Examples when the singer 'sings' out of key

Talking about studio recordings and not live.

Nile Rogers said that Bowie wanted to re-record 'Let's Dance' due to him singing out of key but convinced him to leave it.

 

Neil Young will attest to the beauty of NOT re-recording out of key vocals for the minority of greats it works for.

 

Second thread this week where I could post this song

 

new order - subculture

 

So why specific songs does Neil Young sing
“out of key”
?

 

I've just been listening to Elvis Costello on BBC Radio 4 talking, playing & singing. Man, he's seriously out of key a lot of the time. I don't mind, but my wife can't stand it.

 

Just throw a dart at any Grateful Dead album. You'll hit something.

 

I’m guessing the thread starter means out of tune or out of pitch?

There’s a big difference between out of key and out of tune/pitch.

 

Apparently this exact differentiate was a huge bone of contention between Dolores O'Riordan of The Cranberries and Stephen Street's attempt to produce them.

 

More or less what Nile Rogers said, it's usually due to pure emotion and feeling the song. It adds rather than takes away!

 

Live...sometimes

Studio...no way

 

What would you say the difference is?

 

Anthony Kiedis from Red Hot Chili Peppers is notorious for being a 'flat' singer.

 

Maybe it's just me, but the attempted harmonies on High Time / Workingman's Dead really grate [minor pun intended]...

 

It's hard to tell when you get used to a song. I remember thinking Paul Simenon sounded flat on "The Crooked Beat" and Lesley Gore went beyond her comfortable range on the bridge to "Cry Like A Baby" (Aretha, not Alex). But both sound fine to me now. Does the ear acclimate to this sort of thing over time? I've known these tunes since the early '80s, so maybe so.

 

The difference between out of key and out of tune/pitch?

I’ve tried to come up with the best way to explain this to you, although something tells me you probably already know.

Here's an example where it's not just one note, or several, that are out of key - it's the whole shebang. Go to 1.24 and you’ll hear it best. The vocal is perfectly in tune but is completely out of key. Yes?

 

I haven't heard it in decades, but isn't Robert Plant way off pitch on All My Love?

 

Not true.

 

I love his vocals/tone, but Kurt Cobain.

 

Ian Brown pretty much whenever the Stone Roses have played live (and I LOVE the Stone Roses).

 

I bought the new Lemon Twigs album, “Go To School” recently. Great album, but on the first track the singing is spectacularly out of tune. He’s all over the place. I still haven’t decided if it is intentional or he is really just out of his depth with the material he wrote for himself.

 

Ian Hunter has always had a flexible relationship with pitch - it works for him. I don't mean the Dylan style leaps of notes, that's a whole nother thing. I mean when he really is trying to hit specific notes and just doesn't quite get there, or overshoots just a little. OP asked for examples, I just grabbed the first thing I thought of