...Pink Floyd used on Echoes (and Embryo? can't remember) came about when David Gilmour inadvertently plugged his wah-wah pedal in the wrong way around.

Feedback in general was an accidental consequence of the increase in volume and size of amplification...

learnt to play his "acquired" saxophone by self teaching, but played all his parts in the wrong key.
When he became aware of this mistake, he re-learnt all his sax parts in the correct key.
Madness never sounded the same again, and split up soon after

(This story may be an urban myth, as I can't find any specific evidence to back up my long held belief that this is true)

id never heard that one. he doesnt sound out of tune on the records though. Surely he should have just went back to what had worked.

it does suond like a bit of an urban myth to me though, I have to say, unless anyone else knows otherwise.

Not sure- but was he not short in the finger department? Or short fingers- the tips were missing?

spent an age laying down the backing track to I Feel Love (in the days of analogue), only to realise he'd recorded it in the wrong key.
Donna Summer had to sing falsetto and a disco classic was born.

story that the extraordinary "distant thunder" sound at the beginning of Dancing in the City came when she knocked over an amp:

As for the explosion at the top of the song -- that was one of those serendipitous events. One day, rehearsing the song, I was sitting on my Roland Chorus Reverb amp, tipping it forwards. Then, just as Bob was finishing the count-off, my bum slipped and the amp fell backwards, setting off the mechanical spring reverb. Bob said, 'We must keep that!'

http://www.stereosociety.com/khdancing.shtml

About 11 secs in here I think, after the ad:

The harpsichord (or whatever it is) is out of pitch.

Ditto the saxophone (or whatever) on 808 State's Pacific.

Really darling, I'm used to working with professionals.

was a bit of an accident, stumbled across when his original effect-free guitar part was played back through his amp. What came out was the juddering tremelo effect that makes the record so colossal. How Soon Is Now was then patiently put together by Marr and John Porter fidgeting about with the tremelo knobs on the Fender Twins while the tapes rolled. If you like, you could take 5 mins and read more about it here:

http://philspector.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/marrs-barres/

The vibrating wine-bottle/wail thing at the end (see Ian McDonald's account). Well improvised, P & G.

You do? Oh well, as you were.

claims that the great crunchy guitar sounds just before the chorus of 'Creep' was his attempt to break the monotony of a rather boring tune. (his words)

Orchestra

Micky Dolenz passed the audition to become a Monkee, and was given tuition in playing drums. However, no-one thought to check whether he was right or left-handed, and so he (a southpaw) was taught to play a kit set up for right-handers.

Originally recorded by it's writer, Richard Berry; then covered by Rockin' Robin Roberts who had a regional hit with it in the Seattle area. This record was heard by one of The Kingsmen, who got it wrong when he taught it to the rest of the band, "which," said Richard Berry, "I'm really glad about."

It could also be said the FBI made a mistake when they spent two years investigating alleged obscenities in the lyrics and concluded "unintelligible at any speed," thus making the record even more popular.

remember reading that he accidentally scrubbed the drums at the start, hence the long intro before they come in (i.e. they were originaly in, all the way from the beginning).
On listening back to what he thought would be a calamitous error he liked the effect and left it in.

If, that is, I remember that story correctly...good record, anyway!

IIRC, Orange Juice's "Rip It Up" came about as the band were trying to cover a Chic song, and quite simply couldn't play it fast enough.

The "Blue Monday" we all know and love is the 2nd version of the song, after the first was totally wiped from the computer when it was accidentally unplugged... the band insist they never managed to replicate the feel of the the far better original.

And the "DAH-DER!" stab in Gary Numan/Tubeway Army's "Are 'Friends' Electric?" was a mistake that sounded better than the originally intended notes.

Bowie accidentally inverts the sax riff on the intro but they all liked it and it stayed in

The famous hook to the Little Richard song came with him trying to teach the drummer how he wanted a drum fill to go at the end of each verse. They quickly realised Little Richard singing it was better than the drummer could do it.

Was reading 'The Fallen' last night and there is an anecdote about a track on The Frenz Experiment containing a blast of another song as ME Smith took the tapes home and sat on the tape recorder thus recording a brief snatch of someone elses song over his own.

The intro of I Feel Fine-accidental feedback from a semi-acoustic

See under "structure" here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Feel_Fine

Didn't Bono lose all the lyrics for an early album and have to rapidly write some new ones?

Didn't Bono lose all the lyrics for an early album and have to rapidly write some new ones?

but didn't Rock n Roll on the 4th Led Zeppelin album come about because Bonham got frustrated with Page trying to get a particular drum sound for Four Sticks, that Bonzo just couldn't get the hang of. In his frustration he launched into a completely different drum pattern, that the others immediately picked up on and the song Rock n Roll was put down on tape there and then.

Frontman Marcus owes his grizzly voice to his habit of eating up to six poor people a week.

when the power in the control room inexplicably goes out. Since the equipment in the studio itself is still on, the group continues playing, unaware of the rising panic on the other side of the glass. Without warning the electricity flips back on and the console resumes recording perfectly in sync with where the feed had dropped out - hence the lyrical non sequitur between verses two and three in the finihed version. If you listen on headphones carefully enough you can hear the join. At least, that's the way I got told it.

being allowed within a million light years of a recording facility.

I remember reading (maybe in Julian Cope's book?) that the entire second side - basically consisting of sped up or slowed down remixes of existing tracks - owes its existence to Neu! running out of money halfway through.

It doesn't exactly improve the album, but it has its merits as a gesture. And it still sounds better than Coldplay.

I heard on a documentary once that Giorgio Moroder asked an engineer to programme the sequencer at a slow speed and came back later to discover it had been programmed wrong and had came out all fast.....

...and I missed it.

....everything stinks on this song,the synth is out of tune,the bass and the singing - though the original 1986 'disco' version is o.k.
Even the Florence version is rancid - and worse when Dizee Rascal buts in.