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

21 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band Trout Mask Replica Dec 1969

So, yeah.

Somehow or another, big awkward words just DO NOT have the same effect in all these obscure art-rock songs that some of you guys have started naming. You EXPECT five-dollar words in some song by Jim Carroll, 'cause hell, he's a poet in the first place! And if Van Dyke Parks uses the word "progenitorship" in a song, his audience probably wouldn't even have to look that up!

But it's way more shocking to hear funny words in some out-and-out mainstream pop or soul song (even if it didn't make the charts). Laura Lee's "Separation Line" is a moving southern soul ballad that was never a hit, true - but I always love to hear that line about how she no longer needs her mother's jurisdiction. Or Rick James (not mainstream, but close) singing about coming home horny and intoxicated in his hit "Give It To Me Baby." It sounds more left-field in songs like those than it does in some R.E.M. tune.

(Say, where was Beefheart's "Octafish" a hit? Pluto?)

Rick James (not mainstream, but close) singing about coming home horny and intoxicated in his hit "Give It To Me Baby"

"I'm the fear you tasted/ Well intoxicated/ Psycho somantic addict insane"

psychosomatic - prodigy, breathe

(Say, where was Beefheart's "Octafish" a hit? Pluto?)

-- Rev. Hoodoo, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 17:18 (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Hull.

Antibiotics - Alanis M., "Thank U"
Eclectic - The Cars, "Hello Again"
Horton Hears A Who - Deee-Lite, "Groove Is In The Heart"

Sussudio - Phil Collins

Has it gotten this far without mentioning "My Prerogative"?

Or for that matter, Foster Sylvers'"Misdemeanor?"

several Missy Elliott tracks

Has it gotten this far without mentioning "My Prerogative"?

-- bendy, Tuesday, 5 February 2008 23:48 (Yesterday) Link

"The best thing about being a woman/Is the prerogative to have a little fun"

I don't guess "Verisimilitude" (Teenage Fanclub) was a hit.

I'd be surprised if there's a song other than Ween's "Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)" that mentions "spinal meningitis".

"Spo-Dee-O-Dee" from "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" by Stick McGhee

"Buffalo Stance" by Neneh Cherry

"The Discovery Channel" from Bloodhound Gang's "The Bad Touch"

"Longines Symphonette" from They Might Be Giants' "Birdhouse in Your Soul"

"Zipperhead" from Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl"

"JavaScript" from Weird Al's "White & Nerdy"

In Jessie's Girl Rick Springfield says the word "moot."

I remember hearing it and looking it up in the dictionary when I was younger

Beach Boys: "My four-speed dual-quad positraction 409."

"placenta" -- live, lightning crashes

"Buffalo Stance" by Neneh Cherry

Buffalo gets a mention in Buffalo Gals by Malcolm McLaren.

What about "Reaganomics" in "Money's Too Tight to Mention" by Simply Red?

And "Buffalo Soldier" by Bob Marley (xp).

Confining myself to UK Top 40 singles, which is the only way something like this can work (and not counting neologisms c.f. "Instinction" by Spandau Ballet):

"Arran" (Nik Kershaw "The Riddle")
the entire lyrics of "Gaudete" by Steeleye Span
I suspect "fare thee well" from the same band's "All Around My Hat"
"Grasmere" (The Smiths "Panic", and probably some of the other place names in that most conservative of radical songs and most radical of conservative songs)
"Videotheque" (erm, "Videotheque" by Dollar)
possibly "Engels" and probably "The Archers" (The Style Council "Life At A Top People's Health Farm")
and is there another Top 40 single bar "Come to Milton Keynes" that mentions said new town? There might be, but not one that I know.

A cache of Divine Comedy, unsurprisingly:
"woodshed" (Something for the Weekend)
"unrefined" (Becoming More Like Alfie)
possibly "hay fever" (Pop Singer's Fear Of The Pollen Count: I would say "pollen count" itself but it isn't actually in the lyrics)

And even more Manics:
"Miller and Mailer", "Plath and Pinter" (Faster)
"lebensraum, kulturkampf, raus raus, fila fila" (Revol: also most/all of the political figures mentioned in that song)
"carrion" (She Is Suffering, though pronounced in the Sid James sense)
"kaffir" (the South African equivalent of the n-word used in "Kevin Carter")
and the title itself of "La Tristesse Durera"

"carrion" (She Is Suffering, though pronounced in the Sid James sense)

"Carrion" by British Sea Power

Confining myself to UK Top 40 singles, which is the only way something like this can work (and not counting neologisms c.f. "Instinction" by Spandau Ballet):

I suspect "fare thee well" from (Steeleye Span)'s "All Around My Hat"

In America, Jerry Butler's "He Will Break Your Heart" started off with "fare thee well, I know you're leaving."

"carrion" (She Is Suffering, though pronounced in the Sid James sense)

What about "Carrion, My Wayward Son?" ***KIDDING!***

Dean Martin - That's Amore, "tarantella"

and "pizzabella" or whatever he sings.

There *must* be a UK Top 40 single other than Midnight Star's "Headlines" which mentions "chitter-chatter", surely?

and is there another Top 40 single bar "Come to Milton Keynes" that mentions said new town? There might be, but not one that I know.

Milton Keynes is not mentioned in song "Come to Milton Keynes"

Confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur of what is known as... (parklife!)
And morning soup can be avoided if you take a route straight chrough what is known as... (parklife!)
Johns got brewers droop, he gets intimidated by the dirty pigeons - they love a bit of it. (parklife!)
Whos that gut lord marching? you should cut down on your porklife, mate, get some exercise! (parklife!)

