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Post by 80sat40fan on May 24, 2021 10:33:19 GMT -5
Some AT40 singers and groups have taught us you don't have to sing perfect English to have a hit song. We have back to back songs on this week's 5/27/72 countdown to highlight this. At #22, Paul Simon's song is "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard" which would have most English teachers cringe just in hearing the title. In one of the verses, he sings, "And when the radical priest / come to get me released / We was all on the cover of Newsweek". Oops  ! The very next song at #21 features Todd Rundgren with "I Saw The Light" in which he sings, "But I tried to run / Though I knew it wouldn't help me none" with his background singers singing, "Not help me none!" A double negative times two... yikes  ! So what are some other examples of Top 40 songs in which bad English is sung (and not Bad English like "When I See You Smile" )? Titles, verses and choruses are all fair game here. |
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Post by at40nut on May 24, 2021 11:03:01 GMT -5
George Harrison- "When We Was Fab"
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Post by papathree on May 24, 2021 12:30:12 GMT -5
Aretha Franklin's backing chorus singers in Bridge over Troubled Water as they sing "Still waters run deep, yes it do."
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles on I Don't Blame You at All when Smokey sings "I should of did it myself."
BTO singing "You ain't seen nothing yet."
Stevie Wonder singing "You haven't done nothing."
John Cougar Mellencamp in Small Town sings "from where it is I come from."
One from the upcoming "A" show this week: "Look What You Done for Me" by Al Green.
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Post by mga707 on May 24, 2021 13:37:40 GMT -5
One obvious one from 1977: Joe Tex' "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)". That's the only "Ain't Gonna" song to make the 40 in the 70-88 Casey timeframe. Angel's remake of the Young Rascals' #52 1966 first chart single, "(I) Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" just missed in '78. reaching #44.
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Post by Hervard on May 24, 2021 15:07:54 GMT -5
Missy Elliott sings "Get your hair did" in "Work It".
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Post by slf on May 24, 2021 17:14:22 GMT -5
One of my favorite such examples is in Paul McCartney & Wings' "Live And Let Die": "But if this ever-changing world in which we live in..." One too many prepositions.
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Post by Jessica on May 24, 2021 17:51:00 GMT -5
Great thread
Ghostbusters:“Who you gonna call” should be “whom are you going call”
“What’s Love Got To With It” by Tina Turner should be “what does love have to do with it”
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Post by Hervard on May 24, 2021 18:07:13 GMT -5
One of my favorite such examples is in Paul McCartney & Wings' "Live And Let Die": "But if this ever-changing world in which we live in..." One too many prepositions. I think Paul might be singing "this ever-changing world in which we're living". |
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Post by slf on May 24, 2021 18:27:31 GMT -5
Here's an example I bet many of you would not think of. In the second verse of "Signs" by the Five Man Electrical Band (and later, Tesla), the singer proclaims "If God was here, he'd tell you to your face/Man, you're some kind of sinner". He should have sung "If God WERE here". This is a rare explicit example in English of the subjunctive mode. The subjunctive mode is used when referring to hypothetical situations, or situations that don't exist, but you're pretending that they do. That is why in this context, the seemingly correct WAS should be changed to WERE, because God is not here in the flesh, but the singer is pretending that he is. In English, there are not that many situations where we have to conjugate a verb into the subjunctive mode, by there are frequent examples in other languages. I can personally vouch that Spanish utilizes the subjunctive mode quite often.
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Post by mga707 on May 24, 2021 20:32:31 GMT -5
In English, there are not that many situations where we have to conjugate a verb into the subjunctive mode, by there are frequent examples in other languages. I can personally vouch that Spanish utilizes the subjunctive mode quite often. Entiendo lo que dice! The subjunctive in Spanish is common, and probably one of hardest parts of the language for an English speaker to master. Probably the reverse is true also. |
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Post by mga707 on May 24, 2021 20:41:35 GMT -5
Another one with the bad grammar right in the title: 1974-75, J. Geils Band, "Must Of Got Lost".
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Post by mkarns on May 24, 2021 23:38:12 GMT -5
Crystal Gayle, "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue"
The Go-Gos, "We Got the Beat"
Rose Royce, "Love Don't Live Here Anymore"
REO Speedwagon, "That Ain't Love"
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RNH
Full Member
Posts: 197
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Post by RNH on May 24, 2021 23:46:26 GMT -5
Any song by America! |
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Post by kchkwong on May 25, 2021 8:25:53 GMT -5
It Don't Matter To Me - Bread
It Don't Come Easy - Ringo Starr
He Don't Love You (Like I Love You) - Tony Orlando & Dawn
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Post by Hervard on May 25, 2021 8:32:00 GMT -5
Any song by America! Yeah, they use the word "ain't" in both of their #1 hits. |
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