History Main / SecondVerseCurse

* "Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face" originally had seven verses. The ''United Methodist Hymnal'' has it with five; the Episcopalians strike again with their verse-ectomy, re-titling the hymn "This Is the Hour of Banquet and of Song" (which was originally the fourth verse) as a result.

* Parodied in the ''{{Discworld}}'' novels, where [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAqCbOJc6RU Ankh-Morpork's civic anthem "We Can Rule You Wholesale"]] was written with this in mind: the second verse purposefully consists mostly of incomprehensible mumbling on the grounds that no one will remember it anyway.

* The current national anthem of Germany avoids it ''by [[SingleStanzaSong having only one stanza]]'', being the third/last stanza of the 1841 poem "Das Lied der Deutschen" (also known as "Deutschlandlied"), whose three stanzas have been used in various constellations as national anthem since 1922. The ''Deutschlandlied'''s first verse, possibly the most widely known, was discarded due to its naming of borders which (due to geographical shrinkage after each of the World Wars) are no longer accurate, while the second one praised the country's culture, [[ValuesDissonance women]], wine and song. And there's also the melody's origin as the Austro-Hungarian imperial anthem, which most people are unaware of.

* The Greek national anthem "Hymn to Freedom" (or "Hymn to Liberty") is [[MostTriumphantExample '''158 stanzas''']] long but only two are commonly known.

** You mean, ''Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser'' ("God preserve Franz the emperor")? The original lyric was, of course, quickly outdated by Francis' death in 1835. Hoffman von Fallersleben's words were often banned in the various German states, as it preached Pan-Germanism to replace the [[AllTheLittleGermanies various autonomous (and later semi-autonomous) kingdoms]], Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and the like. It was usually avoided in ImperialGermany exactly for its Habsburg connotations, and replaced with the Prussian royal anthem ''Heil dir im Siegerskranz'' ("Hail to thee in the victor's wreath") -- which had its own [[GodSaveTheKing complications]].

* The Greek National Anthem "Hymn to the Freedom" (or "Hymn to the Liberty") is ('''158 stanzas''') long but only two are commonly known.

-->'''Woody Guthrie,''' one of the more controversial verses of "This Land Is Your Land"

* The current national anthem of Germany avoids it ''by [[SingleStanzaSong having only one stanza]]'', being the third/last stanza of the 1841 poem "Das Lied der Deutschen" (also known as "Deutschlandlied"), whose three stanzas have been used in various constellations as national anthem since 1922. The ''Deutschlandlied'''s first verse, possibly the most widely known, was discarded due to its naming of borders which (due to geographical shrinkage after each of the World Wars) are no longer accurate, while the second one praised the country's culture, women, wine and song. And there's also the melody's origin as the Austro-Hungarian imperial anthem, which most people are unaware of.

* The Dutch national anthem has ''15'' verses. Most people are having trouble reproducing the first. Occasionally the sixth verse is added.

** Though the ''real'' national anthem is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltzing_Matilda the one about the suicide sheep thief]]. Which also suffers from SecondVerseCurse.
* The Mexican anthem has ''10'' stanzas, yet only the first and the last ones are usually sung. If you really go overboard and sing the "long" version - the one sung in national anthem singing contests - you'll be singing only the first, the fifth, the sixth, and the last stanzas. Another standard cut is to sing the first two of the "short" official version. [[SarcasmMode Oddly enough]], the version used by schools cuts off before the one about [[{{Gorn}} washing church bells with the blood of the enemy]] and [[AfterTheEnd making sure to leave very big ruins for the future to marvel at when we get wiped out]]... (All of the odd stuff in the Mexican anthem can be handwaved by the fact that it was written by a romantic poet locked in his room by his fiancee, though.)

* "Molly Malone" ends with a FamilyUnfriendlyDeath.

** It was, in fact, written as a rebuttal to God Bless America and intended as a "worker's national anthem." When Pete Seeger and BruceSpringsteen did it at President Obama's inaugural celebration, they put backthe missing verse.

