History Main / ChorusOnlySong

*** Bubb Rubb.

* "There She Goes" by The La's (later covered by Sixpence None The Richer) is literally this, since it doesn't have any verses.

** Arguably, the only part of "Imagine" that people seem to remember is "Imagine all the people / Living for today" (or any of the other last two lines of each of the verses). People tend to forget often about the rest of the first verse, and don't even bother asking about most of the rest of the song, except perhaps for the bridge ("You may say I'm a dreamer [...]").

* ''This is not a love song'' by Public Image Ltd (PIL, not Public Image)

* "Take Me Out To The Ball Game." The verses, as it happens, are actually quite interesting, centering as they do on {{Tomboy}} who loves baseball.

* "Awesome God," originally by Rich Mullins, became this when churches started using it as a modern worship song. They stripped out all the verses and sang only the chorus. Eventually, new follow-up "verses" were written to the chorus's tune.
** Given the high cheese factor of some of the verse lyrics ("When He rolls up His sleeves, He ain't just puttin' on the Ritz"?Yes, really), it's possible some of those churches are leaving them out deliberately.
*** Which is kinda sad because some of the other verse lyrics make for a great, dark, atmospheric song. "When the sky was darkness in the void of the night ..." Why no, I haven't been to church in ten years, [[EarWorm why do you ask?]]
** [[NarmCharm So what if it's corny?]]
** The second verse is pretty badass...look it up.
** Notwithstanding any of the above comments on the lyrics to the first or second verse, the tune to which those verses are sung is fairly atrocious and not easily adapted to a large group of non-musicians, which another possible reason they've fallen into disuse.

*** I've listened to it repeatedly on radio, and I would have sworn the only words in the song were "I get knocked down but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down" and "Danny boy".

** RonaldReagan, for example.
** This is actually a very common misconception about Reagan's request to use the song. He was a politician running in an election; if the song has mom-and-apple-pie connotations in the minds of 80% of the voting public, then associating himself with the song would be a smart move. He wasn't trying to make an objective statement about the values of the song, he was trying to get votes.
*** In other words "The People Are Morons." You're not exactly helping his case.
*** It worked, didn't it?

* "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am"; largely the fault of Herman's Hermits, who only sung the chorus in their (very popular) version. "Second verse, same as the first!"
** Apparently they performed only the chorus because that was the only part they knew. So it could have been a ChorusOnlySong before they recorded it.

* "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam.
** It does have two verses, which may not have been remembered because the first verse sounds too much like the chorus to Jerry Butler's "He Will Break Your Heart."

*** And you can bet that they will play the riff wrong. If, by an accident, you're a guitar player, please do not hurt fans of this song, and learn to play it properly.

* I also believe "[[{{Santana}} Oye Como Va]]" is one of these.
** I think it's more of a song that only ''has'' a chorus.

* I personally have a sneaking suspicion that the reason why people only remember the chorus to "It's My Party (And I'll Cry if I Want To)" is that the verses are musically more complex.

* It's a bit of an in-joke in the {{Goth}} fandom that nobody remembers the lyrics of TheSistersOfMercy's "This Corrosion" other than the "Hey now, hey now now now, sing this corrosion to me" chorus. This troper's heard tale of a card game called "Gother Than Thou" where one of the cards calls on you to sing "This Corrosion"... and awards points on everything ''except'' the chorus.

*** This troper would like to add that she laughs every time sports fans start singing either of these - because they parody and vilify organized sports.

* "Delta Dawn" ... or as this troper prefers to call it, "Delta [EXPLETIVE] Dawn". I had to live through the Seventies with that @#$% droning over and over and overandoverandover in my head ...
** It actually does have one verse ("She's 41 and her daddy still calls her baby..."), but the chorus is much more familiar due to repetition.

