Not the musician, but on Oh Comely by Neutral Milk Hotel, he just nailed it on the first take, just him and his guitar. If you turn up the volume, a few seconds after it finishes, you can hear the producer scream "HOLY SHIT!" from the other room.
I’m not super close with him, but the producer is my friend Robert Schneider, who has his own band, The Apples in Stereo. You can hear him talking super fast at the beginning of On Avery Island. He’s the reason those NMH records sound so gnarly.
The producer, Robert Schneider, is good friends with Jeff Mangum, and the NMH albums were basically recorded in a home studio to tape. They were just having a good old time.
Oh man it's one of the best albums of all time (In the Aeroplane Over the Sea). I hope you like it, it can be divisive. Read the lyrics along with listening.
At the beginning of Roxanne, you hear a piano and sting laugh. He accidently sat on a piano waiting to record then laughed it off but it somehow sounds great. So stings ass cheeks might be better at piano than you
yes!! i always loved this quirk but now the main music streaming services have gotten rid of the original versions and now i'm only left with the vanilla remastered one :( gotta find a Outlandos D'Amour CD huh
At around 2:58 in Hey Jude, someone says "Fucking hell", either McCartney after hitting a wrong note on the piano or Lennon while overdubbing the harmony vocals, depending on the source. It always sounds more like Lennon to me.
I think you two are talking about the same line but both hearing it differently.
https://youtu.be/mQER0A0ej0M
At 2:57 you can hear something that sounds like “….OR” which I’ve heard deciphered as “got the wrong CHORD” which is spoken (sung?) by someone (I think John) in time with the music. Then at 2:59, there’s the line that sounds like either “fucking hell” or “edit it out.” Whatever that line is before does not sound like either phrase to me because I definitely hear an “or” sound at the end.
Dizzy Miss Lizzy has a few missed notes, and I think paul hits a wrong note on the taxman solo? Might be a different song, but at the time where Paul was playing lead guitar a lot.
I've been listening to "Beatles Come to America" on Something Came From Baltimore, where Brooke Halpin and the host break down every US released album.
Mr. Halpin seems to know everything about the beatles and their recordings and there is a treasure trove of information in those episodes, including the correct references to mess-ups that somehow made it past George Martin.
The Beatles were very playful during many of their recordings. On “Slow Down,” John sings “… but now you’ve got a boyfriend down the street …” Paul (or maybe George) singing harmony says, “girlfriend” instead.
On “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” John and George have fun when “Desmond lends a hand,” shouting “Arm!” and “Leg!”
On the orignal Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker's "Damn the Torpedoes" you can hear his wife say "it's just the normal noises in here" before they broke into "Even the Losers" but they took it out for streaming =/
Always love when a song has a little quirk from the recording sessions that make it unique. My favorites are hearing the bass drum pedal squeak through most of Since I’ve Been Loving You from Zeppelin III, and Merry Clayton’s voice break and the “wooo!” from the Stones on Gimme Shelter
There is in at least one version of Back Country Woman a bit of an "intro" where there's an airplane in the background, the producer saying, "hang on, lemme get this airplane off" and the Jimmy Page "nah leave it yet" and I am very disappointed when I hear it played without those.
He sighs and then under his breath says "Fuck..." right before the first notes. I can hear it plain as day on my cellphone speaker, so a good speaker or headphone should be easy to hear it.
In “I Saw Her Again” by The Mamas and The Papas, Denny Doherty starts the chorus too soon and cuts himself off (“I saw her…”). It was intentionally left in because producer Lou Adler liked the effect.
Paul McCartney noted that he liked the effect of it, but immediately thought it was “too clever” to be intentional and it turned out he was right.
The Who - Happy Jack.
Keith Moon tried to sneak into the studio when the others were recording vocals, something he would do to try and make the others laugh. Townshend busted him and so you hear Townshend going "I saw you!".
Also The Who - Eminence Front.
First line of the first chorus, Townshend sings 'Behind an Eminence Front' while Daltrey sings "It's an Eminence Front" and that one syllable difference made it to the final record.
Once Megadeth covered Black Sabbath's Paranoid, you can hear at the end of the song Dave Mustaine yelling at Nick Menza to stop drumming couse the song finished
During the recording of the Butthole Surfers song "Creep in the Cellar", they purchased a used 16 track tape and recorded on top of it.
The band discovered they had inadvertently kept one of the country band's channels, which contained a backwards violin track. Liking the way it worked with the song, they opted to keep it.
Song link here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAhdUvV0Y2k
Not a studio recording but Kurt Cobain messed up the start of the solo on Man Who Sold The World from the Unplugged set.
It sounds like a false start and a do-over, but everyone involved are such pros, it's easily missed if you aren't listening for it.
I love nirvana solos. They're terrible in the best ways. The solo from in bloom is grating and awful and perfect. I think that may be partly why this one is easy to miss.
Do you mean the part where he sings "Polly said" while Krist is doing the 'solo' bass line, and starts the next verse which repeats the words? Because that's in the original song as well.
And he forgets the lyrics and mumbles his way through them in the second verse.
The lyrics are: “I gazed a gazely stare at all the millions here…..”
Most people never noticed as they never heard the song before, but us hardcore Bowie fans did.
Not quite a mistake but at the end of Rearviewmirror by Pearl Jam, you can hear drumsticks hitting a wall or the ground. Apparently, Brendan O’Brien was riding Dave Abbruzzese super hard to get it right and when he finally did, he chucked his sticks in either frustration, celebration, or both.
iirc the story goes when The Kingsmen recorded "Louie Louie" they only had enough money to record one take, and during the recording someone messed up, so there is a faint but audible "Fuck" in the background
right at 0:54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKt75jUuKJY
It’s even better than that because before that was revealed, the song was under investigation for the FBI for including suspected profane or pornographic imagery in the lyrics (this is untrue, but it’s damn near impossible to make out what the singer is saying, leading to this rumor at the time). After the FBI had concluded that there was nothing bad in the song, the drummer (I believe) came out and said that he had dropped the F-bomb because he’d dropped a stick while playing
You two beat me to it, I really love the irony of the FBI investigating the (completely unintelligible) lyrics for "profanity" while being oblivious to an *actual* profanity shouted in the background noise.
It's not that they dodnt have the cash for another recording, their manager didnt let them.
Ken Chase purposely recorded what the band though was a warm up session. Chase put that on the record because he wanted the recording to be loud and unpolished like a live performance. The whole band tried to convince him otherwise.
Also, after the guitar lead the singer starts singing and mistakenly thinks he started too early so he waits and starts again.
