The Three 'Firsts': Unmasking The Real First Song To Use Auto-Tune

For decades, the music industry and pop culture at large have credited one iconic 1998 track with introducing the world to the distinctive, robotic sound of Auto-Tune. That song, of course, is Cher’s global smash hit, "Believe." However, as of this updated analysis in December 2025, the true history of the technology’s debut on a released record is far more complex and involves a legendary electronic music pioneer who beat Cher to the punch by a full year. The widely accepted answer is commercially correct, but historically inaccurate.

The story of the first song to use Auto-Tune is a fascinating journey that moves from the oil fields of the 1970s to the world of avant-garde electronic music, before finally exploding onto the pop charts. The distinction lies in whether you are asking for the first song to use the software for *pitch correction*, the first song to use it as a *creative effect*, or the first song to make it a *mainstream phenomenon*. We break down the three true 'firsts' that define the history of this revolutionary audio technology.

The Forgotten History: Dr. Andy Hildebrand and Antares Audio Technologies

To understand the first song, we must first understand the technology and its inventor, a brilliant mind who never intended to create a pop music sensation. The story begins not in a recording studio, but in the world of geophysics.

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Dr. Andy Hildebrand: The Unlikely Father of Auto-Tune

The Auto-Tune software was the brainchild of Dr. Andy Hildebrand, a former Exxon geophysicist and engineer. His expertise was in seismic data processing, where he developed complex mathematical algorithms to interpret sonar-generated data—specifically, sound waves reflecting off the earth's subsurface to locate oil deposits.

In the 1980s, Dr. Hildebrand combined his technical knowledge with his passion for music, eventually founding Antares Audio Technologies in 1989. The concept for Auto-Tune came after a colleague jokingly suggested he invent a machine that could help her sing in tune.

• Inventor: Dr. Andy Hildebrand
• Company: Antares Audio Technologies
• Initial Purpose: Discreet pitch correction for vocals.
• Software Release Date: September 19, 1997
• Core Technology: Digital signal processing (DSP) and complex algorithms to detect and correct pitch in real-time.

The software, officially named Auto-Tune, was introduced to the world at the 1997 NAMM show. Its original, intended purpose was subtle: to discreetly fix minor vocal imperfections, making it a powerful, behind-the-scenes tool for audio engineers.

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The Three 'Firsts': From Secret Fix to Pop Sensation

The answer to "What was the first song to use Auto-Tune?" depends entirely on how you define 'use.' The true first recorded use, the first commercial hit, and the first song to use it as an obvious effect all have different answers.

1. The True First Released Song: Aphex Twin's "Funny Little Man" (1997)

The official software was released on September 19, 1997. It took less than a month for a pioneering artist to get their hands on it and use it not as a corrective tool, but as a deliberate, creative effect. That artist was Aphex Twin (Richard D. James), a visionary in the electronic music world.

The track, "Funny Little Man," was released on the *Come to Daddy* EP on October 6, 1997. The song features a distinctive, stair-steppy, and highly distorted voice effect used throughout the track, which is now widely recognized as the sound of Auto-Tune set to an extreme, rapid-fire correction speed.

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This early, experimental use predates the mainstream hit by almost a year and is a crucial piece of music history that is often overlooked. It was the first instance of the technology being used to *create* a new sound rather than just *correct* an old one.

2. The First Mainstream Hit and the 'Cher Effect': "Believe" (1998)

While Aphex Twin was the first to release a track using the effect, the song that catapulted Auto-Tune into the global consciousness—and created the "Cher Effect"—was Cher's "Believe," released in October 1998.

The song's producers, Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling, used the software to create a distinctive, rapid-pitch-shifting sound on Cher's vocals, particularly on the word "believe." They initially tried to pass the effect off as a vocoder, telling an interviewer it was a "vocoder effect," in an attempt to keep their new sonic trick a secret.

The success of "Believe" was monumental, making the Auto-Tune sound a signature element of late 90s and early 2000s pop music. It was the first time the technology was used so prominently and obviously on a pop track, transforming it from a mere studio tool into a powerful artistic device.

3. The First Widespread Use for *Pitch Correction* (Unknown)

It is virtually impossible to name the absolute first song where Auto-Tune was used for its original, intended purpose: discreet pitch correction. Because the goal was to be undetectable, countless songs released between late 1997 and 1998 likely utilized the software to subtly polish vocals before "Believe" made the effect famous. This quiet, behind-the-scenes use is the most common function of the software, and its earliest application remains a studio secret.

Auto-Tune Precursors: Vocoders vs. Talk Boxes

The distinctive, robotic sound of Auto-Tune is often confused with older technologies. It is essential for topical authority to distinguish the "Cher Effect" from its sonic ancestors, the vocoder and the talk box, both of which predate Auto-Tune by decades.

• Talk Box: This is an analog device that directs sound from an instrument (like a guitar or synthesizer) through a tube into the musician's mouth, allowing them to shape the sound with their lips and tongue. The most famous proponent was Roger Troutman of the funk band Zapp, whose 1980s hits like "More Bounce to the Ounce" are iconic examples.
• Vocoder: A vocoder is an electronic device that analyzes the characteristics of a human voice (the modulator) and applies those characteristics to another sound source (the carrier, usually a synthesizer). This creates the classic robotic voice heard in tracks like Kraftwerk's "Autobahn." Unlike Auto-Tune, a vocoder does not correct pitch; it simply blends two sounds.

While the talk box and vocoder created similar synthetic vocal sounds, Auto-Tune was the first software to use digital signal processing to *lock* a vocal performance to a specific musical scale, creating the signature stepped-pitch effect.

The Legacy of the Auto-Tune Effect

The true legacy of Auto-Tune is that it democratized vocal perfection and, inadvertently, created a whole new genre of vocal performance. After Cher's success, the effect was initially dismissed as a gimmick, but it was quickly adopted and redefined by a new generation of artists.

The technology was famously embraced by T-Pain in the mid-2000s, who used the effect so consistently that the sound became synonymous with his style, leading to the coining of the term "T-Pain Effect." Later, artists like Kanye West turned the effect into a powerful emotional tool on his seminal 2008 album *808s & Heartbreak*, using the digital distortion to convey a sense of raw, broken vulnerability.

From a discreet pitch-fixing tool to an experimental sound effect used by Aphex Twin, and finally to a global pop phenomenon thanks to Cher, Auto-Tune’s journey is one of the most transformative in modern music history. Today, the software continues to be used on virtually every major pop, hip-hop, and R&B track, both for subtle correction and for its now-iconic, robotic sound.