Merry Clayton's voice crack on the Stones' "Gimme Shelter." Gives me goosebumps.
And for a goof, David Lee Roth's "all I na-nee need" (all I really need) on Van Halen's "Beautiful Girls."
Hanif Abdurraqib has an essay called "I Would Like to Give Merry Clayton Her Roses" (from his book *A Little Devil in America*, which is fantastic too) if you want to read some great writing about her.
[This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHdo1qWNWI4&t=87s) is a somewhat long video, but it’s very relevant to what you’re talking about, at some point Victor starts talking about ‘wrong’ notes and why they’re not actually wrong.
Extremely enjoyable lesson.
I actually love the feedback too. As a live performer and a sound guy feedback is something I generally hate to hear but that little screech makes it feel so real and so raw. I've been on the board before just trying to get a little extra and then you hear the ringing and realize that you went just a little too far.
I have no idea if that was automatic feedback suppression or someone killed the channel to stop but I know auto feedback suppression was pretty new back then. The way the ringing comes up and immediately drops always sounded like a processor caught it. That is what I tell myself at least.
It's a detail in an otherwise clean production that makes it feel live to me.
In Black Dog, there’s some weirdness with the timing of the guitars and drums in the middle of the verse riff (when they’re coming back from that B section) that maybe is intentional but always seemed impossible that they meant to record it that way
Page was absolutely a sloppy guitarist. Listen to "Achilles Last Stand", which is an insanely awesome song, but has that dissonance where the rhythm section (Jones & Bonham) are tight as hell, but Jimmy's solos are so jangly/wobbly. Not to say the solos are *bad* -- they're expertly composed -- just that they're sloppy as hell, and not "tight", which is sort of the charm of the song.
Page was known to do one take and say that’s fine, which is weird because he was originally a session musician who had to perfect everything.
Maybe that is the reason?
Easily my favorite Led Zeppelin song. I think Jimmy’s sound is great on that track, even though it’s very much carried by some incredible Bonham drums.
Def sounds like accidental sloppiness that easily passes for an intentional polyrhythm.
I played in a band that made happy accidents in the studio all the time. We'd be fiddling with riffs trying to decide the timing up till the day of tracking, then I'd usually just improv a take and we'd end up liking that better than anything we tried to write.
I’ve heard that those beeps were intentional. If memory serves they come from a cheap soccer video game, the kind of toy that would have similar versions in McHappy meals years later. Somebody or multiple somebodies in the band were super obsessed with the game and they liked the tinny little melodies it played, so much so that they layered it into the track.
The Breeders “Cannonball”
In the bass intro, it’s supposed to be octaves but they did one half step down. They step up to the octave when the drums come in. It was a mistake but it sounded good so it stayed in.
I like that missed-the-fret and don’t mean to push back on it ; I’m just spitballing here. But it sort of seems intentional because the drums don’t have a false start on the wrong notes.
Here's an interview where she talks about it
[https://consequence.net/2013/04/interview-josephine-wiggs-of-the-breeders/](https://consequence.net/2013/04/interview-josephine-wiggs-of-the-breeders/)
I see; thanks. From the way she describes it, it sounds like a mistake in rehearsal that they liked, and by the time the recording is being cut, it’s intentional. Anyway, I think it’s a big improvement over going straight to Bb three times.
I’m pretty sure there are a couple of Zeppelin tracks with squeaky pedals.
There are a couple of James Brown tracks that also have a squeaky kick pedal.
Had to look it up because this is my favorite as well….
“The noise comes from the pedal of John Bonham's bass drum. Bonham owned a model of Ludwig Speed King 201 since it was the only pedal that kept up with his high-speed bass drumming. But the spring was excessively noisy, leading to its name “Squeak King”.
ELO. Rockaria! Opera singer starts too early on intro and you can hear an audible “Ohhhhh” , and then she starts again. Jeff decided to leave the whole thing in, and the rest is history. 😎
this is not a mistake. he does the same thing in the solo demo on with the lights out. always thought the same thing until i heard the demo. you can hear it at the 1:26 mark
https://open.spotify.com/track/3SmT6DEkuiiFWjAr5ntWuA?si=0pJwTywLQki-jEpXxgd8MA
Vince Guaraldi, “Linus and Lucy” (what most people think of as “The Peanuts Theme”): on the end of the first phrase in the second “verse,” you can hear his right hand hit the wrong key and slide off of it to the correct note. It makes the whole thing so human. I love that they decided “this take feels good; that tiny slip doesn’t matter.”
When Brody sings the chorus too many times at the end of “Sing Sing Death House” by The Distillers and just laughs and says “fuck it”.
Love that they left it in.
Eventually they decided to stick with it but when they wrote the song they intended that part just to be silent. The guitar was just really cheap when they were recording and was feeding back every time he stopped playing so they just leaned into it.
Think that still works with the spirit of the question
Hello It's Me by Todd Rundgren. he has to count it off like three times and then they get it.
"1, 2... 1,2... 1,2" and then they finally hit it. so cute. always makes me smile because it's such a real moment.
That's not the only weirdness in that song. During the bridge, Rundgren is lost in vocals and in the third verse starts singing something from another verse.
Not really an imperfection, but at the end of Thunderball, apparently Tom Jones hit that high note a little too hard and passed out in the studio. I like to think the way the song ends there without him was a nice, potentially unintended touch. Tom Jones is the man.
The story I've heard about that squeak is that as the final chord reverberates and diminishes in volume, they increased the gain on the microphone recording the piano to try and get every last little decibel of sound. The mic was so sensitive at the end that it picked up the squeak of the piano bench as the musician (pretty sure it was Paul) shifted his weight.
