00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most interesting moments
00:12in popular songs that came about from a recording mistake.
00:1510. The Dog Barks
00:24Been Caught Stealing What Rolling Stone called the best use of dog
00:29barks since pet sounds was actually a complete mistake. Before the funky baseline of Jane's
00:34Addiction's Been Caught Stealing kicks in, you hear the unexpected sound of a dog barking.
00:39It sounds playful and deliberate, but those barks were never part of the original plan.
00:49They came from frontman Perry Farrell's dog, Annie. As he recalls,
00:53he'd just got a new dog from his shelter, and it was quite attached to him, so he brought her
00:57to the studio. When she saw him singing in the booth, she got excited and started barking.
01:02The band loved the chaotic energy and decided to keep it, even adding the barks to the final mix.
01:079. Total Chaos
01:18Louie Louie
01:19Few songs are as gloriously messy as the Kingsman's Louie Louie. Recorded in just two takes inside a cheap,
01:34cramped studio, the song is a technical disaster. The lyrics are slurred and borderline incomprehensible.
01:41The tempo is all over the place. After the guitar solo, the singer comes in too early.
01:51And at one point, you even hear the drummer swear after dropping his stick. If it sounds like a rough
01:57demo, that's because it actually was. The band's manager and producer, Ken Chase,
02:02loved the messy and raw sound of the recording so much that he urged the band to release it as is.
02:08He was right. It became one of the most recognizable recordings in rock history and helped popularize
02:14garage rock. 8. I Know, I Know, I Know, Ain't No Sunshine
02:29Sometimes, not finishing your lyrics is the best creative decision you'll ever make. When Bill
02:34Withers wrote Ain't No Sunshine, he left a section of the song blank, planning to simply fill it in
02:40later. So when it came time to put the song onto vinyl, Withers repeated the words, I know,
02:46a total of 26 times, using it as a placeholder while he wrote the lyrics for the bridge.
03:00But everyone in the studio realized that it was perfect, as that repetition captured longing
03:06better than any new words could. They convinced Withers to keep it as is, and as he puts it,
03:12I was this factory worker puttering around. So when they said to leave it like that, I left it.
03:277. My Life Is Brilliant, You're Beautiful
03:37You've probably heard James Blunt's You're Beautiful a hundred times, but did you know the
03:41song technically starts with a mistake? Right at the very beginning, Blunt sings the line,
03:47My Life Is Brilliant, way too early.
03:508. My Life Is Brilliant, My Love Is Pure
03:55It sounds nice and it works, but that false start wasn't supposed to be there. Rather than redo it,
04:01they decided to just leave it in. Although the false start is removed when the song is played
04:06on the radio. The result adds a strangely intimate, almost confessional quality to the song,
04:12like we're catching Blunt mid-thought before the story begins. It makes you wonder how many nice,
04:17thematic moments like this are actually intended in art, and how many are just happy accidents.
04:236. Two False Starts
04:36Good riddance, Time of Your Life
04:38Speaking of false starts, this is the daddy of them all. This classic Green Day
04:53tune begins with not one, but two false starts. As Billy Joe Armstrong messes up the opening guitar
04:59lick. He starts it once, then stops. Then he starts it again, messes up again, and stops again. Fed up
05:07with his mistakes, he mutters a quiet F-bomb under his breath before starting again for a third time.
05:17And with that, the song proper finally begins. Wait a minute, you're thinking,
05:22that never happened? Well, if you've only heard this song on the radio, then no,
05:27because the single version omitted this opening mistake. But if you're listening to the album
05:32version, it's there, in all its messy glory.
05:435. Desmond Stays at Home
05:46Obladi Oblada
05:48Even the Beatles weren't immune to happy accidents. A chair creaks in A Day in the Life,
06:00and an F-bomb is dropped in Hey Jude. But perhaps the funniest mistake comes at the end of Obladi Oblada,
06:08when a lyrical mix-up completely changes the course of the story. In the final verse, Paul McCartney
06:14accidentally sings, Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face, and in the evening,
06:19she's a singer with the band.
06:29The lyrics are insanely progressive for their day, but they were a mistake. Paul was supposed
06:34to say Molly, not Desmond, but the accidental gender swap stayed. The result is a charming,
06:40gender-flipped twist born from pure studio spontaneity.
06:504. The Slipped Piano Notes
06:53Roxanne
07:01The police's breakout hit Roxanne began with an unmistakable blip, a weird piano chord, and
07:07the unmistakable sound of Sting laughing. That moment wasn't supposed to be there at all.
07:13Shortly after the take started, Sting accidentally sat on the studio keyboard, creating a weird and
07:19atonal noise. He then laughed at his own goof, and instead of cutting it, the band decided that it had
07:34a charming quality and left it in. The result is a spontaneous, human opening that perfectly suits
07:40a song about embracing imperfection. What began as a clumsy mistake became one of rock's most
07:46recognizable and endearingly authentic song intros.
07:503. Various Noises
07:59Wish You Were Here
08:07Before the acoustic guitar of Wish You Were Here even begins, you can hear David Gilmour make what we can
08:13describe, as nicely as we can, a series of dad noises. As the opening, distant guitar plays,
08:20Gilmour can be heard making a coughing or grunting noise, which sounds almost pig-like. A few seconds
08:26later, he audibly sniffles.
08:28As the intro is supposed to sound like someone listening to the radio, it does add a nice degree
08:46of authenticity. You can almost see your dad sitting in his recliner listening to a peaceful song
08:52after the ball game. 2. Just Start Again
09:02Bob Dylan's 115th Dream
09:14Only Bob Dylan could turn a botched take into a career highlight. Dylan and producer Tom Wilson can
09:20be heard breaking out into guffaws shortly after Bob Dylan's 115th Dream begins, supposedly because
09:28the band failed to join him. The chaos that follows is pure 60s Dylan, with the studio breaking into
09:34laughter before the song starts again. It's not often that we get such a blatant error in a song,
09:47and why they decided to keep it like this, we can only guess. Dylan Genius, we suppose. Either way,
09:55the botched opening perfectly captures the artist's spirit. Loose, unpredictable, and alive. It's the
10:01sound of an artist so confident in his craft that he even keeps the mistakes.
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10:251. The Voice Crack
10:39Sometimes, perfection is born from pain. During the recording of Gimme Shelter,
10:44backup singer Mary Clayton delivered a stunning and fiery vocal performance that has helped make
10:50the tune an enduring classic. In the finished studio version, her voice cracks on the word murder.
11:05It's both haunting and powerful, fitting the song to perfection. But it was not intended, and Mick
11:12Jagger can faintly be heard giving a happy woo in response to the crack. It's not just a failed note,
11:19it's a scream of exhaustion, fear, and fury. That one unplanned imperfection gave Gimme Shelter its
11:26soul, turning a great song into pure transcendence. Did you know that these moments were not planned?
11:41Let us know in the comments below!
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