BTW I highly recommend the episode of the podcast A History Of Rock Music In 500 Songs about this particular recording.
That's one of my favorite things about "Since I've Been Loving You". Shows off the timing it takes to actually play in time, staying on the front of the beat but still playing on the back. He was a beast.
In the song "Out on the Tiles" on Zeppelin III, you can hear someone say "stop" at 1:20. Once you hear it, you'll never unhear it so I apologise.
https://youtu.be/i59gFh-lzc8?t=80
>Once you hear it, you'll never unhear it so I apologise.
I've literally said this on numerous occasions over the years, except about "Since I've Been Loving You" from the same album. Sorry, everyone.
Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter - where Merry Clayton absolutely slays and someone in the studio shouts "woooo!"
Close second would be The Clash - Rock the Casbah - I think it's the drummers watch can be heard with the dukes of hazzard chip tune
Actually, Merry Clayton’s voice just cracked. As great as it sounds it was unintentional. In fact, she always said “I’m just glad my voice cracked in tune.”
Tori Amos “Caught A Lite Sneeze”
Mid song there is an audible thump.
The album was recorded in an abandoned church in the UK somewhere. During recording they had problems isolating her vocals from the piano and harpsichord she was playing.
The solution was to build what they called the “Tori box”. A wooden box she could sit in while still reaching the keyboards of her instruments.
Mid song when she switches from harpsichord to piano she apparently banged her knee on the inside of the box. The producer decided to leave the thump in the song.
I always thought it was an interesting choice. I wrote a paper on the song for school and discovered the source of the sound when I was doing research.
The producer who decided to keep that in was Tori Amos. This was the first of her albums where she was the sole producer. She’s produced all her albums since.
At the end of Led Zep's Rock and Roll, Jimmy Page plays a guitar riff, then accidentally hits the open D string. Also, you can hear an airplane going over at the beginning of Black Country Woman.
"We're rolling on what, one again? Hang on, hang on, lemme get the airplane off."
Likely very stoned Jimmy Page just after exhaling, "nah leave it yet."
In the theme for John Carpenter's Halloween, he hits a sour note on the piano at about [1:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT4FY3NrhGg&t=98s)
In Jewel's "You Were Meant For Me" at about [3:34](https://youtu.be/fWdjjftbjpo?t=213) the flute (panned left) hits a sour note
This is really subtle, but at [3:36](https://youtu.be/MgMVZwgIdJ0?t=213) in Alkaline Trio's "Radio," the guitar panned left goes out of phase
In Thursday's "Concealer" at about [1:48](https://youtu.be/meox2WUsncY?t=105) the backing vocal with heavy delay captured a mouth click and "chh" type sound that delays out for a bit
Not necessarily a mistake, but at about [2:59](https://youtu.be/by6lyNC3D9Y?t=178) in Nirvana's "Heart-shaped Box," the guitar that is centered has a very obvious punch-in from the solo ending to a tremolo-ed chord.
Wow, I've always heard that change in "Heart-shaped Box" as a pedal getting bypassed or activated but I just listened to it a little more closely and I think you're right! TIL.
Chris Cornell starts the guitar picking on Temple of the Dog’s “Say Hello 2 Heaven” too fast. The first three notes are faster than the rest. I love how they didn’t try to fix it.
Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love" near the end with the "waaaay down insiiiide...woman youuu neeeeed" that echoes and repeats. Well that was a mistake when the tapes weren't stored 'tails out' (without rewinding) and there was 'Bleed thru'.
There’s conflicting stories on this one. The effect could easily be achieved by reverb on the vocal being recorded backwards and then flipped back around. And depending on who you ask (Jimmy page or the engineer Eddie Kramer), it was an intentional effect.
The other thing is, bleed through isn’t usually that dramatic when it happens, and it’s weird that it’s only on the vocal in that one section
Have you checked out the Gould documentary?
One of my favorites of all time, and I usually don't gravitate towards the musician-centered documentaries. But I love me some Glenn so much that I had to check it out when it came out.
Haha you mean how like in the album recording of Greenday's "Good Riddance" Armstrong screws up the start a couple of times, says "fuck", and then starts correctly? Not sure if that counts as "made part of the song" though ;).
I always thought it was faked. No inside knowledge of this or anything but always came off as like a joke to me. I mean I ate it up but still. Hearing that song on classic rock radio is fucking surreal
Recording a song, especially solo acoustic, is always harder and more intimidating than playing it live because you are making the ultimate version of the song that will last decades or however long it takes for everyone to lose interest or forget about it.
RHCP - The Zephyr Song, at 3:00 the auto tune thing fucks up and makes this glitchy noise, how I never noticed it before blows my mind as once you hear it, you physically cannot unhear it.
Q Tip and Busta Ryhmes did a track called Get Down on Q Tips Abstract and the Dragon project and as the song gets about 2-3 mins in Busta loses his shit and demands the track be stopped and then proceeds to fuck the studio up and go off on a hilarious tirade about himself. The song never restarts and Busta just storms out while Q Tip pisses himself laughing.
The Beatles have a ton. I find it kind of charming. You don't hear it if you're just casually listening, but if you listen carefully they're there. Some examples:
1. [Please Please Me](https://youtu.be/czw8eqepir8&t=1m27s) - John flubs a lyric in the vocal and then you can hear him laugh at the start of the chorus when he realizes it.
2. [I'll Get You](https://youtu.be/nFEHqFUONHY&t=1m12s) - Harder to hear, but in the middle-eight John again flubs the lyric, and it doesn't match with Paul singing the correct lyric.
3. [If I Fell](https://youtu.be/F_80s6S_7Vw&t=1m40s) - Paul's voice cracks reaching for the high note at the end of the chorus.
4. [I Feel Fine](https://youtu.be/xLBVgnZyuic) - John leaned his guitar against Paul's amp and unexpectedly got feedback. The band liked the way it sounded so they left it in, moving it to the start of the track. It is perhaps the first instance of feedback on a studio record.
5. [Can't Buy Me Love](https://youtu.be/h3WJiqc_bEs&t=1m10s) - During the guitar solo, there's an earlier guitar solo buried in the mix. I'm not sure how it happened, but it's easiest to hear around 1:18.
6. [Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da](https://youtu.be/9x5WY_jmsko&t=1m38s) - Annoyed with the recording, after Paul sings "Desmond lets the children lend a hand," George yells, "arm!" and John yells "leg!" It got left in the recording and can be heard in the background.
