Comment by QuercusMax
3 months ago
I just saw Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass in concert last night (he's 90 and can still play that horn!) and one of the things he talked about was recording his vocals for This Guy's In Love With You written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. He's a great musician but not much of a trained singer, and he said when he got into the studio, he sat down and did a relaxed first practice take, expecting he'd go and record one "for real".
Instead, they told him his first take was absolutely perfect - and it went on to be Bacharach/David's first #1 hit song.
Sometimes you get lightning in a bottle, and you just don't mess with it because it's perfect even in its imperfections.
And sometimes for some types of music they will intentionally re-do takes until the singer is a little hoarse and irritated to get a more 'raw' performance.