* "Linus and Lucy" better known as the Peanuts theme has two other parts that sound nothing like the familiar lick we all know and love. They are occasionally used in the specials seperate from the main theme, but there's nothing that points out they're part of "Linus and Lucy" unless you know they are.

--> Vainly we offer each ample oblation, Vainly with gifts would His favor secure\\
Richer by far is the heart's adoration/ Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.

* Some versions of "What Wondrous Love Is This" have only three verses, with the first being a composite of the first two verses. To be fair, the first halves of these verses are virtually identical.

* Most modern praise songs are published in hymnals with only the refrain. Examples include Amy Grant's "El Shaddai" and "Thy Word Is a Lamp unto My Feet", Rich Mullins' "Awesome God", Michael Joncas' "On Eagle's Wings" and just about anything by Andraé Crouch. Sometimes, this trope is subverted by having the congregation sing on only the refrain, while the song leader and/or choir does the verses.

* The final verses to ''Brightest and Best'' which totally changes the meaning of the song to an anti-consumerist message, are [[MisaimedFandom often omitted]].
--> Vainly we offer each ample oblation, Vainly with gifts would His favor secure\\
Richer by far is the heart's adoration/ Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.

[[AC:Folk songs, hymns, and Christmas Carols]]

* The final verses to ''Brightest and Best'' which totally changes the meaning of the song to an anti-consumerist message, are [[MisaimedFandom often omitted]].
---> Vainly we offer each ample oblation, Vainly with gifts would His favor secure\\
Richer by far is the heart’s adoration/ Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.
* There are a lot of traditional Christmas songs like that you don't hear in churches (much less on the radio) for some reason. ''All the evil folk on earth, / sleep in feathers at their birth...''

* AmazingFreakingGrace. {{Phish}} perform four verses in their version.

--->Oh when the saints
--->Go marching in
--->Oh when the saints go marching in
--->Lord, I want to be in that number
--->Where the saints go marching in.

* Really, just about every hymn that ever existed:
** Charles Wesley's "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" was written with ''seventeen'' verses (albeit rather short verses in CommonMeter). Most versions snip out the first six (the line that provides the title is actually the seventh verse), using 7-12 and 17. Others also omit 12 because of the line "his praise, ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ".

** Horatius Bonar's "Here, O My Lord, I See Thee Face to Face" originally had seven verses. The ''United Methodist Hymnal'' has it with five; the Episcopalian ''Hymnal 1982'' removes the first verse and re-titles the hymn "This Is the Hour of Banquet and of Song" (which was originally the fourth verse).
** Most modern praise songs are published in hymnals with only the refrain. Examples include Amy Grant's "El Shaddai" and "Thy Word Is a Lamp unto My Feet", Rich Mullins' "Awesome God", Michael Joncas' "On Eagle's Wings" and just about anything by Andraé Crouch. Sometimes, this trope is subverted; the congregational hymnals have only the refrains, but the song leader and/or choir performs the verses.

* Most renditions of "Winter Wonderland" inexplicably leave out the second chorus and final verse, which goes as follows:

* Most renditions of "What Child Is This?" omit the second half of the second and third verses, instead using "This, this is Christ the King" (the last half of the first verse) as a refrain. The missing halves begin with "Nails, spear shall pierce him through" and "Raise, raise the song on high".

* "Lucy and Linus" better known as the Peanuts theme has two other parts that sound nothing like the familiar lick we all know and love. They are occasionally used in the specials seperate from the main theme, but there's nothing that points out they're part of "Lucy and Linus" unless you know they are.

** You mean, ''Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser'' ("God preserve Franz the emperor")? The original lyric was, of course, quickly outdated by Francis' death in 1835. Hoffman von Fallersleben's words were often banned in the various German states, as it preached Pan-Germanism to replace the [[PrussiaAndAllThatLot various autonomous (and later semi-autonomous) kingdoms]], Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and the like. It was usually avoided in ImperialGermany exactly for its Habsburg connotations, and replaced with the Prussian royal anthem ''Heil dir im Siegerskranz'' ("Hail to thee in the victor's wreath") -- which had its own [[GodSaveTheKing complications]].