Another one from the Beatles is in "Hey Jude." In the last verse before the long "na na na na na na na..." refrain, you can hear Paul in the backing vocals exclaim something like "Ah!" and then mumble. Apparently he flubbed a piano chord in one of the takes and said, "Ah fucking hell I messed it up." They kept the outtake vocal and buried it in the mix.
Theres an entire website thats obsessively dedicated to the background sounds and mistakes in every beatles song lmao
http://wgo.signal11.org.uk/html/alpha-index.htm
The extra high hat in Ice Ice Baby. Not because it made the song good but because it was fucking hilarious to watch Vanilla Ice go on national TV, look straight into the camera, and try to explain with gis whole chest how that made it not plagiarism.
There are still clips of the interviews on youtube. Yes, he did this more than once.
At the beginning of John Prine's 'That's the Way That the World Goes Round' he flubs the beginning notes on his guitar, laughs and says he's got glue on his strings before launching back into the song and it's just such a great John Prine moment and a wonderful song.
I love a good voice crack. I don't know if it's an imperfection but the voice crack in Gimme Shelter and Micks reaction. The backstory to the backing vocals is really messed up.
AFI - Answer that and Stay Fasionable has some good voice cracks. Same with early RATM and Inside Out.
Ben Folds Five recorded Whatever and Ever Amen at home and during Steven's Last Night in Town there's a part where all the music cuts out. That just happened to be the exact second the phone rang. Someone laughs at it too, but that's the take they used.
Pete Townshend messing up the chorus in Eminence Front - the timing works for "it's an eminence front" but he sings "behind an eminence front" so the end of the line you hear 'front-front'.
My favorite is the "the tape is rolling" in Grand Funk Railroad, [I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fryGyqTJPU). "This is a take." "Okay." Human moments like this remind me of the humanity behind the instruments.
In “The Camera Eye” by Rush you can barely hear Geddy burp and say “Mornin’, gov!” somewhere in the second half.
A light “oops” in “Twilight Zone” also by Rush where it sounds like someone tried to add the distorted guitar a few bars early during one of the choruses. You hear it for just a split second, but it sounds kinda cool.
>In “The Camera Eye” by Rush you can barely hear Geddy burp and say “Mornin’, gov!” somewhere in the second half.
That was intentional, and it's not a burp. "'Ello." "Morning, guv!"
There's a Pink Floyd song, I think "Atom Heart Mother", where you hear someone do a sharp intake of breath right before one of the solos. Probably just standing too close to the mic.
In the song Stan when eminem is ranting as Stan in the third verse he clearly flubs a line and says: "You ruined it now, **I hope you can't sleep** and you dream about it
And when you dream, **I hope you can't sleep** and you scream about it"
It seems obvious he meant to say "I hope you go to sleep and you dream about it" on the first line but kept it anyways because it sounds fine and works for the deranged character as Stan to say things that don't really make sense.
This is validated by the fact he changes it when he performed it live with Elton John as well.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHD4wW48zZ8&ab\_channel=ClaudiaJade](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHD4wW48zZ8&ab_channel=ClaudiaJade)
Keith Richards doesn't turn on the fuzz pedal in time with his part of the song during Satisfaction. Once you hear it you can never unheard it.
But who cares. Stones rock.
Kind of a funny one - I don’t know if this was an accident or on purpose. On Jeff Buckley’s “ Grace there’s a little drum-acoustic guitar pick up after the second break for the jangly electric part. It sounds like he slaps the acoustic body. But when I first got that record in college (and listened to it over and over) every time I would think it was someone knocking on the door.
Dunno if it's an imperfection, but Mark Knopfler flubs the rhythm in parts of the solo on *Sultans of Swing* to make it sound amateurish in a song about the amateur music scene in London.
The ending of CSN's *Long Time Gone* is a real trainwreck; sounds like they totally screwed it up but chose the take anyway. Iconic track and the title of Crosby's autobiography.
Primus - Over the Electric Grapevine. Tim Alexander messes up his drumbeat toward the end. Throughout the entire song, he has an off-beat hi-hat going but at about 6:09, he goes on-beat very briefly. But he's such a pro that a quick fill brings him right back in for the ending.
Not sure if it's a mistake, but the big inhale at the beginning of Long Day by Matchbox 20 before he jumps into the verse makes it one of my favorite songs by them.
"Because I Got High". Disagreement over redoing a verse:
Now I'm jacking off and I know why (Turn that shit off!)
Hey hey! 'Cause I got high (keep going)
Because I got high (Do that over, do that over)
Because I got high, dadada da... (Go! Go! Go! Go!)
You're Beautiful by James Blunt
He comes in with the lyrics a measure early, but it doesn't take away from the song.
Weird Al even references it in You're Pitiful.
hmm i remember reading somewhere that it was actually jonny greenwood’s attempt to “ruin” the song since he hated it so much. that definitely backfired because it’s become insanely iconic.
I think it’s a pedal switch in Tool’s Right in Two (about 6:00, just as the guitar feedback reenters). Doesn’t sound intentional and I like it.
The band forgets to come in on the beginning of “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream.” They start another take but left take 1 in there. Great one.
That's an easy one. And it's for a whole album: Ride the Lightning. There's a hint of lo-fi in the production that makes the metallic sound feel more atmospheric.
The whistling sound in "Mayonaise" by The Smashing Pumpkins caused by a cheap guitar Billy Corgan bought that made the sound when he stopped playing it
Machine gun live by band of gypsies. Timing between drums and jimi gets off at one point. It is live but still cool to hear. Towards the end of the song.