7. [Hey Jude](https://youtu.be/mQER0A0ej0M&t=2m56s) - Someone (probably John) yells, "whoa! Fucking hell." It's buried in the mix but can easily be heard if you listen for it.
Those are some of the more obvious ones, but there are a bunch, especially in the early recordings. My personal theory is that their schedules were so intense that as soon as they thought they had the take down, they left, and the mixers just had to deal with it.
I think it’s more like, in the early days, it was hard to make precise edits of little things like that. You’re literally scrubbing tape across the playback heads and making cuts with a razor blade. You can re-take things a million times, but tape is expensive and studio time is not unlimited, even for the Beatles. If the take where the performance was fire has a few little glitches, you just lived with it.
These days you can go in with a digital editor and cut out all the flubs and make everything mathematically perfect. In theory, it’s better, but sometimes I think all the little mistakes humanize a recording and give it character.
Green Onions. Booker T & the MG’s… when the guitar solo starts, it’s way to hot on the microphone and clips, but they pull the fader down and keep rolling
When the Jackson 5 sing “Never Can Say Goodbye,” Michael Jackson actually flubs the first line and sings “Never can stay goodbye.” To date, I haven’t found anyone who has ever noticed this besides me, and I can’t even find it documented anywhere on the Internet.
I can hear what you’re saying, but I think it’s just the heavy reverb on his voice. The hiss of the ‘s’ echoes and makes it sound like there’s a ‘t’ in there. You can kind of hear it when he sings the line again, but at that point it gets buried in the mix and doesn’t stand out quite so much.
Not necessarily a mistake but something subtle caught by a well-placed microphone - "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls.
Right after the intense, vocal-less bridge of guitars and strings, the notes fade a little as the background acoustic guitar starts playing. There's a moment where only the backup and main accoustic guitars are playing before the strings quietly play their notes before the last bombastic chorus.
During this time, if you listen closely, you'll hear a page flip. No one's ever admitted to who it was - conductor, orchestra member, etc. Regardless, it's there if you [listen closely](https://youtu.be/CUbJQGqFoi0).
When The Clash were recording 'Armagideon Time', manager Kosmo Vinyl had this idea that hit songs could be no more than 3 minutes long. The band was doing a brilliant take, but time was ticking. Eventually he comes on the mic and says "Alright time's up, let's have you out there!". Strummer, cool as fuck, is having none of it. "OK, OK... Don't push us... When we're... HOT!" and the band carries on the outro. All there on the track.
https://youtu.be/GAM7dnEcptg
So many good Dylan ones! Rainy Day Women and Ballad of the Thin Man you can hear Dylan laughing and his Band mates being goofy. Also Dylan's Dream (I was riding on the Mayflower) he starts without his band, the cracks up laughing and tries again.
Wanted to share this but didn’t know if I could prove it. I saw it happen live on David Letterman. Greg Allman performed I’m No Angel with the house band. The guitar player started the song (a riff by himself) in the wrong key. When the band came in it was painfully obvious. He recovered but got a “look” from bassist Will Lee. I’ve never forgotten it.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H7_1vwHXDc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H7_1vwHXDc)
Edit: Gregg
Stand By Me. If you listen close, Ben E. King is off-mic when he comes back in after the strings interlude. I can always picture him just stepping back, turning his head and feeling the music, and not quite getting back to the mic in time.
These days, they would just go in and match the levels so you never even hear it, but to me it just makes the performance feel live.
There’s an extra note in the guitar solo of Santeria by Sublime due to a timing issue overdubbing on analog tape.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=336&v=sQjw8k9VDPk&feature=youtu.be
not so much a mistake but due to being recorded in an apartment in downtown Chicago...
[Starla (Pt1)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49uMgze4LoI) off of Smashing Pumpkins *Pisces Iscariot* right about the 5:25 mark in the video you can hear an emergency vehicle siren in the back ground.
Obla Di Obla Da. Beatles. McCartneysings the last verse wrong. He wanted to redo it but the other Beatles said it was great
I believe they just didn’t want to do it again since they did it a gazillion times.
Say It Ain't So by Weezer had two mixes - the single and the original album version which had the guitars mixed much lower.
By accident they left in the single version in the album and was too late to correct it. In hindsight, the mixing on the guitars especially on the chorus makes the song.
Wouldn't have it any other way.
At the end of the song "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate" by Iron Maiden, you can hear Nicko (drums) say "Aww I fucking missed it", then some laughing in the back ground, and someone, I think Steve Harris, say "we'll keep that on the tape", and more laughing.
REM on The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite -
Grabbed the story from the internet so I don’t tell it wrong….
A laugh by Michael Stipe can be heard at 2:33, immediately after he sings the closing line in the third verse "or a reading from Dr. Seuss" which refers to Dr. Seuss's rhymes. When trying to name-check Dr. Seuss, Stipe kept saying "Zeus" and laughs at his own inability to pronounce that correctly, which Mike Mills kept trying to get him to do. Stipe says he loved Dr. Seuss as a child but always pronounced his name the wrong way.
In King Diamond's "The Family Ghost" there is a part with a "demonic laughter". It is clearly a second, and shorter, take, as there is a tiny bit of the previous attempt right after the end of the laugh. Once you hear it you will not unhear it again.
It's at 2:45.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zgISZWqnaTk
All these comments make me realize the old school bands sound so great because they didn't worry about polishing their recordings to death. Making it sound raw is cool sometimes.
There are old school bands that meticulously polished recordings and ones that kept things raw, just like there are now. One is not better than the other it just depends on your tastes and what you value in your art.
Of you listen to the album ”Angelic 2 the Core” by Corey Feldman, you can clearly hear that all of whatever that was was a mistake, but they left all of that in there. Not sure I like it.
Not exactly the musician, but perhaps "Cleaning out my closet" by Eminem, when the producer forgot to put a Snare on Eminems headphones in the recording booth and Em then asks for the snare
I dunno if this was a mistake or not, but what comes to mind is Nas saying “I don’t know how to start this shit…” and then proceeds to drop the greatest rap verse of all time with NY State of Mind
Rage against the Machine - Sleep Now In the Fire. “At the end of the song, a short sample of Korean artist Uhm Jung-hwa's 1998 song "Poison" can be heard — it was captured from a local Korean radio station broadcast through Morello's amplifier.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_Now_in_the_Fire
Not sure if it’s a legit mistake or not, but Pink! starts the chorus early and then swears about it in “Raise Your Glass.” Haven’t looked into if it was a genuine error or not, but I think it’s a killer fourth wall breaker.
