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

I was just thinking about how in the song "Beast of Burden," the earworm is the first line of the verse, whereas the "Am I hard enough..." whatever part doesn't really stick with me as much.

Other songs like this?

i feel like this is something that pavement is good at but I can’t think of any particular examples right now ( or maybe it’s just that their songs don’t really have choruses?)

Led Zep: "Out On The Tiles"

No way will there be any disagreements on this thread.

How about Rain, by the Beatles

"Drop Dead Legs"

Led Zep: "Out On The Tiles"

― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, October 5, 2017 4:19 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I like the chorus on that one, especially the "ooh yeah" part, but it's definitely the verse riff that makes it.

For me, "Black Hole Sun" drags down a perfectly good Aerosmith verse with a really leaden, plodding chorus.

"Lithium"

beast of burden is just kinda weirdly written. the chorus and verse are combined the "am i hard enough" part should really just be a middle eight

Dido, "Thank You"
Kiesza, "Hideaway"

Journey - Don't Stop Believing

Also from Nirvana : "Come as you are".

It's a nice songwriting trick.
Also, even more difficult (and nice) : the pre-chorus being the real hook of a song !

Oh yeah, totally re "Come As You Are". "Don't Stop Believin'" is all hook imo.

So What - Pink

Journey - Don't Stop Believing
top pick

this is v common ime, for some reason it seems easier to write a killer verse than a killer chorus

"Lucky Man"

"Cinnamon Girl" - if that second part is a chorus?

xp *throws penalty flag* nothing about "Lucky Man" is memorable but the synth solo

Song where the chorus is:

"Oooh, love you, Oooh, love you, Oooh, and I love you, Oooh, love you"

Absolute - Scritti Politti

Heeeeee had white horses

Cream's "White Room," maybe? Is the little falsetto bit ("I'll wait in this place" etc.) a chorus? It's not a verse.

INXS "The One Thing." Really, the guitar hook in between the verses and choruses is the memorable part. But the verses are still more exciting than the chorus.

Lithium is so OTM. Lots of other Nirvana songs, too: On a Plain, Drain You, All Apologies, Swap Meet, Scentless Apprentice, Come As You Are for sure as well...

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...

"Today" doesn't even have a real chorus, where text and music are both repeated, does it? If you're thinking of the "I wanted more/Than life would ever grant me..."/"Pink ribbon scars..." section, I really disagree that this is less memorable than the verse. It always gets in my head.

i dunno if neil diamond rapping the added UB40 chorus to red red wine is unmemorable exactly...

yeah I was referring to that as the chorus. it's catchy, but not nearly as much as the verse, which is so close to the ice cream truck jingle riff that starts the song (and eventually reappears at the end of the song).

xp

The Ramones: "I met her at the Burger King/fell in love by the soda machine" sticks much more than the chorus "oh oh i love her so"

The Beatles "Baby You're a Rich Man" - The verses are gorgeous, the chorus feels like a placeholder that never got replaced.

They were two separate songs put together

'Street Mission' - U2. A chorus which is just the title repeated boorishly over and over again, and a long guitar solo that sounds like Dire Straits slow motion guitar wank.

Outfield, "Your Love"

Ahhh I mean the verse is hookier by comparison but I guarantee you more ppl know it/can identify it by the chorus. As for BYARM, I like the song but I'm not even sure it has a hook at all.

'Don't Stop Believing'

I feel like New Radicals “you get whay you give” the chorus is pretty big but the verses and the coda (the whole hanson/manson nonsense) are more memorable.

whaaat no way

actually maybe i'm confused about what's the verse and what's the chorus of that song. it really feels like one long chorus to me

Yeah my bad, verses and chorus are pretty much the same melody, it fits better described as a long chorus song.

"Peaches" by the Presidents of the United States of America

singing "gonna move into the country, eat a lot of peaches" over and over is so much fun. then the chorus comes in and almost spoils it. the chorus is alright but way less catchy.

"Peaches" by the Presidents of the United States of America

singing "gonna move into the country, eat a lot of peaches" over and over is so much fun. then the chorus comes in and almost spoils it. the chorus is alright but way less catchy.

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, October 7, 2017 6:36 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What you've mentioned is the chorus.

what you've mentioned was already mentioned upthread

Led Zep - Black Dog.

feel like this applies to half of led zep's songs

xxpost:

Ah, so it was! Not that this makes your post about 'Peaches' any less incorrect.

I ate at a restaurant called Peaches the other night and the moment we left my brain went straight to "Peaches COME from a CAN" so...yeah.

Feel like this thread is gonna end up way too broad for me but I have probably an idiosyncratic, and inarticulable, concept of what counts as a "hook."

whoa I'd never considered that about "Peaches"

they have another song called "Mach 5" that's kind of the same way

glenda collins - something i gotta tell you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMMlQ3TroCc

Semisonic - secret smile

Might be because the song title is in the opening verses instead of the chorus but everyone I know remembers the verses instead of the chorus.

Again, that is the chorus!

hmm, first one that comes to mind is "range life" -

I want a range life
If I could settle down
If I could settle down
Then I would settle down

just a real classic verse, and i can barely remember all the choruses which all have different lyrics

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.

yeah, I may have been wrong about that one since the bass riff might be the most memorable part of "UP" but it's not the same thing as the instrumental chorus/riff songs like "Enola Gay".

"Midnight City" too

"Baker Street"

I've always thought that "Kayleigh" by Marillion had a great 80's hook for its prechorus and a pretty substandard one for the actual chorus.

"Baker Street"

― rip van wanko, Tuesday, October 10, 2017 10:06 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What's the chorus? I always thought the sax line was the chorus, and probably only like 5% of people who would recognize the song could sing any of the verse.

sax line surely

(sorry, it seemed we'd got derailed into songs with instrumental choruses)

There’s a thread for that one:

Songs where the chorus is an instrumental

Many people confusing instrumental chorus with memorable riffs in that thread tho.

'Baker Street' does have a chorus, but it's not the sax riff, which is the real hook.

'Baker Dick' is a different story, ofc.

Many people confusing instrumental chorus with memorable riffs in that thread tho.

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.

I think this would be more melodically active than what often happens, which is Morrissey meandering between the first, third, and fifth scale degrees (or third, fifth, and modal seventh in minor keys) regardless of the chords.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVTzT3FmxhI

Apologies if this has been posted before somewhere here

I think this would be more melodically active than what often happens, which is Morrissey meandering between the first, third, and fifth scale degrees (or third, fifth, and modal seventh in minor keys) regardless of the chords.

― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Tuesday, October 10, 2017 12:02 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You're absolutely correct, I wasn't really thinking clearly when I posted

ahah, great comments/video about Moz !

The oddest place I can think of for a hook is Cut Some Rug by The Bluetones, where it's the bassline on the bridge, which isn't even that high in the mix.