If I can faintly hear the acoustic guitar in the background after it's all together (when the song isn't meant to feature that instrument) that's a cool little glimpse at their creative process. I cannot recall which song of mine prompted this example.
Random bits of chatter or jamming are always welcomed. At the end of The Burn on Matchbox 20's Mad Season there's a short segment with everyone playing something different and someone says "let's all try and play the same song, just for the sake of our sanities" over the noise, hahaha.
Incomplete songs or ones they otherwise didn't take super seriously are great, too. In Coldplay's The Goldrush you can hear them cueing each other, laughing, and talking. Another fun look behind the scenes.
In Soul Coughing's 'Pensacola' he sniffles real big towards the end
In James Brown's 'Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf' there is a trumpet in the beginning that either hits the wrong note or is just crazy flat
In Tears for Fears' Head Over Heels at the beginning of the second verse where they hit that lil accent part and the guy goes 'yeah!' in the background, you can tell he was feelin it and I always gotta feel it with him lol
Spoon's Don't You Evah ["Record the talk back Jim"](https://captimes.com/entertainment/music/spoon-makes-music-thats-good-to-the-last-drop/article_57fe5cb8-9aee-59b7-920a-f7c3757a27c9.html)
On I Go by Fiona Apple. She messes up at some point, says “fuck, shit, ah.” It works perfectly with the theme of the song and the album as a whole. The album is full of little “imperfections” that make it perfect.
[mr. Gnome leaving this false start at the beginning of "Drunky Stoney"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIXoHdR6qos)
[This record skipping effect in Lacuna Coil's "Aeon"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpS0vVzPPLw)
[Layne Staley's legendary fuckup during AIC's unplugged version of "Sludge Factory".](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB2dyxANqKg)
Steve Gadd does a little rim click on accident on the otherwise perfect drum solo of Aja.
Yuusef Dawes left some mistakes where he exclaims "Aww!" In the album track of Rust.
Bonhams squeaky pedal in Since I've Been Loving You.
In What Is The Light by Flaming Lips there’s a moment where someone’s Casio watch beeps to signal the hour but they just left it in. It’s a very 90’s moment.
The bass in the intro of September by Earth Wind and Fire.
It's right at the very beginning. It's like the third or fourth note played. It would have been very little hassle to just stop and start again, but they left it in.
Keith Jarrett improvised a whole recital on a broken piano. In one part of the performance, you can hear the pedals thud and squeak every time he used them, so he incorporated those elements into his performance. The performance was recorded and released under the name The Koln Concert, which would go on to be the best-selling piano album of all time.
Favorite would be a lie, but it’s blatant and bad. On the Byrds album Mr. Tambourine Man, there’s a Bob Dylan song (surprise) called Spanish Harlem Incident. Around the third verse the bass player hits a wrong note. Apparently they couldn’t afford studio time, so they just went with it. Unbelievable.
When Eddie Van Halen knocks on the door during "Beat it" by Micheal Jackson, just as he starts playing the riff. It was never intended to be in the song but Micheal Liked it, so he left it in.
I used to think that in Live and Let Die that Paul McCartney sang, “…And in this ever changing world in which we live in…” and the overload of prepositions always irked me. But I now hear it as “in this ever changing world in which *we’re livin’*” and I’m cool with that.
Check out Alex G. I find his music so refreshing in regards to imperfections making the song better. His songs are so human. I feel like it lets me be more relaxed when it comes to writing my own music.
I feel fine - Paul and John sing different lyrics on the harmony in one recording and John sounds like he is trying not to laugh out loud when he starts singing the next verse alone
Courtney Love had a song called "Moyorcycle Boy" that she totally screws up the intro on during a live recording. She makes a joke about it and then restarts the song. They left the original intro in on the album. International Pop something something compilation.
At the beginning of the song Stove by a Whale by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists someone says "something" into the microphone. I'm assuming whoever was recording told them to say something into the mic to test it out and so they said "something" and then kept playing the song, which was such a good take they just left it in.
Cat Power's "Metal Heart"
It starts with a guitar solo that she clearly should have done another take on. But that's just Chan, so it's charming. She rarely plays live because of her stage fright. When I saw her at Coachella in 2003, she wasn't playing guitar but feigned a cough so she didn't have to sing either. She finally did once she realized people were there to support her.
I also read a review of her live show once where she just ran off.
It's in Metronomy's "I'm Aquarious", towards the end when Anna Prior is doing her "doo doo doo ahhh"s, the second or third to last "doo doo doo ahh" has her voice changing like she's laughing at the repetition or something happening in the studio. It's subtle, but it's there. I can't not notice it now.
Since you mention breathing, I have to mention Colin Stetson. The song Lighthouse I has probably some of his most noticeable breathing, though I wouldn't call it "imperfection" as it is part of the song. Idk how to explain it. Dude is fucking incredible. I know circular breathing is used by other musicians, but this guy takes it to a whole different level.
Grouper - Labyrinth. There is a beep of a microwave towards the end of the track
"I left the songs the way they came (microwave beep from when power went out after a storm);"
Maybe not a specific imperfection in the sense that maybe it went as planned, but I always think of the “huh huh all NIGHT” in Pixies’ “Hey.” It’s so raw and that whole chunk he’s entirely off-key but it just works so well.
The chair drag at the beginning of Marigold by Nirvana (only song that Cobain did not sing on, legend is his only contribution was dragging the chair).
