SONGS WHERE/SONGS THAT/SONGS WITH/SONGS IN WHICH

Songs in which the singer reads off a phone number:

― i’m still stanning (morrisp)

the space negroes' version of "sex bomb"

Songs Set in a Courtroom (Bonus Points If It Includes an Argument between the Singer and the Judge):

― Mr. Snrub

"mr. waters (the judge)" by birmingham sunday

"arrest, trial, and judgement (joy in the marketplace!)" by harry partch
"good morning judge" by wynonie harris

songs with a falsetto goodbye:

Danny O'Keefe - Falsetto Goodbye
Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life

The reprise of "So Long, Farewell" from Sound of Music

Dinosaur Jr - Start Choppin'

^ah, I had a feeling I was missing an incredibly obvious one

The Communards - Never Can Say Goodbye

Supertramp - Goodbye Stranger

songs written by a non-famous family member of the recording artist:

Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love (written by Darby Slick)

songs in which 'yee-ha!' or similar appears apropos of nothing but manages to be perfect:

michael jackson "wanna be startin' somethin'"
björk "big time sensuality"

^
Loudon Wainwright - The Swimming Song

Possible thread for 'off-mic eructations'? Keith Jarrett must be the king of this. Or Mingus.

songs with unearned key changes

Falco - Rock Me Amadeus

cover songs (or songs that interpolate bits of other songs) that feature newly-recorded backing vocals from the singer of the original song:

Uncle Kracker - Drift Away (feat. Dobie Gray)
Eddie Money - Take Me Home Tonight (feat. Ronnie Spector, who sings the chorus of 'Be My Baby')

The Run DMC version of "Walk This Way".

songs which feature the wilhelm scream

Does Elton John rerecord the vocals for Bennie and Jets on the newest Tribe Called Quest album?

yep!

It kicks off with a sample of John's original recording, a No. 1 hit in 1974, and the final single from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which came out the year before. Then, at the 2:43 mark, after Busta Rhymes helps out in the second verse, the modern-day voice of Elton closes out the song in a duet with Q-Tip. John is credited as a co-writer on "Solid Wall of Sound," which also features his piano.

Steve Winwood insisted on doing this for "Call On Me."'

wait no, the new Elton vocals at the end are a newly written verse, not a reprise of the original song (xpost)

Stephen Stills on Public Enemy's "He Got Game"

Lennon on Elton's version of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"

Bonnie Prince Billy on Johnny Cash's I See A Darkness

Dido on Stan.

Paul Kelly going in-studio for rap group AB Original’s live radio coverpolation of his 26-year-old Dumb Things.

Songs in which the singer reads off a phone number:

Otis Redding - 634-5789

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

Pearl Jam - Corduroy, and surely many others

Original writer singing backup on cover:

Will Oldham on Johnny Cash I See a Darkness

Can't believe I just now remembered Jimmy Page on "Come With Me."

songs where a singer expresses disdain for being put on a pedestal as artist

I can think of several examples that are close to this sentiment. Obviously "please don't put your life in the hands / of a rock and roll band" is at least related. So is "don't look to us / phony Beatlemania has bitten the dust."

Elvis Costello's "I Want to Vanish" is ostensibly from the perspective of someone - perhaps an old Delta blues or Appalachian folk legend - asking to NOT be recorded by what I guess is an Alan Lomax-like character.

I want to vanish
This is my fondest wish
To go where I cannot be captured
Laid on a decorated dish

The speaker seems to regard him- or herself as unfit for posterity. But it may be equally true that some art should be permitted to be transient. Putting it on record and fixing it in space and time would, effectively, be tantamount to murdering it. Let it be unheard and unbroadcast. Let us merely be happy that it ever happened at all, not be annoyed that it hasn't been preserved in a scratchy copy that robs it of life.

1981 songs referencing the stars of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?":

"Joan Crawford" - Blue Oyster Cult
"Bette Davis Eyes" - Kim Carnes

my Christmas present is reading the above as meaning that kornrulez has gone 19 years thinking that Bonnie Prince Billy is a different guy for whom Will Oldham wrote songs.

my Christmas present is reading the above as meaning that kornrulez has gone 19 years thinking that Bonnie Prince Billy is a different guy for whom Will Oldham wrote songs.

What is this, amateur hour? Are you calling me a Bonnie Prince Billy bitch?

Is he not the man who wrote I See a Darkness? Is he not singing backup on the Johnny Cash cover version? Would that not fit the cover songs (or songs that interpolate bits of other songs) that feature newly-recorded backing vocals from the singer of the original song: theme?

see five posts above yours

oh fer crying out loud, that ILM app blows

Songs about the engineering trades and their practitioners (not including audio engineering)

The Electrician
Wichita Lineman

Casey Jones

Heh. John Henry?

Decemberists, "Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect"?

Oooh! Oooh! Fortress Around Your Heart.

if you count a tinker as a practitioner of the engineering trades, then at least part of tim hardin's "if i were a carpenter"

also about 10% of woody guthrie songs it sometimes seems

Songs in which the Beatles wish you a Happy Birthday

― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Thursday, August 2, 2018 11:20 PM (five months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWjRpsqbu7o

!

songs about the olden days when life was simpler and we had NO CELLPHONES:

Five For Fighting - Slice
("there was a time a long, long time ago/ Chevys and levees played on the radio/ no cell phones, just 20,000 lights/ swaying on a Saturday night, alright")

The Wreckers - My, Oh My
("songs were long, and gas was cheap/ no cellphones, and water was free/ daddy paid and I never had to worry")

Jim Jones - Blow It Up
("I was dealing crack when/ there was no cell phones and I swear it was iller back then/ it was beepers and street sweepers [...]")

jesus christ

arcade fire - we used to wait

Pretty sure this is the entirety of Everclear's AM Radio: "VCR and DVD, there was none of that crap back in 1970." It also mentions a "portable CD player."

I kinda want to call up Alex whatsis and ask him if he wants to rewrite the song now that those things don't really exist anymore either.

Songs about the engineering trades and their practitioners (not including audio engineering)

I would like to know of songs about audio engineering.

Not the same thing but there could be a whole thread about songs where the producer’s name or production company are mentioned in the song, usually at the beginning.

I kind of feel it’s a practice that started in Jamaica but I don’t know how to even cross-check that.

all of afropop to thread