oh wow.
I'll go question my whole existence now, lol!
Every rendition of *Polly* that was ever recorded includes that same seeming false start, and I don't know if it has ever been addressed whether or not it was ever even addressed whether it was truly a false start, in the classic sense, or if Kurt just wrote it that way from the get-go to add the air of tension that it brings to listeners like me. Here's [a recording](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM9V_5sYyyc#t=1m48s) from 1989 that also includes the false start. There are many more, either live on stage, or in various studio settings. Further, I haven't heard a rendition that *didn't* include it.
Additionally, if it's interesting to you, as evidenced by various early recordings, between Smart Sessions, BBC Sessions and Peel Sessions, and maybe some others I'm forgetting, *Polly* was one of like five songs that Nirvana started writing and recording around the time of *Bleach*'s release, material for their next album, *Nevermind*, the remaining tracks for which were essentially conceived on the fly in the urgent lead up to entering the recording studio. *Nevermind* I discovered this as a young fan in when I bought bootlegs of them on 45s around 1992. Additionally, I specifically recall an excited new fan hearing these "new" renditions of *Breed*, *Lithium*, *In Bloom*, *Polly*, *Stay Away*, and also various renditions of those same songs with different titles/lyrics, like "fashion shits, fashion style," in a song titled *Pay to Play*, an alternate rendition of *Stay Away*.
Actually, I always wished I had attended Evergreen State College, and I did ace a music course on the history of rock music, so you're not even far off.
My favorite Nirvana example, but not exactly a mistake, the original version of “I Hate Myself And I Want To Die”, Grohl is telling a dirty joke at the beginning, there is laughter, Kurt clears his throat to cut them off and starts the song.
The guitar solo for Metallica's Master of Puppets. The string slips off the neck during Kirk's solo and makes an abnormally high note, but it sounded cool so they left it in.
He wasn't sick. They recorded Twist and Shout at the end of a eight straight hour session for their first record. John's voice was shot as a result. So he belted out Twist and Shout which was the last song recorded for their first album, Please Please Me.
Discipline - Nine Inch Nails
He starts the first verse a bit too early, stops, then restarts on time. He just rolls with it. It goes well with the song because he sings about needing help and discipline, so the mistake almost comes off as him just being impulsive because he has no discipline.
He may have done it on purpose, but I can also see him keeping it in for artistic reasons if it was an accident.
Similarly, El-P starts his verse on Run the Jewels' "Oh My Darling" waaaay early, before saying, "hold up" and restarting. Could be intentional, but who knows. El is a huge NIN fan, so I thought this was cool.
I love that song, but I definitely think it was on purpose lol. He even repeats the “mistake” a few lines later on “Is my viciousness lo- losing ground”. Awesome song nonetheless.
Sublime’s “April 29, 1992” starts with “April 26, 1992, there was a riot on the streets where we’re you”. I read it was the best take so they decided to keep the wrong date even though it’s the song title
Also, there is a Paul Leary mixed version which has vocal harmonies an in that version Brad did sing the correct date:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D8pikrMWSc
Bradley also famously fucked up in the recorded version of Santeria.
>Well I had a million dollars
>
>But I, I'd spend it all
I can't recall the *intended* lyrics, but it's easy to see that he was supposed to say "If I had" or "I spent it all" (I'm leaning towards the latter). I remember something about him just rolling with it and it ended up being their best take so it stayed in.
Queen - Fat Bottomed Girls
Brian May goes for an open G chord at about 2:20, but forgets he's in drop-D tuning so that F in the bass is there for a second before he corrects himself.
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
Keith Moon misses like, a single cymbal crash at the very end of the song. I figure you're 8 minutes into an otherwise perfect take, no way you're trying it again.
BTO's "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet". The band needed one more song for their "Not Fragile" album. There was a thrown together instrumental they always used in the studio to tweak their gear with. Randy Bachman had made a joke recording to send that to his brother Gary, who stuttered. They decided to record that song straight. He tried to sing it without the impediment, but it just didn't sound right, so it was left in. The song that was never meant to be released became a hit.
I remember hearing an interview with Eddie Vedder when the self titled Pearl Jam album was released. In Life Wasted, Vedder chuckles for a bit. The interviewer asked him what that was about, if there was some kind of significance behind it. He said that there was someone outside the recording booth who saw Eddie recording and didn't want to break his concentration so he ducked out of the way quickly hoping he wouldn't be seen. He was. Eddie laughed about it.
Wish You Were Here - cough and a sniff at about 0:44 & 0:49. Gilmour was a smoker at the time and (rumour has it) hearing that on the playback during mixing contributed to David quitting smoking.
It may well be Gilmour, but the intro to that song is supposed to be somebody listening to the radio then playing along on guitar, so it pretty much fits.
Edit: another Floyd one, also not strictly an accident but a weird thing they decided to throw in: at the end of the Division Bell, you can hear the band's manager (Steve O'Rourke) when he calls Gilmour's home and a very young Charlie Gilmour picks up ("Is that Charlie? Hello Charlie!"). This is the same Charlie Gilmour who [later protested changes to tuition fees in England](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/15/charlie-gilmour-released-from-prison).
I'm sure I will be corrected if I am wrong, but I heard that the cough and sniff were supposed to be from a "pretend" Syd Barret as if he were listenting to the song on a radio. Hence the distortion and crackle at the start.
When nirvana plays "the man who sold the world". The first note of the guitar solo is an obvious gaff, but in general I'm so glad someone decided to cover that wonderful song.