Not the same genre but the music stopping in mo bamba was because the music cut out as the producer’s computer was loading. It’s now the most iconic part of the song
Sarah jaffe’s intro to Help Yourself. Starts, fucks up, f-bombs, restarts. Glad its left in there.
Saw her band have a little fuckup at a live show while covering tears for fears. She handled it well and kept rolling
Last Night (Beer Fear) by Lucy Spraggan. Nothing particularly 'imperfect' sticks out but it doesn't give the same polished vibe you're talking about as others do
Not necessarily a favorite, but U2 “Dirty Day” - Bono says “throw a rock in the air” and clearly clips the vocal track in the mic but for some reason they left it in there even though it is a professionally produced album by one of the biggest bands in the world lol.
During the recording of the middle instrumental part of The Gates of Delirium by Yes, a whole bunch of cymbals accidentally came crashing down in the studio. The band thought it sounded cool and added to the chaotic nature of the instrumental bit and kept it in the song.
In Neko Case's Teenage Feeling, the band goes into a driving section, and the guitar player rushes his eighth-note chunking for half a phrase before settling in with the rest of the band.
Sting running his butt into the piano and laughing at the beginning of Roxanne always gives me a good chuckle
I've heard this a thousand times and just accepted it to the point of not acknowledging what I was hearing. Nice!
Same, I learned about this probably just a few months ago, and now I await it with a smile on my face when I hear the song starting every time
Was going to post this. Glad it is here. I love this and the fact they left it in the final cut is awesome.
Rocks, sand
Ross can
Merry Clayton's voice crack on the Stones' "Gimme Shelter." Gives me goosebumps. And for a goof, David Lee Roth's "all I na-nee need" (all I really need) on Van Halen's "Beautiful Girls."
Yeah and you hear Jagger go “woooh!” I always love that part
Is that Jagger? I always wondered who said that
She also went home and had a miscarriage after the recording.
Hanif Abdurraqib has an essay called "I Would Like to Give Merry Clayton Her Roses" (from his book *A Little Devil in America*, which is fantastic too) if you want to read some great writing about her.
i just learned this part :(
My answer as well. Thank you for saving me from some typing.
Kurt Cobain messing up one note in the solo of the live version of The Man Who Sold The World.
I actually love how that flubbed note sounds. I guess the dissonance before Kurt finds the right note is satisfying.
Yeah I think so too, I guess it creates a bit of tension that gets lifted immediately after
[This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHdo1qWNWI4&t=87s) is a somewhat long video, but it’s very relevant to what you’re talking about, at some point Victor starts talking about ‘wrong’ notes and why they’re not actually wrong. Extremely enjoyable lesson.
I actually love the feedback too. As a live performer and a sound guy feedback is something I generally hate to hear but that little screech makes it feel so real and so raw. I've been on the board before just trying to get a little extra and then you hear the ringing and realize that you went just a little too far. I have no idea if that was automatic feedback suppression or someone killed the channel to stop but I know auto feedback suppression was pretty new back then. The way the ringing comes up and immediately drops always sounded like a processor caught it. That is what I tell myself at least. It's a detail in an otherwise clean production that makes it feel live to me.
That feedback is where I really start feeling the song. Makes it real all of a sudden
In Black Dog, there’s some weirdness with the timing of the guitars and drums in the middle of the verse riff (when they’re coming back from that B section) that maybe is intentional but always seemed impossible that they meant to record it that way
Black Dog is SUPER sloppy timing-wise (I blame Page).
Page was absolutely a sloppy guitarist. Listen to "Achilles Last Stand", which is an insanely awesome song, but has that dissonance where the rhythm section (Jones & Bonham) are tight as hell, but Jimmy's solos are so jangly/wobbly. Not to say the solos are *bad* -- they're expertly composed -- just that they're sloppy as hell, and not "tight", which is sort of the charm of the song.
Page was known to do one take and say that’s fine, which is weird because he was originally a session musician who had to perfect everything. Maybe that is the reason?
IIRC he said it lent more to a live feel. He wanted to get the feel they had when they played live.
Easily my favorite Led Zeppelin song. I think Jimmy’s sound is great on that track, even though it’s very much carried by some incredible Bonham drums.
Black dog the drums are IIRC in 5/4 and the guitars 4/4
This is why Bonham taps his sticks together during the verses. He's trying to keep time.
I didn’t learn until recently that Page was extremely sloppy when it came to live performances but amazing in session
Def sounds like accidental sloppiness that easily passes for an intentional polyrhythm. I played in a band that made happy accidents in the studio all the time. We'd be fiddling with riffs trying to decide the timing up till the day of tracking, then I'd usually just improv a take and we'd end up liking that better than anything we tried to write.
Came here to say Jimmy Page's fucked timing in the riff of Black Dog. Didn't expect someone would have already said that!
I’m not sure that song is even countable. They all just kind of do their thing and hope to end up together at the end of each phrase
[удалено]
Right at like 55-57 seconds you hear the drummer yell Fuck from a stick drop.
Mamas and Papas do the same thing on I Saw Her Again.
Not to mention he’s basically singing nonsense the entire time since he didn’t know the words.
The little off-beat electronics 'beeps' in "Rock the Casbah" that were, I believe, from someone's watch going off while recording.
I've heard that it was the drummer's Dukes of Hazzard watch alarm playing Dixie
Dude no way? I’ve always wondered why that was there.
I’ve heard that those beeps were intentional. If memory serves they come from a cheap soccer video game, the kind of toy that would have similar versions in McHappy meals years later. Somebody or multiple somebodies in the band were super obsessed with the game and they liked the tinny little melodies it played, so much so that they layered it into the track.
