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

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.