Top 10 Famous Music Moments That Happened by Mistake

WatchMojo

Sometimes music's most iconic moments weren't in the plan! Join us as we count down our picks for the greatest mistakes that musicians decided to keep in their recordings. From barking dogs to voice cracks, these happy accidents ended up defining the songs we love.

Transcript

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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