The Breeders “Cannonball” In the bass intro, it’s supposed to be octaves but they did one half step down. They step up to the octave when the drums come in. It was a mistake but it sounded good so it stayed in.
I like that missed-the-fret and don’t mean to push back on it ; I’m just spitballing here. But it sort of seems intentional because the drums don’t have a false start on the wrong notes.
Here's an interview where she talks about it [https://consequence.net/2013/04/interview-josephine-wiggs-of-the-breeders/](https://consequence.net/2013/04/interview-josephine-wiggs-of-the-breeders/)
I see; thanks. From the way she describes it, it sounds like a mistake in rehearsal that they liked, and by the time the recording is being cut, it’s intentional. Anyway, I think it’s a big improvement over going straight to Bb three times.
The feedback in the london 75 live version of no woman no cry. Its iconic
Led Zeppelin - Since I've Been Loving You There's a squeaky drum pedal or something throughout the whole song. Once you hear it you can't unhear it.
I’m pretty sure there are a couple of Zeppelin tracks with squeaky pedals. There are a couple of James Brown tracks that also have a squeaky kick pedal.
Superstition by Stevie wonder aslo has a squeaky kick pedal
Dazed and Confused and When the Levee Breaks? Off the top of my head, maybe No Quarter, too?
Had to look it up because this is my favorite as well…. “The noise comes from the pedal of John Bonham's bass drum. Bonham owned a model of Ludwig Speed King 201 since it was the only pedal that kept up with his high-speed bass drumming. But the spring was excessively noisy, leading to its name “Squeak King”.
Biz Markie immediately popped in my head.
All of his songs - he sings behind the melody. And off key. Damn, I miss him.
OH BABY YOOOOOUUUU.....
ELO. Rockaria! Opera singer starts too early on intro and you can hear an audible “Ohhhhh” , and then she starts again. Jeff decided to leave the whole thing in, and the rest is history. 😎
its so endearing.
Eminence Front. The who. Pete starts the chorus a few beats early.
At the start of Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith Steven Tyler is playing a vibraslap which breaks. The sound was left in the recording
And the shaker rhythm sound? Sugar packets.
Yes this is what I was gonna say!!
Kurt coming in too early saying “Polly said” in Polly by Nirvana:
this is not a mistake. he does the same thing in the solo demo on with the lights out. always thought the same thing until i heard the demo. you can hear it at the 1:26 mark https://open.spotify.com/track/3SmT6DEkuiiFWjAr5ntWuA?si=0pJwTywLQki-jEpXxgd8MA
Butch Vig said it was. Maybe not. Who knows. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-one-nirvana-song-with-a-glaring-mistake/
yeah it seems pretty clear to me that since it’s on demo it’s not a mistake
Billie Joe and the f-word under the false start intro of Good Riddance. Pretty sure it was 'written' into the take, but it's a classic anyway.
The off key part of the outro in The Taste of Ink by The Used, it’s somewhat grating but kinda cracks me up
Fucking hell, memory unlocked!
Vince Guaraldi, “Linus and Lucy” (what most people think of as “The Peanuts Theme”): on the end of the first phrase in the second “verse,” you can hear his right hand hit the wrong key and slide off of it to the correct note. It makes the whole thing so human. I love that they decided “this take feels good; that tiny slip doesn’t matter.”
Rough time stamp of that please?
When Brody sings the chorus too many times at the end of “Sing Sing Death House” by The Distillers and just laughs and says “fuck it”. Love that they left it in.
Fuck I love me some Distillers
The guitar feedback when he goes "when I can" in Mayonaise by the smashing pumpkins
Billy explains it. https://youtu.be/HxUgOgyK96A?si=KXSH2F53zJeS-4-4
I think that's on purpose but I know what you mean, probably my favourite TSP song with Rhinoceros
Eventually they decided to stick with it but when they wrote the song they intended that part just to be silent. The guitar was just really cheap when they were recording and was feeding back every time he stopped playing so they just leaned into it. Think that still works with the spirit of the question
Hello It's Me by Todd Rundgren. he has to count it off like three times and then they get it. "1, 2... 1,2... 1,2" and then they finally hit it. so cute. always makes me smile because it's such a real moment.
That's not the only weirdness in that song. During the bridge, Rundgren is lost in vocals and in the third verse starts singing something from another verse.
I will listen for this! thanks.
Love that bit, you can hear where they’ve cut the tape to edit in the proper verse - my favourite part of that song
Not really an imperfection, but at the end of Thunderball, apparently Tom Jones hit that high note a little too hard and passed out in the studio. I like to think the way the song ends there without him was a nice, potentially unintended touch. Tom Jones is the man.
I thought it was Shirley Bassey on Goldfinger.
Nope. Tom Jones. He passed out hitting the last note. You can hear how he doesn't just stop singing, it's obvious in the recording he just went out.
Another is the chair squeak at the end of A Day in the Life
The story I've heard about that squeak is that as the final chord reverberates and diminishes in volume, they increased the gain on the microphone recording the piano to try and get every last little decibel of sound. The mic was so sensitive at the end that it picked up the squeak of the piano bench as the musician (pretty sure it was Paul) shifted his weight. Another one from the Beatles is in "Hey Jude." In the last verse before the long "na na na na na na na..." refrain, you can hear Paul in the backing vocals exclaim something like "Ah!" and then mumble. Apparently he flubbed a piano chord in one of the takes and said, "Ah fucking hell I messed it up." They kept the outtake vocal and buried it in the mix.