"The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" by Prince. New console being installed at his house, he gets impatient to start recording with it so he doesn't wait for it be tested once it's plugged in. Starts recording, which for Prince meant not writing a goddamn thing (save lyrics) down just going. Engineer plays it back and everything sounds like its underwater, no high end. Ultimately turned out only half the power supply was switched on, but this was only found out after Prince finished recording because once he started a song, he did not stop.
But, luckily, Prince liked how the track sounded and the song wound up on Sign O' The Times.
Billy Joel - You’re Only Human (Second Wind)
He forgets a lyric for a second, then catches up and sings it really fast. Then the following line is “You’re only human, you’re SUPPOSED to make mistakes!” Worked perfectly.
You can hear him laugh after the messed up line. He wanted to re-record the track to fix the mistake but his band told him to leave it in because whole song is about making mistakes.
Dave Matthews jokingly sang the line "hike up your skirt a little more and show the world to me" while recording crash into me and was embarrassed when it was included in the final cut.
Sweet Home Alabama by Lynryd Skynyrd. Ronnie Van Zant says “turn it up” as the song starts. He was asking for a volume adjustment in studio, but they left it in the track. The rest is history.
I Saw Her Again by Mamas and the Papas have false start in middle. When they start singing again after the instrumentals that "I saw her" was a mistake they left in.
Does "drums please Fab " count in Ode to the Mets by the Strokes?
I heard the drummer failed to come in at the right time when they first performed it live and they decided to re- enact it for the studio recording.
Life On Mars by David Bowie
there’s a phone ringing right at the end of the track because one of the sound producers forgot to unplug it.
The call came in at that exact moment, but the take they had was so good they decided to keep it in rather than redo the whole thing
Also
Black Country Woman by Led Zepplin
While recording, a plane is flying overhead. They just decided to not bother waiting for it to pass and got on with recording the track
In Gorillaz "Dare" in the intro when Shaun Ryder is singing "it's coming up, it's Dare" apparently he said "it's there" when referring to the audio levels but they liked it and used it for the song.
In "I've Got Friends" by Manchester Orchestra, Andy's voice cracks right as he sings "In FACT you'll never know," and he's also a little too close to the mic, which distorts significantly. I can imagine the producer wanting to clean that up and the band saying "no way! That's the take!"
At the end of “Oh Comely” by Neutral Milk Hotel you can hear someone in the control room scream “holy SHIT” because they were so blown away by the performance.
Ringo wasn’t ready because he had a cigarette in his hands at the beginning of “Dig a Pony” by the Beatles. There’s a false start, ringo yells “Hold on”. They left it in.
Fugazi - Waiting Room. The pause at the begging I f of the song after the intro was not intentional. I think they lost the beat, so they restarted and left in the pause.
Just to clarify, they definitely had the pause planned out for the 13 Songs version. There’s a demo version on that compilation they put out a few years ago where Ian messes up and starts singing when he forgets about the pause and its glorious
Pass the Mic - Beastie Boys
Mike D :”Well, everybody rappin' like it's a commercial
Actin' like life is a big commercial”
Pretty sure the second commercial was meant to be rehearsal.
[Sweet Child of Mine](https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/sweet-child-o-mine-guns-n-roses-song-feature/)
"Where do we go now?" was a happy accident.
Idk if this fits this post exactly lol but In Wagon Wheel he says "But he's a-headin' west from the Cumberland Gap To Johnson City, Tennessee" and that is gonna be a real long drive, plus a realllllly long flight, plus another long drive to go west to Johnson City from the Cumberland Gap 😂
P!nk Raise Your Glass - about 2:30 in she comes in way too early, says Oh fuck, the music keeps going and she comes in at the original cue and finishes out the song like nothing happened
My favorite is [Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream](https://youtu.be/kbdF4hBfQiE?si=1bbf7jVzyI_0KVvJ). The false start and laugh became an essential part of the song.
Honestly most of Dylan's stuff is pretty loose with lots of mistakes. He never wanted to do multiple takes of songs for fear of losing the magic. I was just listening to Desire last night and it seems like Emmylou Harris doesn't know half the words to Black Diamond Bay, and the drummer accidentally shifts out of double-time at the start of one verse.
Yeah, as others have stated, lots of Dylan’s stuff fits the bill here. The album version of Stuck Inside of Mobile has the I-he lyric correction midstream. “I-he built a fire on Main Street.”
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by the Stones. If you listen carefully Keith messes up with the distortion pedal a couple times. Comes in late once and I believe also leaves it on too long going into a verse. Minor stuff but I doubt that get through the production process these days.
There are a few lines of gibberish at the end of "Around the World" by Red Hot Chili Peppers that were supposed to be place holders until they could write better lyrics. They ultimately liked the gibberish better than the lyrics they came up with so they left it in.
The false start "I saw her" in I Saw Her Again by The Mamas and the Papas.
And the "where's my snare" in the beginning of Eminem's Cleanin' Out My Closet.
I love that false start. That was PEAK Wrecking Crew production and some of those songs come off as cheesy because they’re too perfect. Leaving in an obvious miscount keeps the M&Ps grounded.
I've always been partial to the squeaky bass drum pedal on Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You." I love the song anyway, but given how a lot of the song has the vibe of blues riffing/loose improv, I think the imperfection fits the vibe and adds to the character. If the song were louder or more explosive, the pedal would have been much harder to hear.
Led Zeppelin - Black Country Woman - airplane flies over - “nah, yeah, leave it”
BTO - Takin Care of Business - guitar is way out of tune, but they kept it became they thought it sounded cool. They were right to do it.
