Looped Lyrics

"I know a song that'll get on your nerves, get on your nerves, get on your nerves,
I know a song that'll get on your nerves, get on your nerves, get on your nerves,
I know a song that'll get on your nerves,
And this is how it goes, bom, bom, bom..."
(repeat ad infinitum)

A song in which the lyrics are repeated time and time again. They fall under any of the following tropes (and probably Broken Record):

• Single Stanza Song
• Second Verse Curse
• Chorus-Only Song
• Limited Lyrics Song

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Examples:

Single Word Songs

• Koyaanisqatsi! Koyaanisqatsi!
  • Parodied in P.D.Q. Bach's "Prelude to Einstein on the Fritz": "Koy-hotsy-totsy..."
• The duet "Woe" from P.D.Q. Bach's "half-act opera" The Stoned Guest.
• Any number of sacred vocal works setting the word "Amen" or "Alleluia."
• "Intercourse" by Suicide Commando.
• "Shake" by Chris Walsh & Dave Beran, best known for its appearance in Grand Theft Auto III on RISE FM.
• In Child of Light, the Ominous Latin Chanting of the boss theme "Metal Gleamed in the Twilight" is just Aurora's name repeated.
• "Thunder, th-th-thunder", by Imagine Dragons.
• "Groovy Chocobo," the main chocobo-riding theme of Final Fantasy XIII-2, has the single, occasionally repeated lyric of "chocobo."
• The verses of "Chumbara", a Quebeçois nonsense song set To the Tune of... The Cancan Song, consist solely of repeating single gibberish words, namely "Chumbara", "Fydolee" and "Chowberski" in that order.

Single Sentence Song

• Blue Öyster Cult's Seven Screaming Dizbusters fades out on the line Lucifer the light repeated at least thirty times. Although the last seven repetitions are helpfully counted down.
• John Mayer's song "Say" repeats the phrase "say what you need to say" many times.
• LCD Soundsystem's "Us v. Them"'s latter half consists of "Us, and them, over and over again" and minor variations thereof... over and over again.
• "Free Speech For The Dumb" by Discharge: "Free speech, free speech for the dumb" repeated for two minutes. The better known Metallica cover actually adds one more line to it - "free fucking speech!".
• In the play Vanities by Jack Heifner, Joanne offers to "teach the kids the words to 'Hold That Tiger'," which is not such a good idea because the words are just "Hold That Tiger!" repeated over and over again.
• The fifth movement of Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 1 "The Gothic" is an epic 16-minute setting of the Latin sentence "Judex crederis esse venturus."
• The sole lyric of Armand van Helden's "The Funk Phenomena", Sampled Up from Method Man & Redman's "How High", is the Title Drop repeated ad nauseam. Same for "Ultrafunkula", "Witch Doktor", and many others.
• Sash! - "Encore une Fois"
• Hong Kong '97's only music (and audio, to boot) is a loop of the first line of "I Love Beijing Tiananmen".
• "Is There Anybody Out There?", from Pink Floyd's The Wall consists of just the title being repeated a few times, followed by a lonely guitar piece.
• CRW - "I Feel Love" (no relation to the Donna Summer song)
• Josh Wink: "Opening to the Higher State of Consciousness". Ditto "Are You There?" and "How's Your Evening So Far?".
• "Stormy Weather" by The Pixies consists entirely of "It is time for stormy weather" repeated.
• "Let's go, Ghostbus-ters! Let's go! (Let's go! Let's go!)..."
• Sex-O-Sonique's "I Thought It Was You" (Sampled Up from Herbie Hancock) and "Funk It Up".
• An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn has in its soundtrack "I Wanna Be Mike Ovitz", whose lyrics mostly consist of the title. Understandably, the Razzie Awards made sure to give it Worst Song.
• Brazilian band Titãs have "O Que", courtesy of Arnaldo Antunes, in which the phrase "Não é o que não pode ser que não é"^TranslationIt's not what it can't be that it's not is constantly looped unto itself.

