Songs where the real hook is in the verse and the chorus is unmemorable by comparison

I was just thinking about how in the song "Beast of Burden," the earworm is the first line of the verse, whereas the "Am I hard enough..." whatever part doesn't really stick with me as much.

Other songs like this?

i feel like this is something that pavement is good at but I can’t think of any particular examples right now ( or maybe it’s just that their songs don’t really have choruses?)

Led Zep: "Out On The Tiles"

No way will there be any disagreements on this thread.

How about Rain, by the Beatles

"Drop Dead Legs"

Led Zep: "Out On The Tiles"

― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, October 5, 2017 4:19 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I like the chorus on that one, especially the "ooh yeah" part, but it's definitely the verse riff that makes it.

For me, "Black Hole Sun" drags down a perfectly good Aerosmith verse with a really leaden, plodding chorus.

"Lithium"

beast of burden is just kinda weirdly written. the chorus and verse are combined the "am i hard enough" part should really just be a middle eight

Dido, "Thank You"
Kiesza, "Hideaway"

Journey - Don't Stop Believing

Also from Nirvana : "Come as you are".

It's a nice songwriting trick.
Also, even more difficult (and nice) : the pre-chorus being the real hook of a song !

Oh yeah, totally re "Come As You Are". "Don't Stop Believin'" is all hook imo.

So What - Pink

Journey - Don't Stop Believing
top pick

this is v common ime, for some reason it seems easier to write a killer verse than a killer chorus

"Lucky Man"

"Cinnamon Girl" - if that second part is a chorus?

xp *throws penalty flag* nothing about "Lucky Man" is memorable but the synth solo

Song where the chorus is:

"Oooh, love you, Oooh, love you, Oooh, and I love you, Oooh, love you"

Absolute - Scritti Politti

Heeeeee had white horses

Cream's "White Room," maybe? Is the little falsetto bit ("I'll wait in this place" etc.) a chorus? It's not a verse.

INXS "The One Thing." Really, the guitar hook in between the verses and choruses is the memorable part. But the verses are still more exciting than the chorus.

Lithium is so OTM. Lots of other Nirvana songs, too: On a Plain, Drain You, All Apologies, Swap Meet, Scentless Apprentice, Come As You Are for sure as well...

some Pumpkins songs off the top of my head: Cherub Rock, Zero, Today, Pennies, Tonight Tonight, Galapagos, The Everlasting Gaze, Crush, Tristessa, I of the Mourning...

"Today" doesn't even have a real chorus, where text and music are both repeated, does it? If you're thinking of the "I wanted more/Than life would ever grant me..."/"Pink ribbon scars..." section, I really disagree that this is less memorable than the verse. It always gets in my head.

i dunno if neil diamond rapping the added UB40 chorus to red red wine is unmemorable exactly...

yeah I was referring to that as the chorus. it's catchy, but not nearly as much as the verse, which is so close to the ice cream truck jingle riff that starts the song (and eventually reappears at the end of the song).

xp

The Ramones: "I met her at the Burger King/fell in love by the soda machine" sticks much more than the chorus "oh oh i love her so"

The Beatles "Baby You're a Rich Man" - The verses are gorgeous, the chorus feels like a placeholder that never got replaced.

They were two separate songs put together

'Street Mission' - U2. A chorus which is just the title repeated boorishly over and over again, and a long guitar solo that sounds like Dire Straits slow motion guitar wank.

Outfield, "Your Love"

Ahhh I mean the verse is hookier by comparison but I guarantee you more ppl know it/can identify it by the chorus. As for BYARM, I like the song but I'm not even sure it has a hook at all.

'Don't Stop Believing'

I feel like New Radicals “you get whay you give” the chorus is pretty big but the verses and the coda (the whole hanson/manson nonsense) are more memorable.

whaaat no way

actually maybe i'm confused about what's the verse and what's the chorus of that song. it really feels like one long chorus to me

Yeah my bad, verses and chorus are pretty much the same melody, it fits better described as a long chorus song.