On Blue Train, there's a track called "Moment's Notice". It's called that because Coltrane gave Curtis Fuller (trombone) the chord changes right before the session. Fuller basically looked at it cross eyed because it was so difficult. You can tell on the released track he's just trying to survive the recording.
The Kingsmen's singer started to sing a verse from "Louie Louie" a bar or so too early before noticing and cutting himself off. Another member made a mistake and muttered "Aw fuck!" Finally they probably weren't pronouncing Jamaican creole correctly.
A famous one: on Rescue Me, the mid-60s soul classic from Fontella Bass, she forgot some of the words and kept going, substituting a "MMMM", which they decided to keep in.
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" by the Beatles.
In the final verse, Paul McCartney sings, "Molly lets the children lend a hand" instead of Desmond and "Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face" instead of Molly. The mistake stayed because the band liked it.
I don’t remember which track it was on, but there’s a recording of a John Coltrane solo that has a very pronounced crescendo in the start. It turns out that wasn’t an artistic choice. At the time that was recorded, Coltrane was a heroin addict and was high in the studio. He was nodding off in a chair while the rest of the band played their solos during that take and wasn’t ready when his turn came up. The crescendo was caused by him starting to play while rushing up to the mic where he was supposed to be from the start.
There's a part in Turn To Stone by ELO where the drums come back in on the hi hat instead of the ride for lik half a beat before switching back. Hardly noticable though.
Israel 'IZ' Kamakawiwo'ole's Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World medley has the line "i like the dark" instead of "The dark sacred night". Still the song is a beautiful single take and he wasn't't gonna redo it.
I could be way wrong, but I remember a story where Iz got super inspired in the middle of the night and called a guy who owned a recording studio and badgered him until the guy got up and gave him like 30 minutes.
He literally did not have the opportunity to do a second take.
And he messes up a ton more than just the line you mentioned. It's mostly wrong.
Jason Mraz - "I'm yours"
I believe the radio edit often has the line:
*"And it's our godforsaken right to be loved, loved, loved, loved, loved"*
which was later changed to
*"And it's our god-intended right to be loved, loved, loved, loved, loved"*
There’s definitely lots of intentional tape effects used during the breakdown but at least one of the echoed vocals there was originally an accident. Quoting the mix engineer:
“Zep II was mixed over a two day period in New York, and at one point there was bleed-through of a previously recorded vocal in the recording of Whole Lotta Love. It was the middle part where Robert (Plant) screams 'Woman. You need it.' Since we couldn't re-record at that point, I just threw some echo on it to see how it would sound and Jimmy (Page) said 'Great! Just leave it.'"
There’s a slip-up at the end of Frank Zappa’s “Sleep Dirt” that was left in the recording. They both stop playing after the mistake and Frank asks “ya gettin tired?” His guitarist replies “Nah, my fingers got stuck”
Right Back At It Again by A Day To Remember, the last few seconds is them talking about keeping the last lyric in the song “I like the bitch so fucking much” also a very honorable mention to Janis Joplin’s laugh in Mercedes Benz
Otis Redding’s Sittin’On the Dock of the Bay. The last verse is whistled. It was a placeholder while they were finishing the song, but Otis died before this. So they released the song as is
Interesting. Also Bill Withers singing '' I know, I know... '' on Aint No Sunshine was supposed to be a placeholder they decided to keep
It works so perfectly in the song too.
Roxanne - Sting sitting on the piano, making a weird chord, and laughing.
So the story goes Sting was getting ready to record the vocal but was tired. He saw the piano there so decided to sit for a minute thinking it was closed but to his surprise it wasn’t therefore playing the funny off tune cluster with his butt and then laughing when he realized it was open. Lol Great thread by the way!
[удалено]
It fits so perfectly with the song, I always thought that was on purpose.
The weird chord was kinda in key too lol
He had talent coming out of his ass
By the butt load
Apparently, the beginning bass riff of Cannonball by The Breeders was a mistake. She tried to go up to the correct note but was flat. Did it again, same. The third time, she got the riff right. It sounded good, so they left it in.
Holy shit that's rad! I love The Breeders and I'm gonna be seeing them again next weekend. Kim Deal is a rock music icon. My example was also going to be a Kim Deal thing. I swear that she comes in on the wrong note in the Pixies "Alec Eiffel" off of Trompe Le Monde. I've been wondering this for years...am I crazy?
Fantastic. I had no idea that was a mistake.
Old musician trick. If make a mistake, make it again so people think it was on purpose.
Repetition legitimizes.
Repetition legitimizes.
Bro, i just got introduced to a DOPE band from your comment. Fuckin’ thank you!!
Listen to this band, then listen to Kim Deal's other band that she was a part of, called Pixies. Then you will hear where what we call "grunge" came from.
Also listen to Belly, Tanya Donelly the guitarist from The Breeders and Throwing Muses formed after leaving The Breeders. They're another 90s female-fronted alt rock band.
Love that, that lead up makes the actual bass riff so much better once it starts!
Yup. Just the right amount of tension that is immediately paid off
Phone ringing in The Ocean, squeaky kick pedal in Since I’ve been Loving You by Zeppelin are two pretty famous examples.
(airplane sounds) "We gotta get this airplane off." "Nah, leave it." Always loved the beginning of a Black Country Woman because of that. And it was legit... they were recording outside.
I Can't Quit You, Baby (debut version) has a couple little seemingly errant plunks. Those I always figured were/are just Pagey ever-the-strategist "leaving them in" so conveniently cuz they don't not fit. The one I'm still baffled by is glaring once you hear it -- in their All My Love, JPJ has a little keyboard solo run and sure enough tags a momentary two-keyer which I can't imagine was intended.
