By Eli (151.197.5.69) on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 01:11 pm:

If you were to listen closely to the end of the fade on The Fifth Dimention's Aquarius and the chiffons He's so fine you can "clearly" hear the sound of a train going by!!
The Fifth D's vocals were done at Las Vegas Sound which was near a railroad track and the Chiffonas at Allegro in the basement of 1650 Broadway with the Eighth avenue subway passing by.
Can anyone come up with some more tasty tidbits of useless dribble???

By Ritchie (62.254.0.10) on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 01:20 pm:

An earlier instance of the 'outside world' intruding into a recording session is Billie Holiday's "Miss Brown To You". You can clearly hear car horns blaring and traffic speeding round the corner down below!

By LTLFTC (12.210.76.205) on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 01:22 pm:

There's a very audible cough during the organ solo in "Wendy" by the Beach Boys

SteveK

By Eli (151.197.5.69) on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 01:34 pm:

Earl Young used to grunt while he played and can be heard on some cuts. One would think that it was part of the groove.
There is a 'sample" cd called "The Drummers of Motown" where there are tons of grunts and goans by Uriel and Pistol!!
At the end dof Melba Moore's Lean on me she plainly says "Oh Shit-ah!!!!!!"
Check it out, it's there.

By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 01:36 pm:

Rain Drops - Dee Clark (?) You can hear rain drops.

In The Rain - Dramatics You can hear a thunder storm at the beginning.

By Ritchie (62.254.0.10) on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 01:42 pm:

On the end of "I'm Gonna Love You Too" by the Crickets with Buddy Holly you can hear.... a cricket!

(One had somehow got into the echo chamber and its chirping can be clearly heard on the record. The guys took it as a good 'omen' and kept it on the master.)

By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 01:58 pm:

I forgot this thread was "unexplained noise". Sorry. :o)

By Uptight! (24.55.6.144) on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 07:47 pm:

While Paul Williams of the Temptations sings "For Once In My Life" (T.C.B. TV soundtrack LP), you hear the drummer's mic getting struck by the snare brush. It's around 1:03 min into the track.

By Eli (151.197.38.83) on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 07:57 pm:

when I was barely fourteen, I joined an all Puerto Rican band from school to play dances.
There was a guy called Ricardo Munoz who had an Hispanic radio show on wcam in Camden, New Jersey on top of City Hall.
We reheared diligently for it and when we got there to perform live,I loudly bumped my head on the overhead boom mike and it was heard over the air!!!!

By Mark Speck (65.56.223.143) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 12:44 am:

"All Mine" by the Five Satins: you can hear a can of soda rumbling through the studio's soda machine at one point in the song.

Best,

Mark

By STUBASS (152.163.188.68) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 01:15 am:

BOBBY'S STORY REMINDS ME OF THE TIME THAT I ACCOMPANIED MY GROUP...THE STRIDES... OVER TO CKLW IN WINDSOR TO DO A PANTOMIME VERSION OF THE RECENTLY RELEASED..."I CAN GET ALONG" ON TOM SHANNONS "SWINGING TIME"...OR WHATEVER THEY CALLED IT!!!...SINCE IT WAS A PANTOMIME, I DID NOT HAVE TO DO ANY PERFORMING...JUST THE FIVE SINGERS!!!...WAITING OFF SET...AS TOM CAME BACK FROM COMMERCIAL...ABOUT TO INTRODUCE THE GROUP...I TURNED AROUND TO WISPER SOMETHING TO OUR MANAGER...AND SOMEHOW...KICKED OVER SOME TYPE OF MUSIC STAND OR SOMETHING SIMILAR...AND... CRASH...CLANG...AS SHANNON...ON CAMERA...LOOKED OVER THERE TO SEE WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!!...HE GATHERED HIMSELF...AND INTRODUCED THE GROUP...AS I AVOIDED OLD TOM UNTIL WE LEFT THE STUDIO!!!...STU

By Steve Litos (209.100.86.4) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 01:17 am:

One of Ringo's drum pedals (either the hi-hat or bass drum) squeeks horribly on the album cut "Anna" off the "Please, Please Me" album. You can clearly hear it on the CD.

