Examples when the singer 'sings' out of key

My fav off-pitch, off-key by several neighborhoods is that track "I know what boys like". Who was that bunch? The waitresses or something?

I'm sure she's be singing in like that on be purpose. The be song and video are always be a couple hoot.

 

Tiny Tim's entire catalog.

 

I think it's a big mistake for decent singers to be allow themselves to be presented to the public with obvious Autotune. I suppose with a disposable a pop tart like Justin Bieber who will be forgotten in a few years anyway, so it doesn't really matter if they sound tragically dated. One that really annoys and disappoints me is Michel Buble, who I think is quite a good singer who presents himself as more of a "classic" crooner vocalist in the manner of Sinatra. For him to slather his vocals with Autotune casts doubt on his chops and condemns him to the trash heap of gimmicks past. He might as well have recorded "They Can't Take That Away from Me" with cannon-shot gated reverb Linn drums and DX7s. Perhaps he thought he was being daring by combining the classic with the contemporary. Perhaps it was forced on him by a producer. Perhaps he just has bad taste. In any case it's a sonic disconnect and he deserved better.

 

Dave Mustaine on every Megadeth song, but somehow it works.

 

That video is misleading, it's much more subtle, but the so called 'live' takes are still processed with auto-tune, I can hear it a mile off.

 

Yoko.

 

Beach Boys: A Day In The Life Of A Tree

 

There's tons of songs which are mostly well sung which, however, feature some part where the singer goes off-pitch briefly.

I'm thinking of the Beatles' "All My Loving" -- the lower notes in the chorus "Darling I'll be true" are a bit suspect.

McCartney again in "My Love" goes off-pitch in the chorus, after "wowoa, my love does it good" -- again, kind of wobbly, although generally the vocal is good.

Those are examples that come to my mind immediately.

Roger Daltrey's singing in several tracks of the "My Generation" album is also on and off in terms of pitch -- "The Good is Gone" comes to mind. It's remarkable how his vocals are hugely improved in later records (Tommy, Who's Next, etc.)

 

at 2:13.

 

Not true if you've heard his entire catalog. Have you tracked
all of his 80s and 90s releases? Lots of surprises there....

 

Rosie & The Originals - "Angel Baby"
Everybody was "off" in the original
hit studio recording: Singer, sax, piano, etc.

 

He knows this. He’s trying to be “funny”.

 

True. It is just another business. May as well be a spreadsheet you can listen to. A template.

 

Pink Floyd doing "The Narrow Way" at the Concertgebouw...

Kind of shocked that made it onto The Early Years, to be honest. David's not-even-close vocals are on par with Richard butchering "Arnold Layne" years later.

 

To me the off key champ is Kristofferson.

 

I'll have to take your word for it, 'cause I see no sign of humor or irony in his post.

 

I just listened to the Jam's Shopping. Damn, Paul can barely stay in tune on this.

 

There's sort of a story behind that -- David originally tried to sing it in falsetto on the Royal Festival Hall concert (the first The Man & The Journey show), but it wasn't really audible.

 

Ok, admittedly, this singer is old, and yes, it's a live version, but wow, this is pretty rough. (Though I actually love the background music. It's been playing in my head for a few days now.) Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. David Lee Roth:

 

Or was I just confusing "out-of-key" with "bad singing?" My apologies if that is the case.

 

Ray Davies (Kinks) made singing off-key part of his musical persona and it was wonderful.

Personally, I have more of a problem with perfection than with flaws. Fix the egregiously bad stuff, but don't bleach the humanity out of the performance.

Back in the day, live performances could be pretty sketchy. I saw Jefferson Airplane in Minneapolis - can't remember the year, but they had just released Volunteers. Clearly, Grace Slick could not hear what she was singing. It was excruciating, but it was a brave woman singing her ass off with a bad sound system. I still loved it (and her).

 

I'm no great judge of pitch (ask anyone who's ever heard me sing) but he sure sounds flat on the chorus of Whizz Kid.

 

Yep, that's cause he is

I coulda picked lots of examples - truthfully, it doesn't bother me, cause he brings so much personality to the table, not to mention really great songs.

 

Pretty bad.
(I still like it, though. The bass playing is great.)

 

C'mon, you know they're notorious for singing out of tune. Primarily live.

I love their music despite this problem.