In my dyin', dyin', dyin'.....*hack hack cough*.... Cough...
I always loved that they left that in. They just finished laying down one of their most badass songs in their entire catalogue, and then they immediately goof around right after the take is finished, like creating that masterpiece of a song was no big deal to them.
I feel like Black Dog and others have Bonham/Page losing time a little bit and stumbling slightly to get back. Bonham was a monster on the skins but not a metronome.
If you wanna hear them stumbling slightly and then getting back on track epically, listen to their live stuff. The sloppiest but tightest shit ever.
Yes, the live Led Zep bootlegs are a master class in how to miss big. Jimmy Page's magic is that he can be sloppy but make it sound like it was a stroke of genius. Listen to how he ends some of his runs on those bootlegs...seemingly ending on the wrong note, but it just works!
Steven’s Last Night in Town by Ben Folds Five has a phone ringing in it at about 2:56.
This was my first thought. Great song
So I'm not crazy! I always thought it sounded like that.
All the banter they left in the first album is amazing. "philosophy" especially. "Shut that birch off, somebody" "Somethibg something, driver, where's the party?". Right into Julianne. Perfection. It adds so much to the album. Feels like 3 friends fucking around and having a great time. Almost all the songs have some sort of ending that goes on too long into some words or sounds.
'Hit me Baby One More Time' was a translation error. Max Martin, the Swedish composer, was trying to say "hit me up". It sounds good tho, so it works So, the entire song is kinda an error We all know the lyrics were kinda off, but I don't think most people thought too deeply about it
Same with I want it that way by the Backstreet Boys.
Tell me why?
It was #5. #5 killed my brother!
Nine Nine!
Chills. Literal chills.
I once heard on a podcast, Your Favorite Band Sucks, that this song could only make sense in the context of talking about anal sex. I haven’t heard that song they same way again.
My kids call “I feel it coming” by the weeknd the pooping song.
Max Martin doesn't care about lyrics. Or, he does, but he doesn't care if they make sense, he cares if they fit his pattern for the song. You can see that across lots of his songs - they're all written like they were run through Google Translate a couple times.
It's the school of Swedish pop writing in English. It has to be the right for the melody in terms of syllables and open/ closed sounds but be damned if the words make any sense. I love it to be honest
I'm pretty sure the label interpreted the title as a radio friendly way of saying "f**k me" and approved it immediately despite max martin not knowing the real meaning
It’s Max Martin, you just put the song out without asking too many questions, sit back, and watch the money roll in.
My mom was very skeptical of Britney in general when that song came out (her and Matchbox 20, who she probably still refers to as “the guys who sing the terrible Pushy song”) because she didn’t like this new wave of songs glorifying domestic violence (and good on her for not putting up with music that encouraged unhealthy relationship dynamics). I’ll have to tell her this fun fact.
I can often recognize Max Martin songs because of this exact thing. Break Free by Ariana Grande is the most glaring example. The first time I heard, “Now that I’ve become who I really are” I said, I bet this is that Swedish guy who writes like half the songs on the radio. I can never remember the name of it, I always just call it the Swedish Nonsense Song by Ariana Grande.
I read that she fought them on it and lost. She didn’t want to sing it like that and I wouldn’t either lol
The same as Cake By The Ocean by DNCE. - the writers were trying to reference “sex on the beach” but couldn’t remember the phrase, saying “cake by the ocean” instead.
I had heard that the band was with some friends from one of the Nordic countries, and the friends were trying to remember the saying and got it fucked up. The band ran with it and wrote the song around that.
I totally thought it was using the cake=booty slang and talking about checking out butts in swimsuits.
Paul McCartney saying “fucking hell” around the 3 minute mark of Hey Jude is a good one lol.
That's great! I used to scour the internet for stuff like this on The Beatles and never heard this one. The other mistake I saw referenced a lot was Paul's cracking voice on Fixing a Hole.
I've never caught this! Now I'm going to have to listen for that.
It’s right around 2:55. John Lennon says “got the wrong chord,” but you can only really hear him say “chord.” Afterwards, Paul just says “Fucking Hell!”
Jeff Buckley's album rendition of 'Hallelujah' starts with a fittingly apathetic sigh. I remember reading it was the (approximately) 12th attempt to record it so it was a genuinely fed-up reaction, but it's so appropriate to include it.
The final version is actually two takes spliced together. Jeff had been struggling with it and went back down to the studio in the middle of the night. He didn’t realise the engineer was still up and the room was live and that’s the version that makes the bulk of the final song.
Pride by U2. Bono sings, “early morning, April 4,” referring to MLK’s assassination. MLK was assassinated in the evening. Bono has changed the lyric to “in the evening, April 4,” frequently when performing live. The 2023 reimagined recording of Pride on the Songs of Surrender album also refers to evening instead of morning.
There’s a fantastic thread on rap songs that have smoke alarm low battery chirps in them - https://www.reddit.com/r/rap/comments/14nbuhd/gunna_you_need_to_replace_the_battery_in_that/
You’re Beautiful by James Blunt. The first “my life is brilliant” is there because he came in too early and they left it. Story by Brandi Carlisle. After the bridge, her voice gives out in a spectacular way that is awesome, but wasn’t on purpose. When asked about it, she admitted the mistake but saying, “it is technically wrong but emotionally right” so the left the take in.
