# Songs with small annoying sounds that just ruin the whole song for you **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 20, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342 "2013-11-20T13:55:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [November 21, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/21 "2013-11-21T05:17:49Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Cyndi Lauper’s song “Time after Time” has this annoying percussion that’s probably supposed to tie in with the line “I hear the clock tick and think of you.”… Elton John’s [“Little Jeannie”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlz6mTyiMZc) has a similarly annoying sound – a really high-pitched metallic ‘shaker’ sound. Four times every beat. So sixteen times every measure. Every measure. For most of the song. One youtube comment: _“Excellent song for the first 1:31 and then the crickets join in for some reason and cheapen the recording.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/22 "2013-11-21T05:41:23Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > I don’t think I hear it either, and I know my hearing range tops out somewhere between 13 and 14 kHz. But it’s still a fairly painful sound! Oh lord…I like the song but I hear it. It’s definitely there. I’m a youngblood haha It’s hearing an old tube TV whine again after years of never hearing it. > [@Hampshire](#): > > Beyonce’s _All The Single Ladies_ has an annoying sound that runs through the entire song. It sounds like aliens getting blasted in Galaxian. Congrats. You’ve ruined the song for me now. I just watched the video again and realized I forgot how amazing Beyonce’s dancing and hip-moving is. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/23 "2013-11-21T09:44:31Z")
Here ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/24 "2013-11-21T09:47:16Z")
Here is one, Glen Campbell Time of Your Life [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/fPpJT3QRRnk/hqdefault.jpg "Glen Campbell - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPpJT3QRRnk) The high pitched whine in the background, what the hell is that all about? Its much worse on the studio version but I can’t find a link to it. ---
**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:** [November 21, 2013, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/25 "2013-11-21T09:53:15Z")
Stevie Wonder’s “Overjoyed” has this squishy sound throughout that makes me nauseous. It sounds like someone walking through a very gross swamp. (Someone mentioned Blackbird. Pretty sure it’s a metronome.) ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/26 "2013-11-21T14:50:14Z")
> [@interface2x](#): > > Interestingly, it bothered me for a while, but doesn’t anymore. There’s a song by the band VNV Nation that always really bothered me - it’s called Electronaut and I’ve linked to the exact spot in the song that bothered me [here](http://youtu.be/pjJk3bbE87c?t=3m9s). When it came out in 2002, that main analogue synth sound had a piercing, high frequency squeal the entire time and it bugged the crap out of me. Holy crap, I’m in my 40s and I can hear that! And yes, that’s fucking annoying! “All the Single Ladies”: I have no idea how I never heard that before, but now it’s the only thing I hear. Songs with bleeped words for airplay: WXRT in Chicago had a great take on this for one of their April Fool’s broadcasts; it was around a time when there were more FCC complaints and the like, and so that morning their DJ was very solemnly talking about their fear of fines and so on, and increased scrutiny, and so they had to be very careful. Norah Jones’ song “Don’t Know Why” was popular at the time, so they cued it up, and I nearly fell over laughing in realization when they used a comical “boi-oi-oi-oing” sound effect to bleep out the word “come” in the very-not-sexual line “I don’t know why I didn’t come”. Pretty sure they changed up the sound effect for the repeated uses of that word, not to mention the words “ecstasy” and “bones.” ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/27 "2013-11-21T16:27:56Z")
Salt N Pepa (sue me, I’m old) have a song called, “Giddy Up Baby” and it’s god a nice slow, sexy beat and I would LOVE to use it as a track for a dance class EXCEPT there is this horrid “SAY WHAT?” that repeats throughout the song. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/28 "2013-11-21T17:30:46Z")
I get annoyed listening to a lot of old Johnny Cash songs from the late fifties and early sixties. Cash had such an amazing voice but for some reason the producers of that era brought in other singers to do backing vocals and a string section to play backing music. The contrast between the raw authentic sound of Cash’s voice and guitar playing and the chirpy insipid pop sound of the back-up singers and musicians is jarring. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/29 "2013-11-21T17:30:47Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Blanking on titles and acts right now, but any time there are car horns or police/emergency crew sirens in a piece it bothers me enough that no matter how much I like them I can’t put them in any shuffle I use in a vehicle. If the traffic is heavy enough and full of idiot drivers I can’t have bogus signals in to distract me from the idiots trying to dice traffic at some ungodly speed that is totally inappropriate. Bon Jovi’s _Wanted Dead or Alive_ has an annoying car horn. It distracts me every time. ETA: I think there’s a Guns ‘N’ Roses song with an annoying car horn, but I can’t remember which one right now. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/30 "2013-11-21T17:44:41Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > I don’t think I hear it either, and I know my hearing range tops out somewhere between 13 and 14 kHz. But it’s still a fairly painful sound! There was a song on **Concrete Blonde** , _Bloodletting_, that had a super-high pitched high-hat type of sound throughout that I couldn’t tolerate. I had stopped listening to the album long ago because of it, but on a recent re-listen my hearing has now degraded to the point where I can no longer hear it. Yay tinnitus! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rain\_Soaked](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@Rain\_Soaked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rain_Soaked)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/31 "2013-11-21T19:18:58Z")
My submission is Paul Simon’s [Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Cfrl7hMoQ). It has this annoying noise throughout it like a dog woofing. Doesn’t add anything to the song and always takes me out of it. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/32 "2013-11-21T19:44:22Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Norah Jones’ song “Don’t Know Why” was popular at the time, so they cued it up, and I nearly fell over laughing in realization when they used a comical “boi-oi-oi-oing” sound effect to bleep out the word “come” in the very-not-sexual line “I don’t know why I didn’t come”. Pretty sure they changed up the sound effect for the repeated uses of that word, not to mention the words “ecstasy” and “bones.” I always assumed that _was_ a sexual reference. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/33 "2013-11-21T19:47:14Z")
> [@Rain\_Soaked](#): > > It has this annoying noise throughout it like a dog woofing. That’s a funny description, but I knew exactly what you meant. It’s a [cuíca](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cu%C3%ADca). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/34 "2013-11-21T22:54:07Z")
“It’s my party”, Leslie Gore. Didn’t think much of it back in the low-fi, mono days. But in stereo/CD quality that annoying “ding ding ding” ringing in the background is just awful. Not really ruining a song I liked, but makes me want to rip out my stereo when it comes on. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/35 "2013-11-21T23:07:46Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > That’s a funny description, but I knew exactly what you meant. It’s a [cuíca](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cu%C3%ADca). Here’s a video of a guy playing a [cuica](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-IZ0JbgUmY). ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/36 "2013-11-21T23:20:06Z")
Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” I can’t really describe the sound - I guess a growl is the closest description I can think of, but it’s crossed with a “wah wah wah” sort of sound - I hate that noise. If you know the song, you know which noise I’m referring to. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/37 "2013-11-22T00:11:05Z")
The garden shears or whatever that is in this song: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Azv8Q0zzVLM/hqdefault.jpg "Marie Applebee --- The Boy Who Took My Heart") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azv8Q0zzVLM) ---
**Author:** ![gladtobeblazed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/38 "2013-11-22T00:55:26Z")
[Heartlines by Florence + the Machine](http://youtu.be/waiB8mWOJOA) has this extremely annoying buzzing sound that comes in periodically throughout the song. At first I thought my speakers were damaged, but after hearing it on different systems I figured it was part of the song. I don’t know what hell the producers were thinking with that, but I want to slap them. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/39 "2013-11-22T01:03:51Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > I’m surprised that the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” hasn’t been mentioned yet. (I personally don’t mind all the woo-woos.) This song seems to come up quite often in similar threads. Which leads us directly to NA, NA, NA NA, NA NA… NA NA NA NAAAA NA… ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342/40 "2013-11-22T02:40:10Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > The garden shears or whatever that is in this song: > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azv8Q0zzVLM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azv8Q0zzVLM) A _guiro_. Or something played like a guiro. Or maybe someone just running a pencil along a comb. Something like that, anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-small-annoying-sounds-that-just-ruin-the-whole-song-for-you/674342.md?page=3)