* "Auld Lang Syne" actually has four verses, but most people only know the first (and the chorus). It doesn't help that the first verse is the only one that makes any kind of sense in English.

** It was, in fact, written as a rebuttal to God Bless America and intended as a "worker's national anthem." When Pete Seeger and BruceSpringsteen did it at President Obama's inaugural celebration, they put backthe missing verse.

** You mean, ''Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser'' ("God preserve Francis the emperor")? The original lyric was, of course, quickly outdated by Francis' death in 1835. Hoffman von Fallersleben's words were often banned in the various German states, as it preached Pan-Germanism to replace the [[PrussiaAndAllThatLot various autonomous (and later semi-autonomous) kingdoms]], Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and the like. It was usually avoided in ImperialGermany exactly for its Habsburg connotations, and replaced with the Prussian royal anthem ''Heil dir im Siegerskranz'' ("Hail to thee in the victor's wreath") -- which had its own [[GodSaveTheKing complications]].

* "Advance Australia Fair", in its original form as a poem, has five verses. Its adoption as the national anthem in the 1970s cherry-picked the first and third verses as the official lyrics, as the other three verses were all quite imperialist and Anglophilic. In addition to that, only the first verse is usually sung, but most schools have the students sing both verses. The ''real'' national anthem is the one about the suicide sheep thief. Which also suffers from SecondVerseCurse.

* The current national anthem of Germany avoids it ''by [[SingleStanzaSong having only one stanza]]'', being the third/last stanza of the 1841 poem "Das Lied der Deutschen" (also known as "Deutschlandlied"), whose three stanzas have been used in various constellations as national anthem since 1922. The Deutschlandlied's first verse, possibly the most widely known, was discarded due to its naming of borders which (due to geographical shrinkage after each of the World Wars) are no longer accurate, while the second one praised the country's culture, women, wine and song. And there's also the melody's origin as the Austro-Hungarian imperial anthem, which most people are unaware of.

* There's also a state song with several little-known stanzas--"Maryland, My Maryland." Only one of its nine stanzas is commonly sung today, for good reason--it was originally a pro-Confederate rally cry that referred to "Northern scum" and called Lincoln a "Yankee despot."

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_National_Anthem#Lyrics Brazilian anthem]] has fourteen, with the latter half (identical in melody to the first) being often omitted outside government/school settings. In fact, the instrumental rendition officially must feature only the first half.

* The Dutch birthday song, "Lang Zal Hij Leven", does this one better. The first verse translates innocuously as "Long shall he live, long shall he live in glory!" The rarely-sung second verse, which this troper's Dutch-American mother adores and insists on, translates as "In a hundred years, [[GallowsHumor we'll all be dead]] in glory!"

* Most know the chorus and first verse of Unchained Melody; the second verse has yet to be sung in any cover ''this'' troper has heard.

