Consider if you will, the recent hit song “Mr Jones” by Counting Crows. OK?…remember it? Sing it! Go on! Sing it now!
Right. I am prepared to bet good money that all you did was go “#Mis-terr JONES and me.. # “. Why? Because it’s the only bit that sticks in the mind. I assume there’s a lot more to the song than that like the guitars and that – but that’s all we remember.
Compare this to most ABBA choruses – there’s a line or two at least that most people can bash out if they have to.
This is different to just a memorable chorus. This is nano pop. Songs with just a tiny soupçon of memorableness. Any others?
Na na na nananana na
It’s not the only memorable bit of Hey Jude though is it. And it goes on for ages.
Actually I was thinking of Can’t Get You Out of My Head, but clearly it is also the memborable bit of Hey Jude too.
I do see what you mean but I think Kylie’s song has more evenly spaced ‘na’s.
Those ‘na’s’ are ‘la’s’, by the way.
You’re right. My face is red. I stand corrected.
You and Frank Bough.
I’m sorry Moose but that went zinging over my head. Care to elaborate?
If it helps I know that FB was married to Nesta and Nesta was Bob Marley’s middle name.
This is clearly Sewn by The Feeling
Any chorus by Status Quo
Down down, deeper and down (repeat)
Whatever you want, whatever you want (repeat)
And I like, I like it, like it, I la la la like it, here we go-oh, rocking all over the world (repeat)
They do go on though don’t they?
You mean John Fogerty’s “Rockin All Over the World”?
That’s the one – although how many people would quote it as a John Fogerty song.
The royalties may be handy, but the “Who’s John Fogerty?” question must grate a little
People don’t know who John Fogerty is? And he gets way more royalties from other songs I would imagine.
AC/DC also have form here:
For those about to rock (boom) we salute you.
Many Stones’ songs don’t have only one good bit but do have one defining/revelatory bit …
The guitar break right at the end of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”
The saxophone break in the middle of “Honky Tonk Women.”
The klaxon/siren at the end of “Street Fightin’ Man.”
Good shout re the Stones:
Sympathy for the Devil (woo woo)
Undercover of the Night – the fadey guitar riff. But actually there’s a lot to like in that song.
Keef’s backing vocal on Tell Me. Out of it tuneless wailing…. brilliant.
Interesting.
I’d say the opening bass riff is the key bit of Jumpin’ Jack Flash, the cow-bell in Honky Tonk Women and the kick drum in Street Fightin’ Man.
The opening drum fill, Shirley?
That would be all Charlie. I thought I’d give Bill a bit of a look in.
Keith’s intro is pretty memorable on JJF as is Mick coming in, in fact the whole performance is pretty memorable, so doesn’t belong in this thread.
Can anyone recall anything at all about Miss Dynamite apart from that ‘Miss Dyna-mi-TEE-EEE’ bit? That’s basically one two-note section of a song – one unexpected interval.
I remember her as a fixture on Later doing funny pointy movements with her hands.
Are you sure that wasn’t Brian Harvey – uttermost sideways-baseball-capped-berk from East 17?
Dear old Brian who, out of his bonce on baked potato, managed to run himself over.
Managed to completely ignire her but even I know the ooo-oooh bit.
So deeply chiselled into my nut that I habitually pronounce the name of one contributor to this here blog as Kid Dynamit-ee-ee.
(Mind, I’m that dude who still digs out the Ms. Dynamite album de temps en temps…)
There’s an album?!?
More than one, Colin – I refer to A Little Deeper as “the” Ms. D album as it’s known for scooping up the MMP and its attendant career-derailing curse…
Nothing much wrong with this one from Ms Dynamite. IMO.
(Put Him Out)
I can! I could hum you the whole song, including the intro beats, samplings etc. Brilliant tune. 🙂
(I can’t do lyrics however, but that’s true of all songs, including the most shockingly familiar ones!)
Perhaps in a similar vein, I always that the chorus for Urban Cookie Collective’s ‘The Key’ was fantastic – a brilliant piece of words and melody… but they were clearly so carried away with it that they forgot to write a song to go with it. There’s nothing else there – only timewasting until the chorus has time to come around again. A crying shame!
She also won the Mercury Prize. And yes: that tee-hee bit is the only bit of her career I remember!
Babylon Zoo – Spaceman. Drop a short bit of catchy electropop onto a cool Levi’s ad, then release the single with stickers all over it – “as heard on the Levi’s ad”. Single opens with said segment and then… oh dear…
IIRC, they got 5 weeks at Number One!
Dead right. That forty seconds is glorious. The most amazing thing is they had a number one album on the back of it, too.
See also Stiltskin – less than in a minute of gruge-esque ub-Nirvana guitar results in a number 1 single, and the need to form a band very quickly
Yep, my first thought of nanopop as well. What could have been…
Born Slippy is a frustrating song. The first two minutes, with that wonderful intro and then the powerful beat, are fantastic. But then you have nearly 8 minutes of dullsville techno in which the only memorable bit is the “shouting lager, lager, lager/mega mega white thing” bit.
dullsville techno – KLF 12″ b Side remix?