* As a radio jock in Sri Lanka this troper had to deal with a myriad requests for the song ''Happy Birthday'' by StevieWonder when a listener wanted to send a birthday request to a friend. Unfortunately all the requesters knew was that it was a song that had the phrase ''happy birthday to you'' in it, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_%28Stevie_Wonder_song%29 all references to Martin Luther King jr. was gleefully ignored]]

** Hold on.... Like a healing hand... OH I REMEMBER! That's his bitching out the ex bandmates song. "Gimme the ring. Kissed and told, gimme something that I missed, a hand to hold, wild and what is seemed" errmm... "Kill the king when love is the law, and the wheel turned round" hmm... "Gimme siren child and do you hear me call" What do I win? (and yes, that took more brainpower than I'd like to admit)
*** This made me realize that I can still can sing the entire lyrics after more than a decade of not being a goth. (In other words, it took ''less' brainpower than I'd like to admit... what? It's a good song! <_< >_>)
**** This troper isn't a goth in the least and still thinks that song kicks butt.

* As a radio jock in Sri Lanka this troper had to deal with a myriad requests for the song ''Happy Birthday'' when a listener wanted to send a birthday request to a friend. Unfortunately all the requesters knew was that it was a song that had the phrase ''happy birthday to you'' in it, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_%28Stevie_Wonder_song%29 all references to Martin Luther King jr. was gleefully ignored]]

* As a radio jock in Sri Lanka this troper had to deal with a myriad requests for the song ''Happy Birthday'' when a listener wanted to send a birthday request to a friend. Unfortunately all the requesters knew was that it was a song that had the phrase ''happy birthday to you'' in it, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_%28Stevie_Wonder_song%29 all references to Stevie Wonder was gleefully ignored]]

* It's a bit of an in-joke in the {{Goth}} fandom that nobody remembers the lyrics of TheSistersofMercy's "This Corrosion" other than the "Hey now, hey now now now, sing this corrosion to me" chorus. This troper's heard tale of a card game called "Gother Than Thou" where one of the cards calls on you to sing "This Corrosion"... and awards points on everything ''except'' the chorus.

* Nobody cares about the verses to {{Kiss}}'s "Rock and Roll All Night". Nobody.

* Prince's [[Film/Batman "Batdance"]] has ''got'' to qualify. While it is admittedly far more of a dance number than a "sing-along" song, most people are unlikely to remember more than about 5 to 10 percent of the lyrics (assuming they can remember it at all). In fact, the one line (besides the chorus) that ''everyone'' seems to remember is the very first one ("Oh, I got a live one here!") - and that's only because radio deejays loved to play it as an out-of-context gag soundbite for years afterward.

The song is known only by its chorus. Few know of the ''existence'' of verses. If a verse is known, it's the related trope of the SecondVerseCurse. If the Chorus is really it for lyrics, it becomes a SingleStanzaSong. If it extends to the title, goes into RefrainFromAssuming.

*"Give Peace a Chance" by John Lennon. Since the chorus is only one couplet, repeated as necessary, that takes this trope near the limit. But it's understandable: the chorus is simple and timeless; the verses are tonguetwisters, and they are less timeless.

*Tubthumping by Chumbawumba. best known for "I get knocked down, but I get up again". That song.

* Bruce Springsteen's ''Born in the USA'' - double the fun in that without the verses the meaning of the song changes completely. Occasionally leads to DidNotDoTheResearch when people neglect to ''listen'' to the song before using it.

** See, that's the kind of talk makes people get wild. But that's okay - ''you drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy...''

* "London Calling" by the Clash. In fact, most people don't even seem to know any of the chorus besides those two words.

** "Rock The Casbah" is probably a better example. How many people (especially outside Britain) even understand the words, let alone know the verses well enough to sing them? And yet, everytime the chorus comes back we're all reciting: "Something something something...Rock the Casbah! Rock the Casbah!"

* Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water". Some only stay for the guitar riff (which is outlawed now in most music shops), some stay a little longer for the pretty memorable chorus, but rarely does anyone know the verses. As one friend remarked: "There are verses?"

* I also believe "Oye Como Va" is one of these.

* Many songs from Tin Pan Alley days have verses which have been long forgotten by everybody but music geeks--so much so that guessing the song from its first verse became a parlor game.
** "Give My Regards To Broadway" is a good example of this.
** As are most songs written by the Gershwins.