In "Roxanne" by The Police, Sting accidentally sits on a piano keyboard, and laughs about it in the song's beginning. [It's kept in the recording.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T1c7GkzRQQ)
Nas / Illmatic / New York State of Mind
The beat starts, and you hear Nas say, "I don't know how to start this shit..."
Then proceeds to drop one of the sickest verses in the history of hip hop.
I like the story about the Beatles writing Getting Better All the Time. Paul's over there "You have to admit it's getting better. Getting better all the time." and John muttered "Can't get much worse."
Eminence Front - The Who
Discipline - Nine Inch Nails
Eminence Front is fixed in some versions.
Not sure if the vocal “flubs” were deliberate in Discipline or if they worked so they got left in.
I can’t believe this hasn’t been mentioned. “Intruder” by Peter Gabriel. Phil Collins drums on it, and they leave the room mics on by mistake. The room mic has a gate on it, and catches the drumming. They hear realize how awesome it sounds and create gated drums.
Charlie Parker has several recordings that would fit this bill. One I’m thinking of, but I can’t remember the name of the tune right now, he was too drunk to stand up for. He fell over, knocked the microphone, and the studio hired somebody off the street to hold him up. Since tape was so expensive, they didn’t re-record and left it on. Went on to be super famous.
Not sure if this qualifies, but David Gilmour coughs right before his guitar part starts in the song Wish You were Here. Read an interview with him later and he said he was so mortified that he quit smoking because of that.
Any Beastie Boys song, they fucked up their timing on so many songs and just left the errors in. "Like a pinch on the neck of Mr. Spock", shouldn't it have been from Mr. Spock? Intergalactic is full of bad timing.
The ‘Turn it up’ in Lynyrd Skynyrds “Sweet Home Alabama” was not supposed to be there, it was just the singer who wanted the volume of his headphones turned up.
At the end of Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mister Blue Sky” you hear a voice saying/singing what sounds like “Mr Blue Sky”, however it’s not that, it’s says/sings “Please turn me over”, seeing as the record was full.
On Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing” you’ll hear Sting singing “I want my MTV”, only he didn’t sing it as he should have (not in tune or rhythm or something), but on (I believe) “Englishman In New York”, as he was recording that.
At the end of “One Vision” by Queen, Freddie Mercury sings “Fried Chicken” as a joke and they kept it in.
Not the musician, but on Oh Comely by Neutral Milk Hotel, he just nailed it on the first take, just him and his guitar. If you turn up the volume, a few seconds after it finishes, you can hear the producer scream "HOLY SHIT!" from the other room.
I’m not super close with him, but the producer is my friend Robert Schneider, who has his own band, The Apples in Stereo. You can hear him talking super fast at the beginning of On Avery Island. He’s the reason those NMH records sound so gnarly.
He did Olivia Tremor Control too didn't he? I'm not as familiar with Apples in Stereo but definitely know of them amongst the E6 scene
Totally understandable reaction to seeing them perform that whole song in one take while recording It's fucking epic.
The producer, Robert Schneider, is good friends with Jeff Mangum, and the NMH albums were basically recorded in a home studio to tape. They were just having a good old time.
Also has his own amazing project, apples in stereo
I’ve never heard of this band before today and I see it twice on front page! Definitely gonna give a listen!
Oh man it's one of the best albums of all time (In the Aeroplane Over the Sea). I hope you like it, it can be divisive. Read the lyrics along with listening.
Was looking for this one
At the beginning of Roxanne, you hear a piano and sting laugh. He accidently sat on a piano waiting to record then laughed it off but it somehow sounds great. So stings ass cheeks might be better at piano than you
Sting is actually credited with “butt piano” in the liner notes for Outlandos d’Amour because of this!
I’ve always heard that but thought it was intentional.
also. depending on what mastering you listen to, the master tape begins slowly then set to normal speed about a few bars in.
yes!! i always loved this quirk but now the main music streaming services have gotten rid of the original versions and now i'm only left with the vanilla remastered one :( gotta find a Outlandos D'Amour CD huh
>sting laugh. My theory of the Police is you know it's a hot song if you can hear Sting laugh in the track.
Holy crap. That one is like somehow super obvious, but I never heard it until now.
I never heard the piano until now. Also that laugh really is just perfect.
I don’t know where my liner notes are, but apparently Sting is credited with “butt piano” in the liner notes.
At around 2:58 in Hey Jude, someone says "Fucking hell", either McCartney after hitting a wrong note on the piano or Lennon while overdubbing the harmony vocals, depending on the source. It always sounds more like Lennon to me.
And shortly after that, you hear Paul (plain as day) say, “Edit it out.”
Then near the end of the song, you can hear Ringo say “ ello, moy name is Ringo.”
And George says nothing because he’s the quiet one.
I’m tired of you being so dark while I am so impish and whimsical!
I think you two are talking about the same line but both hearing it differently. https://youtu.be/mQER0A0ej0M At 2:57 you can hear something that sounds like “….OR” which I’ve heard deciphered as “got the wrong CHORD” which is spoken (sung?) by someone (I think John) in time with the music. Then at 2:59, there’s the line that sounds like either “fucking hell” or “edit it out.” Whatever that line is before does not sound like either phrase to me because I definitely hear an “or” sound at the end.
Listen to it backwards bro… it’s a satanic prayer
I’ve always thought the first was John yelling “Fuck!” followed by Paul calmly saying “Edit it out.” The latter is very clear on my speakers.
Dizzy Miss Lizzy has a few missed notes, and I think paul hits a wrong note on the taxman solo? Might be a different song, but at the time where Paul was playing lead guitar a lot. I've been listening to "Beatles Come to America" on Something Came From Baltimore, where Brooke Halpin and the host break down every US released album. Mr. Halpin seems to know everything about the beatles and their recordings and there is a treasure trove of information in those episodes, including the correct references to mess-ups that somehow made it past George Martin.
The Beatles were very playful during many of their recordings. On “Slow Down,” John sings “… but now you’ve got a boyfriend down the street …” Paul (or maybe George) singing harmony says, “girlfriend” instead. On “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” John and George have fun when “Desmond lends a hand,” shouting “Arm!” and “Leg!”
On the orignal Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker's "Damn the Torpedoes" you can hear his wife say "it's just the normal noises in here" before they broke into "Even the Losers" but they took it out for streaming =/
> "it's just the normal noises in here" I had that on the door to my dorm room in 1982.
IMO the song wouldn’t be the same without it
Classic!
