"hit" was "French Disco" so I submit "Bubble withdrawal"
In fact, that I submit that phrase as never appearing anywhere else, ever!
― Mark G, Monday, 21 January 2008 16:10 (sixteen years ago) link
You never heard the remix of "Heal The World" then?
― Dingbod Kesterson, Monday, 21 January 2008 16:11 (sixteen years ago) link
"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.
― Finefinemusic, Monday, 21 January 2008 16:18 (sixteen years ago) link
I believe that CCR song was one of their half-dozen Number Two singles
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 21 January 2008 16:29 (sixteen years ago) link
"Has any other hit song mentioned "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"?"
"Super Band" by Kool & the Gang (#17 on Billboard's soul charts in '77).
― Rev. Hoodoo, Monday, 21 January 2008 16:51 (sixteen years ago) link
- "superficial" (Anita Baker, "Giving You The Best That I've Got") - "foolhardy," "thereafter," "portrayin'" (Bob Kuban & the In-Men, "Look Out For The Cheater")
― Rev. Hoodoo, Monday, 21 January 2008 16:53 (sixteen years ago) link
"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."
― xhuxk, Monday, 21 January 2008 17:02 (sixteen years ago) link
"Debonair" -- "When Smokey Sings" (probably the only hit song to *begin* with "debonair," at least...)
― Fitzcarraldo, Monday, 21 January 2008 17:11 (sixteen years ago) link
Before Dignbod says,
"I should be so debonair, I threw my glass in the air"
Oh what a shame, Roy Wood.
― Mark G, Monday, 21 January 2008 17:15 (sixteen years ago) link
"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.
― ailsa, Monday, 21 January 2008 17:16 (sixteen years ago) link
"Apple Crumble" - Abc - That Was Then But This Is Now
― Mark G, Monday, 21 January 2008 17:16 (sixteen years ago) link
"Gas fires of the refinery" Bruce Springsteen Born In The USA
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 21 January 2008 17:28 (sixteen years ago) link
"Victrola" - CCR's Looking out my back door
Also appears in "Dim All the Lights."
― Joseph McCombs, Monday, 21 January 2008 18:50 (sixteen years ago) link
"Alabaster" also in "Wrapped Around Your Finger"
-- ledge, Monday, January 21, 2008 7:12 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Link
"scylla and charybdis"
― Edward III, Monday, 21 January 2008 18:53 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― Joseph McCombs, Monday, 21 January 2008 18:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Nabokov.
― chap, Monday, 21 January 2008 18:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Carbon=1/2 of Modest Mouse's recorded musical output.
― Finefinemusic, Monday, 21 January 2008 18:56 (sixteen years ago) link
-- chap, Monday, January 21, 2008 1:54 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
pronounced correctly = 0
― Edward III, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Precocious = "Bette Davis Eyes"
― jaymc, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Oppenheimer (Sting's 'Russians')
― blueski, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:06 (sixteen years ago) link
arapahoe (Spitting Image - the Chicken Song)
― ailsa, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:13 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― ailsa, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:16 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh, let me get my hands On your mammary glands - smiths, 'handsome devil'
― Michael B, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:25 (sixteen years ago) link
B-b-but "precocious" was used in "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"! As a rhyme, yet.
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:27 (sixteen years ago) link
plebeian
― Sandy Blair, Monday, 21 January 2008 19:38 (sixteen years ago) link
"James Taylor" was in Cimarron's "Rings."
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Also, I'll submit "anarchy."
mmmbop
― billstevejim, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:05 (sixteen years ago) link
"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").
― Rev. Hoodoo, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:19 (sixteen years ago) link
"Precocious = "Bette Davis Eyes"
B-b-but "precocious" was used in "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"!"
B-b-but "Supercalietcetera" wasn't a hit!
― Rev. Hoodoo, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:20 (sixteen years ago) link
"accomplished" = "Becoming more like God" Jah Wobble.
― Mark G, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:24 (sixteen years ago) link
"inclement" = "With a litte Luck" McCartney/Wings
"tumble" = "Big Apple" Kajagoogoo
― Mark G, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:25 (sixteen years ago) link
-- 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?
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:27 (sixteen years ago) link
"Birdlike" in Kiss Kiss by Chris Brown
"Aoteaora" Six Months in a Leaky Boat by Split Enz
― miryam, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:33 (sixteen years ago) link
oops, Aotearoa actually.
― miryam, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:35 (sixteen years ago) link
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" hit #66 on the U.S. Pop Singles chart, actually, so I cede the point.
― jaymc, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:39 (sixteen years ago) link
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)
― Tuomas, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:41 (sixteen years ago) link
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?
― jaymc, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:41 (sixteen years ago) link
"gavotte" in "You're So Vain"
― Euler, Monday, 21 January 2008 20:43 (sixteen years ago) link
Has there ever been a hit with 'cunt' in it? I can't think of one. There are probably some hip-hop singles though.
― chap, Monday, 21 January 2008 21:12 (sixteen years ago) link
"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.
― snoball, Monday, 21 January 2008 21:30 (sixteen years ago) link
"towel" in "Geno" by Dexy's Midnight Runners.
"Thank You" by Dido
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 21 January 2008 21:35 (sixteen years ago) link
"Country House" by Blur is probably the only chart topper ever to cite Balsaz.
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 21 January 2008 21:57 (sixteen years ago) link
There is an East 17 song which mentions wanting to be your towel.
Brr.
― a passing spacecadet, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:05 (sixteen years ago) link
"Beelzebub" (and probably various Italian opera words) - "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
"Moet et Chandon" (and possibly "extraordinarily," "fastidious," "etiquete" and/or "gelatin," though probably not all of the above) -- "Killer Queen" by Queen
― xhuxk, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:29 (sixteen years ago) link
""tumble"
You call THAT an unusual word?!? Already, Top 40 hits by Culture Club and Ziggy Marley come to mind... "
And how could I have forgotten the Stones (whose "Tumblin' Dice" is WAY superior to these other two songs I alluded to above)?
― Rev. Hoodoo, Monday, 21 January 2008 22:45 (sixteen years ago) link
"fuzzy" in "All Shook Up" sung by Elvis Presley. "milkround" in "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)" by Benny Hill. "sabre-toothed" in "Metal Guru" by Marc Bolan. "flyer" in "January" by Pilot. "helmet" in "Space Oddity" by David Bowie. "combine harvester" in "The Combine Harvester" by The Wurzels. "mull" (in the Gaelic sense) in "Mull of Kintyre" by Wings.
― snoball, Monday, 21 January 2008 23:02 (sixteen years ago) link
"gunnysack"? (Johnny B. Goode)
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 21 January 2008 23:08 (sixteen years ago) link
"fuzzy" in "All Shook Up" sung by Elvis Presley.
"Filthy/Gorgeous" by Scissor Sisters.
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 21 January 2008 23:16 (sixteen years ago) link