By Edgar (200.46.132.166) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 01:52 am:

In "Bridge Over Troubled Water" Cindy Birdsong and Mary Wilson shout a "Sail!" when they weren't supposed to.

By John Lester (213.123.127.168) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 02:57 am:

Going of at a slight tangent here but....

When I was a youngster and I first heard that technical noise in the quiet intro of Jimmy Ruffin's "Gonne Give Her All The Love I've Got"...it's really quite loud and it is still there on today's versions. Not being the technical expert then (or even now), I always referred to it as like someone stamping on some crisps...I think you guys in the US call them potato chips!

Edgar's post about the Supremes reminds me of the background from Mary and Flo in "You keep me hangin on" on that Japanese Greatest Hits vinyl LP. Clearly down to bad editing, there is an "ooo" that gets truncated really badly.....now I wonder if there was one of those hot blooded Italians in the studio that day - they have a habit that might explain that one! (Ralph, now just where were YOU that day......!)

...and it alwasy gets me that on the stereo version of Phil Spectors' Xmas album, you can hear La La Brooks take a big breath before she starts to sing................

By PhilH (203.221.56.80) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 04:15 am:

On "Let's Get Together Soon" from Dusty Springfield's A BRAND NEW ME/FROM DUSTY..WITH LOVE set, Dusty coughs audibly at the end of a verse.

Another soft-drink machine noise is on Elvis Presley's "Blue Moon" from THE SUN SESSIONS - someone is using the Coke machine in the studio!

And, in order to sustain the final piano chord of "A Day In The Life" on The Beatles' SGT. PEPPER for as long as possible, George Martin & Geoff Emerick pushed the faders all the way up, so that the airconditioning in Abbey Road Studio 2 is audible.

By R&B (138.238.41.128) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 09:21 am:

I HAVE AN ALBUM BY THE MONOTONES WHERE YOU CAN HEAR THE PRODUCER GOING OVER ONE OF THE SONGS WITH THE GROUP JUST BEFORE THEY START TO RECORD IT.

By R&B (138.238.41.128) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 09:26 am:

ALSO IF YOU LISTEN TO THE ALBUM CUT OF [SPECIAL LADY YOU CAN HEAR BILLY BROWN TELL AL GOODMAN TO [BRING THAT BASS UP A LITTLE MORE}

By HW (68.37.221.153) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 09:57 am:

On several Motown tracks you can hear the shuffling of chairs. Of course I can't think of one title at the moment.

Non-Motown: on James Brown's SEX MACHINE, listen for the squeak of the hi-hat pedal. Once you hear it you can't get it out of your head whenever you play it.

Coming soon: the demo of Lionel Richie's ALL NIGHT LONG, where the sound of a ringing phone is audible.

By stephanie (64.63.221.201) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 10:29 am:

It SOUNDS like on the end of Run Run Run that at the tail end I can hear Diana saying "Florence!"

Also if you listen to The Jimmy Webb album by the Supremes on one of the My Love's when Jean is singing she goes MA-my love she stops herself from coming in too early..
Steph

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 10:32 am:

Burt Bacharach used the background music from Chuck Jackson's "Any Day Now" for a Tommy Hunt track called "Lover." Toward the end of Tommy's song, Chuck's voice can be faintly heard in the background.

The album version of Todd Rundgren's "Hello It's Me" was cut live in his home studio, complete with false starts and the band ending the song instead of having an engineer fade it out.

Kevin Goins -KevGo

By Steve Litos (209.100.86.4) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 11:13 am:

KevGo-
I thought the beauty of "Hello It's Me" was the fact that Todd Rundgren performed all the instrumnets on the track and recorded a false start. I could be wrong...

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 11:21 am:

Steve:
"Hello It's Me" is one of the few cuts where he's using a live band (the other is "I Saw The Light"). It was part of the side that featured a rock "operetta" about a bar band.