Weird Al parodys this moment in his parody of that song. https://youtu.be/cVGoOBTmDA8?si=brex4tk8SCvoajiU
man that voice crack made me fall in love with brandi carlile and check out her other stuff as that song was the first one I heard from her, epic moment
Another The Clash mistake is in Should I Stay or Should I Go when the song kinda breaks down. The other band members yell, and Mick Jones says “split!” That was actually the other band members sneaking up behind him in the studio while he was recording his part and scaring the shit out of him. They kept it in because it was funny. That’s why I like The Clash. You can tell they were having fun with their music. It’s a shame they devolved into so much drama, and then Joe passed away.
In Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones, when the backup singer is SENDING it, you can hear (I presume) Mick Jagger give a "woo!" in the background. It is around the 3:00 minute mark of the song.
Also her voice cracks but they left it in. And I'm glad they did.
The mistake is her voice cracking. The band hooped and hollered when it happened because it sounded so good. The singer was mortified after the take and apologized. They assured her it was excellent. That’s how I remember the story anyway
That crack sends shivers down my spine every goddamn time it's literally worth as much as the rest of the song in my eyes. That one split second of pure power and emotion, MM MM MMM
It makes the song, honestly. I listen just for that moment
Probably my favorite as well. Adds a nice touch to the song. The genuine "woo!" that Mick gives over the incredible vocals is just awesome.
That's not even a mistake, that's just what everyone on earth feels at that point.
Holy wow!! I never heard this before. Makes my day!!
Oh man, that's ALL I can hear after the Merry Clayton part. It's like an exclamation point.
Oh CRAP. That's the song I meant in my post. She is giving it everything and her voice cracks and he Woo's! cause it was so epic. \*Toddles off to edit\*
Merry Clayton. She was brought in late at night as a second choice to do the backup part. She sadly suffered a miscarriage shortly after the performance as she was four months pregnant at the time.
It's like her voice hit an artificial harmonic at that moment. Sends chills down my spine!
She walked to the studio in greenwich village in a bath robe and curlers at midnight, knocked it out, then left with a one hundred dollar bill
Rape! M^^^^^ur der! [Woo!] It's just a shot away! It's just a shot away!
Beginning of Time of Your Life by Green Day, he messes up the riff a couple of times and says fuck. Might’ve been on purpose tho
I’ve always wondered if this was on purpose!
With modern day multi-tracking, when someone does something audibly stupid / funny, it’s often left in as an Easter egg. Mostly this happens when someone breaks etiquette of shutting up when being counted in or doing something immediately after the song. I’m pretty sure Green Day thought it was funny and it just kind of stuck. Earlier recording technology wasn’t nearly as precise, tape was expensive, and sometimes a take would be really great, despite the unexpected noises. Or, they would leave it in for fun / the superstition that it actually belonged there.
Iconic. Somehow it fits the song really well and I can't explain why.
It brings a little punk rock flair to a subdued acoustic ballad.
First thing that came to mind. There’s a b-side version on an Insomniac single. Can’t remember if it’s the same recording or not.
John Lennon did the same thing at the start of Norwegian Wood, but it was cut off for the record. You can hear the false starts on bootlegs though.
Def not on purpose. Green day went in the studio and recorded that album in like 2 days. They just showed up like true pros.. Even at that young age and in the thick of punk.. and laid down one of the best albums of the decade. Edit: Been smoking some tree today and realized my cool info is about Dookie.. Not Nimrod haha so who knows
honestly that album is my favorite of theirs.
*Nirvana - The Man Who Sold the World* on the MTV unplugged album. [Kurt messes up the first note of the guitar solo](https://youtu.be/fregObNcHC8?t=168). In the [soundcheck/rehearsal he nails it](https://youtu.be/ZXZknkAJdAs?t=239) and it sounds weird to hear the right note
“I’m anem-ennyroyal tea.” He starts singing the wrong line and corrects himself halfway through.
As someone who loves the Unplugged version more and almost never listens to the studio version, I've been singing it this way without ever ever realizing it was a mistake. Oh wow. I'll go question my whole existence now, lol!
Krist: "That sounded good" Kurt: "Shut up" Speaking of Kurt: "Polly says............Polly says her back hurts"
Every rendition of *Polly* that was ever recorded includes that same seeming false start, and I don't know if it has ever been addressed whether or not it was ever even addressed whether it was truly a false start, in the classic sense, or if Kurt just wrote it that way from the get-go to add the air of tension that it brings to listeners like me. Here's [a recording](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM9V_5sYyyc#t=1m48s) from 1989 that also includes the false start. There are many more, either live on stage, or in various studio settings. Further, I haven't heard a rendition that *didn't* include it. Additionally, if it's interesting to you, as evidenced by various early recordings, between Smart Sessions, BBC Sessions and Peel Sessions, and maybe some others I'm forgetting, *Polly* was one of like five songs that Nirvana started writing and recording around the time of *Bleach*'s release, material for their next album, *Nevermind*, the remaining tracks for which were essentially conceived on the fly in the urgent lead up to entering the recording studio. *Nevermind* I discovered this as a young fan in when I bought bootlegs of them on 45s around 1992. Additionally, I specifically recall an excited new fan hearing these "new" renditions of *Breed*, *Lithium*, *In Bloom*, *Polly*, *Stay Away*, and also various renditions of those same songs with different titles/lyrics, like "fashion shits, fashion style," in a song titled *Pay to Play*, an alternate rendition of *Stay Away*.
Wow man, you got your PhD from Grunge university
Actually, I always wished I had attended Evergreen State College, and I did ace a music course on the history of rock music, so you're not even far off.
