Everybody likes to do bad impersonations of Glen Frey growling the word “smugglers” in Smuggler’s Blues.
Sorry it went down like that
But someone had to lose
It’s the politics of contraband
It’s the SMUGGGGGGLER’S Blues.
What other songs linger in memory not for fine vocals, melody, or entirety of lyrics but simply for the fact that a word or line is sung so distinctively?
Sir Rhosis
“Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis SKYYYYY-AAAHHHH”
No one ever does that falsetto right.
I love ELO’s “Don’t Bring Me Down,” but I grit my teeth when they sing BRRRRRRUCE! Yes, I know it isn’t really “Bruce,” but by gum, it sounds like “Bruce,” and the way they sing it has spoiled the name “Bruce” forever, in my mind. And the name “Bruce” wasn’t in very good standing in my mind to begin with.
I might have liked that song “Dilemma” by Nelly and Kelly Rowland if there hadn’t been an "OH!" repeated every four or five seconds throughout the song.
“Some people call me Maurrrrice 'cause I speak of the pompitous of love.”
Two moments of magic from Frank Sinatra which rescue otherwise irredeemibly crappy songs:
“Cycles” when he puts everything he has into the line “last thursday/ I got fired” - only Sinatra could pull it off and
“Winchester Catherderal”, where, figthing the influence of a) strong liquor and b) the fact that’s it’s Winchester bloody Cathederal he’s been reduced to singing, he pulls of “you’re bringing me down” with all the pain and heartbreak he’d save for songs like “one for my baby” or “she’s funny that way”
It’s funny that a singer as indisputably great as Sinatra should be shown at his best in the face of two of the worst songs he ever recorded…
mm
Every song Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston’s ever sung.
Another ELO song: “Eeee-EVIL WOMAN!”
I’ve got another Sinatra song.
In his rendition of *Ol’ Man River * (from the soundtrack of Till the Clouds Roll By, and perhaps other recordings) the lyric goes:
"Ya get a little drunk and ya lands in ja-ail.
I gets weary and so sick of tryin’… "
Listen to the way Frank dips way low at the end of “ja-aaaaaaaail” and holds it all the way to “IIIIIIII” where it swings up again – all in one breath. Very nice.
Many songs by the Stones. Brown Sugar comes immediately to mind.
YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, WOOOOOOOOOO!!! :o
Threemartiniquarterhour
Listentoyourselfchurn
Continentaldriftdivide
LEONARD BERNSTEIN!
If you’re going
to SAAAAN FRAAAAN SSSSSISSSSCOOOOOOO!
–as sung by my brother and I, circa 1992
Roooooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxaannne
I forget the words leading up to this part, but:
JFK! BLOWN AWAY! WHAT ELSE DO I HAVE TO SAY?!
We didn’t start the fire…*
Not a song in my preferred genre, but what the hell…
At the end of “You Are So Beautiful” by Kenny Rogers, he goes up an octave and his voice cracks on singing, “TO MEEEEE…(crack)…EEEE!”
Nahhhh-Nah-Nah
Nah-Nah-Nah-Nahhhh
Nah-Nah-Nah-Nahhhh
Hey Jude
I don’t know how to whistle online. But if I did, I would do Otis Redding at the end of Dock of the Bay.
I Am Iron Man
…okay, that should really have been in ALL-CAPS for effect, but the board doesn’t seem to allow ALL-CAPS posts. Bah.
That’s Joe Cocker, and it makes my ears bleed.