Chorus:
All the people
So many people
And they all go hand in hand
Hand in hand through their parklife

Know what I mean?

I get up when I want, except on wednesdays, when I get rudely wakened by the dustmen. (parklife!)
I put my trousers on, have a cup of tea, and I think about leaving the house. (parklife!)
I feed the pigeons, I sometimes feed the sparrows too.
It gives me a sense of enormous well-being. (parklife!)
And then I'm happy for the rest of the day,
Safe in the knowledge there will always be a bit of my heart devoted to it.

Chorus

Parklife - parklife!
Parklife - parklife!
Its got nothing to do with your vorsprung durch technik, you know.
Parklife - parklife!
And its not about you joggers who go round and round and round...
Parklife - parklife!

Oh where to start?

I always heard Dustman (singular) which is obviously in "My old man's a vorsprung durch technik" Lonnie Donegan....

"Gut" is in "Air Force Ones" by Nelly ("Cop 'em, gut 'em and change the laces")

"Pigeons" is in "No Pigeons" by the much-missed Sporty Thievz

Mark G is right. And I didn't realise it. And it's probably my favourite Paul Weller single.

"brewers' droop" is a good one. "Parklife" itself is a deliberate neologism so doesn't count. "sparrows" in the singular at least (are we really going to be that pedantic?) is in, er, "The Sparrow" by The Ramblers.

Another three:

"Sherpa Tenzing" (probably) and "Buff Manila" (surely, though it's barely articulated): Saint Etienne "Pale Movie"
"Twickenham", where the whisky came from in Scott Walker's "Jackie" (it's Clermont-Ferrand in the original)
"Hastings" and "Tyrolean" (and that probably isn't all): Murray Head "One Night In Bangkok"

"Hastings": Murray Head "One Night In Bangkok"

"...I was walking down Hastings Street"

---John Lee Hooker, "Boogie Chillen," 1949 (#1 on Billboard's R&B chart)

"beagling", "punting", "rucking" - Marillion "Garden Party" (there are other words in that song which may well not appear on any other hits, but I'm not quite so sure). All very UK-specific references as well, which simplifies things still further.

Of course, certain latterday pop people have done such things themselves, and without the Big Changes would have done a lot more. But they don't like to talk about it.

And how could I forget "straafed". And possibly "rugger". And surely "Cam" (in the context of the river). I could go on.

In fact, it pretty much shuts this thread down. But I can't think of another UK Top 40 single apart from "October Swimmer" by JJ72 which mentions Helsinki. Or October, for that matter (though I may have missed something really obvious ... but it's just such an *un-pop* month).

Something obv?

Howabout "The Calendar Song" by the Trinidad Oil Company?

gets a mention in Buffalo Gals by Malcolm McLaren.

But "stance" can't be all that common.

and before anyone says, "Dance Stance" doesn't etc...

Is FC Robin C?

euphoric, incessantly - Mariah Carey, "Heartbreaker"

Dingbod - seeing how I know who you are, I'll concede - yes, I am.

The thing is that ages ago I had "Garden Party" down as the ultimate song for a phantom thread like this, but had posted here several times before I remembered it. Of course, the songs it's pastiching didn't appear on the singles chart, with one exception - which reminds me, how many other hit singles bar Genesis's first mention "lawnmower" or, indeed, "wardrobe" itself?

Away from toffism, in relief:
"Yehudi Menuhin" (Sparks "Amateur Hour")
"beverage" (The Scaffold "Thank U Very Much")

"wardrobe" is in Babies by Pulp.

hurdy gurdy - "Hurdy Gurdy Man"

Thanks, Ailsa. "lawnmower" is still open though.

Another October song (and every month) to answer my own question: "Calendar Girl" by Neil Sedaka.

Der Kommissar - Falco or After the Fire, take your pick.

But "stance" can't be all that common.

-- kingkongvsgodzilla, Friday, 8 February 2008 09:46 (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

Hot Chip's "Ready for the floor"

Silent "Lucidity" by Queensryche

"advantageously" in "Not So Manic Now" by Dubstar - although that was written by another band, right?

no that was them. you probly thinkin of their cover of st swithin's day

well I'm not sure, Alan - I've no idea who the original band were, but I found this on the web, apparently the lyricist was a guy called David Harling who used to work as a psychiatric nurse. The text below comes from an email written by Harling, to a guy in Colchester:

This text is taken from an email written to me by David Harling.

'Not so manic now' attempts to capture something of the mundanity of everyday existance, and so tells a tale of one persons stuggle beyond this.

My writing the song was triggered by working with a gentleman who had killed his neighbour. In brief what happened was that he was living in some high rise flats with his family when one day his wife announced she was leaving him and taking the children with her.

Over the following months, he became more and more depressed which in turn led him to develop a psychotic depression.

He lost all sense of reality and over a period of days began to believe that his neighbour, who happened to be a body builder, had kidnapped his family and killed them.

The twist was that in the depths of his psychosis he began to develop the delusional belief that the noises he could hear from the upstairs flat were those of his neighbour 'grinding the bones' of his dead family.

In actual fact his neighbour was using body building equipment.

(Emily again - weird or what?? I can't find any trace of a pre-Dubstar version of this song, though.)

"Romford" - Underworld "Born Slippy"

(there was - and I think this might have been the worst record ever made - "The Romford Rap" by Chas and Dave, but mercifully it didn't make the Top 40)

"Daddy's doing Sister Sally
Grandma's dying of cancer now
The cattle all have brucellosis <--------
We'll get through somehow" -- Warren Zevon

Toxic - "Toxic"?