Top 10 Songs with Mistakes that Were Left in the Final Version

Most of the time, musicians strive for perfection. In a modern world rife with Pro Tools, pitch correction, and quantization, record executives place more emphasis on having every little flaw nipped, tucked, and sewn.

However, sometimes mistakes are left in, either accidentally or on purpose.

Feel free to add more examples.

The Top Ten

  1. Roxanne - The Police

    At the beginning of the song, you can hear Sting accidentally sitting down on a piano and laughing about his mistake.

    Haha, yes. Sting said he hit the piano keys while trying to cover up a fart.

  2. You're Beautiful - James Blunt

    James says the opening phrase "My life is brilliant" twice. The first one is removed from radio edits.

  3. Tangerine - Led Zeppelin

    You can hear Jimmy Page flub the intro and start over.

  4. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite - R.E.M.

    You can hear Michael Stipe laughing in the chorus after he sings the line about Dr. Seuss. Apparently, he always pronounced it as "Dr. Zeus", and he tried to get it right when they recorded it. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), he couldn't pull it off with a straight face.

  5. Eminence Front - The Who

    The backing vocals in the first line of the chorus are off by a syllable from the lead vocals.

  6. Love Shack - The B-52's

    When the whole band drops out in the middle, vocalist Cindy Wilson shouts "Tin roof! Rusted!" She came in early, but the band liked the way it sounded, so they kept it.

  7. Louie Louie - The Kingsmen

    Jack Ely, the lead singer, says the word "see" too early, but the drummer manages to cover it up with a drum fill.

  8. Hey Jude - The Beatles

    He says "F***in' hell" in the background.

  9. Shotgun - George Ezra

  10. I'm Free - The Rolling Stones

    The whole band gets off tempo during the third chorus, but they soon recover.

    11. The Newcomers
  11. ?

    Walking on the Sun - Smash Mouth

  12. ?

    Eruption - Van Halen

    13. The Contenders

  13. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - The Beatles

    In the last verse of the song, Paul gets the lines mixed up, singing "Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face and in the evening she still sings it with the band." Apparently, he liked the way it sounded.

  14. Never Meant - American Football

    The studio recording of the song begins with the band starting to play early, and then stopping to start over. Before completely starting the song over, a short banter between some of the band members can be heard where someone asks if they're all ready, and if they should keep their mess-up in the recording.

  15. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - Green Day

    In the album version, you can hear Billie Joe Armstrong screw up the intro and say the f-word. They edited it out from the radio and music video versions (for obvious reasons).

  16. Polly - Nirvana

    Kurt Cobain starts off the third verse too early and sings the words "Polly said" before the verse starts (which actually starts with "Polly says" on top).

  17. Money for Nothing - Dire Straits

    I added this one because he laughs when he says "Banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee."

  18. Bebe - 6ix9ine

  19. Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan

    Bob Dylan comes in late during the last verse, but the band is able to adjust. This has happened in a couple of other songs, too.

  20. Zero F**** Given - Sinners are Winners

    In the single version, Dahvie Vanity says in the spoken segment "develop an inability to not care about someone's opinion over you," which of course is a double negative. He must have realized his mistake, as on the album version, the "not" suddenly disappeared without further explanation.

  21. You Know You're Right - Nirvana

  22. Beach House - The Chainsmokers

  23. Blue Monday - New Order

  24. Hurricane - Bob Dylan

  25. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

  26. Black Country Woman - Led Zeppelin

  27. Master of Puppets - Metallica

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