* Many, many [[NationalAnthem National Anthems]].
** "O Canada" has four stanzas in both the English and French versions, although the commonly-known first verse in each language are the only official lyrics.
** "The Star-Spangled Banner" also has four stanzas. You'd think the second one would be more popular, as it answers the question asked in the first. The third one, on the other hand, is often left out even by those who know it for being blatantly anti-British. "Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution" indeed.
*** In a short story by Isaac Asimov, the protagonist caught a German spy by tricking him into revealing that he knew the whole thing, as [[ConvictionByContradiction presumably]] only a spy extensively coached on the culture he's infiltrating would have bothered to learn anything aside from the first verse.
**** Technically, the National Anthem of the United States is ''only'' the first verse of The Star-Spangled Banner. The spy could have saved himself a bit of memorization had he known.
** "God Save The King/Queen" has five, with only the first usually sung. Occasionally the third one shows up at sporting events, confusing everybody. The second is a request for the politics of Britain's enemies to be confused, among other things and turns up on occasions. UrbanLegends abound that the latter verses are CanonDiscontinuity due to being anti-Scottish; these are largely bogus.
*** The anti-Scottish verse did exist but was largely just a piece of propaganda and had fallen out of use long before the song was adopted as the official national anthem.
**** This troper's grandfather knows the verse in question, and occasionally sings it. From memory, it goes something like this:
--->God grant that Marshall Wade\\
May with Thy glorious aid\\
Victory bring\\
May he sedition hush\\
And like a torrent rush\\
Rebellious Scots to crush\\
God save the King
*** It's rather a pity that the ''final'' verse is never remembered these days, because it's oddly modern in tone for the 1740s:
--->So drink a toast to them (the Royal Family)\\
Fill your glass to the brim\\
God Save the King\\
Heaven grant the wars may cease\\
So trading may increase\\
Unite in Love and Peace\\
God Save the King.
*** The Canadian version of "God Save The Queen" has its own stanza; it's never sung these days.
** The current national anthem of Germany avoids it ''by [[SingleStanzaSong having only one stanza]]'', being the third/last stanza of the 1841 poem "Das Lied der Deutschen" (also known as "Deutschlandlied"), whose three stanzas have been used in various constellations as national anthem since 1922. The Deutschlandlied's first verse, possibly the most widely known, was discarded due to its naming of borders which (due to geographical shrinkage after each of the World Wars) are no longer accurate, while the second one praised the country's culture, women, wine and song. And there's also the melody's origin as the Austro-Hungarian imperial anthem, which most people are unaware of.
*** They tried to get rid of it when the Federal Republic of Germany was formed in 1949, but apparently all the new anthems they got were of [[SoBadItsHorrible dubious quality]], so they stuck with it.
**** The DDR/GDR anthem (which is actually rather awesome) ran into some problems, the end-result being that the lyrics were not used at all.
***** The problem was that the GDR anthem referred to a unified Germany ("Lasst uns ihm zum Guten dienen, Deutschland einig Vaterland") while the official policy was to cement the two state solution.
** The Dutch national anthem has ''15'' verses. Most people are having trouble reproducing the first. Occasionally the sixth verse is added.
*** The verses for the anthem, "Het Wilhemus", are an acrostic for "Willem van Nassov", known in England as William the Orange. It's essentially about the Dutch regrouping after the Spanish beat the crap out of them.
** "Advance Australia Fair", in its original form as a poem, has five verses. Its adoption as the national anthem in the 1970s cherry-picked the first and third verses as the official lyrics, as the other three verses were all quite imperialist and Anglophilic. In addition to that, only the first verse is usually sung, but most schools have the students sing both verses. The ''real'' national anthem is the one about the suicide sheep thief. Which also suffers from SecondVerseCurse.
*** The fact that most schools require their students to sing the second verse, but it being rarely used anywhere else, leads to unintentional humour whenever a version with the second verse is played when the audience is adult. After the initial shock that the version actually is playing the second verse, most people will realise they have forgot what the second verse is, and it ends up with a hodgepodge of people who don't know the verse at all and stop, people who know it and sing the whole thing, and people who know parts and make up the rest or try to follow those that do.
** The Mexican anthem has ''10'' stanzas, yet only the first and the last ones are usually sung. If you really go overboard and sing the "long" version - the one sung in national anthem singing contests - you'll be singing only the first, the fifth, the sixth, and the last stanzas.
*** Another standard cut is to sing the first two of the "short" official version. [[SarcasmMode Oddly enough]], the version used by schools cuts off before the one about [[{{Gorn}} washing church bells with the blood of the enemy]] and [[AfterTheEnd making sure to leave very big ruins for the future to marvel at when we get wiped out]]... (All of the odd stuff in the Mexican anthem can be handwaved by the fact that it was written by a romantic poet locked in his room by his fiancee, though.)
** The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_National_Anthem#Lyrics Brazilian anthem]] has fourteen, with the latter half (identical in melody to the first) being often omitted outside government/school settings. In fact, the instrumental rendition officially must feature only the first half. ThisTroper was feeling smug relative to his Mexican colleague above [[BeyondTheImpossible until he read about Greece]] below.
*** In the 2000's, the chorus that does get played started to get cut in half in sports events (probably to play the intro entirely instead of going straight to the lyrics) - only three of the seven stanzas get featured.
** In this troper's Irish class, there's a small poster detailing the full lyrics to the national anthem, ''Amhrán na bhFiann'' in both Irish and English. This troper found this very confusing, as nobody ever sings any verse other than the first one.
** The Greek National Anthem "Hymn to the Freedom" (or "Hymn to the Liberty") is ('''158 stanzas''') long but only two are commonly known.