Single Stanza Song

• Several Daft Punk songs work like this. "Around the World", "Robot Rock", and "Television Rules the Nation" have only their titles for lyrics. "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" famously can be entirely sung by writing some words and gesturing.
• Queens of the Stone Age's "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" has one line of lyrics that are repeated ad-infinitum throughout the whole song, with no real chorus. ("Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol...c-c-c-c-c-cocaine"
• I AM HENRY THE EIGHTH I AM, HENRY THE EIGHTH I AM I AM, I GOT MARRIED TO THE WIDOW NEXT DOOR, SHE'S BEEN MARRIED SEVEN TIMES BEFORE, AND EVERY ONE WAS A HENRY, SHE WOULDN'T HAVE A WILLY OR A SAM, I'M HER EIGHTH OLD MAN I'M HENRY, HENRY THE EIGHTH I AM.
  • Second verse, same as the first!
    • A little bit louder...
    • AND A WHOLE LOT WORSE!
• "Gangs of Riverside" by Starflyer 59.
• "A Better Class of Criminal" by Electric Valentine, which has a Non-Appearing Title.
• Crystal Castles has a little song called "Doe Deer", whose lyrics consist solely of Alice screaming DEATH RAY, DEAAAATH RAAY!
• "A/B Machines" by Sleigh Bells has the single line "got my a machines on the table, got my b machines in the drawer" repeated throughout it's 3 and a half minute runtime.
• DRI's "Reaganomics" is 42 seconds of "Reaganomics killing me, Reaganomics killing me, Reaganomics killing me, Reaganomics killing you!" being repeated.
• ''Right about now, the funk soul brother/check it out now, the funk soul brother/right about now, the funk soul brother/check it out now, the funk soul brother''
• "Dicks Are For My Friends" by Mindless Self Indulgence.
• In BT's song "Nectar", the lyrics are simply, "And it ebbs and goes, ebbs and goes where love can only flow..." repeated until the very end.
  • A lot of his songs are like that, such as "The Force of Gravity", which only repeats the chorus after the first and only verse. "Do you cry your eyes asleep? Is it peace you seek at night when your body's weak?" etc..
• The Grasscut song "Lights" (as used in the Kmart Black Friday commercial) repeats "The lights, the lights, the lights that lights the lights, the lights, the lights, the lights" in the background several times.
• A number of Cirque du Soleil songs, Cirquish lyrics or not, such as "Ena fee aaah! Ena fee alyne!" in the unicycle act song from Amaluna (which sounds more like "And i feel alive" in the soundtrack version).
• The whole of Sigur Rós' ( ) album - the album's entire lyrics consist of a nonsense phrase which is repeated through all eight songs.
• Feeder's Bad Hair Day. The lyrics that aren't distorted mumbling and muffled screams go:
  Bad hair, bad hair day (x12)
• Enzo Siffredi's "I Don't Care", which is essentially six minutes of the Title Drop over and over. (Unless they're actually singing "Why don't you". It's hard to tell with this artist.) Also the lyrics that kick in halfway through "My Blue Ray-Bans", which are two verses repeated over and over.
• "Glass Vase Cello Case" by Tattle Tale (best known for its use in But I'm a Cheerleader) would be a single sentence song were it not for a bridge that's even more sparse lyrically. The main lyric in the song is "Breathe into my hands, or cup them like a glass to drink from", while the bridge is "Are you still, still breathing? Are you still breathing?"
• The Capoeira song "Zoom Zoom Zoom" (or "Zum Zum Zum")^note famous for its use in the film Only the Strong, and in commercials for the car company Mazda. does this:
  "Zum zum zum, capoeira mata um" (x4)
  "Onde tem marimbondo (É zum zum zum!)" (x4)
  "Oh-ah, oh-ah-ay! (Quero ver bater, quero ver cair!)" (x4)
• "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" by Faust
  It's a rainy day, Sunshine Baby
  It's a rainy day, Sunshine Girl

