The limousine driver recounts Sammy Davis Jr. emerging from the Copacabana at around three in the morning and spotting Frank Sinatra strolling along Broadway. The Copa was situated on 60th Street, east of Fifth Avenue — over half a mile from Broadway.
In the record label convention sequence the band members are shown with herpes sores on their lips, which had not been present earlier. In a deleted scene, while touring with a support act each band member sleeps with the support act's lead singer and the entire band subsequently contracts herpes.
During the performance of "Big Bottom", just as David sings "The looser the waistband", his girlfriend Jeanine appears at the left-hand edge of the stage. She only becomes a member of the band much later in the film, so she ought not to be there (widescreen version only).
During "Stonehenge", the foam windscreen on Nigel's Shure SM-57 microphone repeatedly appears and disappears.
During the rehearsal when the album "Smell the Glove" is first delivered, the horns on the skull stage prop in the background appear alternately absent and present.
In the hotel foyer, Nigel and Mick swap places on either side of David between takes.
In the 'Recording Studio Meltdown' scene, David starts out on a white Stratocaster, briefly swaps to a sunburst Stratocaster and then changes back to the white Stratocaster within seconds — a detail seen only in the Special Edition.
When the new album sleeve is unveiled, David Kaff alters his stance.
While Ian is battering a coffee table with a cricket bat, the drummer and the groupie in the frame, together with the rest of the set and the costumes, are identical to how they appear one minute and forty seconds later during a flashback to their past when they listen to a track from their album by the Tinsmen. Smalls is likewise wearing the same shirt and is in the same hotel room as he is a minute and a half earlier when Ian smashes the television.
After poking fun at Jeanine’s drawings of the zodiac signs, she snatches the artwork from Nigel’s hands — only for him to be holding it again a few seconds later.
When Nigel returns to the group and quarrels with David, Jeanine's scarf shifts position on two separate occasions.
Although the subtitles indicate the band are in Atlanta for a recording-industry convention, the building visible is actually the well-known Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, and an old RTD (now MTA) bus can be seen passing by.
The band's tour runs from the eastern United States to the western United States. The airport scene in which the band discuss the "zodiac" dress style is intended to be set somewhere in the Midwestern United States (it is supposedly two hours to Colorado from there and they are touring from west to east), yet it is obvious they are at the Los Angeles airport, recognisable by the "Theme Building" visible beyond the terminal windows.
In the airport sequence, when Derek Smalls is instructed to empty his pockets and walk back through the metal detector, it doesn't sound as he returns to re-enter. In reality, a metal detector will trigger regardless of the direction from which someone passes through it.
The band visit Elvis Presley's grave in woodland. In reality, Elvis Presley's grave is situated in a paved garden, set against a wall, with a fountain immediately behind it.
Ian Faith uses the term 'triptychs' when he actually means 'triliths'.
Marty Di Bergi wears two different United States Navy caps: one in the film and another in the DVD release's Special Features segment 'Catching up with Marty Di Bergi'. In the film the cap appears to read "USS Coral Sea OV-48", though it should read "USS Coral Sea CV-43". The USS Coral Sea was an aircraft carrier in the United States Navy from 1946 to 1990 and was the second ship to carry that name. In the special features, the cap is from the USS Wadsworth FG-9, a guided-missile frigate that served in the United States Navy from 1978 to 2002; the Wadsworth was transferred to Poland in 2002 and renamed General Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
Although David and Nigel usually play the guitar, both of them play the bass on Big Bottom, because that is what the song demands. It is a musical gag.
Before the Jazz Odyssey, David and Viv go over the set list. As David runs through the line-up he says "Heavy, Hole." He is abbreviating the names of two other Spinal Tap numbers, "Heavy Duty" and "Hell Hole," using a sort of shorthand.
At the time, many British rock musicians often posed as Americans. That accounts for Nigel's American-sounding pronunciation of "semi" and Derek's use of the word "zipper". Jeanine says "airplane" rather than the British "aeroplane", and pronounces exit as 'egg-sit' instead of the British 'ex-it'.
The Spinal Tap logo displays an umlaut (two dots) above the "n" in Spinal — likely a deliberate mistake. Umlauts are used only over vowels. The film's creators probably added it because the band members thought the Germanic/Scandinavian touch looked stylish and fittingly metal.
On Elvis Presley's gravestone, his middle name is inscribed as Aaron, the same as on his birth certificate. Although he used the spelling "Aron" for much of his life, he reverted to the more conventional spelling shortly before his death.
In the closing credits, Russ Kunkel is listed as Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs, the drummer who choked to death on vomit. Yet Kunkel appears in the "Jamboreebop" video; shortly afterwards the band refer to him as Peter 'James' Bond. Although not shown in the film, Peter "James" Bond was the drummer who exploded on stage.
Shortly after a shot depicting the band landing in Seattle, they perform at "Lindberg Air Force Base" because a gig at the civic arena has fallen through. No such Air Force base exists. The only Air Force base in the Seattle area would be McChord, now part of Joint Base Lewis–McChord. However, since this is presented as a fictional documentary, invented locations are to be expected. Therefore, this is not a Goof.
During "Rock and Roll Creation", when Derek is trapped inside the pod, a roadie bangs on it at one stage, but it's obvious he never actually makes contact.
Throughout the film, whenever the band are interviewed outside the castle, lengths of timber can be seen through the windows, indicating that it's merely a façade.
Shortly after Duke Fame walks away from the band, the shadow of the boom microphone can be seen three or four times.
