I saw the Eagles last night and after "Those Shoes" my son said I'm glad that trend (vocoder/talk box) died. We have a road trip this weekend ... so what are your favorite vocoder/talk box songs?
Neil Young - Sample And Hold, and Computer Age both kick a$$!! His best known vocoder song, though, is probably Transformer Man. All from the album Trans (1982). The live versions of Sample And Hold, and Computer Age around that time up through 1986 were fantastic, and much better than the (studio) album versions.
Vocoder and talk box are two different effects. For talk box think of Frampton Comes Alive or Jeff Beck's Blow By Blow. Trans is a good example of vocoder as Rooster_Ties mentioned.
Klaatu-Little Neutrino Mind In A Box-Stalkers Apoptygma Berzerk-Unicorn (FC Remix) Apoptygma Berzerk-Untitled Too (Sweep Remix) ELO-Various stuff
Talk box - Dean Parks' solo on Steely Dan's "Haitian Divorce" Vocoder - lots of examples from Joe Zawinul, here's one (vocoder starts around 2:30):
Get Lucky - Daft Punk Panorama - The Cars Sweet Talking Woman/Mr. Blue Sky - ELO In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins ...and as a 'bonus' if you like vocoder jams... check this one out.
If I recall right "Be What You See" by McCartney uses vocoder. Tommy Mars used it with Zappa - for instance "Easy Meat" in Tinsel Town Rebellion just before the guitar solo.
My favorite talk box song? The Eagles' "Those Shoes"! Freakin' amazing. Very, very cool. My favorite track on "The Long Run" alongside "King Of Hollywood".
flo & eddie used to do a parody of Peter Frampton's show me the way. the whole band would put plastic tubes in their mouths and sing. it was hilarious.
Butterfly Bleu - Iron Butterfly Jeff Beck also used it on a few tracks on the BBA Live In Japan album.
This is a great funk/soul tune sung totally with talk box. I got to see this live on the tour for this album.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Funky Town by Lipps, Inc. Laurie Anderson used it a lot throughout Home Of The Brave