I recently saw the “Mr Jones” music video. There is barely a song there. Truly it is just that one good bit.
When I think of this subject High Hopes by Pink Floyd comes instantly to mind. A tedious, tuneless, bloated, overlong dirge that Gilmour thinks is a later day classic that he plays at every single concert. Only the swooping, ‘The grass was greener,’ and the, ‘Myriad small creatures hold us to the ground,’ moments are any good. That’s 10 seconds of good to 7 minutes of dirge. [My numbers and lyrics might not be balls-on accurate.]
I couldn’t agree more.
Mr Jones? O do fuck off with your inane prejudices. I know every word and every nuance, even in the later live versions. Love it and all those songs being laughed down as being nano. A nano of any of them will suffice my ears over worthy unlistenable tosh. So there!
I’ve never heard Mr Jones. Nor indeed anything else by Counting Crows. But I do wholeheartedly agree with the LOUD one about High Hopes. As he wisely sayeth, the “the grass was greener then” bit is the only good bit in an otherwise unlistenable dirge. (Although where we differ is that the “myriad small creatures” line just makes me wince).
Brooce bellowing “Bo-o-o-orn in the USA. I was bo-o-o-orn in the USA”
Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit is basically reduced to the guitar riff (which is basically a copy of Boston’s More Than A Feeling)
And the rest is name any track from Pixies’ Dootlittle.
Similar to the Miss Dynamite reference, I would suggest that the ONLY memorable bit in this U2 song is another two-note/one interval bit – where Bonzo sings ‘Feee-eeel’ at 50-52 seconds, and again when that bit comes around again. The rest of the chorus is dull, the ‘verses’ are non-existent – they might as well be a man reading a telephone directory.
I, on the other hand, find the guitar riff memorable. The rest, not so much.
(I make a rule of trying not to concentrate on Bonobo’s singing.)
And the count in. And the “hello, hello” bit and the video itself. The “feee- eeel” bit is good, but it doesn’t really stand out. This may be the last U2 song that leapt out of the speakers.
Lene Lovich……….Lucky Number………Oooh oo oooh ooo.
Similarly ‘woo hoo’!
Blur Song 2
The Burning of the Midnight Lamp by Jimi Hendrix. You only need the first 10 seconds, but what a riff that is.
This is becoming the longthread of wrongness, what with the Stones examples and now this. What about the glorious vocal, the tasteful guitar solo, the baroque, psychedelic splendour of the whole thing? Quintessentially 1968 is it not?
I’ll give you the guitar solo, but take away that glorious riff, and it’s just a meandering song without a tune.
And that is the point, the genius of producing a bar or two that transcends any whole procession of others. Look on, listen and learn. Don’t belittle, bebig.
‘Back once again I’m the renegade master!!’ ….. Remember that catchy tune ? Yes? Do you remember anything else about it?
Mind you I suppose that doesn’t fit in this thread because it’s repeated all through the song.
Twisted fire-starter.
Utterly brilliant five syllable mantra that lifts the whole mad thing to an unforgettable level. Nano pop? Nah. Genius.
Sampled a “hey!” from Art of Noise’s Beat Box.
The point has been made before that whoever wrote Westlife’s songs had the strange genius to make only the one line of the chorus – that constitutes the song title – memorable. Surely even the world’s biggest Westlife fan (there must be one) couldn’t sing a verse.
Much as I love them, Tom Tom Club’s entire career can be summarised as the three-note riff at the start of Genius Of Love, sampled by all and sundry.
x 10 minutes
werry, werry super scawy
The horsey sound in Jump Around, which I’ve just discovered is a sample from Junior Walker and the All Stars “Shoot Your Shot”, thank you whosampled.com
Nano pop quiz :
1. “I don’t think so!”
2. “Sheeeeeep”
3. ” whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…….feel?”
4. “Nighh-hiiights!”
5. “Grooos!”
I reckon no.5 might be ELO’s “Don’t Bring Me Down”.
You reckon right!
No.1 might be David Essex’s “Gonna Make You a Star”, possibly?
I DO think so! Another correct answer.
Number 2 has to be Cliff’s We Don’t Talk Anymore. The most bizarre backing vocal in mainstream pop.
EWE are correct!
No 4going to go for Summer Nights by Travolta and ONJ – those hot summer ….
Uh huh! Which is American for yes.
Uhwelluhwelluhwelluh HUH!
This beat is
This best is
This beat is
FUCKING CHRONIC
Nobody for number 3 yet?
All right all right I’ll put you all out of your misery. It’s about 2:00 in and the bit I listen for with this song.
Bloody hell look at NH there. Somewhere there’s a big bag of newspapers not being delivered while he’s messing around with that guitar. And then he’s got to get the messages or he’ll get wrong off his mam.
I think his performance is a combination of youth. nerves and the still-fresh-in-the-mind punk principle that being on TOTP was selling out and a bit cheesy. So you go through with it – mime half-heartedly for the lads – but you’re still inwardly squealing with delight.
I just meant the fact that he looks about ten years old.
You know how your brain goes to a back room for a while to think about something and then weeks later it pops up the answer? This is the one I have been trying to remember all this time. Gunshot kerching by her, you know, her.