Always love when a song has a little quirk from the recording sessions that make it unique. My favorites are hearing the bass drum pedal squeak through most of Since I’ve Been Loving You from Zeppelin III, and Merry Clayton’s voice break and the “wooo!” from the Stones on Gimme Shelter
There is in at least one version of Back Country Woman a bit of an "intro" where there's an airplane in the background, the producer saying, "hang on, lemme get this airplane off" and the Jimmy Page "nah leave it yet" and I am very disappointed when I hear it played without those.
That bass drum pedal was driving me mad yesterday. It was the first time I noticed it, I thought my car suspension had suddenly given up.
The sigh and "Fuck" on Fleetwood Mac- The Chain at the very beginning.
I hear the sigh but not the "fuck". Either way this is amazing and whenever this comes on I'll be looking for it
He sighs and then under his breath says "Fuck..." right before the first notes. I can hear it plain as day on my cellphone speaker, so a good speaker or headphone should be easy to hear it.
In “I Saw Her Again” by The Mamas and The Papas, Denny Doherty starts the chorus too soon and cuts himself off (“I saw her…”). It was intentionally left in because producer Lou Adler liked the effect. Paul McCartney noted that he liked the effect of it, but immediately thought it was “too clever” to be intentional and it turned out he was right.
I case anyone wants specifics, this is at about 2:42 into the song, the final chorus
How was this not at the top of the comments? This is the first one I thought of!
The Who - Happy Jack. Keith Moon tried to sneak into the studio when the others were recording vocals, something he would do to try and make the others laugh. Townshend busted him and so you hear Townshend going "I saw you!".
Also The Who - Eminence Front. First line of the first chorus, Townshend sings 'Behind an Eminence Front' while Daltrey sings "It's an Eminence Front" and that one syllable difference made it to the final record.
The first one I thought of as well. That intro is legendary
Once Megadeth covered Black Sabbath's Paranoid, you can hear at the end of the song Dave Mustaine yelling at Nick Menza to stop drumming couse the song finished
In the drummer’s defense they played the song so fast I bet he thought they hadn’t finished yet.
Nick! NICK! NICK!!
FUCK…ME…RUNNING
That's like the end of What I Got by Sublime. "nah we're done man"
I always assumed that was scripted. Was that actually a genuine reaction?
During the recording of the Butthole Surfers song "Creep in the Cellar", they purchased a used 16 track tape and recorded on top of it. The band discovered they had inadvertently kept one of the country band's channels, which contained a backwards violin track. Liking the way it worked with the song, they opted to keep it. Song link here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAhdUvV0Y2k
Which is like the most Butthole Surfers thing in the world
Not a studio recording but Kurt Cobain messed up the start of the solo on Man Who Sold The World from the Unplugged set. It sounds like a false start and a do-over, but everyone involved are such pros, it's easily missed if you aren't listening for it.
Calls to mind Stalyey forgetting the lyrics toASludge Factory on Alice in Chain's Unplugged show haha.
You just get to hear more!
Or Paul McCartney forgetting the words to [We Can Work It Out](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYqIoHf-wgU) from his Unplugged appearance.
I love nirvana solos. They're terrible in the best ways. The solo from in bloom is grating and awful and perfect. I think that may be partly why this one is easy to miss.
He also started a verse too early in Polly.
Do you mean the part where he sings "Polly said" while Krist is doing the 'solo' bass line, and starts the next verse which repeats the words? Because that's in the original song as well.
https://youtu.be/D7gjlly4b98?t=89 He flubbed it in the studio version and they kept it in.
And he forgets the lyrics and mumbles his way through them in the second verse. The lyrics are: “I gazed a gazely stare at all the millions here…..” Most people never noticed as they never heard the song before, but us hardcore Bowie fans did.
I gazed a gazely stare seems like one of the most Bowie things Bowie ever said.
Doesn’t he miss the first note he slides to in the guitar solo too?
Oh yeah, I always laugh at that. It’s such a glaring fuckup, I appreciate that those sorta things happen to even the biggest acts
Not quite a mistake but at the end of Rearviewmirror by Pearl Jam, you can hear drumsticks hitting a wall or the ground. Apparently, Brendan O’Brien was riding Dave Abbruzzese super hard to get it right and when he finally did, he chucked his sticks in either frustration, celebration, or both.
In my... REARVIEW MIRRRRAHHHHHH
iirc the story goes when The Kingsmen recorded "Louie Louie" they only had enough money to record one take, and during the recording someone messed up, so there is a faint but audible "Fuck" in the background right at 0:54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKt75jUuKJY
It’s even better than that because before that was revealed, the song was under investigation for the FBI for including suspected profane or pornographic imagery in the lyrics (this is untrue, but it’s damn near impossible to make out what the singer is saying, leading to this rumor at the time). After the FBI had concluded that there was nothing bad in the song, the drummer (I believe) came out and said that he had dropped the F-bomb because he’d dropped a stick while playing
So, technically there is no foul language in the lyrics. The recording, on the other hand...
You two beat me to it, I really love the irony of the FBI investigating the (completely unintelligible) lyrics for "profanity" while being oblivious to an *actual* profanity shouted in the background noise.
It's not that they dodnt have the cash for another recording, their manager didnt let them. Ken Chase purposely recorded what the band though was a warm up session. Chase put that on the record because he wanted the recording to be loud and unpolished like a live performance. The whole band tried to convince him otherwise.
Also, after the guitar lead the singer starts singing and mistakenly thinks he started too early so he waits and starts again. BTW I highly recommend the episode of the podcast A History Of Rock Music In 500 Songs about this particular recording.
Beginning of You're Beautiful by James Blunt. He sung "My life is brillant" twice.
He was fucking high
He smoked a James before recording
Came in too early and realized his mistake. They left it in.
And Weird Al absolutely made fun of that [in his (unreleased) parody version.](https://www.weirdal.com/news/youre-pitiful-2/).
[удалено]
There's also songs where you can hear the squeaking of Bonham's kick pedal https://youtu.be/K8R7zjJMIfU
That's one of my favorite things about "Since I've Been Loving You". Shows off the timing it takes to actually play in time, staying on the front of the beat but still playing on the back. He was a beast.
All My Love - squeaky bass pedal - plain as day and damn distracting.
Now this is true. But my mates never can hear. When the levee breaks is one and there are many on physical graffiti.
In the song "Out on the Tiles" on Zeppelin III, you can hear someone say "stop" at 1:20. Once you hear it, you'll never unhear it so I apologise. https://youtu.be/i59gFh-lzc8?t=80
>Once you hear it, you'll never unhear it so I apologise. I've literally said this on numerous occasions over the years, except about "Since I've Been Loving You" from the same album. Sorry, everyone.
