Stevie Wonder's Worst Song: A Poll -- "I Just Called To Say I Love You" vs. "Ebony and Ivory"

That's it, snoball! Don't know why I couldn't find that.

It's more of a Dune effect than Star Wars though.

"it seems to have something to do with where certain notes land on my vocal chords"
I haven't heard this before, but it's interesting that human vocal chords might actually just have a natural resting placement that aligns with the half step downtune.

I figured tuning half-step lower is win-win for when you're looking to make the guitars and bass subtly fuller, darker, meatier, without having to change a whole lot. And as a extra bonus everything is easier to sing a half-step lower because you don't have to reach as high up. I'm pretty sure Poison and Motley Crue have also done this a bunch. But the natural vocal chord alignment makes a lot of sense -- probably something easier to figure out with some coaching.

I played in a band that insisted on tuning down a half-step. They were good songs, and it definitely made it easier to sing, but I dunno. To my ears, it really did sound like we were half a step behind everything else.

Hm, I don't think classical vocal repertoire is predominantly in flat keys, is it? I would expect that to be the case if those keys were inherently easier to sing in? They tend to be good for horn players aiui so a lot of jazz repertoire is in flat keys.

Both songs are terrible.
Ultimately I went with "Ebony and Ivory."
"I Just Called to say I Love You" is Steve's cross to bear.
Whereas "Ebony and Ivory" was terrible and also had a Beatle.
That makes it twice as terrible.
It's simple math.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Hm, I don't think classical vocal repertoire is predominantly in flat keys, is it? I would expect that to be the case if those keys were inherently easier to sing in? They tend to be good for horn players aiui so a lot of jazz repertoire is in flat keys.

Composers don’t necessarily compose for ease of singing and a lot of is probably tied more to vocal range than inherent tuning; for example, I have the low edition of Burleigh’s spiritual book and, out of 48 songs, 32 are in flat keys with the most prevalent being F, E-flat, A-flat, and D-flat (Gm has good representation as well).

I described this in terms of how it feels to me rather than in terms of “this is how the voice works” intentionally

The lyric is obviously a mawkish attempt to tackle a very serious and complex issue, but - and it's probably just nostalgia playing a game with me here - I absolutely love the melody and arrangement of E&I. I cannot defend it. It's almost certainly objectively bad. But I guess that's the way love is.

IJCTSILY has swell verses, but my main feeling about it whenever I think about it is remembering how my mum would get very excited by the vocoder vocal section, and the relish with which she'd explain to me that this singing was done with a synthesiser!

aw come on, I Just Called might be a bit drippy but it's tonnes better than Ebony and Ivory which is just mawkish moosh.

Can't fathom why they didn't release What's That You're Doing instead. So funky and fun and way more Stevie and way more Paul. I absolutely love it

that wasn't aimed at any particular poster, just agog about the results

Ebony and Ivory is crappy but it has a certain musical charm for me. I have a visceral hatred for IJCTSILY. It is such a joyless slog, in the way that 'We are the World' is a slog. The lyrics are a sentimental abomination, not as bad as say, 'Always and Forever,' but close. I hope I die before I hear it again.

No way WATW can be slog when so many black performers sing so well on it.

“always and forever”... bad?????

fp'ed and went back in time and SB'ed as well for that

Re: We Are The World - lots of performers sing well on terrible songs, which means nothing to me. There are plenty of great songs to choose from the the same performers. Re: 'Always and Forever" = my most hated song of all time (w/ possible exception of 'Hey Brother' by Avicii).

did u run over cats growing up

LOLZ no I love kitties. BTW I cannot comprehend how Heatwave, who created the glorious and eternal 'Groove Line' and awesome 'Boogie Nights,' 'Mind-Blowing Decisions,' and 'Too Hot To Handle' - just to name a few - could have also shitted out Always and Forever.