Not surprisingly hair metal band Europe’s big hit The Final Countdown (used as the phone ring tone in Arrested Development) has a rocket launch style countdown going on…
TCMF-2L
As does “Please Mr. Kennedy”:
And for another 10, 9, 8… countdown here’s Dan Hartman and Instant Replay.
TCMF-2L
During the COVID lockdown Robert Fripp and his wife Toyah Wilcox have been releasing cover versions of songs they knock out in their home.
Fripp does an arch 1, 2, 3, 4 in the middle of this abbreviated version of Sweet Child O’ Mine.
(Yes, THAT Robert Fripp, THAT Toyah and THAT Sweet Child O’ Mine. And yes Toyah is in good shape for a 62 year old.)
TCMF-2L
Interesting, one of my favourite guitarists playing one of my alltime most despised guitar riffs - in one of my old bands, at the start of every fucking practice the guitarist always warmed up with that - first thing - and I already couldn’t stand it by then. After a while he made sure to do it because he knew how much I loathed it with the power of fourteen triliion suns. /end of rant 
A veritable treasure trove of count-in madness with AxCx…
Anal Cunt - Everyone Should Be Killed - 1994 - (Full Album) - YouTube …basic one-two, one’a count-in
Anal Cunt - Everyone Should Be Killed - 1994 - (Full Album) - YouTube …scream count-in
Anal Cunt - Everyone Should Be Killed - 1994 - (Full Album) - YouTube …better scream count-in
Anal Cunt - Everyone Should Be Killed - 1994 - (Full Album) - YouTube …nice singing count-in
Anal Cunt - Everyone Should Be Killed - 1994 - (Full Album) - YouTube …Deliverance count-in
Anal Cunt - Everyone Should Be Killed - 1994 - (Full Album) - YouTube …pleading “Oh Give Me Back
My Horsey” count-in
Anal Cunt - Everyone Should Be Killed - 1994 - (Full Album) - YouTube …single ride cymbal
strike count-in
Anal Cunt - Everyone Should Be Killed - 1994 - (Full Album) - YouTube …miraculously awesome vox/sticks trade-
off count-in.
How about a count-off* one minute into the song, and in (I think) German, with live Nonmeasno, and “The Day Everything Became Nothing” (also introduced in German, I’d wager)
*eh, I got it right!
Who would ever have thought that Poly Styrene would get two shouts in a single thread?
I’ll join you in stretching, with the curious violin figure at the start of (the album version of) Come On Eileen:
j
I’m surprised the fiddler didn’t explode when the correct note was played.
The song is called, “Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms.”
IIRC, my (jazz) ballet teacher did the same.
For some more counting in German, try Rammstein’s Sonne. All the way up to nine.
An Eric the Half-a-Bee count-in.
Thanks for that info - I never knew. I just assumed it was another little something that Rowland had written (and when Eileen came out there was no internet to check that sort of thing out). (Fun aside: long before anyone had ever heard of them, I saw the Dexys in Coventry in late '79, supporting The Specials and The Selecter. They were bloody awful.)
j
This sort of thing was de rigeur for John. According to Mark Lewisohn in his book on the Beatles’ recording sessions,
Actually, it is little short of miraculous how the other Beatles were able to record any Lennon song without collapsing into laughter, for while Paul or George’s 1-2-3-4 count-ins were always appropriately sensible, John’s — from the earliest surviving archive tape to the last — were anything but. Only John Lennon could have devised so many demented ways of saying four simple numbers…
I just remembered a good one. “It’s A Raggy Waltz” by Dave Brubeck Quartet with Carmen McCrae as guest vocalist. Instead of a count-off to establish tempo, the recording starts with the rhythm section already playing while McCrae (intentionally) audibly counts out the syncopated pattern before she starts singing the lyrics. As far as I can tell this appears only on the 45 single version of the song. I’ll try to put this on YouTube before too long.
Blood Sweat and Tears - “House in the Country”
Not exactly a count off, but the “House in the Country - Take One” to start off is kind of fun.
Standard count-ins, but it shows how quick The Beatles can switch things: “I’ll Be Back” was (presumably) written in 6/8 time, and sung that way in take 2. But after John complained “it’s too hard to sing”, the next take was in 4/4 time. (Anthology 1, tracks 17 and 18.)
(Listening to it again, I wonder if the ballad style was hard to sing, or he couldn’t hit the high notes.)
Manfred Mann - 5 4 3 2 1
I have long wanted to build a SDMB game, a name-that-tune based on the count off…but the logistics of posting dozens of 2 second sound clips has daunted me.
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, Wooly Bully begins: “Uno, dos…one two tres quatro”
Dave Matthews, So Much to Say: “Uh, Oooh, Eeeee, Ooor…”
The original Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini by Brian Hyland has a repeating refrain, with slight variations during the song, of "Two, three, four, tell the people what she wore"
However the (not very good but a Number 1 hit in the UK) 1990 version by (Children’s TV Presenter) Timmy Mallett and Bombalurina twice adds an “Uno, Dos, Tres, Quatro” count in.
TCMF-2L
Dang - how could I forget Huddle Formation by The Go! Team. I don’t think we have yet had a: FIVE-SIX-FIVE-SIX-SEVEN!
This live version is a bit all over the place, but it captures the spirit. When they won the Mercury Prize (I have never managed to find a recording) they performed Huddle Formation live with all their mates on stage - basically three minutes of shrieking and thudding noises. Music don’t get much better.
j