Cultural References To Stuttering - Music

Music

"K-K-K-Katy" was published in 1918 by Geoffrey O'Hara and became a huge hit in wartime America, referred to as "The Sensational Stammering Song Success Sung by the Soldiers and Sailors". Anyone who had either a stutter or a lisp was covered. The song uses stuttered lyrics in every line of the chorus, and refers to the stuttering of a stereotypically bashful suitor.

Alvin Lucier's 1969 experimental piece I Am Sitting in a Room prominently features his stuttering, as well as making reference to it in the spoken lyrics: "I regard this activity ... as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have."

A stylized form of stuttering has frequently appeared in popular music over the past few decades. Buddy Holly was a notable user of this technique in many of his songs, as well as supplementing the stutters with other verbal 'tics' and 'hiccups'. In some songs from the 1960s and 1970s the vocalist would rapidly repeat the first syllable of a word. An early example is The Who's 1965 song "My Generation", in which Roger Daltrey sings the line "Just talkin' 'bout my G-g-g-generation". In that particular case, the song's stuttering style provides a framework leading up to the sly lyric, "Why don't you just ff-ff-fffffffffade away!". The Rasmus used a similar technique in their song F-F-F-Falling.

Another example was the affected stuttering by Canada's Bachman-Turner Overdrive in their 1974 hit song "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet". The stutter was not intended to be part of the final release, it was originally done as a joke about Randy Bachman's brother George, who stuttered.

Three songs have gone to #1 on the Billboard charts that include stuttering in the lyrics. Bennie & The Jets by Elton John (04/13/1974), You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Bachman-Turner Overdrive (11/9/1974), and My Sharona by The Knack (08/25/1979-09/29/1979). Sussudio by Phil Collins is another song that went to #1 on 07/06/1985, but he really sings the lyric rather than stuttering through it.

By the early 1980s producers were creating the same effect synthetically using tape editing and sampling of lyrics. Paul Hardcastle's 1985 song "19" features it throughout in both the spoken word and vocal segments. Remixes of songs very frequently employed the effect. Starting in the 1990s stuttering effects fell out of popular use in music.

In 1995, stutterer Scatman John turned his problem into his asset and wrote the hit song "Scatman". Stuttering assisted him to scat sing and create incredible sounds. The lyrics are inspirational and directed at stutterers:

Everybody stutters one way or the other so check out my message to you

As a matter of fact, don't let nothin' hold you back

If the Scatman can do it, so can you.

In 2001, "Stutter" by American R&B singer Joe featuring Mystikal, held the number-one spot for four weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.

Placebo used a stammering man's voice on their song "Swallow" featured on their 1996 debut album, Placebo.

The song For You I Will (Confidence) by American pop singer Teddy Geiger features the line "forgive me if i st-- stutter from all of the clutter in my head"

The lead singer of indie band Bloc Party, Kele Okereke, has a very pronounced stutter when speaking, but it is not identifiable whilst singing.