Songs That Get Better When Sung Poorly
On my way in to work this morning, I heard one of the downtown musicians singing a rendition of "What's Love Got to Do With it?" by Tina Turner.
Let me be clear on this though - he sang it, poorly.
But the thing is, because it was sung rather badly, it sounded more earnest. And in some ways, better.
And this got me thinking: are there songs out there that, when sung poorly, actually get better?
I came up with "Happy Birthday," where a kid is messing up the lyrics. But then Liz pointed out to me that it's the kid singing that makes it good (whereas an adult doing the same thing would just be terrible/awkward).
Songs that get better when sung poorly. Any suggestions? Bonus points if you link to a YouTube video. This is one of those questions where I'm not sure if there are any good answers or not...
Comments (7)
Leonard Cohen built a career on singing poorly (though he was quite a songwriter) and some would argue that Bob Dylan is guilty of the same. But as far as songs becoming better when sung poorly?
May I humbly submit Rancid's cover of "La Bamba" by Los Lobos.
the musician you're talking about is a trip. I don't understand him. He is the subject of this twitter post i made 6 days ago: "The subway singer has a big stuffed tiger laying on a bed of fake money. Singing eye of the tiger. Awesome."
It's the same guy, and I love him. He is by far one of the hardest working guys I know.
Some days, I remember coming in early and he's there at the Jackson stop, mic plugged in and doing his thing. Later that same evening, he was there when I was going home. That guy has a crapton of energy.
was going to wait until the holidays to drop this one on everybody, but have an early christmas present.
I just realized that I've posted an example on here before. Let me remind everyone of Quite Possibly the Best Group Lip-Synched Version of "That's What Friends Are For" I've Ever Seen'.
Sure, like the kid with the birthday song, it's more contextual than anything else. But sooo bad, and yet ohhh so good...
I don't know about sung poorly, but I once heard an acoustic version of Van Halen's Jump and I was shocked to realize the lyrics are actually kind of sad:
Oh can't you see me standing here,
I've got my back against the record machine
I ain't the worst that you've seen.
Oh can't you see what I mean?
Might as well jump.
Once I heard this, I began to notice that many of their songs have the "I'm kind of pathetic but why don't you do it with me anyway" theme. Put Van Halen in a whole new light for me.
Was it Mary Lou Lord's version? I picked that as my song for a recent Friday Collective Mixtape. Try here if you want to give a listen, as I think this may be the acoustic version you're after.