"Peaches" by the Presidents of the United States of America

singing "gonna move into the country, eat a lot of peaches" over and over is so much fun. then the chorus comes in and almost spoils it. the chorus is alright but way less catchy.

"Peaches" by the Presidents of the United States of America

singing "gonna move into the country, eat a lot of peaches" over and over is so much fun. then the chorus comes in and almost spoils it. the chorus is alright but way less catchy.

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, October 7, 2017 6:36 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What you've mentioned is the chorus.

what you've mentioned was already mentioned upthread

Led Zep - Black Dog.

feel like this applies to half of led zep's songs

xxpost:

Ah, so it was! Not that this makes your post about 'Peaches' any less incorrect.

I ate at a restaurant called Peaches the other night and the moment we left my brain went straight to "Peaches COME from a CAN" so...yeah.

Feel like this thread is gonna end up way too broad for me but I have probably an idiosyncratic, and inarticulable, concept of what counts as a "hook."

whoa I'd never considered that about "Peaches"

they have another song called "Mach 5" that's kind of the same way

glenda collins - something i gotta tell you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMMlQ3TroCc

Semisonic - secret smile

Might be because the song title is in the opening verses instead of the chorus but everyone I know remembers the verses instead of the chorus.

Again, that is the chorus!

hmm, first one that comes to mind is "range life" -

I want a range life
If I could settle down
If I could settle down
Then I would settle down

just a real classic verse, and i can barely remember all the choruses which all have different lyrics

lol

The Animals - We Gotta Get Out of This Place
The Who - I Can See For Miles

^ both of these have awesome verses that really build in tension followed by disappointingly weedy choruses

just to further derail the thread, I submit "The Road" by Fastball xp

this is totally Def Leppard's "Animal"

As for BYARM, I like the song but I'm not even sure it has a hook at all.

― Doctor Casino

whoa, I don't agree at all. I think this is a good example of a song being known equally for its verse & chorus hooks. Guess I would err on the chorus just because it's pretty simple & they're shouting the name of the song.

What is the chorus of "Black Dog"? That song has a fairly unconventional structure. Are people thinking of the "Oh yeah/...Whoa baby, darlin' won't you do me now" section?

With "Don't Stop Believin'", the chorus is the "Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard..." bit, right? I don't really find that unmemorable. I think the "on and on and on" refrain is probably the most memorable part of the song.

No way
Don’t Stop Believing is a long build up to one of the most memorable choruses in rock history.

Again, that is the chorus!

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), sábado 7 de octubre de 2017 23:20 (yesterday)

What? No way the chorus goes “So use it and prove it” and so on, no?

With "Don't Stop Believin'", the chorus is the "Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard..." bit, right?

This is an interesting one because that section strikes me more as a pre-chorus that the song has to go through twice before finally getting to the chorus. I just don't know if "Don't stop believin'/Hold on to that feeling/Streetlight people" is actually the chorus or if it's the last verse.

Ok I finally have a good one!

Dido - Thank You

Everyone knows the openig verse due to the Eminem’s Stan. The chorus feels very saccharine and forced.

*the sample in Eminem’s stan.

xxpost:

That's the coda.

Dido is a good one

I was gonna say "Kids in America" but retracted it cos even though I hate that chorus, it's not unmemorable (and I may be in the minority).

That's the coda.

Yeah, a chorus is a repeated section, by definition!

I mean, it's tricky because these terms were used with different meanings in the early 20th century, with blues and Tin Pan Alley forms, but, generally, with verse-chorus forms, I think of the verse as a repeated section where music is repeated with changing text and a chorus as a repeated section where both the music and text are repeated. It can get fuzzy, though.

Dido has been mentioned. What is this world coming to.

I suppose in the case of Don't Stop Believin' we may remember the coda as the chorus because it's serving the function that would normally be reserved for the chorus. The chorus often acts as something like the core or essence of the song, the part which is supposed to reveal the song most directly and which the verse is supposed to lead up to. It's where you usually find the title.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. It doesn't function like a coda usually does.

