The song has been the subject of a persistent
urban legend since its release. A scream is heard in the background fairly early in the song (between 1:24 and 1:28 on the single version, or between 2:32 and 2:36 on the album version). According to the most common legend, it was the voice of an individual being murdered live while the tape was rolling. Jimmy "Diamond" Williams described the innocent nature of the scream: There is a part in the song where there's a breakdown. It's guitars and it's right before the second verse and Billy Beck does one of those inhaling-type screeches like
Minnie Riperton did to reach her high note or
Mariah Carey does to go octaves above. The DJ made this crack and it swept the country. People were asking us, "Did you kill this girl in the studio?" The band took a vow of silence because you sell more records that way. The legend appears to have evolved from an incidental comment made by an unidentified
Berkeley, California disc jockey during a radio broadcast, probably in late 1975 or early 1976. It spread and mutated in several variations, probably as a result of
Casey Kasem having repeated it on the nationally syndicated radio show
American Top 40 in early 1976. The most common version of the legend was that the scream was from Ester Cordet, a model who appeared on the cover of the album (
Honey) purportedly stabbed by a band member, manager or engineer during the recording sessions. Subsequent variations included an elaborate backstory involving the artwork on the album cover as a motive for the stabbing. Less common variations identified the "victim" as a band member's girlfriend or cleaning woman. The 1998 film
Urban Legend mentions the legend of this song. ==Charts==