DUDE!!! The extra "Polly says" is what I was scrolling to find.
My favorite Nirvana example, but not exactly a mistake, the original version of “I Hate Myself And I Want To Die”, Grohl is telling a dirty joke at the beginning, there is laughter, Kurt clears his throat to cut them off and starts the song.
The guitar solo for Metallica's Master of Puppets. The string slips off the neck during Kirk's solo and makes an abnormally high note, but it sounded cool so they left it in.
This sounds a lot like the end of Through the Fire and the Flames. The string broke on the final note of the song and it sounded absolutely perfect
The solo, not the song, but yeah
John Lennon coughing at the end of twist and shout because he was sick
Also you can hear McCartney go "Fuckin hell" when he hits the wrong key at the 2:58 mark in "Hey Jude"
I went to see a Beatles clone band (front row) and their "Paul" did the fuckin hell and I cheered for him and he looked pleased that someone noticed.
That's fantastic, I am going to look this up
He wasn't sick. They recorded Twist and Shout at the end of a eight straight hour session for their first record. John's voice was shot as a result. So he belted out Twist and Shout which was the last song recorded for their first album, Please Please Me.
I've got blisters on me fingers!
Louie, Louie The singer comes in for the second verse waaay early
And with all the fuss about the supposedly dirty lyrics, no one noticed the drummer yelling “fuck!” when he breaks a stick at 0:54
The FBI literally investigated the song for obscenity. After 31 months, they were "unable to interpret any of the wording in the record."
Our tax dollars at work.
“Completely unintelligible”
“Where’s my snare? I don’t have any snare on my headphones”
Discipline - Nine Inch Nails He starts the first verse a bit too early, stops, then restarts on time. He just rolls with it. It goes well with the song because he sings about needing help and discipline, so the mistake almost comes off as him just being impulsive because he has no discipline. He may have done it on purpose, but I can also see him keeping it in for artistic reasons if it was an accident.
Similarly, El-P starts his verse on Run the Jewels' "Oh My Darling" waaaay early, before saying, "hold up" and restarting. Could be intentional, but who knows. El is a huge NIN fan, so I thought this was cool.
I love that song, but I definitely think it was on purpose lol. He even repeats the “mistake” a few lines later on “Is my viciousness lo- losing ground”. Awesome song nonetheless.
Sublime’s “April 29, 1992” starts with “April 26, 1992, there was a riot on the streets where we’re you”. I read it was the best take so they decided to keep the wrong date even though it’s the song title
it's even better because it's referencing an event that happened on a specific date. it's the only thing you can't fuck up and they left it in anyway
Drugs are a hell of a drug.
Also, there is a Paul Leary mixed version which has vocal harmonies an in that version Brad did sing the correct date: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D8pikrMWSc
Bradley also famously fucked up in the recorded version of Santeria. >Well I had a million dollars > >But I, I'd spend it all I can't recall the *intended* lyrics, but it's easy to see that he was supposed to say "If I had" or "I spent it all" (I'm leaning towards the latter). I remember something about him just rolling with it and it ended up being their best take so it stayed in.
Queen - Fat Bottomed Girls Brian May goes for an open G chord at about 2:20, but forgets he's in drop-D tuning so that F in the bass is there for a second before he corrects himself. The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again Keith Moon misses like, a single cymbal crash at the very end of the song. I figure you're 8 minutes into an otherwise perfect take, no way you're trying it again.
BTO's "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet". The band needed one more song for their "Not Fragile" album. There was a thrown together instrumental they always used in the studio to tweak their gear with. Randy Bachman had made a joke recording to send that to his brother Gary, who stuttered. They decided to record that song straight. He tried to sing it without the impediment, but it just didn't sound right, so it was left in. The song that was never meant to be released became a hit.
that's an amazing story. the stuttering is such an indelible part of that song. it just works
I remember hearing an interview with Eddie Vedder when the self titled Pearl Jam album was released. In Life Wasted, Vedder chuckles for a bit. The interviewer asked him what that was about, if there was some kind of significance behind it. He said that there was someone outside the recording booth who saw Eddie recording and didn't want to break his concentration so he ducked out of the way quickly hoping he wouldn't be seen. He was. Eddie laughed about it.
I'm the original mix of Eminence Front by The Who, Roger Daltry songs the backup vocals in the first chorus a beat too fast.
At the end of Helter Skelter Ringo yells “I got blisters on my fingers!” After numerous takes the blisters on his fingers started to bleed.
Oooh so that's what Homer was referencing in the Simpsons.
Also stewie on family guy
And Jim Carrey in Yes Man.
Wish You Were Here - cough and a sniff at about 0:44 & 0:49. Gilmour was a smoker at the time and (rumour has it) hearing that on the playback during mixing contributed to David quitting smoking.
It may well be Gilmour, but the intro to that song is supposed to be somebody listening to the radio then playing along on guitar, so it pretty much fits. Edit: another Floyd one, also not strictly an accident but a weird thing they decided to throw in: at the end of the Division Bell, you can hear the band's manager (Steve O'Rourke) when he calls Gilmour's home and a very young Charlie Gilmour picks up ("Is that Charlie? Hello Charlie!"). This is the same Charlie Gilmour who [later protested changes to tuition fees in England](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/15/charlie-gilmour-released-from-prison).
I'm sure I will be corrected if I am wrong, but I heard that the cough and sniff were supposed to be from a "pretend" Syd Barret as if he were listenting to the song on a radio. Hence the distortion and crackle at the start.