Oh dammit someone mentioned Dido before me, it’s true. I give up. I suck at this game.

“Plainclothes Man” - Heatmiser

Chainsmokers - "Selfie". Instrumental chorus counts, right? Can't remember the melody at all, except that it sounds like something they made in three minutes so that their song could have a chorus

Lovin' Spoonful - Summer In The City, if we're saying all that "but at night it's a different world" crap is actually the chorus.

Wow, why hate on that of all things?

Yeah, what Tim said.

The Cars early singles have huge number of hooks per song but think Let's Go and Good Times Roll could fit.

I LOVE THE NIGHT LIFE BABY

Right Said Fred "I'm Too Sexy"

^ Great example

No it isn't!

“Live Forever”

QUESTIONABLE AT BEST

Ok guys I think I finally got one:

Spice Girls - Wannabe

The whole song is catchy but everyone knows the opening verse. Right?

I dare you make a test right now with the person next to you tell them to sing it and they’ll all sing the verse instead of the chorus.

that bit is almost like a secondary chorus though

it's repeated a number of times throughout the song

Goddamit I can’t get a single one

tom tom club - genius of love

not that the chorus is unmemorable as much as the verses rule

I think some of us are coming at the premise of this thread in different ways. Are we talking about subjectively more memorable or what part the song is more well known for in the culture at large? Because there's no way that catwalk shit from "I'm Too Sexy" is more memorable or well known than the verses. Same goes for "Wannabe" - I'd argue both the verses & choruses are equally memorable.

Because there's no way that catwalk shit from "I'm Too Sexy" is more memorable or well known than the verses.

They're equally well known.

im with flappy bird here, most people born since 1990 have probably never even heard the chorus to that song

I’m evidently having trouble with it too... seems like in really popular songs everything is memorable and some of them are actually two chorus with no verses. I think an essier thread for me would be songs where you like the verse but hate the chorus.

Wonderwall for me, but again that opening verse is probably a second chorus as it’s repeated later in the song. I like the verse (chorus2 whatever) but hate the main chorus.

The Beatles (specially McCartney songs) have this effect with me too... i usually love all their verses but they tend to have terrible saccharine main choruses that ruin the song for me (Hey Jude, Let It Be, Across the Universe to name a few... lovely verses (or second choruses if you prefer) but can’t stand the chorus).

Another one where I think the verses are lovely but hate the stupid cheery mood of the chorus:

Paul Simon - 50 ways to leave your lover

Almost every Stone Temple Pilots famous songs do this to me too. Love the verses but feel like skipping the chorus... come to think of it almost every grunge related band has this love verse/hate chorus effect on me. Verses in grunge tend to be very vulnerable and melancholic but they usually go to shit once they get turned into angsty bombastic rage in the chorus.

Some people love it, I usually don’t

childish gambino - redbone

Oh another band where I usually love their verses but jate their main chorus:

The Police

They usually lock in these kickass grooves in the verses but they turn all awkward and pop-driven in the chorus.

See I’m quicker in thinking examples of bands that have choruses I hate with verses I love.

xxxxxpost:

No, they're equally well known. I seem to remember, for one, an episode of Family Guy referencing the chorus as part of the dialogue in one episode - none of the verses.

Like I said previously, I think Scritti's "Absolute" has the least memorable chorus most people will have to go play it and go "Oh, there it is.."

"Friday I'm in Love" - The Cure

lol

yeah it does seem there are a number of ways to come at this thread. For instance, there are a ton of rap songs with memorable verses/lines and choruses that are just a title being repeated or a sample being scratched. Or a song like Springsteen's "Rosalita" where the chorus is catchy enough, but whose really memorable part is the verse about the record company giving him a big advance.

No, they're equally well known. I seem to remember, for one, an episode of Family Guy referencing the chorus as part of the dialogue in one episode - none of the verses.

and there's never ever been a time that somebody referenced the verses of I'm Too Sexy without referencing the chorus...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EA8MhCBTp4

that's one of a million examples

"Allentown"

'I'm Too Sexy' and 'Absolute' are both working off the title being the first word of verses rather than the chorus - there's a probably a whole 'nother thread for that but suddenly interested in much older examples.

