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50S AND 60S HIT SONGS WHERE THE SINGING OR PLAYING IS DEFINITELY OUT OF KEY

R

RADIO TRUTH

I don't even know where to begin on this topic. One that sticks out in my mind is "Blame It On The Bossa Nova" by Eydie Gorme
who could not hit the high notes in the song. Why didn't she sing the song in a lower key? That is a question that I have been
wondering since 1963. She wasn't even close to hitting the right notes. There are many instrumental errors in various James Brown songs. This list could be endless. What errors stick out in your mind?
 
I love many of Jan & Dean's and Gary Lewis & The Playboys records, but sometimes they hit some nasty flat notes.. Too bad auto-tune didnt exist in 1963. ;D
 
Little Girl by The Syndicate of Sound was either really off key, or is an early rap record
Ain't Nothin' But A House Party - The Showstoppers
Get Out of My House - Ernie K. Doe
It Will Stand - The Showmen
George Harrison went a little bit off key with the beautiful song, "What is Life?"
 
This is for those of us who grew up in the 50s and early 60s.

In the days of 45rpm records and relatively inexpensive record players, most of which had lightweight turntables driven by rubber-clad idler wheels. These drive wheels tended to wear quickly, or dry out, or develop flat spots (from not being disengaged from the turntable platter during extended periods of nonuse.)

We played our tunes on these cheap machines and listened to our favorite R&R, R&B and pop tunes with all the wow, flutter and out of sync turntable speeds. Added to this dilemma we had cheap two stage amplifiers without RIAA equalization driving an even cheaper 3” speaker which often (after time) developed a warped cone.

To add to the complexity of the issue, the average (my estimate) music fan cannot carry a tune in a wheelbarrow, thus:

Before the advent of today’s state-of-the-art digital processing, the music sounded pretty darned good and the average listener had no idea if the vocals were sharp or flat (usually flat based upon the above), but, when combined with off key instrumentals, who knew the difference?

Of course, there are those among us having the gift of perfect pitch, and those fortunate few undoubtedly find some recordings horribly difficult to listen to and to enjoy.
 
I used to have a stereo that played 45s in "sharp," and I remember that the old WNOX in Knoxville used to play their music in "sharp" as well. Given the choice, I would definitely prefer a slight "flat" over "sharp," because to me, "sharp" made the music sound "teenybopperish," and too fast for my taste. I later worked for a station that had pitch control on their turntables, but I never adjusted it because I preferred playing music as close to the natural speed as possible, and I figured that the listeners liked it that way, too.
 
Didn't Bill Drake add some speed to his tunes when he programmed stations under his legendary format? I remember listening to Bobby Wayne on WSAI in Cincinnati in the mid sixties, 1965 and 66 and you could tell he had kicked up the speed to go along with his "Bobby Wayne's Wayne Train" show. Anyone remember that?
 
RADIO TRUTH said:
I don't even know where to begin on this topic. One that sticks out in my mind is "Blame It On The Bossa Nova" by Eydie Gorme
who could not hit the high notes in the song. Why didn't she sing the song in a lower key? That is a question that I have been
wondering since 1963. She wasn't even close to hitting the right notes. There are many instrumental errors in various James Brown songs. This list could be endless. What errors stick out in your mind?
Click to expand...

When I saw the title of this thread that was the first song I thought of. Probably the best example!
 
FRR said:
Didn't Bill Drake add some speed to his tunes when he programmed stations under his legendary format? I remember listening to Bobby Wayne on WSAI in Cincinnati in the mid sixties, 1965 and 66 and you could tell he had kicked up the speed to go along with his "Bobby Wayne's Wayne Train" show. Anyone remember that?
Click to expand...
HIgh-end turntables had (-)(+) speed controls with strobe markers on the turntable for adjusting the rpm. Studio transcription turntables had speed control also, many jocks used this feature for effects.
 
WLOF (AM/950) and WHOO (AM/990) were fierce Top 40 rivals in the small Orlando market (before Disney), with one NOTICEABLE difference: WLOF speeded up its turntables to get more songs (and commercials) in during the hour. It gave WLOF a more "lively" sound and helped to constantly win ratings wars.

WHOO was correct and "pure" in playing the records at the proper speed, which seemed to make the station "drag" when compared directly to WLOF. Many local kids didn't listen to WHOO because they were playing the records "too slow". :D

I read where one jock moved into a market and wrapped electrictian's tape around the turntable speed control wheel to manually "speed up" the turntable. There were immediate positive listener responses on fast songs.

However, the slow songs sounded just too ... weird. (Imagine Bobby Goldsboro as one of the Chipmunks. :D)
 
However, the slow songs sounded just too ... weird. (Imagine Bobby Goldsboro as one of the Chipmunks. )
Click to expand...

Oddly enough I can, Alvin with his hair all sticking up, serenading us.
 
The person who mentioned Gary Lewis and the Playboys above reminded me of one of the most out of key top 20 hits of all time.
Sealed With A Kiss by Gary Lewis and the Playboys was so out of key that it made my dog bark in pain. Brian Hyland did a much
better job with this song.

The all time winner for being most out of key both vocally and instrumentally for the longest period in any one song goes to Angel Baby-Rosie and the Originals. This song made my dog vomit.