Second Verse Recursive

• When The Saints Go Marching In
• The Nightcrawlers - "Push The Feeling On" (MK's Nocturnal Dub/Dub of Doom and subsequent remixes): "-Er/ And their lives again -er / And their li- to pull us -er" ad nauseam. These are in fact chopped and resampled lyrics from the forgotten 1992 original mix. Some mixes at least include a brief additional section that includes the Title Drop ("Push it, let's push it, push the feeling on / push it, let's push it, gotta keep movin' on").
• "Paradise" by Coldplay.
• A version with the hymn "Down to the River to Pray". It basically repeats the chorus and only slightly changes the verses (replacing sisters with brothers, fathers, mothers and finally sinners).
• This is actually a common structure for most spiritual songs: repeat the same verse several times, but change only one or two lines. (For instance, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" is just that line sung four times, then with "the whole world" swapped out for something else on each subsequent verse.)
• CJ Bolland - "Sugar is Sweeter (Armand van Helden Remix)":
  Sugar daddy-oh! Sugar daddy-oh! Sugar daddy-oh! Sugar daddy-oh! (many times)

Chorus-Only Song

• A LOT of Church choruses.
• "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves; yes, on everybody's nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes... I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves; yes, on everybody's nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes... I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves; yes, on everybody's nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes...." And it can go on for as long as you like.
  • Or until the driver pulls the vehicle over and threatens to put everyone out on the side of the road.
• Groove Armada: "I see you baby, shakin' that ass, shakin' that ass, shakin' that ass".
• KC and the Sunshine Band: "That's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it! Uh-huh, uh-huh!"
• "Sir Duke" by Stevie Wonder: "You can feel it all oooover! You can feel it all over, people", repeat ad nauseam.
• Shout! Shout! Let it all out! These are the things I can do without, come on! I'm talking to you, come on!"
• Liv and Maddie's Dove Cameron: "You and me, and the beat, go great together! You and me, and the beat, go great together! You and me, and the beat, go great together! You and me, and the beat, go great together now!"

Circular Lyrics

• "I Don't Wanna Wait" by The Veronicas: It starts just the way it finishes and you could loop it easily.
• "The Bear Went Over the Mountain:"
  The bear went over the mountain,
  The bear went over the mountain,
  The bear went over the mountain,
  And what do you think he saw?
  He saw another mountain,
  He saw another mountain,
  He saw another mountain,
  And what do you think he did?
• Florence + the Machine's "Falling":
  And my love keeps writing again and again,
  And again and again and again and again,
  And again and again and again and again,
  And again and again and again and again,
  And again and again and again and again...
• There's a reworking of the old 1954 Dean Martin ballad Sway, done by a novelty act called Shaft in the late 1990's. This dispenses with most of the lyrics and just repeats the first two lines of the first verse. Over and over and over again. You want to slap the lead singer, and send her a copy of the lyrics with the word "LEARN!" attached...
  When Marimba Rhythms start to play, dance with me, make me sway;
  Like a lazy ocean hugs the shore, hold me close, sway me more...