Yeah I guess there's a subset of this thread with songs where the song title and hook are the first word or line of the song.

The Police

They usually lock in these kickass grooves in the verses but they turn all awkward and pop-driven in the chorus.

'Invisible Sun' very much fits the bill.

some Pumpkins songs off the top of my head: Cherub Rock, Zero, Today, Pennies, Tonight Tonight, Galapagos, The Everlasting Gaze, Crush, Tristessa, I of the Mourning...

I agree with a lot of these but definitely not Cherub Rock. The "Who wants honey?" choruses and "Let me out" bridges are the best parts of the song!

the lovely but obscure "Can You Heart Me Now" by Emmylou Harris. Chorus is just mortar to the verses' bricks

Hear not Heart. The song is not about Twitter I promise

Every other part of 'Hey Ya' is a bigger hook than the chorus.

Also I'm pretty sure that if you asked a sample of people to sing 'Irreplaceable' then more people would default to the "to the left, to the left" bit than the actual chorus.

Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" and "After the Gold Rush" come to mind.

/some Pumpkins songs off the top of my head: Cherub Rock, Zero, Today, Pennies, Tonight Tonight, Galapagos, The Everlasting Gaze, Crush, Tristessa, I of the Mourning.../

I agree with a lot of these but definitely not Cherub Rock. The "Who wants honey?" choruses and "Let me out" bridges are the best parts of the song!

I legit can barely remember the chorus to the Breeders' "Cannonball" but I think most people remember that bouncing ball bass line in the verses.

good one. Hey Ya as well.

David Bowie - Let's Dance

'Invisible Sun' very much fits the bill.

"Can't Stand Losing You" is the one I thought about first. What kind of chorus is that anyway.

Let's Dance is the best answer yet.

Uptown Girl as well.

Let's Dance is the best answer yet.

― Matt DC, Monday, October 9, 2017 11:05 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I literally couldn't remember if this song even had a chorus and had to look it up.

Beatles - If I Needed Someone (seeing the "Had you come some other day" part as the chorus)

The Who - I Can See For Miles

^ both of these have awesome verses that really build in tension followed by disappointingly weedy choruses

― plp will eat itself (NickB), Saturday, October 7, 2017 6:46 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I always thought the chorus of "I Can See For Miles" was brilliantly soaring -- surely more memorable than the verses (which indeed build tension like crazy).

I like the verses to Pour Some Sugar on Me, kinda hate the chorus

ah yes, what a hookless, forgotten chorus

read the original post. the criteria is merely verse > chorus

a lot of grateful dead does this for me, they'll get a nice choogle going (bertha) or groove (eyes of the world) and then have a really lame chorus like they put it in because songs need to have choruses

Erykah Badu - ... & On

read the original post. the criteria is merely verse > chorus

― rip van wanko, Monday, October 9, 2017 12:45 PM (forty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes but it also says "unmemorable by comparison," which...well the song is called pour some sugar on me not hit me like a bomb

or love is like a bomb

whatever.

acually the "take the bottle" refrain is the strongest hook imo

I suspect a lot of Smiths songs might qualify.

"This Charming Man" arguably does, if you consider the "a jumped-up pantry boy..." section to be the chorus.

a lot of Smiths songs have the primary hooks in the verses, or don't have choruses so much as variations on the verse melodies (Cemetry Gates, Boy with the Thorn in His Side, Barbarism Begins at Home, What She Said, How Soon is Now).

I mean "What She Said" is essentially a loop, save for the instrumental breaks at ~:48 & ~1:48

The Smiths have no hooks. Their music is just frantic rhythm guitar with Morissey sort of meandering between the third and fifth notes of the chord.

https://i.imgur.com/aUy629N.gif

there is a light

Girlfriend in a Coma for sure. “Do you really think she’ll pull through?” memorable but not as much as the verse. Though this may be an easy one because I think generally whatever section of the song has the title in it will be more memorable.

