Happy accidents happen all the time in music making. While most artists don’t make a habit of leaving in bad takes or other flubs, the rare instances when they do can be magically serendipitous. Below are three classic songs that contain mistakes that ended up benefiting them in the long run.
Videos by American Songwriter
“(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” (Otis Redding)
The flub in Otis Redding‘s “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” isn’t so much a mistake as it was a tragic, unforeseen setback. Redding didn’t get a chance to finish this track before he died in a plane crash at 26 years old.
Before the crash, Redding had put in a whistled final verse as a placeholder for lyrics he would eventually nail down. Only he didn’t get to. His team decided to release the song posthumously, making it one of Redding’s biggest hits. The final verse remained a whistle, which became a fan favorite aspect of the song. It wasn’t what he intended, and he didn’t get to finish the job, but Redding’s final track turned out to be the perfect way to eulogize a legend. Read more about the making of this song below.
“Roxanne” (The Police)
The opening chords to The Police‘s “Roxanne” are iconic. Everyone knows what’s in store when those first few punchy guitar notes come on. Underneath them is an equally iconic piano trill, but that trill wasn’t originally intended to be in the song. It came from a studio mishap that Sting found enticing enough to leave in the final product.
While recording his vocals, the frontman wanted to sit for a while. He plopped down right where he was, thinking the baby grand behind him had the keys covered. When they weren’t, the microphone picked up what Sting called “a demolished” chord. It made him laugh, so he left it in the recording. It feels so right for the piece that many listeners probably didn’t even register it as a mistake.
“…Baby One More Time” (Britney Spears)
“…Baby One More Time” made Britney Spears into a household name. But when you really get into the lyrics, the titular line doesn’t make much sense, and has violent allusions. As it turns out, the title line for this pop hit was mistranslated by its Swedish producer, Max Martin.
Apparently, Martin thought the phrase “hit me” could be used interchangeably with “call me”, leading to this language mix-up. In the end, it didn’t really matter that the lyrics had some translation issues. “…Baby One More Time” skyrocketed Spears to international fame.
(Photo by Peter Noble/Redferns)
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