# Unusual sound effects in popular songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 21, 2000, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307 "2000-01-21T22:22:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2000, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/1 "2000-01-21T22:22:00Z")
In his song “Overjoyed,” Stevie Wonder uses a rhythmic splash of water, suggesting someone dropping marbles one at a time into a pond in time to the music’s beat. In the theme from the movie _M_A_S_H,\* there is a strange instrument–perhaps used commonly in Latin American music–which sounds like someone rubbing a balloon on a wet leather chair. In James Darren’s 1963 hit “Goodbye Cruel World” is a sound effect like a calliope, but which I heard was an electronically enhanced human voice.(!) Does anyone know how these sound effects were made? Granted the plopping sound in “Overjoyed” seems obvious… Or \*other popular songs with unusual sound effects. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2000, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/2 "2000-01-22T02:18:00Z")
Just a few: Coins clanking in Pink Floyd’s “Money.” Pink Floyd like very much to use “concrete music,” where actual sounds were used. Among other places you can hear them in “Seamus” (dog howl), “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving on a Pict” (weird animal noises), “Echoes” (sonar), and “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” (someone fixing breakfast). The Beatles’s “Piggies” (Pigs) Jingle Bells by the Barking Dogs (Dogs barking). Nearly everything by Spike Jones had some unusual sound effect in it. “The Intro and the Outro” by the Bonzo Dog Band uses the sound of a bottle being filled with liquid as “Roy Rogers on Trigger.” They also have the sound of a someone evidently taking a dump (and a woman laughing) on “Cool Brittania.” P.D.Q. Bach uses and instrument of his own devising – the Hardart – in his “Concerto for Horn and Hardart” (anyone else old enough to get that pun?). Tchaikovski’s use of cannon in the “1812 Overture” is certainly unusual. Some one else (Shubert?) did an “Explosions Polka.” * * * “East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. [www.sff.net/people/rothman](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman) ---
**Author:** ![Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilgore_Trout_1)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2000, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/3 "2000-01-22T02:28:00Z")
ani difranco makes use of the clinging and clanging of cutlery, cups, and saucers in her song **the diner**. or maybe it was a guitar. ? * * * _what is essential is invisible to the eye -the fox_ ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2000, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/4 "2000-01-22T04:37:00Z")
Ahhh, another fan of PDQ Bach. You want sound effects? How about kazoos, rubber hoses, members of the orchestra standing up and yelling, and pretty much anything else he could stuff into an album. Also, let’s not forget the alarm clock in the Beatles “A Day In the Life.” ---
**Author:** ![Jorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jorge)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2000, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/5 "2000-01-22T08:42:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Some one else (Shubert?) did an “Explosions Polka.” Never heard that, but have heard the “Champagne Polka” on a recent NPR programme, with the explosive pops for champagne corks. A theremin (_Godd Vibrations_, Beach Boys); the raspberry (“Der Fuhrer’s Face”)… ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2000, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/6 "2000-01-22T08:59:00Z")
> [@](#): > > “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and > Grooving on a Pict” (weird animal noises) Speaking of this amazing tune, does anyone know what language the guy at the end of the song is speaking in? At first I thought it was just gibberish, but then I read that the word “Pict,” which I interpreted as the slang word for a guitar plectrum, is actually the name of a group of people who lived in England about a thousand years ago. So what’s he speaking? Old English? Occitan? Or just gibberish? ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2000, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/7 "2000-01-23T01:12:00Z")
In one of my favorite songs of the moment (Red Alert - Basement Jaxx), they mixed in the sound of a touch tone phone ringing through out the song as part of the musical acompaniment. There is also the background sounds of people yelling and talking (very faint). The use of funk type samples is also interesting. * * * It’s worth the risk of burning, to have a second chance… ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2000, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/8 "2000-01-23T01:29:00Z")
puffington: I asked the exact same question a while back: [http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/002657.html](http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/002657.html) Speaking of Pink Floyd, after DSOTM they had an aborted effort to record an album using no musical instruments, but using things like aerosol cans, pulling up tape, and other sound effects. I don’t know how much of it got recorded, but I’ve always wondered if some of it it could be found on a bootleg somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2000, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/9 "2000-01-25T22:50:00Z")