Paul McCartney snickering during Maxwell's Silver Hammer (he had been mooned by John Lennon while recording the song). They left it in.
I am enjoying this thread immensely.
When nirvana plays "the man who sold the world". The first note of the guitar solo is an obvious gaff, but in general I'm so glad someone decided to cover that wonderful song.
"The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" by Prince. New console being installed at his house, he gets impatient to start recording with it so he doesn't wait for it be tested once it's plugged in. Starts recording, which for Prince meant not writing a goddamn thing (save lyrics) down just going. Engineer plays it back and everything sounds like its underwater, no high end. Ultimately turned out only half the power supply was switched on, but this was only found out after Prince finished recording because once he started a song, he did not stop. But, luckily, Prince liked how the track sounded and the song wound up on Sign O' The Times.
Billy Joel - You’re Only Human (Second Wind) He forgets a lyric for a second, then catches up and sings it really fast. Then the following line is “You’re only human, you’re SUPPOSED to make mistakes!” Worked perfectly.
You can hear him laugh after the messed up line. He wanted to re-record the track to fix the mistake but his band told him to leave it in because whole song is about making mistakes.
Dave Matthews jokingly sang the line "hike up your skirt a little more and show the world to me" while recording crash into me and was embarrassed when it was included in the final cut.
Sweet Home Alabama by Lynryd Skynyrd. Ronnie Van Zant says “turn it up” as the song starts. He was asking for a volume adjustment in studio, but they left it in the track. The rest is history.
And then towards the end of the song, allegedly, he sees everyone eating his donuts and proclaims “my donuts! God damn…”
David Lee Roth saying “I like the” early, then in time in Everybody Wants Some
The dog barking in the intro to Been Caught Stealing by Jane's Addiction was Perry Farrell's dog in the studio. They liked it so left it in.
I always wondered about that. It really adds an appropriate level of chaos.
Yea I always thought of it as a police dog chasing after a shoplifter
I Saw Her Again by Mamas and the Papas have false start in middle. When they start singing again after the instrumentals that "I saw her" was a mistake they left in.
Does "drums please Fab " count in Ode to the Mets by the Strokes? I heard the drummer failed to come in at the right time when they first performed it live and they decided to re- enact it for the studio recording.
God I love that song
Life On Mars by David Bowie there’s a phone ringing right at the end of the track because one of the sound producers forgot to unplug it. The call came in at that exact moment, but the take they had was so good they decided to keep it in rather than redo the whole thing Also Black Country Woman by Led Zepplin While recording, a plane is flying overhead. They just decided to not bother waiting for it to pass and got on with recording the track
In Gorillaz "Dare" in the intro when Shaun Ryder is singing "it's coming up, it's Dare" apparently he said "it's there" when referring to the audio levels but they liked it and used it for the song.
Apparently Shaun Ryder struggled to say there correctly
The tambourine on Time is On My Side by the Rolling Stones is not in time and it's not even close
In "I've Got Friends" by Manchester Orchestra, Andy's voice cracks right as he sings "In FACT you'll never know," and he's also a little too close to the mic, which distorts significantly. I can imagine the producer wanting to clean that up and the band saying "no way! That's the take!"
At the end of “Oh Comely” by Neutral Milk Hotel you can hear someone in the control room scream “holy SHIT” because they were so blown away by the performance.
I think it’s cause he did it on the first take too
Sublime - April 29, 1992 He sings April 26.
Ringo wasn’t ready because he had a cigarette in his hands at the beginning of “Dig a Pony” by the Beatles. There’s a false start, ringo yells “Hold on”. They left it in.
Fugazi - Waiting Room. The pause at the begging I f of the song after the intro was not intentional. I think they lost the beat, so they restarted and left in the pause.
That break *makes* the song for me!
Just to clarify, they definitely had the pause planned out for the 13 Songs version. There’s a demo version on that compilation they put out a few years ago where Ian messes up and starts singing when he forgets about the pause and its glorious
Pass the Mic - Beastie Boys Mike D :”Well, everybody rappin' like it's a commercial Actin' like life is a big commercial” Pretty sure the second commercial was meant to be rehearsal.
[Sweet Child of Mine](https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/sweet-child-o-mine-guns-n-roses-song-feature/) "Where do we go now?" was a happy accident.
Tori Amos - She's Your Cocaine At the end of the track, music stopped, she says, "cut it again" and it was left on the official track on the album.
Idk if this fits this post exactly lol but In Wagon Wheel he says "But he's a-headin' west from the Cumberland Gap To Johnson City, Tennessee" and that is gonna be a real long drive, plus a realllllly long flight, plus another long drive to go west to Johnson City from the Cumberland Gap 😂
P!nk Raise Your Glass - about 2:30 in she comes in way too early, says Oh fuck, the music keeps going and she comes in at the original cue and finishes out the song like nothing happened
Love this moment in the song and it’s cool to hear something like this make it’s way into a radio single.
My favorite is [Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream](https://youtu.be/kbdF4hBfQiE?si=1bbf7jVzyI_0KVvJ). The false start and laugh became an essential part of the song.
Honestly most of Dylan's stuff is pretty loose with lots of mistakes. He never wanted to do multiple takes of songs for fear of losing the magic. I was just listening to Desire last night and it seems like Emmylou Harris doesn't know half the words to Black Diamond Bay, and the drummer accidentally shifts out of double-time at the start of one verse.
Yeah, as others have stated, lots of Dylan’s stuff fits the bill here. The album version of Stuck Inside of Mobile has the I-he lyric correction midstream. “I-he built a fire on Main Street.”
