It’s Danny Korthmar on “Running On Empty”. Rosemary Butler’s backing vocal is also noteworthy.

I don't think a vocoder was used on 10cc I'm Not In Love. That effect was created by re-re-re-re-re-blending their own voices up to 16 times for each note in the chromatic scale. Then they "played" each note using a fader on the mixing console. That wierd sibilance to the ahhhhhhs is a natural artifact of all those tracks being blended together in the analog domain. A masterpiece of music and engineering. What's interesting is Billy Joe and Phil Ramone did the same thing for background vocals in Just The Way You Are in 1977, a year after I'm Not In Love was a hit.

This is the kind of stuff I LOVE discussing with other musicians/song writers recording their own music.

Among many things I love about JT, is how he commands time. He can really wait a loong time past the frase before he starts singing. Love it when he takes his own good time.

More of this content please!

I recognized that drum in Rickie Lee Jones straight away 😁😁🎶💚🙏🏽 xx

Aimee, I think you landed upon something for me. So often, it is that detail that makes the song! It is the sound we express when telling others to listen to that song. It is the sound we make in social gatherings when we are talking with others about that song because it stood out to us. Thanks so much for aggregating just some of these here to get my mind swirling on the possibilities that songs can become iconic over a simple sound or moment in the song. Cheers!

If you love vocoder vocals, then the Sunlight album by Herbie Hancock is a must listen!

Aimee, you are music music-listening soulmate! This is exactly how I love to listen to music!

Brilliant! I love this all great selections. This idea goes on forever!

I don't think 10CC used a vocoder, they recorded 48 voices for each note of the scale then used the faders on the mixing desk to bring up different channels/notes for different parts of the song. There's a documentary on youTube somewhere which goes into this that's well worth seeking out.

You have an ear. Wow. Thanks!

I see a thumbnail with Donald Fagen or John Lennon, I click!

A video on Steely Dan backing vocals, please! 🙂 With a focus on Michael McDonald's "Children we have it right here" in "Time Out of Mind"

The founding members of The Eagles started off as Linda Ronstadt's backing band. They had written some songs together, and started The Eagles as a side project that quickly blew up and became huge.

What a great little video. You should do more of these. Have you ever done a video on great chord progressions?

Always thought there was something special in the songs you brought up, but never could put my finger on what it was that made it unique and memorable. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Great video and song picks !

Aja: some of the best drumming and bass playing on any album in the past 100 years. Including Mr. Steve Gadd.

Great video Aimee. FYI, In the Air Tonight was released 3 years before I Just Called to Say I Love You…

This is why I love my DAW. Sometimes I stick to straight piano though to make sure I actually know what I'm doing. 👍 Love your content on Nebula and KZfaq! I'm good with my P71 but that Yamaha CP looks really sweet!

What an awesome video, the small things are what makes me love a record and listen to it over and over.

You are killing me ! In a good way. Great job featuring some great songs to make your point. It landed solid with me. Thanks 😎🤙

That's a signature Larrie London fill. They are all over that Steve Perry solo album as well as Journey's Raised on Radio. She's Mine, Strung Out, I'll Be Alright Without You for example

Here for Lennon. Thanks 👍

very nice. fun vid.

I love Rickie Lee Jones. those were some tasty licks. thanks for the video

This is such a great episode. Such a great ear!

After listening for 75 seconds I love this video! And in general I love you for your love of music, and the knowledge thereof! It all begins with love. "Music Is Love" (David Crosby song)!

If you didn't know, on Stevie's 12 inch extended mix of I Just Called...., he sings an entire verse through the vocorder!! It's the "no New Year's Day...." verse. Look it up and enjoy!

Love this, thank you. My discovery like this was the backing harmonies on We’ve Only Just Begun by the Carpenters. Sooo sweet. I’m gonna go hear it, bye!

I was floored when Chuck E’s in Love when it came out, and still play that album maybe once a month still. I guess that dates me…LOL.

I highly recommend looking up the making of 10cc’s I’m Not In Love. No vocoder was used but you’ll be amazed at how they did do it.

Great concept for a video series! As a guitar nerd: many of the guitar fills in Ozzy's "Crazy Train" are chromatic and IMHO intended to imply a playful "going crazy"...