The issue of speeding up 45s to 46 or 47 was done in various markets. It was never done in New York. If it was done judiciously, the stations got some benefit out of it. If the stations sped the 45s up too much, it hurt some of the stations. There were also cases of record companies speeding up recordings before they put them out. One good example of this was Andy Kim's hits which were all sped up some. Steed Records wanted Andy Kim's image to be that of a blond haired surfer dude,
which he wasn't. That's why they sped up his recordings before release.
 
One other thing that is semi related.....Regis and Joy Philbin put out a cd and sung "This Guy's In Love With You" on the David
Letterman show recently. Neither of them can sing at all. They are both pathetically bad and anyone who purchases that cd
must be totally deaf.
 
I was just thinking "Angel Baby"...nasal and way off key. In the non hit Christmas LP department.,my brother, who keeps every vestige of our childhood, played this early 60s Christmas album a couple years ago. Singer sounded like a really off key Andy Williams. The mix was off center, the record was probably warped and I was getting nauseated. I finally said "make it stop!" It was on the Pickwick label.,usually they were sold in places like gas stations.
 
Maybe - The Chantels

Can we discuss running fingernails down the chalkboard?
 
According to historical notes which are unconfirmed for accuracy, “Angel Baby” was recorded in a two-track studio located in the corner of an abandoned aircraft hanger in San Marcos, California. Rosie’s sax player, Alfred Barrett, could not show for the session and the sax work was instead laid down by Tony Gomez, the group’s bassist. Noah Tafolla, an original “Originals” band member, and later married to Rosie, taught the sax part to Tony (who had played horn in high school.)

Whether off key or just the result of poor quality recording, “Angel Baby” was a smash hit for Rosie and the Originals after the master was picked up by Highland Records and promoted on air by Alan Freed at KDAY. Rosie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the “one hit wonders” category in 1995.

There are numerous recorded tracks from the 50s, and indeed from earlier years, which were recorded in venues other than “state-of-the-art” studios with less than professional quality recording equipment by artists and musicians who, while not polished in performance by today’s standards, laid the groundwork and footprint of what we now know as Rock and Roll, Rhythm and Blues, and Doo Wop.

For those audiophiles who desire pure tonal quality and absolute pitch in their listening pleasure, I suggest staying away from early Rock ‘n’ Roll. R&R was meant to “move your soul” and not to be judged by its inability to reach a perfect fifth in the second bar of the chorus.
 
One can allow for and understand some of the negative nuances of inexpensive, primitive recording studios. Some of these studios actually yielded some great sounding hits that were unique and in key both vocally and instrumentally. One song from a
small studio that deserves some kudos is "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen, a definitive garage band/surf record. The out of key
stuff that really bothers me is stuff by artists like Gary Lewis and the Playboys and Eydie Gorme where they had good studio facilities but, still performed lousy. In both cases, all they had to do was sing some of their songs in a lower key. Eydie's only
problem was on the highest notes. Gary should also have sung in a lower key. Snuff Garrett, Gary's producer, was a very good
producer and the fact that he recorded this stuff as out of key as it was, was inexcusable.
 
RADIO TRUTH said:
One can allow for and understand some of the negative nuances of inexpensive, primitive recording studios. Some of these studios actually yielded some great sounding hits that were unique and in key both vocally and instrumentally. One song from a
small studio that deserves some kudos is "Surfin' Bird" by the Trashmen, a definitive garage band/surf record. The out of key
stuff that really bothers me is stuff by artists like Gary Lewis and the Playboys and Eydie Gorme where they had good studio facilities but, still performed lousy. In both cases, all they had to do was sing some of their songs in a lower key. Eydie's only
problem was on the highest notes. Gary should also have sung in a lower key. Snuff Garrett, Gary's producer, was a very good
producer and the fact that he recorded this stuff as out of key as it was, was inexcusable.
Click to expand...

I love Surfin' Bird just because of that mega-compressed smashed sound! It was recorded at Kay-Bank studios in Minneapolis, where classics like the Gestures "Run Run Run" and the Castaways "Liar Liar" were cut.

Gary just wasn't a great singer, many times he was singing along with session background singers, or had his voice doubled or tripled tracked. I saw him on a PBS oldies show a few years ago and while he's improved over the years, he was using digital delay to fatten up his vocals live.

AM radio, scratchy styrene 45's and cheap phonographs ruled then, and "kids" couldnt hear the imperfections cranking out of a tiny speaker. Also session time was short back then.. unless you were Spector, the Beatles or Beach Boys by 1967 you couldnt spend hours in the studio making sure everything was perfect.
 
Wipe Out by the Surfaris was re-recorded several times in an effort to "correct" the out-of tune lead guitar.
None of the later takes ever had the drive and urgency of the original with the mistuned guitar.
In this case, I think the out-of-tune guitar MADE it a hit.
 
Many times, something has been released that had a "mistake" in it, but we, the listener, didn't know that it was a mistake, and we just came to accept the "wrong" version as the "correct" version! Strange, but true! 8)

Kris Kristofferson has said that Janis Joplin made a mistake (changed the lyrics or something) in his song "Me and Bobby McGee," but since her version has become the "accepted" version, everyone who sings it now sings it her way.

If you listen to Billy Joel's "You're Only Human (Second Wind)" he made a sort of stuttering mistake on one of the lines when he sang "ssssssssometimes that's what it takes," and he wanted to correct it, but the record company convinced him to just leave it that way, since the song was, after all, about being only human, and making mistakes.
 
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