* Many, many, ''many'' folk songs.
** "Molly Malone" ends with a FamilyUnfriendlyDeath.
* Several Christmas carols have little-known stanzas.
** Most people know only the first stanza of "Deck the Halls".
*** The ''{{Pogo}}'' parody "Deck Us All with Boston Charlie" only ''has'' one verse, but few know more than ''the first half'' of it, because the rest was rarely (if ever) used in the strip itself.
*** For this and other christmas songs / popular hymns, time in choir will cure SecondVerseCurse. In this particular instance, the third verse starts with "Fast away the old year passes" and is quite fun to sing twice as fast.
*** Even fewer people know that the song was originally written in ''Welsh'', and the English lyrics [[{{Macekre}} have no relation to the original song]], which is specifically about New Year's Eve and not Christmas.
** Hardly anyone is aware that "Jingle Bells" has 4 stanzas, including one in which the narrator is mocked after he falls out of his sleigh.
*** At least most people know the second verse to that one.
*** Or that it was written for a Thanksgiving celebration. Take a look. No reference to Christmas. (of course, this is neither here nor there for this article.)
** The final verses to ''Brightest and Best'' which totally changes the meaning of the song to an anti-consumerist message, are [[MisaimedFandom often omitted]].

*** This English choral scholar has only ever seen and sung that version.
** There are a lot of traditional Christmas songs like that you don't hear in churches (much less on the radio) for some reason. ''All the evil folk on earth, / sleep in feathers at their birth...''
** This troper used to go singing Christmas carols. Many people happily sing along with the first few lines of The Pudding Song (better known as "We Wish You A Merry Christmas") then stand around in utter confusion when they realize the song is much longer than they know.
* Most people sing only the first stanza to "HappyBirthdayToYou".
** Probably because the second verse is "How old are you now?", which can be seen as offensive or simply blunt.
** The Dutch birthday song, "Lang Zal Hij Leven", does this one better. The first verse translates innocuously as "Long shall he live, long shall he live in glory!" The rarely-sung second verse, which this troper's Dutch-American mother adores and insists on, translates as "In a hundred years, [[GallowsHumor we'll all be dead]] in glory!"
* AmazingFreakingGrace.
** {{Phish}} perform four verses in their version.

** Actually, the ''official'' lyrics of the second verse are "ner ner ner, ner ner ner" [repeat as necessary to fit the tune], and obviously [[DontExplainTheJoke all the funnier]] for being sung with straight-faced soprano overload.
* Some songs take this to the logical extreme: Few people know that [[ForgottenThemeTuneLyrics they have lyrics]] ''[[ForgottenThemeTuneLyrics at all]]''.