Found here

• Groove Armada's At The River has extremely minimalist lyrics.
  If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air,
  Quaint little villages here and there...
  • And that's it. Nice ambient tune, but every time these two lines are repeated it's like the Chinese water torture.... the listener wants to yell, yes, and then what? Where's the rest of it? You've already sung that bit. What's the rest of it?^note The original is "Old Cape Cod", recorded in 1957 by Patti Page, for which the lead singer took care to learn all the words.
• "All These Things That I Have Done" by The Killers at one point simply repeats the line "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier".
• Similarly, OneRepublic's "Counting Stars" repeats the line "Take that money, watch it burn, sink to the river the lessons I've learned".
• The chorus of "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba just repeats "I get knocked down/But I get up again/You're never gonna keep me down" four times.
• Lamb Chop's Play-Along
  This is the song that doesn't end,
  yes it goes on and on, my friend.
  Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was,
  and they'll continue singing it forever just because...
  This is the song that doesn't end,
  yes it goes on and on, my friend.
  Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was,
  and they'll continue singing it forever just because...
  This is the song that doesn't end,
  yes it goes on and on, my friend.
  Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was,
  and they'll continue singing it forever just because...]
• Razzberry Jazzberry Jam: The Forever Song
  That old Forever Song
  It just goes on and on
  It lasts all night and day
  You can’t help but sing away
  To the Forever Song
  It goes forever long
  And you can’t do anything
  Until someone else sings...
• The chorus of "Private Eye" by Jumalatar:
  IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII feel like a Private IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII feel like a Private IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII feel like a Private IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII feel like a Private Eye!
• Wolf Alice have a tendency to write songs with repeating choruses. Examples include "Storm" ("Your friends, your friends, your friends, your friends") and "90 Mile Beach" ("You owe me, you owe me, you owe me").
• Bobby Fuller's "Let Her Dance." Although it does have a couple of verses, the main chorus of "Well, let her dance with him all night long/Let her dance to our favorite song/Well, let her dance with him/Let her dance all night long." is repeated twice at the end and the backing vocals "Dance, let her dance, let her dance, dance, dance/Let her dance, let her dance, let her dance, dance, dance" are repeated even more throughout the song. Furthermore, the second part of the chorus, "Well, let her dance with him/Let her dance all night long" is a repeat of material from the main verses.
• Big Red Machine: Common across their first album.
  • "Gratitude" has twofer repeats of "Well, there ain't no other other" and "Well, I better not fuck this up" in each verse.
  • "People Lullaby" loops "Has me all borderline - re-erased" in the middle of the song.
• The closing track of Heaven 17's Penthouse and Pavement, "We're Going to Live For a Very Long Time", ends with a locked groove on the vinyl edition, causing the lyric "for a very long time" to loop ad infinitum until the listener manually raises the tonearm.

Cumulative Song Wikipedia defines a "cumulative song" as one in which a progressive addition is made so that each verse is longer than the verse before.

• The most well-known example is likely "The Twelve Days of Christmas." In the song, the singer sings about a series of gifts that were given to them in the days leading up to Christmas, ending with "And a partridge in a pear tree."
• Blue's Clues had the song "Whose Treasure Is This?" from its album "Blue's Big Treasure: A Musical Adventure." The song describes how everyone has their own special personal treasure that is precious to them, repeatedly adding on lyrics for each member of the Blue's Clues cast with each repeat of the question "Whose treasure is this?" "Pail likes dance like there's ants in her pants. Shovel likes to dig, that's his favorite gig. Mr. Salt loves to sink, Mrs. Pepper loves to float, the Felt Friends sail in their favorite felty boat. Steve loves to sing about everything. Paprika loves to splash when she's in the bath. Slippery's troubled without his bubbles. Tickety yells all about her bells! Mailbox's favorite treasure's got to be the mail. Everybody's got a thing that makes them wanna wail."
• "The Things Bobgoblin Is Not" from Wallykazam from "Keeping Cappie Happy" is this, with each thing that Wally turns Bobgoblin into being added to the list of things that Bobgoblin would rather not be.
• The Pajanimals has "Morning Time," in which Squacky keeps waking up in the middle of the night, asking if it's morning time yet and the other Pajanimals tell him that it isn't. "How do I know if it's morning time?" he asks repeatedly and with each verse, they add to the list of signs that it's morning time - "Can you smell buttered toast? The jam you love most? Can you hear Mommy talk while her fuzzy feet walk? Do you hear birdies sing? Is your dad gargling? Is the sun shining in so the day can begin?" Squacky is forced to admit that none of those things are true at the moment, so the Pajanimals tell him to go back to sleep until it's morning time.
• The 2003 Strawberry Shortcake series has "Call Me Santa" from the Christmas Episode "Berry Merry Christmas." The song, performed by Strawberry herself, features the refrain of "Call me Santa, call me Claus. Candy cane with chocolate sauce. What should I get for my friends?" followed each time by her ever increasing list of gift ideas for her friends.
• The traditional Passover song "Chad Gadya" (one little goat) is about the titular goat, which the singer's father bought for two zuzim, and which is then eaten by a cat, which is attacked by a dog... Each verse adds another layer, until the final verse has God themself intervene, smiting the angel of death who killed the butcher who slaughtered the ox that drank the water that quenched the fire that burned the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the goat.

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