Kevin Goins - KevGo

By Eli (151.197.41.254) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 11:52 am:

On my Girl, cd version you can hear distortion on the bass and a squeak in the kick drum pedal.

On Neither one of us...there is a loud hiss prior to the start of the music.

By soulie dave uk (62.254.64.5) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 11:55 am:

You can hear sausages frying on a lot of my old records. Maybe I should buy a record cleaner.

By Steve Litos (209.100.86.4) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 01:51 pm:

Thanks for the info KevGo. I think maybe I'll pull out Something/Anything. I'm not sure I've listened to it in the past 15 years!

By Ralph (209.240.198.62) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 03:27 pm:

John lester,
you're coming at me again after a rather lengthy hiatus. I was beginning to think you didn't care anymore.

By Livonia Ken (136.2.1.153) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 04:03 pm:

I'm pretty sure Todd Rundgren's "I Saw the Light" was a one man band effort (and a very effective Carole King impersonation for a dude). Kevin is definitely right about "Hello it's Me", though.

There's an Alice Cooper single where you can hear the drummer drop his stick. I think it was "Be My Lover". I always wondered if the sound was what I thought it was and it was confirmed in the liner notes to one of his recent Rhino compilations. Apparently, it drove producer Bob Ezrin crazy that drummer Neal Smith would twirl his sticks in the studio like he did in concert and in at least that one case, it caught up with him.

In every stereo version of the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want", you can hear a faint print-through (of whatever was on the tape before they re-used it, I guess) in the left channel during the intro.

Regards,
Ken

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 04:20 pm:

Gang,
Ken is right - "I Saw The Light" was all Todd while "Hello It's Me" was with the band.
Kevin Goins - KevGo

By dvdmike (12.84.141.252) on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 05:47 pm:

On the intro of The Harptones' "A Sunday Kind Of Love" you can hear someone cough

By Eli (151.197.41.183) on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 02:01 am:

I have a version of Non Domenticar by Nat King Cole where prior to the start of the song the
engineer is trying to get Nat to pronounce a certain word in Italian and Nat tries his hardest when he gives up and aays "Luigi, go and get me a pizza"!! and then all of these heavenly strings and chorus come in. Great stuff.

By John Lester (213.123.114.217) on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 02:35 am:

Ralph....

Oh I definitely care, most definitely...but even YOU deserve a little breathing space!! LOL

BTW, surely you didn't slip off to Vegas to get yourself married again in those few days you were not around here on SD! Only kidding, only kidding....hahahahha

By motownboy (12.158.230.250) on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 06:54 pm:

On the new Diana Ross "To Love Again" CD compilation, you can hear what sounds like the bass player moving his hand up and down the frets of his bass just before the first note is played on "Never Say I Don't Love You." This was audible on the "Ross" LP version as well....

By motownboy (12.158.230.250) on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 07:00 pm:

Also, the rare mix of "Someday We'll Be Together" By Diana Ross & The Supremes (available on the 2001 2CD Anthology) with the bongo/tambourine into, you can hear what sounds like engineer chatter from the control booth, plus Diana giggling just before the count-off. On the CD, her giggle is actually put as part of the very end of the previous track....

By Bradburger (172.180.104.226) on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 07:05 pm:

If my memory serves me correctly, you can hear similar chatter on The Originals "Baby I'm For Real".

Cheers

Paul

By Bradburger (172.180.104.226) on Friday, February 28, 2003 - 07:15 pm:

John, that noise you mention is on quite a lot of Hitsville recordings.

I used to get a similar noise on my Dads home built 6 channel mixing desk. Can't remember what the exact cause was. Just used to give the EQ panel a tap and it went. Always reminded me of those Motown records it was present on.

Cheers

Paul

By rhythmqueen (12.64.60.139) on Sunday, March 02, 2003 - 12:51 am:

on the Contours "Do you love me" you can hear someone cough in the mic.