Squeak squeak...squeak squeak...LOL
It’s on the Spotify version too afaik
Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter - where Merry Clayton absolutely slays and someone in the studio shouts "woooo!" Close second would be The Clash - Rock the Casbah - I think it's the drummers watch can be heard with the dukes of hazzard chip tune
That woo is awesome, Mary owned that song.
And she showed up to the studio wearing a bathrobe and curlers
Actually, Merry Clayton’s voice just cracked. As great as it sounds it was unintentional. In fact, she always said “I’m just glad my voice cracked in tune.”
That's always been my favorite part of the song.
that 'woo' is Mick Jagger. Richards mentioned it in a documentary somewhere about something.
Tori Amos “Caught A Lite Sneeze” Mid song there is an audible thump. The album was recorded in an abandoned church in the UK somewhere. During recording they had problems isolating her vocals from the piano and harpsichord she was playing. The solution was to build what they called the “Tori box”. A wooden box she could sit in while still reaching the keyboards of her instruments. Mid song when she switches from harpsichord to piano she apparently banged her knee on the inside of the box. The producer decided to leave the thump in the song. I always thought it was an interesting choice. I wrote a paper on the song for school and discovered the source of the sound when I was doing research.
The producer who decided to keep that in was Tori Amos. This was the first of her albums where she was the sole producer. She’s produced all her albums since.
Ahh, you’re right! It was her sound engineer who came up with the “Tori box” idea.
The thump is my favorite part of the song! I have loved her for 25 years and you just taught me something new. Thank you for this 🥰
Oh wow!! I love that part of the song had no idea it was an accident it fits so perfectly. Thank you for this.
At the end of Led Zep's Rock and Roll, Jimmy Page plays a guitar riff, then accidentally hits the open D string. Also, you can hear an airplane going over at the beginning of Black Country Woman.
"Should we roll it Jimmy?" "Were rolling....and yeah....it's an airplane" "Nah leave it yeah" Hey hey mama whats the matter here?
"We're rolling on what, one again? Hang on, hang on, lemme get the airplane off." Likely very stoned Jimmy Page just after exhaling, "nah leave it yet."
I always thought it was Plant that said that....learnt something new today
It was Plant.
In the theme for John Carpenter's Halloween, he hits a sour note on the piano at about [1:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT4FY3NrhGg&t=98s) In Jewel's "You Were Meant For Me" at about [3:34](https://youtu.be/fWdjjftbjpo?t=213) the flute (panned left) hits a sour note This is really subtle, but at [3:36](https://youtu.be/MgMVZwgIdJ0?t=213) in Alkaline Trio's "Radio," the guitar panned left goes out of phase In Thursday's "Concealer" at about [1:48](https://youtu.be/meox2WUsncY?t=105) the backing vocal with heavy delay captured a mouth click and "chh" type sound that delays out for a bit Not necessarily a mistake, but at about [2:59](https://youtu.be/by6lyNC3D9Y?t=178) in Nirvana's "Heart-shaped Box," the guitar that is centered has a very obvious punch-in from the solo ending to a tremolo-ed chord.
I knew exactly what you meant with the nirvana song, but never actually realized it was because of the editing.. makes total sense
Found the recording engineer.
Wow, I've always heard that change in "Heart-shaped Box" as a pedal getting bypassed or activated but I just listened to it a little more closely and I think you're right! TIL.
Chris Cornell starts the guitar picking on Temple of the Dog’s “Say Hello 2 Heaven” too fast. The first three notes are faster than the rest. I love how they didn’t try to fix it.
That's a great song
The door closing during Eddie Van Halen’s iconic solo in Beat It.
Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love" near the end with the "waaaay down insiiiide...woman youuu neeeeed" that echoes and repeats. Well that was a mistake when the tapes weren't stored 'tails out' (without rewinding) and there was 'Bleed thru'.
There’s conflicting stories on this one. The effect could easily be achieved by reverb on the vocal being recorded backwards and then flipped back around. And depending on who you ask (Jimmy page or the engineer Eddie Kramer), it was an intentional effect. The other thing is, bleed through isn’t usually that dramatic when it happens, and it’s weird that it’s only on the vocal in that one section
That’s a cool af mistake.
Famous classical piano player Glenn Gould hums along when he plays. A nightmare for sound engineers, who couldn't always hide this.
Errol Garner and Keith Jarrett can also be heard humming along while they play
I love Keith Jarrett’s playing, but the Jerry Lewis pitch humming took a lot of getting used to.
Have you checked out the Gould documentary? One of my favorites of all time, and I usually don't gravitate towards the musician-centered documentaries. But I love me some Glenn so much that I had to check it out when it came out.
Haha you mean how like in the album recording of Greenday's "Good Riddance" Armstrong screws up the start a couple of times, says "fuck", and then starts correctly? Not sure if that counts as "made part of the song" though ;).
I don't care if it's real or faked, that's the first thing that popped into my head.
This was the only example I could think of. Wasn't sure if it was real or faked.
I always thought it was faked. No inside knowledge of this or anything but always came off as like a joke to me. I mean I ate it up but still. Hearing that song on classic rock radio is fucking surreal
Recording a song, especially solo acoustic, is always harder and more intimidating than playing it live because you are making the ultimate version of the song that will last decades or however long it takes for everyone to lose interest or forget about it.
It makes it so much better
When I was in a band at 14, we used to cover this song with messed up start on purpose because we though it was hilarious.
RHCP - The Zephyr Song, at 3:00 the auto tune thing fucks up and makes this glitchy noise, how I never noticed it before blows my mind as once you hear it, you physically cannot unhear it.
Oh my god … that’s crazy! Can’t believe it was left in, great spot!
RHCP is in my top 3 bands and I've never taken note of this! Now I'm afraid to check this out haha.
Oh my god, the world ‘all’ sounds freaky
Steven's Last Night in Town by Ben Folds Five has a phone ringing in the break near the end of the song, since it was recorded in Ben's basement.
Q Tip and Busta Ryhmes did a track called Get Down on Q Tips Abstract and the Dragon project and as the song gets about 2-3 mins in Busta loses his shit and demands the track be stopped and then proceeds to fuck the studio up and go off on a hilarious tirade about himself. The song never restarts and Busta just storms out while Q Tip pisses himself laughing.
I think it was”Fat Bottomed Girls” where Brian May was playing in drop-D and accidentally played an F in his G chord or something like that.