Madame Nolte, whenever I listen to you, I find peace through... (rhymes :-)) Indeed very nice selection of songs... Recently I notice that recordings from 70s can sound quite satisfying and artistically more fulfilling than those done in later decades... No, I'm not suggesting a vinyl vs mp3-laser-disc discussion here.

Jenifer Rush, Ring of ice, the rythm synth in the chorus is someone singing chaka chaka through a vocoder. That was a kicker to figure out when someone hired me to recreate the backtrack as close to the origional as possible. If is a great way to learn production and engineering.

Thanks!

We are always on the same wavelength its crazy. I recently was digging deep doing research on that Roland Vocoder and other vocoders from the late 70s/early 80s.

I’d point elsewhere for early vocoder use, the most colossal example being Roger Troutman & Zapp. Was heavily on this at least 4 years before Stevie’s “I just called…” Stevie used it much more subtly, though, so I totally understand your discovery of it as “one of the tiny things…”

You could said about I just wasn't made for these times, in the chorus, the backing vocals sings in Spanish

The last minute of Give a Little Bit by Supertramp has some great bass

Good ears. Thanks. It was a golden age. Hey, Aimee, stemming off of this, have you done a video on the way great songs have such a tight fit between melody and lyric? I'm thinking of How Do You Keep the Music Playing (listen to Helen Charlston & the Trinity College Choir from Cambridge), I Get Along Without You Very Well, If You Could See Me Now, What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life (why do they all have such long titles?) But the melodies and lyrics fit so well that almost no other combination could be conceived; it just had to be. If you've done one, I'd like to see it. If not, maybe a project.

This is awesome - this stuff fascinates me, too. There's a ton of tasty little tidbits and almost-hidden gems in most Fleetwood Mac work.....

Also find Joni Mitchell's recording of You're so square ( baby I don't care) and check out the very tasty drumming of Vinnie Coliauta!! You'll be blown away at the little polyrhythms!!

Aimee, if you really listen closely you can hear water drops hitting a bongo head, off the beat but in it's own pocket, on Donald Fagen's amazing "Walk Between the Raindrops".

The piano part in Brandy by Looking Glass is so subtle and complex rhythmically. I've always been perplexed by it.

Google the making of "I'm Not In Love" by 10cc. That is a fascinating story. They will tell you how they did the vocals.

Steve Gadd = my favorite

:: Hi Aimee! Talking about vocoder, Roger Troutman from Zapp is a master :) / Also, the Carpenters bass line reminds me of Paul McCartney's intro; starting on high notes ::

The Stevie Wonder segment reminded me of the voice sampling synth in Miles Davis' Tutu (1986), played and arranged by Marcus Miller.

Vocoder featured on Tug of War’s Be What You See

One of my favorite tiny details in a song comes at the very end of James Taylor's "(I've Got To) Stop Thinking' 'Bout That," where he ad libs "tentpole city, baby" during the fade out, to emphasize how...erm, excited... the woman in the song makes him feel. That line does not appear in the liner notes or in any songbook, I'm pretty sure!🍆 Another tiny detail that applies generally to the entire Steely Dan discography is all the times Donald Fagen double- or triple-tracks his vocals in places with astonishing precision. He is such an underrated singer!

Nothing like a nice bass gliss.

Jammin’ on the one, jam- jammin’ on the one. IYKYK

2:00 - I believe the album version as MUCH more of the Roland featured.

regarding "blue bayou", tom bukovac just posted a video (as he's restringing his guitar in studio) where he falls into a conversation with dan dugmore, who played steel on blue bayou and was on the session with tom. check it out.

I played “Running on Empty” a lot when I was prepping for my colonoscopy

Do you like the work Tina & the Ikettes did with Zappa on Overnight Sensation? Then there is Ricky Lancelotti to consider.

Tin Man from America A lot of people don't know during the chorus No OZ never did give nothing to the tin Man George Martin who produced after the Beatles some America albums adds a little tiny triangle. You have to listen very carefully if you don't know what you're listening for but once you do you can hear the triangle

The vocoder was invented in the 30's. Kraftwork used it in the 70's as did E.L.O.

Victor Feldman plays the electric piano on Josie, not Fagen.

❤✌ If you like organic musical drumming, check out Mitch Mitchell's work with Jimi Hendrix. Especially on the Axis album (my favourite). Today I would skip the first track, EXP. Which is a combined joke/guitar cacophony. The rest of the album is pure magic. Mr Mitchell was a drum student of Jim Marshall. (Yes, that Jim Marshall. The amplifier guy) And has a very fluid touch to his playing. Not a click track within earshot. Very dynamic music regarding volume and tempo both. Talk about flow.