* Parodied in an episode of ''RedDwarf'':
-->"I remember Mr Rimmer spotted an S3 planet on the scope, and wanted to claim it on behalf of the Space Corps. As usual, the ceremony consisted of planting the flag and singing all 23 stanzas of the Space Corps anthem. Then the planet started to erupt around us, which frankly, came as something of a relief."
* Most people don't know that "Friends in Low Places" has a final stanza, but this is mostly due to it being cut from most productions of the song, a fact that Garth Brooks is allegedly unhappy about. This verse appeared on a rarely-heard live recording, and a less-rarely-heard live recording on his ''Double Live'' album. It's cut from most recordings because many radio stations won't play it--the final line is "You can kiss my ass."
** Another final stanza cut from a Garth Brooks song appears in "The Thunder Rolls," which has [[spoiler: the protagonist's wife getting a gun from her drawer in preparation to kill her husband for his infidelity]]. Garth usually sings this verse live, too.
* ''Closer'' by NineInchNails. If an artist is covering the song,they certainly will forget to add the last stanza.
** What, you mean the bit that's all gravely-voiced whispermumbling? Probably because they can't make out the words.
*** Well perhaps now that he's started screaming them at the top of his lungs during concerts, remixes will start featuring them.

** It was, in fact, written as a rebuttal to God Bless America and intended as a "worker's national anthem." When Pete Seeger and BruceSpringsteen did it at President Obama's inaugural celebration, they put backthe missing verse.
* "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
** Most wargamers at least would know the others, the verses were picked over for game titles for YEARS.
* The last (or second, in some versions) verse of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", which begins, "'Till ringing, singing on its way", is rarely heard.
** Most people haven't even heard of the song at all, much less the second verse!
* The US Marine Corps Hymn. The Army & the Navy would particularly like to forget how the third verse ends.
** For future reference, it's called the "Marine's Hymn". Most of us aren't that picky about the title but occasionally you'll get a salty old SgtMaj that will insist - loudly - that it be referred to correctly.
** In that vein, the Navy theme "Anchors Away" has about 6 stanzas, but only one is ever sung (mainly because the other five are about a football game)
* The third (of four) verse of Springsteen's ''Glory Days'' is omitted from most radio-play versions and even the "Greatest Hits" album ;
--->My old man worked 20 years on the line/ and they let him go
--->Now everywhere he goes out looking for work/ they just tell him that he's too old
--->I was 9 nine years old and he was working at the/ Metuchen Ford plant assembly line
--->Now he just sits on a stool down at the Legion hall/ but I can tell what's on his mind
* From the Bemani series (''DanceDanceRevolution'', ''Dance [=ManiaX=]'', etc.): Pick a licensed song. Any licensed song. Unless said song is well-known enough outside of Bemani, only the most hardcore of fans will know of its full version, let alone the full lyrics.
** Several Konami-original songs also have rare extended versions with additional lyrics.
* In a weird case of this, ''TransformersAnimated'' uses as its opening theme a new version of the original ''{{Transformers}}'' cartoon's theme, but has a second verse written especially for ''Animated''... which was then not used in the show's opening, with the end result that most people aren't aware it exists.
-->''Transformers, more than they appear''
-->''Transformers, justice, bolts, and gears!''
* The hymn "O Come All Ye Faithful" has a couple of verses that are often not printed in song books.
* America The Beautiful has four stanzas.
* Swedish psalm ''Den Blomstertid nu kommer'' (which translated means something like "Now comes the time of flowers") that is usually sung at graduations and such, has several verses whom no one sings. Especially the one about "His Footstepps drip of fat..."
* "Joy to the World" has four stanzas; ThisTroper has heard the second, third, and fourth in church but nowhere else.
** And even that only covers the second half of the psalm on which it is based; the author wrote three more stanzas at the beginning.
* Commonly inverted with {{Journey}}'s "Don't Stop Believin';" the famous "Doooon't stop! Believin'!" verse doesn't come in until the very ''end'' of the song, but it's the most commonly referenced part of the song. The opening verse ("Just a small-town girl / livin' in a lonely word") is the second-most frequently quoted part, but almost the entire middle of the song tends to get forgot in favor of its iconic ending.