I had never thought about some of these, but, please…can someone answer my original question about _how_ the sound effects in “Overjoyed,” "Theme from _M_A_S_H,\* and “Goodbye Cruel World” were made? ---
**Author:** ![frolix8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f04885/32.png) [@frolix8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frolix8)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2000, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/10 "2000-01-25T23:23:00Z")
The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” used a theramin, which is what is used in old B movies to do the “spooky” effects. Can’t help with the others. I wonder if the sound effects guy in a recording studio is known as a “foley artist”, like in movies. ---
**Author:** ![Oblio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c4cdca/32.png) [@Oblio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblio)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2000, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/11 "2000-01-25T23:42:00Z")
Spirit also used a Theramin on 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. I can’t recall the song, CD is at work. ---
**Author:** ![Oblio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c4cdca/32.png) [@Oblio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblio)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/12 "2000-01-26T00:16:00Z")
puffington: > [@](#): > > Speaking of this amazing tune, does anyone know what language the guy at the end of the song is speaking in? From [http://www.uio.no/~ericsp/floyd.html](http://www.uio.no/~ericsp/floyd.html) in the FAQ section under Section 4 - The Early Years > [@](#): > > 1. What does the Pict say in ‘Several Species…’? > First off, what is a Pict? > > Pict : A member of a possbly non-Celtic people who once occupied Great Britain, carried on continual border wars with the Romans, and about the ninth century became amalgamated with the Scots. > > As to what’s being said, that’s hard to say. But I think it’s been accepted that it’s somebody (probably Waters) imitating a Scottish accent. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/13 "2000-01-26T01:17:00Z")
The sound effect I hate the most is the one where it sounds like the singer talking on the phone. The two that immediately come to mind are “Uncle Albert” by Paul McCartney, and that song by ELO that I can’t remember the name of right now. I also hate those damn talkboxes. The ones that make you sound like a computer. They sucked before _Frampton Comes Alive_ and they still suck. * * * “The quickest way to a man’s heart is through his ribcage.” --anonymous redhead ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/14 "2000-01-26T06:44:00Z")
Bob Dylan gets credited for playing the police car in “Highway 61”. That’s probably unique. * * * ~Kyla “Anger is what makes America great.” ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/15 "2000-01-26T11:49:00Z")
How could you fail to mention Mony Python’s immortal “I bet you this song won’t be played on the radio” ? About every third word has been replaced with a “censored” beep. “You can’t say \ on the radio; or \ or \ or \ you some day; unless you’re a doctor with a very large \” Sorry, got a little carried away there. Norman ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/16 "2000-01-26T11:58:00Z")
One of my favourites in this is “Tomorrow never knows” by The beatles. One of the effects on John Lennons Voice was created by putting his voice through a revolving speaker, and putting anothermicrophone near it so that the voice would “dip”. * * * John Larrigan “82.35% of all statistics are made up on the spot”–Vic Reeves ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/17 "2000-01-26T14:20:00Z")
The Explosions Polka is by Strauss. Does Phil Ruzzuto in “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” count? Elton John featured tap dancing (by the immortal “Legs” Larry Smith) in “I think I’m Gonna Kill Myself.” And, of course, no one should forget Alfred E. Neuman’s vocalizing on “It’s a Gas!” * * * “East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. [www.sff.net/people/rothman](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman) ---
**Author:** ![TheUnforgiven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TheUnforgiven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheUnforgiven)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2000, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/18 "2000-01-27T06:04:00Z")
In Metallica’s God that Failed, there is a sound of a cocking shotgun in the background throughout the song. * * * “The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.” -H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu” ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/19 "2000-01-26T19:20:00Z")
Don’t forget Joni Mitchell playing a cigarette machine on _Wild Things Run Fast._ ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2000, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307/20 "2000-01-26T19:39:00Z")
How about Adam Sandler’s “Ode to My Car”? The version Dr. Demento played on the air is chock-full of bleeps… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unusual-sound-effects-in-popular-songs/13307.md?page=2)