Hit songs without a discernable chorus?
August 6, 2013 1:00 PM Subscribe
I revisited Pulp's "This Is Hardcore" recently for the first time since I was like 19 years old..
The album as a whole is just as awesome as it was when I first bought it, but something that never really occured to me at the time was the title track does functions as a long crescendo that climaxes into something of a cool afterglow (going with entendres per the subject matter of the song) but does not have an obvious chorus. While never charting in America, this song was nevertheless a big hit in the UK.
Which got me wondering what songs in the past have been hits that also had no chorus to speak of. Not counting hip hop, since thats a whole different songwriting paradigm.
The album as a whole is just as awesome as it was when I first bought it, but something that never really occured to me at the time was the title track does functions as a long crescendo that climaxes into something of a cool afterglow (going with entendres per the subject matter of the song) but does not have an obvious chorus. While never charting in America, this song was nevertheless a big hit in the UK.
Which got me wondering what songs in the past have been hits that also had no chorus to speak of. Not counting hip hop, since thats a whole different songwriting paradigm.
Here's 10 from NME. Also, Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells a Story.
posted by scody at 1:06 PM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by scody at 1:06 PM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
Does Bohemian Rhapsody have a chorus? I'd say no.
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:07 PM on August 6, 2013
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:07 PM on August 6, 2013
A lot of stuff by Bob Dylan. Notably "Subterranean Homesick Blues."
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:10 PM on August 6, 2013
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:10 PM on August 6, 2013
Radiohead's Paranoid Android (also Pyramid Song, which was mentioned in the linked NME list above).
posted by saladin at 1:13 PM on August 6, 2013
posted by saladin at 1:13 PM on August 6, 2013
The Smiths' "Paint a Vulgar Picture" and "Hand in Glove."
posted by MeatheadBrokeMyChair at 1:18 PM on August 6, 2013
posted by MeatheadBrokeMyChair at 1:18 PM on August 6, 2013
Batdance.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 1:21 PM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 1:21 PM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
Not sure it was ever a hit, but Stagger Lee has certainly been popular through the years.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:28 PM on August 6, 2013
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:28 PM on August 6, 2013
I think there can be reasonable debate about some of these, but here goes:
Bob Dylan - All Along the WatchTower
Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Beach Boys - God Only Knows
The Doors - The End
Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze
Beatles - A Day in the Life
Beatles - Hey Jude
Beatles - Yesterday
Leonard Cohen - Suzanne
Pete Seeger - If I Had a Hammer
Velvet Underground - Heroin
Black Sabbath - Iron Man
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Bruce Springsteen - Jungleland
Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful World
Edith Piaf - La Vie en Rose
Andy Williams - Moon River
Elvis Presley - Falling in Love With You
Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue
posted by obscure simpsons reference at 1:53 PM on August 6, 2013
Bob Dylan - All Along the WatchTower
Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Beach Boys - God Only Knows
The Doors - The End
Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze
Beatles - A Day in the Life
Beatles - Hey Jude
Beatles - Yesterday
Leonard Cohen - Suzanne
Pete Seeger - If I Had a Hammer
Velvet Underground - Heroin
Black Sabbath - Iron Man
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Bruce Springsteen - Jungleland
Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful World
Edith Piaf - La Vie en Rose
Andy Williams - Moon River
Elvis Presley - Falling in Love With You
Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue
posted by obscure simpsons reference at 1:53 PM on August 6, 2013
Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" is much longer than most songs of its time, and has no chorus.
posted by ubiquity at 1:55 PM on August 6, 2013
posted by ubiquity at 1:55 PM on August 6, 2013
How about "Are 'Friends' Electric?" by Gary Numan? Numan apparently thought it had "no recognizable hook line whatsoever."
posted by honey wheat at 2:05 PM on August 6, 2013
posted by honey wheat at 2:05 PM on August 6, 2013
Roy Orbison, In Dreams
posted by avocet at 2:51 PM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by avocet at 2:51 PM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
Marty Robbins, El Paso.
Daniel Lanois, The Messenger (and the Tea Party cover). (Speaking of which, what about songs where there's a thing that's chorus-like but doesn't come until the very end? Don't Stop Believing, or Hey Jude, or the Tea Party's Release?)
Lots of Mountain Goats songs, but not really the ones that have been hits.
Jazmine Sullivan, Bust Your Windows. (There are verses that repeat, but I don't buy them as a chorus.)
posted by sleepingcbw at 3:05 PM on August 6, 2013
Daniel Lanois, The Messenger (and the Tea Party cover). (Speaking of which, what about songs where there's a thing that's chorus-like but doesn't come until the very end? Don't Stop Believing, or Hey Jude, or the Tea Party's Release?)
Lots of Mountain Goats songs, but not really the ones that have been hits.
Jazmine Sullivan, Bust Your Windows. (There are verses that repeat, but I don't buy them as a chorus.)
posted by sleepingcbw at 3:05 PM on August 6, 2013
I've been told that Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy was originally written with a chorus, but they decided to omit it.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:01 PM on August 6, 2013
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:01 PM on August 6, 2013
Lucinda Williams frequently writes songs without choruses, but the only one that springs immediately to mind is "Change the Locks."
posted by pasici at 4:05 PM on August 6, 2013
posted by pasici at 4:05 PM on August 6, 2013
The Nails, 88 Lines about 44 Women, though perhaps it's less a hit song and more a hit-that song.
posted by drlith at 6:53 PM on August 6, 2013
posted by drlith at 6:53 PM on August 6, 2013
Robyn had a big hit with "With Every Heartbeat," no real verse/chorus structer.
posted by 1adam12 at 7:57 PM on August 6, 2013
posted by 1adam12 at 7:57 PM on August 6, 2013
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posted by bondcliff at 1:05 PM on August 6, 2013