Vocoder song. Earth, Wind and Fire in Let's Groove. Blue Bayou. Written by the late Roy Orbison and Joe Melson. Jackson Browne was the neighbor of The Eagles. He also hung out with Linda Ronstadt. Late David Lindley played the lead guitar as if it was a lap steel guitar 🎸. Leland Sklar played bass guitar 🎸. 5 years later, he played with Phil Collins. Leland Sklar has a KZfaq channel. Bob Seger and the late Glenn Frey were born and raised in Detroit. They met when they were adults. Oh Sherrie and some songs in Street Talk. 40 years 🎂 Short story. Randy Goodrum thought he was going to write ✍ with a member of Aerosmith. But the daughter of RG got her Journey poster and pointed who Steve Perry is. Joe Perry of Aerosmith =/= Steve Perry of Journey! L 🤣 L Journey had Prairie Prince, Ansley Dunbar and Steve Smith as drummers. Steve Perry chose late Larry Lundin as drummer for Raised on Radio and Street Talk. I miss Rickie Lee Jones.

2:40 - ACK. I abhor the production on "In the Air Tonight". Can you say "screechy"?

check out 'Oh Marion' by Paul Simon One Trick Pony album. Steve Gadd drum intro. !! ala Rickie Lee Jones.. :-)

Jim Keltner & Nick Lowe on John Hiatt's "Thing Called Love" is one of the Desert Island ones for me...sound quality on yt doesn't do it justice but the pockets on this thing are deep! The farther they get into the tune, the farther behind the beat they hold it. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rq6HiLOaztOqgHk.html

Do you have some learning videos on nebula?

Wow, they didn't use hiphop or rap on AJA !!! Wow but ya :)

Gimmicks like Stevie Wonder's "choir" are awright once or twice, and Cher's "Life After Love" was fun, but nothing beats musicians playing. Minds inspiring eachother in the moment. Conversation in the subtle language of music, feelings, and a strange kind of association, that only music lovers can appreciate.

Stevie Wonder used a talkbox to do all of his backing/lead vocals on this Beatles classic sung by Syreeta and it's amazing, extensive and very early I believe. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/htt-mJiavp65o6M.htmlsi=Bc9VhCngMFOMkaJL

Speaking of Stevie Wonder. Your comment reminded me of a bit in the Docu-Series, "Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music" from PBS a few years back. It's really really good and most I believe is available on youtube. But I digress, this opens with Synth Pioneers, Margouleff and Cecil getting an unexpected visitor to their studio: Stevie Wonder. Wondering how they were making those fantastic sounds on their new album, "Zero Time." kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d-B_n7dl2uCVdaM.html

Herbie Hancock, and countless others, used vocoder in the 1970s. Stevie wasn’t really a trailblazer on this one.

Very enjoyable video- really an insight into how little details in arrangement and production can give that extra edge to a song. Prince was a master at this: his little guitar flourish at 2:05 in "Controversy" is a case in point. Really, one of the main reasons I listen to modern Japanese pop/rock is that a lot of the songs still have this sense of musicality and craft. The collaboration between Sara Wakui and Kaho Nakamura ("Gyoukan" trans. "Between The Lines") is a recent case in point. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qZilYLGCmrydYmw.htmlsi=BcIQAII_hQmMjhKw

You are wrong on 10cc using Vocoders

Great video ❤ there's a very cool 😎 song 🎵 called " the lucky one " by laura branigan, please check it out I think that you will enjoy it very much.

"Makes it sound years beyond the 1980s". Kids these days... The Alan Parsons Project famously used it in "The Raven" in 1976, and ELO in "Mister Blue Sky" in 1977. And it's "early adopter", not "early adapter". 😉

Stevie Wonder, and David Sanborn are mid-level talents, who have been placed on a level far above their talent. It's disappointing to hear them so highly praised - get real.

Something very strange I have to seek out your video, they don't show on my feed? An incredible amount of irrelevant nonsense does show on my feed but not your videos🤷‍♂️

I don't know what the hell she's talking about on Stevie Wonder, neither does she

I played “Running on Empty” a lot when I was prepping for my colonoscopy