* The Scottish folk song/New Years ballad ''Auld Lang Syne'' has five stanzas, but it's rare (in America, at least) to sing beyond the first.
* The Rembrandts' "I'll Be There For You", better known as the ''{{Friends}}'' theme, has a second verse which is chock-full of FridgeLogic:
-->You're still in bed at ten and work began at eight
-->You've burned your breakfast; so far, things are going great (who the hell ''cooks breakfast'' when they're late for work?)
-->Your mother warned you there'd be days like these (wasn't the first line of the song "So no-one told you life was gonna be this way"?)
-->Oh but she didn't tell you when the world has brought you down to your knees that...
** With [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S8wBNoiv90 full credit]] to Rob Paravonian for the fridge logic, of course...
* The theme from DuckTales has a lesser-known 2nd verse:
-->When it seems they're heading for the final curtain
-->Cool deduction never fails, that's for certain
-->The worst of messes, become successes
-->Ducktales! Whoo-Hoo!
* ''DarkwingDuck'' also had a second verse that got cut out of most broadcasts (presumably for time reasons), and that's a shame because it was pretty {{Badass}}:
-->Cloud of smoke and he appears
-->The master of surprise
-->Who's that cunning mind behind
-->That shadowy disguise?
-->Nobody knows for sure,
-->But bad guys are out of luck!
* Warren Zevon's "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" has a final verse that never gets played on the radio, probably because it has the phrase "the shit has hit the fan"
* Dr. Dre and {{Eminem}}'s "Guilty Conscience" has a final conclusion where Dre at last gives in and says "fuck it, shoot 'em both Brady, where's your gun at?" This was left out of the radio edit and the music video.
* The last stanza of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" tends to be omitted from covers. [[AdaptationDecay Sad, really]], because (as with the majority of Cohen's songs) the last stanza is the climax that the rest exists for the sake of.
** This is because Cohen wrote literally dozens of verses for the song, which he has shared with several artists. In order to give a different spin on the song, many artists will cherry-pick verses to produce a version they want that was still 100% penned by Cohen. Thus, one could argue that even the original version Cohen put on the album falls under this trope.
* It is common in churches that still sing hymns to skip certain verses for time's sake. Some hymnals even indicate the "important" verses with arrowheads. The third verse of hymns that are four verses long seems to be a popular choice for omission. This carries over even into Christmas carols.
** "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" was written by Charles Wesley as ''18'' stanzas. The version in the United Methodist Hymnal is 7 stanzas, with a star on the one that begins "Hear him, ye deaf" indicating that it "may be omitted."
* Many renditions of "Winter Wonderland" omit its slower-paced intro. Others repeat the first verse of "Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'!" instead of the actual last verse, which is:
-->When it snows, ain't it thrillin'
-->Though your nose is a-chillin'
-->We'll frolic and play the Eskimo way
-->Walkin' in a winter wonderland
** Jo Dee Messina's rendition includes the slower intro but ''not'' the Eskimo verse. Weird.
*** It may be because the word "Eskimo" is mildly offensive.
**** [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad That's silly.]] If the lyricist had ''meant'' it to be offensive, he could have easily made it "We'll frolic and play/The ice-n----r way...."
* Similarly, many versions of "Sleigh Ride" omit the last two stanzas — the part that begins with "There's a birthday party at the home of Farmer Gray…" This part is markedly different from the rest of the song.
** In a performance with this troper's school's chorus classes, we didn't get to skip it. [[{{Understatement}} It's a difficult part to sing compared to the rest of the song,]] though in part that's due to how different it is musically. So, JustifiedTrope?
* The worship song ''Awesome God'', which will likely be familiar to anyone who's ever attended a contemporary Christian worship service, actually has a couple verses. The familiar quatrain is only the refrain. The verses are probably omitted because the song doesn't just talk about God's love - but God's ''ass-kicking.''
** This could be because those verses are chock full of {{Narm}}.
-->''"When he rolls up his sleeves he ain't just puttin' on the ritz."''
