It’s t-t-t-t-t-tickin’ away sings Styx‘ Tommy Shaw on the band’s 1981 hit “Too Much Time on My Hands.” The Knack‘s 1979 hit “My Sharona” caused more controversy over its’ lustful subject matter than its stuttering M-m-m-my Sharona, and David Bowie even staggered on C-c-c-hanges on his Hunky Dory classic.
Throughout rock history, stuttered words or phrases were used to enhance a particular point in the song and were even used by bluesmen like John Lee Hooker, who embraced his stammer in his storytelling, including his self-parody 1953 song “Stuttering Blues.”
The Talking Heads “Psycho Killer,” Phil Colins‘ “Sussudio,” “Two of Hearts” by Stacey Q, Duran Duran‘s “Reflex,” Guns N’ Roses‘ “Welcome to the Jungle,” and more also feature more stuttered words.
Here are three classic rock songs that incorporated stuttering, and topped the charts or faced a ban.
1. “My Generation,” The Who (1965)
Written by Pete Townshend
Videos by American Songwriter
On October 29, 1965, The Who‘s “My Generation” was banned from the radio but it wasn’t because of the band’s lyrics. The BBC banned the song from being played because Roger Daltrey was stuttering through some of the lyrics. The broadcaster was concerned that the staggering words in the lyrics would offend listeners who had a stutter.
People try to put us d-down (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Just because we get around (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I hope I die before I get old (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
Why don’t you all f-fade away (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
And don’t try dig what we all s-s-say (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I’m not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I’m just talkin’ ’bout my g-g-generation (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
The song, written by guitarist Pete Townshend on a train ride from London to Southhampton on his 20th birthday, reflected the angst of the generation in England at the time with its infamous commandment—I hope I die before I get old. “’My Generation’ was very much about trying to find a place in society,” said Townshend. “I was very, very lost. The band was young then. It was believed that its career would be incredibly brief.”
Once the song, the title track of the band’s debut album, became a hit, the BBC finally acquiesced and started playing “My Generation,” but Daltrey didn’t understand the controversy around the song since he was born with a stutter. Townshend’s original demo featured stuttering in the vocals, something he and Daltrey started picking up from Sonny Boy Williamson Jr., who joined the band for some dates and used a stutter in his vocals.
When the band was recording the song, their manager suggested that Daltrey keep the stutter through in some words to give the impression that he was on speed. “I have got a stutter,” revealed Daltrey. “I control it much better now but not in those days. When we were in the studio doing ‘My Generation’, Kit Lambert came up to me and said ‘Stutter.’ I said ‘What?’ He said ‘Stutter the words. It makes it sound like you’re pilled.’”
Daltrey continued, “And that’s how it happened. It was always in there, it was always suggested with the ‘f-f-fade’ but the rest of it was improvised.”
The Who performed “My Generation” on The Smothers Brothers’ Comedy Hour On September 17, 1967. In the end, Keith Moon‘s drums were set to explode, which left Pete Townshend with permanent damage to his hearing.
2. “Bennie and the Jets” (1973)
Written by Bernie Taupin and Elton John
On “Bennie and the Jets,” Elton John added a stutter to B-B-B-Bennie. “That’s a little quirk of the song which I’m sad to say I had nothing to do with,” said Bernie Taupin. “That and that wonderful big chord at the beginning. I think those two things are what probably made that song so popular. Neither of which I had anything to do with.”
Released on John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which went to No. 1, “Bennie and the Jets” also topped the Billboard Hot 100.
3. “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet,” Bachman-Turner Overdrive (1974)
Written by Randy Bachman
Unlike The Who’s ’65 hit, Bachman-Turner Overdrive was later praised for their use of stuttering on the band’s 1974 hit “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet.” In the song, Randy Bachman stutters the words Baby and Nothing in the chorus, which started as an inside joke towards their manager and brother Gary Bachman, who suffered from a stutter.
The band rerecorded another version of “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” for their third album Not Fragile, but Mercury Records insisted on including the version with the stuttering vocals instead. The song went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and Not Fragile also topped the 200 chart.
You ain’t seen nothing yet
B-b-b-baby, you just ain’t seen n-n-n-nothing yet
Here’s somethin’ that you’re never gonna forget
B-b-b-baby, you just ain’t seen n-n-n-nothing yet
Nothing yet, you ain’t been around” (that’s what she told me)
[RELATED: Story Behind “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive]
In 2011, The Stuttering Foundation named the Bachman-Turner Overdrive classic one of the “most unique” rock songs to feature stuttering vocals. Gary Bachman, who died in 2020, later overcame his stuttering with speech therapy and became a successful real estate agent in the band’s hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
“Not only was ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ the first song with stuttering vocals to reach number one, but more importantly it was the first such song that was actually about a real person who stutters and therefore has a human connection to the struggles faced by someone who stutters,” said Jane Fraser, president of the Stuttering Foundation.
“I know people think that these rock songs with stuttering vocals are cute or humorous, but it is a shame that whenever ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet’ is played people do not know the true story behind it,” added Fraser. “If more DJs mentioned the song’s history, it would do a lot to spread a message about stuttering, not to mention the fact that the audience would find it most interesting.”
Photo: Fred Turner and Blair Thornton of Bachman-Turner Overdrive in concert on a CBC-TV special, Toronto, Canada, August 18, 1975 (Ts/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)
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