Just some contagious giggles that made it past the studio engineers

How about a bit of spontaneous giggling in pop songs? I am glad that they these bits of unbridled joy made it on the albums. Here are 3 of my favourites:

Listen to Michael Stipe on Sidewinder Sleeps tonight. Isn’t it fitting that he giggles just after ‘A reading by Dr Seuss?’ starting at 2:27:

How about Beck on Bogusflow? I don’t know why he cracks up at California white boy sound, when honestly, I was already giggling at his previous line Laminate your face and paste it up into the sky:

Here’s Nelly Furtado & Jarvis Church on Saturdays. Hands down to Church’s ‘take it home’ line which makes Furtado spontaneously combust!

I am certain there are more examples (I am sure a Beatles fans will point to numerous instances).

But these hold a special place for me. When I had bought Automatic for the People, I listened that song to several times - did he really giggle? Yep. He did. I am certain I got the DGC rarities Vol. 1 as a free sample back in the 90s. I didn’t really appreciate Beck until I heard Bogusflow. Is it prophetic when he sings People with cordless personalities, in the nascence of mobile (and eventually smart) phones?

Nelly Furtado’s Forca was one of the first digital albums I owned. I remember listening to my iPod on a walk from Mission Bay to downtown Auckland. That song made me laugh out loud, startling a mother pushing her pram. I burned mix CDs (it was still a thing in the 2000s) for my mates, and Saturdays always featured on them.

I’ll be going to the studio soon to record some vocals. Sadly, most of my songs are serious, so I doubt there will be any spontaneous giggles. But it does make me appreciate the engineers who allow enough comfort for their artists to have fun while doing their job.

The authentic laughter is worthy of preservation.

(and Luke please don’t prank me next Thursday)