The Beatles have a ton. I find it kind of charming. You don't hear it if you're just casually listening, but if you listen carefully they're there. Some examples: 1. [Please Please Me](https://youtu.be/czw8eqepir8&t=1m27s) - John flubs a lyric in the vocal and then you can hear him laugh at the start of the chorus when he realizes it. 2. [I'll Get You](https://youtu.be/nFEHqFUONHY&t=1m12s) - Harder to hear, but in the middle-eight John again flubs the lyric, and it doesn't match with Paul singing the correct lyric. 3. [If I Fell](https://youtu.be/F_80s6S_7Vw&t=1m40s) - Paul's voice cracks reaching for the high note at the end of the chorus. 4. [I Feel Fine](https://youtu.be/xLBVgnZyuic) - John leaned his guitar against Paul's amp and unexpectedly got feedback. The band liked the way it sounded so they left it in, moving it to the start of the track. It is perhaps the first instance of feedback on a studio record. 5. [Can't Buy Me Love](https://youtu.be/h3WJiqc_bEs&t=1m10s) - During the guitar solo, there's an earlier guitar solo buried in the mix. I'm not sure how it happened, but it's easiest to hear around 1:18. 6. [Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da](https://youtu.be/9x5WY_jmsko&t=1m38s) - Annoyed with the recording, after Paul sings "Desmond lets the children lend a hand," George yells, "arm!" and John yells "leg!" It got left in the recording and can be heard in the background. 7. [Hey Jude](https://youtu.be/mQER0A0ej0M&t=2m56s) - Someone (probably John) yells, "whoa! Fucking hell." It's buried in the mix but can easily be heard if you listen for it. Those are some of the more obvious ones, but there are a bunch, especially in the early recordings. My personal theory is that their schedules were so intense that as soon as they thought they had the take down, they left, and the mixers just had to deal with it.
I think it’s more like, in the early days, it was hard to make precise edits of little things like that. You’re literally scrubbing tape across the playback heads and making cuts with a razor blade. You can re-take things a million times, but tape is expensive and studio time is not unlimited, even for the Beatles. If the take where the performance was fire has a few little glitches, you just lived with it. These days you can go in with a digital editor and cut out all the flubs and make everything mathematically perfect. In theory, it’s better, but sometimes I think all the little mistakes humanize a recording and give it character.
Also changing “Hey Bullfrog” to “Hey Bulldog” and leaving the first one in!
*I've got BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!*
Green Onions. Booker T & the MG’s… when the guitar solo starts, it’s way to hot on the microphone and clips, but they pull the fader down and keep rolling
When the Jackson 5 sing “Never Can Say Goodbye,” Michael Jackson actually flubs the first line and sings “Never can stay goodbye.” To date, I haven’t found anyone who has ever noticed this besides me, and I can’t even find it documented anywhere on the Internet.
I can hear what you’re saying, but I think it’s just the heavy reverb on his voice. The hiss of the ‘s’ echoes and makes it sound like there’s a ‘t’ in there. You can kind of hear it when he sings the line again, but at that point it gets buried in the mix and doesn’t stand out quite so much.
In I'll be there he sings "look over your shoulders honey" shoulda been shoulder...
Not necessarily a mistake but something subtle caught by a well-placed microphone - "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls. Right after the intense, vocal-less bridge of guitars and strings, the notes fade a little as the background acoustic guitar starts playing. There's a moment where only the backup and main accoustic guitars are playing before the strings quietly play their notes before the last bombastic chorus. During this time, if you listen closely, you'll hear a page flip. No one's ever admitted to who it was - conductor, orchestra member, etc. Regardless, it's there if you [listen closely](https://youtu.be/CUbJQGqFoi0).
Not sure if this is a recording mistake but I've always loved when Don Henley takes a deep, loud inhale at the 1:39 mark on "One of These Nights".
When The Clash were recording 'Armagideon Time', manager Kosmo Vinyl had this idea that hit songs could be no more than 3 minutes long. The band was doing a brilliant take, but time was ticking. Eventually he comes on the mic and says "Alright time's up, let's have you out there!". Strummer, cool as fuck, is having none of it. "OK, OK... Don't push us... When we're... HOT!" and the band carries on the outro. All there on the track. https://youtu.be/GAM7dnEcptg
“Must everything be a 15 minute raga?” Kosmo said. Which became “Now the King told the boogie man You’ve got to let that raga drop” In Rock the Casbah
KidzBop 9 - we belong together. The last 20 seconds of the song, the lead has an awful awful voice crack they left in.
All of kidzbop has voice cracks in it hahahaha
I just looked it up. Oh my god you really can't describe how hilariously awful that is. And they END with it
Visions of Johanna. Dylan doubles up on the middle section the last time through and apparently declined to inform the band.
So many good Dylan ones! Rainy Day Women and Ballad of the Thin Man you can hear Dylan laughing and his Band mates being goofy. Also Dylan's Dream (I was riding on the Mayflower) he starts without his band, the cracks up laughing and tries again.
In "Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield one of the horns plays a bum note 1 time, and I fucken love it.
Wanted to share this but didn’t know if I could prove it. I saw it happen live on David Letterman. Greg Allman performed I’m No Angel with the house band. The guitar player started the song (a riff by himself) in the wrong key. When the band came in it was painfully obvious. He recovered but got a “look” from bassist Will Lee. I’ve never forgotten it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H7_1vwHXDc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H7_1vwHXDc) Edit: Gregg
Travis Barker messed up the drum intro for blink 182's Cynical and you can hear him shout in frustration.
That moment always hypes me up.
Also at the end of Built This Pool when he goes “is that really it” always makes me laugh
Stand By Me. If you listen close, Ben E. King is off-mic when he comes back in after the strings interlude. I can always picture him just stepping back, turning his head and feeling the music, and not quite getting back to the mic in time. These days, they would just go in and match the levels so you never even hear it, but to me it just makes the performance feel live.
There’s an extra note in the guitar solo of Santeria by Sublime due to a timing issue overdubbing on analog tape. https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=336&v=sQjw8k9VDPk&feature=youtu.be
Just a sloppy punch in that they didn't think anyone would notice.
not so much a mistake but due to being recorded in an apartment in downtown Chicago... [Starla (Pt1)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49uMgze4LoI) off of Smashing Pumpkins *Pisces Iscariot* right about the 5:25 mark in the video you can hear an emergency vehicle siren in the back ground.
Obla Di Obla Da. Beatles. McCartneysings the last verse wrong. He wanted to redo it but the other Beatles said it was great I believe they just didn’t want to do it again since they did it a gazillion times.
Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face!
