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Top 15 Vocoder Songs of All Time

April 29th, 2007 | Category: House Music, Marketing

On a more silly note, below is a compiliation of the greatest uses of the fantastic musical instrument, the Vocoder created by the genius Robert Moog Homer Dudley. If you are unfamiliar with what a Vocoder is, it’s pretty much the equivalent of taking your voice and then running it through a robotic cheese grater. What comes out is 100% D-Lite! Enjoy.

15. Bomfunk MC’s - Freestylers

14. Cameo - Word Up


Is that LeVar Burton?

13. Styx - Mr. Roboto

12. United States of Electronica - Party People

11. Air - Sexy Boy


Top 10…After the break.

10. Mylo - Drop the Pressure

9. Ghostland Observatory - Vibrate

8. MSTRKRFT - Easy Love

7. Chromeo - Needy Girl

6. Grandmaster Flash - Scorpio

5. Kraftwerk - The Robots

4. Ferry Corsten - Punk

3. Beastie Boys - Intergalactic

2. Afrika Bambaataa - Planet Rock

1. Daft Punk - One More Time

Honorable Mention for Soundwave of the Transformers

And how did I forget Benassi Brothers? Awesome!

Sphinn

7 Comments so far

  1. Jam May 16th, 2007 6:11 pm

    The Vocoder was invented by Homer Dudley

  2. Walter July 24th, 2007 3:45 pm

    What about Imogen Heap’s “Hide & Seek”?
    That’s a really great song made only by vocoder and all acapella groups sing it, ’cause it’s amazing xD

  3. Christophe April 19th, 2008 4:57 pm

    I’m sorry I know its your list and your choices, but Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek” should be SOMEWHERE in there. Its one of the most haunting and breathtaking songs ever written, and in terms of the vocoder, it manages to transcend the technology by not using it just as a gimmick, but as part of the haunting quality.

    Just my opinion, but I know I’m not alone on this one.

  4. steve of the web July 14th, 2008 4:52 pm

    Is “One More Time” vocoder or autotune? I would have guessed the latter. I agree with the “Hide & Seek” recommendations, but I was more surprised that Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” didn’t make your list.

  5. alec July 17th, 2008 11:25 am

    I don’t think this list is complete without the badassery of “California Love” by Tupac

  6. dave bones July 19th, 2008 12:41 pm

    What about Cher? What about Cher’s Believe huh? The Queens will lynch you!!

  7. soncraig September 1st, 2008 6:37 am

    I love Prayer of the Children. It’s worthy of at least an honorable mention. Not quite so far out there as Hide and Seek but that’s what I like about it. It uses the technology not in a way that sounds techy. You could almost mistake it for being an overdubbed recording because it sounds natural enough while still giving you that full sound.

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