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    Records featuring toy instruments

    'Toy' being somewhat subjecive, but y'know.

    Several records feature Stylophones; the most well-known probably being Pocket Calculator by Kraftwerk and David Bowie's Space Oddity.

    And there's the kazoo break on Pink Floyd's Corporal Clegg.

    Any more? Jew's Harp? Comb and paper? Bontempi reed organs?

    #2
    The Toy Instruments, that lost all-female supergroup

    Carrie O'Kee- vocals
    Amanda Lynn- strings
    Cynthia Sizer- keyboards
    Clarrie Nett- woodwind
    Tam Boreen- percussion

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      #3
      And of course, Leopold Mozart.

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        #4
        What a Fool Believes - Self

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CwetL2x1FA

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          #5
          Wild Thing by The Troggs features an ocarina. (Are there any pro ocarina players?)

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            #6
            Originally posted by Duncan Gardner View Post
            The Toy Instruments, that lost all-female supergroup

            Carrie O'Kee- vocals
            Amanda Lynn- strings
            Cynthia Sizer- keyboards
            Clarrie Nett- woodwind
            Tam Boreen- percussion
            There was also Pianosaurus, who were great - they too played all their stuff on toy instruments.

            Others:

            Three Dog Night's Mama Told Me Not to Come also features an ocarina (if we're allowing it).

            The Stones used a toy drum kit on Street Fighting Man.

            Macca used a toy piano on Rock Show from Venus and Mars (1975). (I think Melanie's Brand New Key also uses one, but not sure.)

            File under 'Sort of Counts':

            OMD used a Speak and Spell for some of the Genetic Engineering single (1983).

            John Mellencamp used a rattle when recording Jack and Diane (apparently).

            In the recording of The Monotones' The Book of Love (1958), the percussive 'boom' sound that punctuates each chorus was created by a kid outside kicking (or hitting) a ball against a garage door next to the studio.

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              #7
              A new Face in Hell by The Fall is kazoo heavy.

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                #8
                Weather Report's 'Adios' from the 'Sweetnighter' album features one of those tinkling roller toys.

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnr9IMrUvgA

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                  #9
                  Eek, turns out there's a load of records with Jew's Harps on them.

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                    #10
                    Kazoos on Johnnie Get Angry by Joanie Summers and Dion's Little Diane

                    There's also the soundmaker(?) at the beginning and end of Dylan's Highway 61

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                      #11
                      Heavy on the Drum is heavy on the Jew's Harp. As are other Medicine Head records.

                      Brian May plays a ukulele on his songs on Night at the Opera

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                        #12
                        Brian Wilson used toys on Mrs O'Leary's Cow to imagine a fire engine:

                        Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 16-05-2018, 14:23.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Duncan Gardner View Post
                          Brian May plays a ukulele on his songs on Night at the Opera
                          [Scratches head]

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                            File under 'Sort of Counts':
                            OMD used a Speak and Spell for some of the Genetic Engineering single (1983).
                            Depeche Mode, meanwhile, had already named their debut album Speak & Spell in tribute to the same thing.

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                              #15
                              Nothing to do with the song's actual recording, as far as I know, but I fondly recall Eels 'performing' (miming, obviously) Novocaine For The Soul on toy instruments on Top of the Pops in 1996 – miniature guitar, toy piano, etc. To make a surreal sight even more memorable, they finished by smashing their tiny instruments, like The Who let loose in a doll's house.

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                                #16
                                Does a melodica count? My little sister had one. As did Gang of Four

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                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by Felicity, I guess so View Post
                                  Does a melodica count? My little sister had one. As did Gang of Four
                                  I've been trying to remember the proper name for that weird plastic piano/mouth organ combo as New Order used one on Love Vigilantes.

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                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by Greenlander View Post
                                    I've been trying to remember the proper name for that weird plastic piano/mouth organ combo as New Order used one on Love Vigilantes.
                                    A recorder?

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                                      #19
                                      You have a recorder with a 'piano/mouth organ combo'?

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                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by elguapo4 View Post
                                        A recorder?
                                        Don't think so. I'm sure Barney was puffing something with piano type keys on it.

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                                          #21
                                          It's a melodica. Bernard Sumner plays it on In a Lonely Place - 'b' side of first New Order single Ceremony.

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                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                                            It's a melodica. Bernard Sumner plays it on In a Lonely Place - 'b' side of first New Order single Ceremony.
                                            And also Truth from Movement and I think Turn The Heater On from the Peel Sessions. It's a lovely instrument, especially when used in dub reggae, and appears to have been bought as a result of Ian Curtis' love of such tunes. Now's the time for someone to bring up the fact that his estranged missus said that he was a racist, something he understandably hasn't denied.

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                                              #23
                                              Everything by Noah And The Whale sounds like it's being played by one of those young people's vegetable orchestras you used to see on Blue Peter.

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                                                #24
                                                There's a song on a Four Tet album somewhere where a plastic duck gets squeezed repeatedly. My youngest used to love it when she was small and made me play it again and again, shouting out "Duckeeee!" every time it squeaked and then having a giggle fit.

                                                No way is the melodica a toy.

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                                                  #25

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