# Mistakes in recorded songs you'e heard a million times **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [April 7, 2021, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547 "2021-04-07T14:12:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/102 "2021-07-04T16:13:37Z")
Well, I went and listened to Pete’s demo of Helpless Dancer and–you learn something new every day–the lines _are_ written that way. I always thought the lyric was supposed to be “die from being cold, left alone because they’re old” and Rog misread them when he recorded his vocals. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2021, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/103 "2021-07-04T18:00:47Z")
So it’s still a mistake, but way back in the writing process… :-} ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2021, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/104 "2021-07-05T19:38:30Z")
Slight fluff at 1:25 … [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fi6bLEWU91M/hqdefault.jpg "Erroll Garner - Caravan") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi6bLEWU91M) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2021, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/105 "2021-07-05T20:06:16Z")
I just remembered one that got addressed in a TV Jackson 5 biopic I watched years ago— in “I’ll be there” at one point Michael sing-says “just look over your shoulders, honey!”. In the TV biopic young Michael sheepishly says to Berry Gordy “I’m sorry, I should have said shoulder, singular”. Gordy says, “no, I love it!” In real life it was probably more like “goddamit Michael, get your shit together. But let’s keep going because I don’t have the time or the money to do another retake”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/106 "2021-07-07T13:35:02Z")
I’m not even sure I hear the fluff (is it in the left hand?) but if we’re doing jazz records, man, there’s so many of them with little flubs and slips of the fingers here and there. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/107 "2021-07-07T14:36:18Z")
It’s right hand (timing) and it’s very subtle … (i always notice it more in my car !) ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/108 "2021-07-07T14:45:49Z")
Wasn’t there an adage among jazz players that if you repeat your flubs, people will think they were intentional? ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/109 "2021-07-07T15:55:09Z")
There still is ! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/110 "2021-07-07T20:52:02Z")
Is it kind of right after that grace/slide note as the run turns around to come down the blues(ish) scale? Man, you’re a tough one to please, if that’s it. 🙂 Whenever I hear the keyboard solo to “All My Love” by Led Zeppelin, there’s a few places where John Paul Jones hits two keys at the same time that I interpret to be flubbed notes and not intentional. No matter how I try to hear it as perhaps a grace note, it sounds to me like he’s just accidentally hits the note next to one he meant to hit. Here’s one at the end of the solo (2:50 is the one I’m thinking of). [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vwFz3EThGMU/maxresdefault.jpg "All My Love (Remaster)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwFz3EThGMU) I mean, I might very well be intentional, but it just sounds a bit goofy to my ears, no matter how often I hear it. There’s also one at around 2:40 that sounds a bit off to me. I guess there being two or three of these blips points to intentionality, but my brain can’t hear it as anything but a mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/111 "2021-07-08T18:22:28Z")
I’m not sure where the “mistake” comes in, but printed lyrics to the song “Welcome” on the Tommy album by the Who read: Milkman come in! And you baker Little old lady welcome And you shoe maker However, Roger Daltrey clearly is singing _Jew_ shoemaker. > [@TroutMan](#): > > Someone knocks over their beer bottle at 0:56 in Pixies’ _Planet of Sound_. I once bought a $2 classical record album featuring one of those high-toned outfits like the South Vilnius Radio Symphony Orchestra. Midway through a quiet movement one of the players knocks over his/her music stand, which falls with a crash. The producer apparently figured that for two bucks, listeners shouldn’t expect perfection. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/112 "2021-07-08T20:01:47Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > The producer apparently figured that for two bucks, listeners shouldn’t expect perfection. Sadly, this attitude towards permeates throughout the entire business world. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/113 "2021-07-08T20:17:47Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > However, Roger Daltrey clearly is singing _Jew_ shoemaker. It also sounds like “an’ Jew baker” to me, too. It’s just a dialect/accent thing (unless I’m being whooshed here.) In my accent, we say stuff like “Jew eat?” for “did you eat.” It’s the “d” eliding with the “y” glide that ends up being smooshed into a “J” sound. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2021, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/114 "2021-07-09T06:51:05Z")
As a teenager in choir in an Indiana junior high school, we were instructed to not “chew your ’you’s’.” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2021, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/115 "2021-07-09T13:26:12Z")
Scrantonese? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/7sMI2jb16eo/hqdefault.jpg "Heynabonics") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sMI2jb16eo) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2021, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/116 "2021-07-09T13:58:59Z")
I should clarify the progression is more like “did you eat” \> “di’joo eat”/“di’juh eat” \> “jew eat” \> “jeet”. I don’t think we reduce it all the way to “jeet” that often, but “jew eat yet?” sounds perfectly fine to my Chicago ears. You hear similar things in some British accents, as well, with "t+yoo "and “d+yoo” combinatinos of sound forming “tchoo” and “dzhoo/jew”. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2021, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/117 "2021-07-09T16:27:59Z")
^ Have we stumbled into, “[Annie Hall](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaPBhxXhprg&ab_channel=JohnTuckerJr.)”? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2021, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/118 "2021-07-09T21:21:54Z")
Heh. My original post had a reference to Annie Hall, but I edited it out for brevity. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2021, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/119 "2021-07-09T23:57:15Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > “This website is a must-have reference for a true Beatle fan. It brings together years of detailed listening to every moment of just about every released Beatle track. It catalogues all those curious little sounds, vocal asides, mistakes, edits, hidden messages and more … songs you’ve listened to for years will never be listened to in the same way again.” I’ll check it out. I wonder how similar it is to the youtube channel “You Can’t Unhear This” ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/120 "2021-07-10T06:02:11Z")
In Frank Sinatra’s recording of Kander & Ebb’s _New York, New York,_ he forgets the line “cream of the crop” and so says “A-number one” a second time. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2021, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547/121 "2021-07-10T11:44:53Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > “You Can’t Unhear This” I’ll check THAT out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mistakes-in-recorded-songs-youe-heard-a-million-times/939547.md?page=7)