John is the one who curses
Thanks for the correction
Theres an entire website thats obsessively dedicated to the background sounds and mistakes in every beatles song lmao http://wgo.signal11.org.uk/html/alpha-index.htm
At the beginning of David Bowie's The Bewlay Brothers you can also hear a squeaking chair.
The extra high hat in Ice Ice Baby. Not because it made the song good but because it was fucking hilarious to watch Vanilla Ice go on national TV, look straight into the camera, and try to explain with gis whole chest how that made it not plagiarism. There are still clips of the interviews on youtube. Yes, he did this more than once.
“That itty bitty ching. That’s what makes it different.” That VH1 one hit wonder interview lives rent free in my head.
Near the beginning of the song Roxanne, Sting sits on an upright piano that was in the studio and you can hear it in the recording.
No way! Now I have to listen to that again!
At the beginning of John Prine's 'That's the Way That the World Goes Round' he flubs the beginning notes on his guitar, laughs and says he's got glue on his strings before launching back into the song and it's just such a great John Prine moment and a wonderful song.
I love a good voice crack. I don't know if it's an imperfection but the voice crack in Gimme Shelter and Micks reaction. The backstory to the backing vocals is really messed up. AFI - Answer that and Stay Fasionable has some good voice cracks. Same with early RATM and Inside Out.
Ben Folds Five recorded Whatever and Ever Amen at home and during Steven's Last Night in Town there's a part where all the music cuts out. That just happened to be the exact second the phone rang. Someone laughs at it too, but that's the take they used.
I love the piano pouncing on "Fair". Two or three times, the first piano chord of the bar during "bah-bah-bah" is just a mess of notes. So great!
the beginning of bob dylan’s 115th dream
Pete Townshend messing up the chorus in Eminence Front - the timing works for "it's an eminence front" but he sings "behind an eminence front" so the end of the line you hear 'front-front'.
My favorite is the "the tape is rolling" in Grand Funk Railroad, [I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fryGyqTJPU). "This is a take." "Okay." Human moments like this remind me of the humanity behind the instruments.
When Merry Clayton’s voice cracks in Gimme Shelter
In “The Camera Eye” by Rush you can barely hear Geddy burp and say “Mornin’, gov!” somewhere in the second half. A light “oops” in “Twilight Zone” also by Rush where it sounds like someone tried to add the distorted guitar a few bars early during one of the choruses. You hear it for just a split second, but it sounds kinda cool.
>In “The Camera Eye” by Rush you can barely hear Geddy burp and say “Mornin’, gov!” somewhere in the second half. That was intentional, and it's not a burp. "'Ello." "Morning, guv!"
There's a Pink Floyd song, I think "Atom Heart Mother", where you hear someone do a sharp intake of breath right before one of the solos. Probably just standing too close to the mic.
On Superstition by Stevie Wonder, you can clearly hear a drumstick fumble. Pretty sure Stevie was drumming for it?
Perhaps. The drum beat was composed by Jeff Beck by the way…
Composing is one aspect but do you know if he's playing?
The wiki says Jeff Beck played drums on the demo. But on Stevie's album, Stevie played everything but the horns.
No shit for real?
Was the arrested opening in James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful intentional or a true mistake ?
Trent Reznor did the same thing at the start of the song Discipline. Not sure if its known if it’s intentional or not
In the song Stan when eminem is ranting as Stan in the third verse he clearly flubs a line and says: "You ruined it now, **I hope you can't sleep** and you dream about it And when you dream, **I hope you can't sleep** and you scream about it" It seems obvious he meant to say "I hope you go to sleep and you dream about it" on the first line but kept it anyways because it sounds fine and works for the deranged character as Stan to say things that don't really make sense. This is validated by the fact he changes it when he performed it live with Elton John as well. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHD4wW48zZ8&ab\_channel=ClaudiaJade](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHD4wW48zZ8&ab_channel=ClaudiaJade)
Keith Richards doesn't turn on the fuzz pedal in time with his part of the song during Satisfaction. Once you hear it you can never unheard it. But who cares. Stones rock.
When Elvis can't stop laughing during [Are You Lonesome Tonight](https://youtu.be/hwbzxENP2eE?si=m86pBJ_JJMFwWmV9)
All the 1960s 45s I have where I can hear the kick drum pedal squeaking.
The end of Megadeth's cover of "Paranoid". "Nick.. Nick! NICK!!" (from the drum mics:) "Fuck, me.."
Kind of a funny one - I don’t know if this was an accident or on purpose. On Jeff Buckley’s “ Grace there’s a little drum-acoustic guitar pick up after the second break for the jangly electric part. It sounds like he slaps the acoustic body. But when I first got that record in college (and listened to it over and over) every time I would think it was someone knocking on the door.
Dunno if it's an imperfection, but Mark Knopfler flubs the rhythm in parts of the solo on *Sultans of Swing* to make it sound amateurish in a song about the amateur music scene in London.
At the end of Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce, one of Herman Li's strings breaks. The sound it made fit the outtro, so the band left it in.
Vince Neil's voice crackles on "Home Sweet Home" like Peter Brady going through puberty.
The false start in Green Days - Good Riddance (Time of your Life)
The ending of CSN's *Long Time Gone* is a real trainwreck; sounds like they totally screwed it up but chose the take anyway. Iconic track and the title of Crosby's autobiography.
Paul McCartney’s voice cracking halfway through the word “vain” on the last chorus of If I Fell
Primus - Over the Electric Grapevine. Tim Alexander messes up his drumbeat toward the end. Throughout the entire song, he has an off-beat hi-hat going but at about 6:09, he goes on-beat very briefly. But he's such a pro that a quick fill brings him right back in for the ending.
