Listen to the Mistakes That Were Left in Classic Songs

Photo by Santa Barbara on Unsplash

Sometimes artists make mistakes in the studio, and decide NOT to correct them.  Here are errors that were left on some classic songs:

1.  “Hey Jude”,  The Beatles:  There’s an F-BOMB in this song that not everybody knows about.  When they were recording it, Paul McCartney played the wrong chord on his piano and said, “[Effing] hell.”

Apparently, they were feeling playful that day, because they kept it.  It’s barely audible, but if you listen for it, you can hear it.

Check it out above.  It happens at 2:58, after Paul sings, “The minute you let her under your skin / Then you begin…”

2.  “Roxanne”,  The Police:  Right at the beginning of the song, you hear a random piano chord, followed by some laughing.  It happened when Sting went to sit on a piano in the studio, thinking the lid was down…but it wasn’t.

The sound his butt made, plus the ensuing laughter, remained in the mix.

3. “Sweet Emotion”,  Aerosmith:  The intro to the song contains a rattling noise that was achieved by Steven Tyler playing something called a vibraslap.

He hits it three times, but on the fourth attempt, it just makes a single, sad “clink“.  That’s because it BROKE.  But they just went with it, and it doesn’t take anything away from the song.

Above is Tyler pointing out the mistake to Howard Stern (PROFANITY WARNING), plus he tells the story on how he also shook SUGAR PACKETS in front of the mic, because they didn’t have maracas.

4.  “Since I’ve Been Loving You”,  Led Zeppelin:  The squeaking sound at the beginning of the song was caused by John Bonham’s kick pedal.  It was a Speed King, but the band nicknamed it “Squeak King“.