Another one: “Under Pressure”

thread title is more interesting to me than just "verse I like better than chorus" but clearly the tide is against me on this one

Def Leppard - "Photograph"

No

That has to be the single wrongest answer here!

WTF...the chorus to Photograph is the payoff!

The verses p much dont work if the chorus fails with that song

Did u perhaps mean Nickleback

It's spelled Nickelbakc

Although the chorus of Talking Heads' Once In A Lifetime is gorgeous, I suspect that the verses are far better known, no?
I know I came across references to lines from the verses often. (I've even seen Spider-Man say "This is not my beautiful house! This is not my beautiful wife!" in a comic once.) but I can't remember ever seeing the chorus referenced outside of the song.

I'd say that one is about 50/50. The parts people quote are from the verses but the chorus is really really catchy

What did you think the song was called when you first heard it (unless you knew already)?

"You may ask yourself"
"Letting the days go by"
or "After the money's gone"
or "Once in a lifetime"

or "Same as it ever was" (missed that one out)

"Ugly House, Wife"

Oh, that takes me back, I must have first heard the song in my early teenage years, seeing the video on MTV... But yes, I do remember being drawn to the chorus, probably the "Water flowing underground" line stayed with me most back then.

"Lucky You" by the Lightning Seeds

I kinda feel like "Money for Nothing" counts here? If the "We got to install microwave ovens...we got to move these color tvs" parts are the chorus.

The real hook in 'Money for Nothing' is not the verse or the chorus: it's the riff, same as the real hook in 'Under Pressure' isn't the verse or the chorus, it's the bass riff.

I feel that way about "Cherub Rock" too.

Yep, 'Cherub Rock' too.

same as the real hook in 'Under Pressure' isn't the verse or the chorus, it's the bass riff.

Yeah, the bass riff in the chorus.

yeah, that's another category "songs where the riff/instrumental part is the chorus".
I was thinking about "Enola Gay" also.

Yeah, the bass riff in the chorus.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, October 10, 2017 2:36 PM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The "it's the terror of knowing..." etc. part? Nah.

I don't know what AlXTC from Paris is on about either - that doesn't apply to UP.

yeah, I may have been wrong about that one since the bass riff might be the most memorable part of "UP" but it's not the same thing as the instrumental chorus/riff songs like "Enola Gay".

"Midnight City" too

"Baker Street"

I've always thought that "Kayleigh" by Marillion had a great 80's hook for its prechorus and a pretty substandard one for the actual chorus.

"Baker Street"

― rip van wanko, Tuesday, October 10, 2017 10:06 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What's the chorus? I always thought the sax line was the chorus, and probably only like 5% of people who would recognize the song could sing any of the verse.

sax line surely

(sorry, it seemed we'd got derailed into songs with instrumental choruses)

There’s a thread for that one:

Songs where the chorus is an instrumental

Many people confusing instrumental chorus with memorable riffs in that thread tho.

'Baker Street' does have a chorus, but it's not the sax riff, which is the real hook.

'Baker Dick' is a different story, ofc.

Many people confusing instrumental chorus with memorable riffs in that thread tho.

The Smiths have no hooks. Their music is just frantic rhythm guitar with Morissey sort of meandering between the third and fifth notes of the chord.

I think this would be more melodically active than what often happens, which is Morrissey meandering between the first, third, and fifth scale degrees (or third, fifth, and modal seventh in minor keys) regardless of the chords.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVTzT3FmxhI

Apologies if this has been posted before somewhere here

I think this would be more melodically active than what often happens, which is Morrissey meandering between the first, third, and fifth scale degrees (or third, fifth, and modal seventh in minor keys) regardless of the chords.

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Tuesday, October 10, 2017 12:02 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You're absolutely correct, I wasn't really thinking clearly when I posted

ahah, great comments/video about Moz !

The oddest place I can think of for a hook is Cut Some Rug by The Bluetones, where it's the bassline on the bridge, which isn't even that high in the mix.