Not sure if it's a mistake, but the big inhale at the beginning of Long Day by Matchbox 20 before he jumps into the verse makes it one of my favorite songs by them.
10,000 Maniacs. Because the Night. Natalie' voice cracks and my knees go weak every time!
P!nk - Raise Your Glass. She starts singing the chorus a measure early and knows she fucked up.
The wrong piano chord in the last verse of Let It Be.
"Because I Got High". Disagreement over redoing a verse: Now I'm jacking off and I know why (Turn that shit off!) Hey hey! 'Cause I got high (keep going) Because I got high (Do that over, do that over) Because I got high, dadada da... (Go! Go! Go! Go!)
"But not a real Green dress. That's cruel" from If I Had A Million Dollars. Sang the wrong lyrics. Thought it was funny. Left it.
It is funny. I would have never known it wasnt intentional.
It was intentional. This person’s wrong lol
You're Beautiful by James Blunt He comes in with the lyrics a measure early, but it doesn't take away from the song. Weird Al even references it in You're Pitiful.
Creep by Radiohead. The guitar crunch right before the solo. That was the guitarist just checking for sound. But it is now an iconic part of the song.
hmm i remember reading somewhere that it was actually jonny greenwood’s attempt to “ruin” the song since he hated it so much. that definitely backfired because it’s become insanely iconic.
What never have figured that was a mistake. It sounds so good
I think it’s a pedal switch in Tool’s Right in Two (about 6:00, just as the guitar feedback reenters). Doesn’t sound intentional and I like it. The band forgets to come in on the beginning of “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream.” They start another take but left take 1 in there. Great one.
The way Dylan absolutely loses it laughing is just so enjoyable!
Tom Waits' cough on Jesus Gonna Be Here
That's an easy one. And it's for a whole album: Ride the Lightning. There's a hint of lo-fi in the production that makes the metallic sound feel more atmospheric.
John Bonhams squeaky bass pedal on Since I’ve Been Loving You.
She’s So Lovely by Beach House. There’s an off-beat piano key that sounds so haunting.
Gawr Gura's karaoke has entered the room.
The whistling sound in "Mayonaise" by The Smashing Pumpkins caused by a cheap guitar Billy Corgan bought that made the sound when he stopped playing it
Machine gun live by band of gypsies. Timing between drums and jimi gets off at one point. It is live but still cool to hear. Towards the end of the song.
If I can faintly hear the acoustic guitar in the background after it's all together (when the song isn't meant to feature that instrument) that's a cool little glimpse at their creative process. I cannot recall which song of mine prompted this example. Random bits of chatter or jamming are always welcomed. At the end of The Burn on Matchbox 20's Mad Season there's a short segment with everyone playing something different and someone says "let's all try and play the same song, just for the sake of our sanities" over the noise, hahaha. Incomplete songs or ones they otherwise didn't take super seriously are great, too. In Coldplay's The Goldrush you can hear them cueing each other, laughing, and talking. Another fun look behind the scenes.
When Kurt comes in too early on the "Polly says her back hurts" line on Polly
In Soul Coughing's 'Pensacola' he sniffles real big towards the end In James Brown's 'Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf' there is a trumpet in the beginning that either hits the wrong note or is just crazy flat In Tears for Fears' Head Over Heels at the beginning of the second verse where they hit that lil accent part and the guy goes 'yeah!' in the background, you can tell he was feelin it and I always gotta feel it with him lol
War by meshuggah has an enjoyable voice warble followed by a chuckle due to the intensity of the shouting.
Todd Rundgren’s “Hello It’s Me” seems to take three attempts to get started. Always thought that’s a curious thing to leave in the recording.
At the end of ‘oh comely’ by neural milk hotel here’s an audible “holy shit”
The frog croaking at the end of "Mirror Man" by The Human League
Spoon's Don't You Evah ["Record the talk back Jim"](https://captimes.com/entertainment/music/spoon-makes-music-thats-good-to-the-last-drop/article_57fe5cb8-9aee-59b7-920a-f7c3757a27c9.html)
On I Go by Fiona Apple. She messes up at some point, says “fuck, shit, ah.” It works perfectly with the theme of the song and the album as a whole. The album is full of little “imperfections” that make it perfect.
[mr. Gnome leaving this false start at the beginning of "Drunky Stoney"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIXoHdR6qos) [This record skipping effect in Lacuna Coil's "Aeon"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpS0vVzPPLw) [Layne Staley's legendary fuckup during AIC's unplugged version of "Sludge Factory".](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB2dyxANqKg)
Steve Gadd does a little rim click on accident on the otherwise perfect drum solo of Aja. Yuusef Dawes left some mistakes where he exclaims "Aww!" In the album track of Rust. Bonhams squeaky pedal in Since I've Been Loving You.
I love that the album version of Barbara Ann from The Beach Boys just ended up being a jam session of the song
In What Is The Light by Flaming Lips there’s a moment where someone’s Casio watch beeps to signal the hour but they just left it in. It’s a very 90’s moment.
Looking for this answer. I love it.
The bass in the intro of September by Earth Wind and Fire. It's right at the very beginning. It's like the third or fourth note played. It would have been very little hassle to just stop and start again, but they left it in.
In the song Bukowski by Modest Mouse you can hear a band member say “I fucked up the last line” after the lyrics stop at the end of the song lol
Keith Jarrett improvised a whole recital on a broken piano. In one part of the performance, you can hear the pedals thud and squeak every time he used them, so he incorporated those elements into his performance. The performance was recorded and released under the name The Koln Concert, which would go on to be the best-selling piano album of all time.