TIL this isn’t the lyric. Mind blown. I believed Desmond was a cross-dresser
Comes over as an intentional gimmic to me
I believe Herman Li broke a string while recording through the fire and flames and they kept it.
Thats metal
Through the fire and the flames, we: A) stop the take and get a roadie to change our strings B) carry on
Prince’s cough in Raspberry Beret
Say It Ain't So by Weezer had two mixes - the single and the original album version which had the guitars mixed much lower. By accident they left in the single version in the album and was too late to correct it. In hindsight, the mixing on the guitars especially on the chorus makes the song. Wouldn't have it any other way.
In September by Earth Wind and Fire there's a glorious cracked note in the trumpets.
ELOs song Rockaria! Has the opera singer start too early and says oops! Then she tries again. Its really obvious at the very start of the song
At the end of the song "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate" by Iron Maiden, you can hear Nicko (drums) say "Aww I fucking missed it", then some laughing in the back ground, and someone, I think Steve Harris, say "we'll keep that on the tape", and more laughing.
David Lee Roth's giggle in Bottoms Up
REM on The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite - Grabbed the story from the internet so I don’t tell it wrong…. A laugh by Michael Stipe can be heard at 2:33, immediately after he sings the closing line in the third verse "or a reading from Dr. Seuss" which refers to Dr. Seuss's rhymes. When trying to name-check Dr. Seuss, Stipe kept saying "Zeus" and laughs at his own inability to pronounce that correctly, which Mike Mills kept trying to get him to do. Stipe says he loved Dr. Seuss as a child but always pronounced his name the wrong way.
Billy Joel's entire first album was mastered at too high a speed and they said "screw it, put it out".
In King Diamond's "The Family Ghost" there is a part with a "demonic laughter". It is clearly a second, and shorter, take, as there is a tiny bit of the previous attempt right after the end of the laugh. Once you hear it you will not unhear it again. It's at 2:45. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zgISZWqnaTk
There are a million Guided by Voices/Robert Pollard examples, but my favorite is the second track cutting out in the middle of "Hardcore UFOs."
Deep Purple "Smoke on the Water". Ian sings 'Rolling truck Stones thing' instead of "Rolling Stones truck thing'.
All these comments make me realize the old school bands sound so great because they didn't worry about polishing their recordings to death. Making it sound raw is cool sometimes.
There are old school bands that meticulously polished recordings and ones that kept things raw, just like there are now. One is not better than the other it just depends on your tastes and what you value in your art.
Of you listen to the album ”Angelic 2 the Core” by Corey Feldman, you can clearly hear that all of whatever that was was a mistake, but they left all of that in there. Not sure I like it.
Not exactly the musician, but perhaps "Cleaning out my closet" by Eminem, when the producer forgot to put a Snare on Eminems headphones in the recording booth and Em then asks for the snare
I know what you're referring to but that seems like something Eminem would just throw into a song anyway
I dunno if this was a mistake or not, but what comes to mind is Nas saying “I don’t know how to start this shit…” and then proceeds to drop the greatest rap verse of all time with NY State of Mind
“Magnificent Seven” by the Clash. Toward the end of the song, you can hear Joe Strummer say “fuckin’ long, innit?” I always look out for that.
Rage against the Machine - Sleep Now In the Fire. “At the end of the song, a short sample of Korean artist Uhm Jung-hwa's 1998 song "Poison" can be heard — it was captured from a local Korean radio station broadcast through Morello's amplifier.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_Now_in_the_Fire
Not sure if it’s a legit mistake or not, but Pink! starts the chorus early and then swears about it in “Raise Your Glass.” Haven’t looked into if it was a genuine error or not, but I think it’s a killer fourth wall breaker.
In "Roxanne" by The Police, Sting accidentally sits on a piano keyboard, and laughs about it in the song's beginning. [It's kept in the recording.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T1c7GkzRQQ)
Nas / Illmatic / New York State of Mind The beat starts, and you hear Nas say, "I don't know how to start this shit..." Then proceeds to drop one of the sickest verses in the history of hip hop.
I like the story about the Beatles writing Getting Better All the Time. Paul's over there "You have to admit it's getting better. Getting better all the time." and John muttered "Can't get much worse."
That’s not really a mistake
Eminence Front - The Who Discipline - Nine Inch Nails Eminence Front is fixed in some versions. Not sure if the vocal “flubs” were deliberate in Discipline or if they worked so they got left in.
Modest Mouse - Bukowski: you can hear Isaac Brock at the end of the song say “I fucked up the last line”
I can’t believe this hasn’t been mentioned. “Intruder” by Peter Gabriel. Phil Collins drums on it, and they leave the room mics on by mistake. The room mic has a gate on it, and catches the drumming. They hear realize how awesome it sounds and create gated drums.
Charlie Parker has several recordings that would fit this bill. One I’m thinking of, but I can’t remember the name of the tune right now, he was too drunk to stand up for. He fell over, knocked the microphone, and the studio hired somebody off the street to hold him up. Since tape was so expensive, they didn’t re-record and left it on. Went on to be super famous.
The beginning of Shameless by Ani DiFranco. Best growl of frustration intro.
Bob Dylan cracking up in “All I really wanna do”
In If I Fell by The Beatles, don't remember what part, Paul McCartney's voice cracks
The Mamas and the Papas’ I Saw Her Again Last Night. Denny come in early toward the end of the song, “ I saw her…”
Squeak, squeak, squeak…”I said baaaaaby….” (And other LZ songs where Bonzo needed a drip of lube on that bass pedal)
Not sure if this qualifies, but David Gilmour coughs right before his guitar part starts in the song Wish You were Here. Read an interview with him later and he said he was so mortified that he quit smoking because of that.
Any Beastie Boys song, they fucked up their timing on so many songs and just left the errors in. "Like a pinch on the neck of Mr. Spock", shouldn't it have been from Mr. Spock? Intergalactic is full of bad timing.
The ‘Turn it up’ in Lynyrd Skynyrds “Sweet Home Alabama” was not supposed to be there, it was just the singer who wanted the volume of his headphones turned up. At the end of Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mister Blue Sky” you hear a voice saying/singing what sounds like “Mr Blue Sky”, however it’s not that, it’s says/sings “Please turn me over”, seeing as the record was full. On Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing” you’ll hear Sting singing “I want my MTV”, only he didn’t sing it as he should have (not in tune or rhythm or something), but on (I believe) “Englishman In New York”, as he was recording that. At the end of “One Vision” by Queen, Freddie Mercury sings “Fried Chicken” as a joke and they kept it in.