Word(s) that only ever appeared in one (hit) song, ever.

Haha yeah I know I know, and in fact I've already cited that song itt for its brilliant use of "vertical hold," just couldn't resist that Wiki-graph.

How about "Representative"?

Alexei Sayle, "Ullo John Got A New Motor"

"Stimuli," in The Adverts' "Gary Gilmore's Eyes."

groos
ELO - "don't bring me down"

― Steve Shasta, Monday, February 4, 2008 2:28 PM (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i got this record recently and was playing it for a friend and they asked me what they were singing during the chorus. i always thought it was "Don't bring me down, oooooh!" then i looked at the lyric sheet. lol it is actually written out "grooss":

A common mondegreen in the song is the perception that, following the title line, Lynne shouts "Bruce!" In the liner notes of the ELO compilation Flashback and elsewhere, Lynne has explained that he is singing a made-up word, "Grooss," which some have suggested sounds like the German expression "Gruß." After the song's release, so many people had misinterpreted the word as "Bruce" that Lynne actually began to sing the word as "Bruce" for fun at live shows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Bring_Me_Down

He has to make his own entertainment..

Stevie Wonder, "I Was Made to Love Her" has 'boohooed', though I think the Beach Boys sing 'hoohooed' in their version.

I saw someone on the bus in Prestwich with a record called (I think) 'Ted Christie's Brexit Bangers' but I can find any mention of it on discogs so chances are I got the name wrong

I did find this instead, though I wouldn't go as far as brexit banger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36gK-6kkXiI

The definition of "Hit" has changed so much in nine years...

"placenta" - "Lightning Crashes" / Live
― Pillbox, Tuesday, January 22, 2008

"placenta" -- live, lightning crashes
― bug, Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Lightning Crashes -- Placenta? As in...
"Her placenta falls to the floor"
― LimbsKing, Friday, April 18, 2014

I came here to post "placenta" and found that it's been posted three times already. What a weird hit, by the way.

C'mon people, We can find another placenta!

.. guess not.

"cosmonaut" on "Low" ?

"Scampi" in "That's What I Like"

"London Calling" may be the only song with "truncheon."

I wonder also about "loch" in "Synchronicity II."

"Puttin' on the Ritz" may be the only one with "spats."

"Dweeb" in "Self Esteem" ?

Came here to say 'Thunderdome' and was disappointed to find that it was already mentioned but then I remembered 'nicety' from the song of the same name, so that.

"chrysalis" in Kacey Musgraves' "Butterflies" comes to mind

“mentality” (in “No Tears Left to Cry”)?

mentality is in "I've Got You Under My Skin"

Ah ok. How about “compass” — from R.E.M.’s “Stand”?

Compass is in Human Behaviour by Bjork

Compass is also in "Get Me to the Church on Time" from My Fair Lady

Were those, like, Hot 100 hits? (Not sure how we're defining "hit" for purposes of this thread...)

Like if other charts count, I could say "detachable penis" or whatever...

feel like stevie wonder must've used "chrysalis"somewhere...

Feels like "Get Me to the Church on Time" should count as a hit since it's one of the more memorable tunes from one of the best selling original cast albums of all time, one which incidentally predates the Hot 100

I won't quibble, but it doesn't quite feel like an apples-to-apples comparison...

How about "serpentine," from "Welcome to the Jungle" (#7 on Hot 100)?

"Serpentine Fire" by Earth, Wind, and Fire (#13 Billboard pop chart)

If you're going all the way up to 100, then Wire's "Outdoor Miner" got to No. 51 and has 'serpentine' too. And 'silverfish'.

I don't consider that a hit song though.

Yeah I feel like it should at least be in the, well, Top 40 to qualify as a "hit"

(btw I appreciate and am awed by Josefa's instant song knowledge!)

oh thank you

Backing up a bit, I think "nicety" is a good submission. The word has probably been in songs before (hits, I don't know) but not in the way that Michel'le is using it, which is as an adjective meaning nice + nasty. Which puts it in the category of words/usages that were coined just for one song. Another one like that is the verb "surry" which was coined by Laura Nyro just for the song "Stoned Soul Picnic."

I saw 'nicety' and quickly thought of Massive Attack's 'Safe From Harm' but that's niceties anyway.

I submit for consideration, from Another Bad Creation's 'Iesha', the word 'monkeybars'. Possibly also the word 'Nintendo'. I was tempted to go even further and include 'Cheerios' but then I remembered that it also appears in Al Jarreau's 'Mornin''.

"Nintendo" is a key line of American Hi-Fi's "Flavor of the Weak," a US modern rock hit in 2001.

do-lang do-lang do-lang

Also "Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis" in "Juicy," probably the highest-profile use.

All right, but I'm doubling down on 'monkeybars'.

https://www.lyrics.com/lyrics/monkey%20bars

Those are certainly some search results.

Don't wanna be your monkey bars
Fall in, fall out

9 years ago today, @ladygaga's "Born This Way" debuted at #1 on the Hot 100.

It became the first #1 song in history to feature the words "gay, lesbian, bi, transgender" in its lyrics and the chart's 1000th #1 single overall.

— chart data (@chartdata) February 26, 2020

is it also the first #1 song in history to feature the word "chola"?

(unrelated pet peeve about tweets like this: 'today ___ years ago' always really means 'on the chart dated today minus ____ years', which is rather different indeed. billboard's charts have always been post-dated: "born this way," for example, was actually revealed to have reached #1 on feb. 16th, 2011 -- not feb. 26th, which is the date indicated on that week's chart.)

In "My True Story" by the Jive Five I've always heard the opening couplet as "...about two lovers that I knew well," but many online sources give the line as "that I bewail," which is actually how I now hear it. (Although it seems if one internet source gets a lyric wrong, a billion others pick up that error.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glOMdK8gfbo

10cc have a few of these:

bullhorn / padre / slugs ("Rubber Bullets)

Milton (as in John) ("The Dean and I")

Getty/ Rothschild/ Howard Hughes ("The Wall Street Shuffle")

Crosby (as in Bing)/ toupees ("Silly Love")

minestrone/ parmesan/ lasagne/ constipated/ Pluto/ Pisa/ crepe suzette ("Life Is a Minestrone')

Bullhorn = "I Don't Like Mondays"

Padre = "Green Green Grass of Home"

Indeed!

had to check, but sadly Weird Al's "Lasagna" - which also features "minestrone"! - did not chart.

Getty is also in "Last Child" by Aerosmith (#21 in 1976)