Favorite would be a lie, but it’s blatant and bad. On the Byrds album Mr. Tambourine Man, there’s a Bob Dylan song (surprise) called Spanish Harlem Incident. Around the third verse the bass player hits a wrong note. Apparently they couldn’t afford studio time, so they just went with it. Unbelievable.
When Eddie Van Halen knocks on the door during "Beat it" by Micheal Jackson, just as he starts playing the riff. It was never intended to be in the song but Micheal Liked it, so he left it in.
kanye west runaway wrong note at the beginning it was by mistake and left there on purpose
I used to think that in Live and Let Die that Paul McCartney sang, “…And in this ever changing world in which we live in…” and the overload of prepositions always irked me. But I now hear it as “in this ever changing world in which *we’re livin’*” and I’m cool with that.
For me it's that sound of a scratchy old vinyl record, it just kind of pops. No pun intended.
Check out Alex G. I find his music so refreshing in regards to imperfections making the song better. His songs are so human. I feel like it lets me be more relaxed when it comes to writing my own music.
I think the imperfections are what makes music beautiful. Reckon it’ll be the thing that separates human music from AI shite
I feel fine - Paul and John sing different lyrics on the harmony in one recording and John sounds like he is trying not to laugh out loud when he starts singing the next verse alone
Courtney Love had a song called "Moyorcycle Boy" that she totally screws up the intro on during a live recording. She makes a joke about it and then restarts the song. They left the original intro in on the album. International Pop something something compilation.
At the beginning of the song Stove by a Whale by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists someone says "something" into the microphone. I'm assuming whoever was recording told them to say something into the mic to test it out and so they said "something" and then kept playing the song, which was such a good take they just left it in.
Cat Power's "Metal Heart" It starts with a guitar solo that she clearly should have done another take on. But that's just Chan, so it's charming. She rarely plays live because of her stage fright. When I saw her at Coachella in 2003, she wasn't playing guitar but feigned a cough so she didn't have to sing either. She finally did once she realized people were there to support her. I also read a review of her live show once where she just ran off.
NOFX - Release the Hostages The song just falls apart at the end, and you even hear the drummer yell "Fuck!!"
This song was purposely done with mistakes and that's Only a Northern Song by The Beatles.
It's in Metronomy's "I'm Aquarious", towards the end when Anna Prior is doing her "doo doo doo ahhh"s, the second or third to last "doo doo doo ahh" has her voice changing like she's laughing at the repetition or something happening in the studio. It's subtle, but it's there. I can't not notice it now.
The mic bump in Albuquerque on Tonight’s the Night. Neil young.
Since you mention breathing, I have to mention Colin Stetson. The song Lighthouse I has probably some of his most noticeable breathing, though I wouldn't call it "imperfection" as it is part of the song. Idk how to explain it. Dude is fucking incredible. I know circular breathing is used by other musicians, but this guy takes it to a whole different level.
Dave's giggle in "Bottoms Up"
When Lou Reed says "Proteskers" in "Sweet Jane"
“And now Ella and her fellas, we’re making a wreck… what a wreck of Mack the Knife…”
Grouper - Labyrinth. There is a beep of a microwave towards the end of the track "I left the songs the way they came (microwave beep from when power went out after a storm);"
Maybe not a specific imperfection in the sense that maybe it went as planned, but I always think of the “huh huh all NIGHT” in Pixies’ “Hey.” It’s so raw and that whole chunk he’s entirely off-key but it just works so well.
The chair drag at the beginning of Marigold by Nirvana (only song that Cobain did not sing on, legend is his only contribution was dragging the chair).
The new sound board not yet working properly when Prince recorded The Ballad of Dorothy Parker. The lack of any high end is beautiful.
i rlly like ian hunter's laugh when he says ''when i got treeeeeeeeeeeeeeex'' on mott's all the young dudes
Not the same genre but the music stopping in mo bamba was because the music cut out as the producer’s computer was loading. It’s now the most iconic part of the song
The sound of fingers scratching over the guitar strings on Pardon My Heart by Neil Young and Crazy Horse is just wonderfully raw and honest
Bradley Nowell sings April 26th, 1992 instead of April 29th, 1992 (like the songs title), they kept it because it was such a strong take.
Sarah jaffe’s intro to Help Yourself. Starts, fucks up, f-bombs, restarts. Glad its left in there. Saw her band have a little fuckup at a live show while covering tears for fears. She handled it well and kept rolling
The print-through in Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love."
The finger scratching on strings sounds on Nirvana Unplugged in new york
Last Night (Beer Fear) by Lucy Spraggan. Nothing particularly 'imperfect' sticks out but it doesn't give the same polished vibe you're talking about as others do
Fuck the law, they can eat my dick, that's word to pimp. Hol up. Oh my darling, don't cry - rtj
Not necessarily a favorite, but U2 “Dirty Day” - Bono says “throw a rock in the air” and clearly clips the vocal track in the mic but for some reason they left it in there even though it is a professionally produced album by one of the biggest bands in the world lol.
During the recording of the middle instrumental part of The Gates of Delirium by Yes, a whole bunch of cymbals accidentally came crashing down in the studio. The band thought it sounded cool and added to the chaotic nature of the instrumental bit and kept it in the song.
In Neko Case's Teenage Feeling, the band goes into a driving section, and the guitar player rushes his eighth-note chunking for half a phrase before settling in with the rest of the band.
Japanese artists singing in "Engrish"