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

"Hollaback Girl" ?

Psychosomatic?

I have the feeling that Going the Distance by Cake is made entirely of these, but I really don't want to go look up the lyrics. I think dude had a rhyming dictionary AND a thesaurus open on that one, though.

The notable exception from this song is the word "bowel" which, thank you Will Smith.

Lipstuck, Grebos, Crusties - The Only Living Boy in New Cross, Carter USM
Klaus Barbie, Leigh-on-Sea, Abodeless, Rachman - Sherrif Fatman, Carter USM
Chloro-Fluoro-Carbon, Domestos - Rubbish, Carter USM

"Engenders" ("Jenny Ondioline" by Stereolab)

"hit" was "French Disco" so I submit "Bubble withdrawal"

In fact, that I submit that phrase as never appearing anywhere else, ever!

You never heard the remix of "Heal The World" then?

"Victrola" - CCR's Looking out my back door (if counts as a hit single? I still hear it occasionally on our local rock station.)

"Belisha Beacon" - Radiohead's My Iron Lung - and er, "My Iron Lung" probably isn't used that often either.

I believe that CCR song was one of their half-dozen Number Two singles

"Has any other hit song mentioned "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"?"

"Super Band" by Kool & the Gang (#17 on Billboard's soul charts in '77).

- "superficial" (Anita Baker, "Giving You The Best That I've Got")
- "foolhardy," "thereafter," "portrayin'" (Bob Kuban & the In-Men, "Look Out For The Cheater")

"vegemite," "combie," "chunder" -- Men At Work, "Down Under"
"wallabies," "cockatoo," "abos," "platypus," digeridoo" -- Rolf Harris, "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport"

(In the U.S., anyway -- In Australian hits, for all I know, those words show up all the time.)

Is Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping" the only U.S. hit to contain the word "pissing"? (Patti Smith's "Pissing in a River" was never a hit anywhere, I'm pretty sure; nor was the Beastie Boys' "Stop That Train," where they're "pissing on the third rail.")

And I doubt it was, but if Elvis Costello's "Busy Bodies" was ever a hit somewhere, it's got "concertina."

"Debonair" -- "When Smokey Sings" (probably the only hit song to *begin* with "debonair," at least...)

Before Dignbod says,

"I should be so debonair, I threw my glass in the air"

Oh what a shame, Roy Wood.

"Buck-toothed" (Ask)

-- Alba, Monday, 21 January 2008 12:12 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

^^^"bucktooth" is used on "La Pastie De La Bourgiese", which was the lead track on B&S's top 40 "3, 6, 9 Seconds Of Light" EP

buck teeth also mentioned in the glorious U.G.L.Y. by Daphne and Celeste.

"Apple Crumble" - Abc - That Was Then But This Is Now

"Gas fires of the refinery" Bruce Springsteen Born In The USA

"Victrola" - CCR's Looking out my back door

Also appears in "Dim All the Lights."

"Alabaster" also in "Wrapped Around Your Finger"

-- ledge, Monday, January 21, 2008 7:12 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link

"scylla and charybdis"

I do these with friends as scavenger hunts. Spot the hit song that used each of these words:

accomplished
as yet
carbon (at least two answers)
gunnin'
inclement
James Taylor
misconstrued
prefix
tumble
vibes
whippoorwill

Nabokov.

Carbon=1/2 of Modest Mouse's recorded musical output.

Nabokov.

-- chap, Monday, January 21, 2008 1:54 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

pronounced correctly = 0

Precocious = "Bette Davis Eyes"

Oppenheimer (Sting's 'Russians')

arapahoe (Spitting Image - the Chicken Song)

Deacon Blue's "He Looks Like Spencer Tracy Now" mentions Oppenheimer, but that wasn't a single. The album ("Raintown") was a pretty big hit though.

Oh, let me get my hands On your mammary glands - smiths, 'handsome devil'

Precocious = "Bette Davis Eyes"

B-b-but "precocious" was used in "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"! As a rhyme, yet.

plebeian

"James Taylor" was in Cimarron's "Rings."

Also, I'll submit "anarchy."

mmmbop

"I do these with friends as scavenger hunts. Spot the hit song that used each of these words:

as yet"

Sam Cooke, "Another Saturday Night" (which also mentioned "deliverance")

"tumble"

You call THAT an unusual word?!? Already, Top 40 hits by Culture Club and Ziggy Marley come to mind...

As far as "misconstrued," the only place I remember hearing that was in a Swamp Dogg song that was nowhere near a hit ("The Baby Is Mine").

"Precocious = "Bette Davis Eyes"

B-b-but "precocious" was used in "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"!"

B-b-but "Supercalietcetera" wasn't a hit!

"accomplished" = "Becoming more like God" Jah Wobble.

"inclement" = "With a litte Luck" McCartney/Wings

"tumble" = "Big Apple" Kajagoogoo

Also, I'll submit "anarchy."

-- If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:00 (23 minutes ago) Link

Wasn't "April 26, 1992" a rock hit in America?

"Birdlike" in Kiss Kiss by Chris Brown

"Aoteaora" Six Months in a Leaky Boat by Split Enz

oops, Aotearoa actually.

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" hit #66 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart, actually, so I cede the point.

B-b-but "Supercalietcetera" wasn't a hit!

Maybe it wasn't released as a single (or was it?), but you can't deny it's one of the best known songs of the 20th century.

(x-post)

But it does raise the question, why the fuck did Kim Carnes have to use the clunky rhyme "pro blush" when perfectly good words like "ferocious" and "atrocious" exist?

"gavotte" in "You're So Vain"

Has there ever been a hit with 'cunt' in it? I can't think of one. There are probably some hip-hop singles though.

"strutter" in "Strutter" by Kiss.
"colitas" in "Hotel California" by The Eagles.
"Debussy" in "Left To My Own Devices" by the Pet Shop Boys (probably loads more PSB songs with unusual words).
"stricken-bound" in "Chorus" by Erasure.
"towel" in "Geno" by Dexy's Midnight Runners.
"tarry" in "Come Up And See Me (Make Me Smile)" by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel.
"Yukatan" in "Hit My With Your Rhythm Stick" by Ian Dury & The Blockheads.
"flamingo" in "Pretty Flamingo" by Manfred Mann.

"towel" in "Geno" by Dexy's Midnight Runners.

"Thank You" by Dido

"Country House" by Blur is probably the only chart topper ever to cite Balsaz.

There is an East 17 song which mentions wanting to be your towel.

Brr.