There was a very specific “yelping” singing voice that was popular in the late seventies through the eighties. It’s generally associated with the New Wave or Post-Punk genre. David Byrne of the Talking Heads is probably the most well-known example, but Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo and Danny Elfman of Oingo Boingo also sang in almost identical voices. There were about a million other bands of the era that did the same thing.
Where did this come from?
I remember it, too, and at the time thought they were parodying the boy crooners of the late 50’s (as well as the 1950’s nostalgia that was so annoyingly prevelant in the 1970’s)
Does She Blinded Me With Science also qualify here?
SCIENCE!!!
At least some of it can be attributed to recording technique. There indeed seemed to be an affinity for sounding like you’re singing into an empty paint can, even for singers with non-yelpy voices. One of the first instances I recall was Crocodile Rock, which sort of ties in with Slithy’s 50s theory. Maybe because the 70s vocal production values were usually all warm and soulful, the 80s had to do away with that.
There’s my earworm for the week, thank you very much.
Yabbut Crocodile Rock was released in like 1973, when vocals were “all warm and soulful”.
A couple theories:
Did it have anything to do with trying to sound vaguely British? It seems that the first singers with that sound were British (was Duran Duran one of the first acts with that vocal sound?), which would suggest that the others who followed were trying to copy that sound. Strangely enough, I’ve come across some Japanese music videos from the '80s, and the Japanese singers were doing the same thing, trying to get that vocal sound. It sounds really funny done with Japanese words.
Raspy or “screamed” vocals went out of vogue in pop music in the late '70s, and became associated with hard rock and heavy metal, but there was still the expectation that a male pop singer should have a fairly high voice. The vocal technique in question could have developed out of singers with lower-pitched voices attempting to stretch for higher notes without resorting to “screaming” or falsetto. This seems plausible, especially since “that '80s sound” stands out when compared to the style of the '90s to the present of pop singers singing more within their natural ranges (i.e. lower).
Didn’t Tom Petty do this in a few songs too or am I thinking of the wrong kind of sound?
Another data point: Adam Ant
In some cases, I have to wonder if there is anything owed to soul performers of the previous decade. These clips of Joe Tex, for example, have him sounding somewhat similar. Coincidence? A case where it’s just my perception (possibly through misunderstanding the question)? Deliberate?
I think this may have orignated with Richard Hell and the Voidoids. They were one of the first punk bands and would have been well-known to David Byrne and others in the New York punk/new wave scene. Um, and they did that yelping thing.
ETA: Cite (Youtube)
I read the title of this thread, and immediately, Mister Mister’s Broken Wings began playing in my head. I hated that song.
One of the driving principles in punk and new wave was that you didn’t need to be a virtuoso instrumentalist or a multi-octave vocalist to be in a band. Some groups got more milege out of that agenda than others, obviously. It usually helped to have some songwriting skills.
I was actually coming in to say Tom Verlaine of Television (which Hell was a member of before forming his own band). “Marquee Moon” and The Voidoids album both came out in '77, as did the first Talking Heads album, and all three came up together at CBGB around the same time, so it’s hard to tell for sure who did it first.
Take . . . these broken wings . . . and learn to fly again, learn to live soooo free.
When we hear . . . the voices sing . . . the book of love will open up and let us iiiin!
(at least, that’s what I think those lyrics are).
My pet theory is was it was a nod to David Bowie and Bryan Ferry (of Roxy Music), both big influences on the new wave movement. (Remember the Talking Heads were gigging by 1975, before a lot of the artist we’ve mentioned had emerged.) Both of them had high pitched, arty voices. They also avoided the bluesy sounding vocals most British vocalists of the time used. Since the new wavers loved art and loathed hard rock, that would appeal to a lot of them.
And of course, the 80s yelping voice was subsequently overwhelmed by the 90s Eddie-Vedder-growling voice. 
To me, this seems different from the “yelping” sound, although both were prevalent in the 80s. The first song I recall with the “broken wings” sort of step-up-several-notes-to-a-whine singing is “Eleanor Rigby”, and was immensely popular with the more non-electric sounding New Wave such as Squeeze, the Records, and Elvis Costello, and survives today in emo.
Although I merely recall the singing melody of Broken Wings, not the tone of voice it was sung in, so it very well could have been sung in the same style as Talking Heads.
Winner. 