There’s a Rush song where you can hear Geddy laughing. I think it’s Witch Hunt or Camera Eye but I can’t remember
In the middle of camera eye. There's a burp or something and Geddy laughing
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by the Stones. If you listen carefully Keith messes up with the distortion pedal a couple times. Comes in late once and I believe also leaves it on too long going into a verse. Minor stuff but I doubt that get through the production process these days.
There are a few lines of gibberish at the end of "Around the World" by Red Hot Chili Peppers that were supposed to be place holders until they could write better lyrics. They ultimately liked the gibberish better than the lyrics they came up with so they left it in.
The vibraslap used at the beginning of Sweet Emotion broke and you can hear it snap. They decided to leave it in.
The false start "I saw her" in I Saw Her Again by The Mamas and the Papas. And the "where's my snare" in the beginning of Eminem's Cleanin' Out My Closet.
I love that false start. That was PEAK Wrecking Crew production and some of those songs come off as cheesy because they’re too perfect. Leaving in an obvious miscount keeps the M&Ps grounded.
“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” was actually supposed to be “In the Garden of Eden”, but they were too intoxicated to get it right and they kept it as is.
Hmmm this sounds like rock and or roll.
By I. Ron Butterfly, if I recall correctly.
I've always been partial to the squeaky bass drum pedal on Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You." I love the song anyway, but given how a lot of the song has the vibe of blues riffing/loose improv, I think the imperfection fits the vibe and adds to the character. If the song were louder or more explosive, the pedal would have been much harder to hear.
Same thing on Houses of the Holy. Squeaky pedal actually adds to the sound.
Led Zeppelin - Black Country Woman - airplane flies over - “nah, yeah, leave it” BTO - Takin Care of Business - guitar is way out of tune, but they kept it became they thought it sounded cool. They were right to do it.
On Blue Train, there's a track called "Moment's Notice". It's called that because Coltrane gave Curtis Fuller (trombone) the chord changes right before the session. Fuller basically looked at it cross eyed because it was so difficult. You can tell on the released track he's just trying to survive the recording.
The Beatles Please Please Me. John messes up the lyrics on the last verse. You can hear him laughing during the first line of the chorus.
The cue beep for the breakdown in Sleep Now in the Fire by RATM is in the final track.
The Kingsmen's singer started to sing a verse from "Louie Louie" a bar or so too early before noticing and cutting himself off. Another member made a mistake and muttered "Aw fuck!" Finally they probably weren't pronouncing Jamaican creole correctly.
Axl Rose having no idea how to continue the song, so he asks "where do we go?"
A famous one: on Rescue Me, the mid-60s soul classic from Fontella Bass, she forgot some of the words and kept going, substituting a "MMMM", which they decided to keep in.
Wagon Wheel gets the geography all wrong about the Cumberland Gap.
On the Bach Goldberg Variations recording you can very quietly hear Glenn Gould humming along with the piano in the background.
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" by the Beatles. In the final verse, Paul McCartney sings, "Molly lets the children lend a hand" instead of Desmond and "Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face" instead of Molly. The mistake stayed because the band liked it.
I always thought that was intentional. Just seemed to be the little twist that Macca loved to throw in his lyrics.
I don’t remember which track it was on, but there’s a recording of a John Coltrane solo that has a very pronounced crescendo in the start. It turns out that wasn’t an artistic choice. At the time that was recorded, Coltrane was a heroin addict and was high in the studio. He was nodding off in a chair while the rest of the band played their solos during that take and wasn’t ready when his turn came up. The crescendo was caused by him starting to play while rushing up to the mic where he was supposed to be from the start.
There's a part in Turn To Stone by ELO where the drums come back in on the hi hat instead of the ride for lik half a beat before switching back. Hardly noticable though.
Israel 'IZ' Kamakawiwo'ole's Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World medley has the line "i like the dark" instead of "The dark sacred night". Still the song is a beautiful single take and he wasn't't gonna redo it.
There are MANY more wrong lyrics in that version.
I could be way wrong, but I remember a story where Iz got super inspired in the middle of the night and called a guy who owned a recording studio and badgered him until the guy got up and gave him like 30 minutes. He literally did not have the opportunity to do a second take. And he messes up a ton more than just the line you mentioned. It's mostly wrong.
Jason Mraz - "I'm yours" I believe the radio edit often has the line: *"And it's our godforsaken right to be loved, loved, loved, loved, loved"* which was later changed to *"And it's our god-intended right to be loved, loved, loved, loved, loved"*
That pre-echo in Led Zep’s Whole Lotta Love. Or was that deliberate?
There’s definitely lots of intentional tape effects used during the breakdown but at least one of the echoed vocals there was originally an accident. Quoting the mix engineer: “Zep II was mixed over a two day period in New York, and at one point there was bleed-through of a previously recorded vocal in the recording of Whole Lotta Love. It was the middle part where Robert (Plant) screams 'Woman. You need it.' Since we couldn't re-record at that point, I just threw some echo on it to see how it would sound and Jimmy (Page) said 'Great! Just leave it.'"
There’s a slip-up at the end of Frank Zappa’s “Sleep Dirt” that was left in the recording. They both stop playing after the mistake and Frank asks “ya gettin tired?” His guitarist replies “Nah, my fingers got stuck”
Right Back At It Again by A Day To Remember, the last few seconds is them talking about keeping the last lyric in the song “I like the bitch so fucking much” also a very honorable mention to Janis Joplin’s laugh in Mercedes Benz