* Don Mc Lean's "American Pie" having six verses, has several verses omitted from its radio edit. Even worse, the original single was split across two sides of the record, so most radio stations only played half the song.
** However, you will sometimes hear the whole thing on BBC Radio 2 because played back-to-back with "Hotel California", it gives presenters time to get to the toilet and back.
** Mostly don by Ken Bruce at the end of the "Pop Master" quiz, a lot of other songs have been used for this, including Bat Out Of Hell and on one occasion about 10 minutes of Jeff Wayne's "War of the Worlds".
* Goldfinger's cover of "99 Red Balloons" takes its fourth verse from the German version, which was originally translated into the English third verse. Thus, you hear the same verse twice in different languages.
* The radio edit of {{U2}}'s "New Year's Day" omits the second bridge ("Maybe the time is right, maybe tonight") and the final stanza/verse ("So we're told this is the golden age, gold is the reason for the wars we wage..."), fading out with the refrain("I will be with you again").
* The bridge of the original version of BritneySpears' "Crazy" has an extra line not heard in the more familiar "Stop Remix".
* The more popular [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ707-m3yTc&feature=related MK Dub remix]] (and the subsequent mixes based on it) of The Nightcrawlers's "Push The Feeling On" only has LoopedLyrics. Little do most people know that it once had a full set of lyrics. Listen to the true original [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4tZiThZPdE here]].
* The radio edit of Nena's "99 Luftballons" (the version used in ''GrandTheftAuto: Vice City'') omits the [[LastChorusSlowdown Last Stanza Slowdown]].
* How many stanzas of ''London Bridge is Falling Down'' do you know? [[spoiler: If you're going by the 1951 version - 12]]
* Speaking of nursery rhymes, look up the full lyrics for ''Twinkle Twinkle Little Star''. There's at least two more stanzas following the famous first one.
* The theme from ''{{Cheers}}'' has verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus in its [[http://home.online.no/~espenas/cheers/theme.html full theme]]; the omitted verses are actually rather amusing in themselves.
* ''Good King Wenceslas'' suffers from this. It actually has 5 full verses, but nobody ever performs all 5. The closest ThisTroper has ever found was a version where 4 of them were sung. This is particularly irritating because the verses tell a full story if they are all performed in order, and leaving any of them out (especially the middle ones) causes the song's story to cease to make any sense whatsoever, and leaving out the ending leaves out the moral of the story:
---> "''Therefore, Christian men, be sure/Wealth or rank possessing/Ye who now shall bless the poor/Shall yourselves find blessing.''"
* ''{{iCarly}}'': The theme song is a full-length song, and the full version was on the iSongs page before they took it down.
* Many intro songs have unknown second verses. Even in the internet, with ''AtopTheFourthWall'' (the series stops at "This! Comic! Sucks! LINKARA!" [[Quotes/AtopTheFourthWall but a lot follows]]) and ''TheAngryVideoGameNerd'' ([[http://www.gametrailers.com/video/angry-video-screwattack/19089 only one episode]] has the full-length, ''three'' verses long song).
* The radio edit of Music/{{Wings}}'s song "Band on the Run" omits the verse that starts "Well, the undertaker drew a heavy sigh..." so nobody remembers that verse.
* Inverted with Texas A&M's [[FootballFightSong "Aggie War Hymn"]], in that the ''second'' verse is traditionally sung twice, with the first verse omitted.
* The horribly butchered radio edit of BT's "Remember" leaves out the entire third verse and half of the second.
* The ''{{Moonwalker}}'' version of MichaelJackson's "Smooth Criminal" has two additional lines in the second verse.

* The horribly butchered radio edit of BT's "Remember" leaves out the entire third verse and half of the second.

**** [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad That's silly. If the lyricist had ''meant'' it to be offensive, he could have easily made it "We'll frolic and play/The ice-n----r way...."]]

**** That's silly. If the lyricist had ''meant'' it to be offensive, he could have easily made it "We'll frolic and play/The ice-n----r way...."

* TheAngryVideoGameNerd's theme song has two additional verses and a bridge, along with a LastChorusSlowDown; the full version has only been used two or three times.

* Inverted with Texas A&M's [[FootballFightSong "Aggie War Hymn"]], in that the ''second'' verse is traditionally sung twice, with the first verse omitted.

** "Molly Malone" ends with a FamilyUnfreandlyDeath.