Word(s) that only ever appeared in one (hit) song, ever.

"Fancy" (Money, Money, Money - ABBA)

Ah but you forgot "Fancy Pants" the 1975 smash hit by Kenny.

"Parallelogram" ("Motorhead" by Motorhead)
"Mesmerised" ("Leaving Me Now" by Level 42)

"Pompatous" ("The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band)

I never knew about Fancy Pants.

"Zebedee" ("Magic Roundabout" by Jasper Carrott)

someone must've said "fancy that" in a hit song once. maybe jay-z.

I want hard facts.

I did start The dearth of lyrics talking about "fancying" people but nothing on there is a hit single.

"I fancy this, I fancy that" ("Cool For Cats" by Squeeze)

"fancy" is also in Fit But You Know It by The Streets

xposts

wondering if any other UK hit other than Kraftwerk's mentions 'Autobahn'.

"Chip Shop" - Jilted John

^^^There's a guy works down the....

"Checkers" ("MacArthur Park")

"Filibuster" - Birdhouse in Your Soul

"Looptid", from Digital Underground's "Humpty Dance":

I get stoopid, I shoot an arrow like Cupid
I use a word that don't mean nothin', like 'looptid'.

"Underpass" (There Is A Light That Never Goes Out)

"Checkers" ("MacArthur Park")

-- Dingbod Kesterson, Monday, 21 January 2008 12:08 (30 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

REM - Man On The Moon

Ah yes.

Alba xpost - you forgot "Underpass" by John Foxx.

"Alabaster" (Shoplifters Of The World Unite)

Bruce Springsteen - The Ghost of Tom Joad, also.xp

I never knew about Underpass. I am bad at this game.

Is "Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmmm" the only hit single to use the word "birthmarks"?

"Buck-toothed" (Ask)

Underpass also known as Underpants! cause that's what it sounds like he's shouting, ho ho.

"Alabaster" also in "Wrapped Around Your Finger"

"anaesthetised" (Placebo 'Bitter End' - tho i know Girls Aloud use it in the present tense on 'No Good Advice')

not a hit per se but 'underpass' also in well known 'Warm Leatherette'

"Peckham" ("'Ullo John Gotta New Motor?")

http://www.vinyltap.co.uk/gallery/ha/haleas5000934812935510.jpg

"Apropos" - Sheryl Crow 'All I Wanna Do'

"Buck-toothed" (Ask)

-- Alba, Monday, 21 January 2008 12:12 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

^^^"bucktooth" is used on "La Pastie De La Bourgiese", which was the lead track on B&S's top 40 "3, 6, 9 Seconds Of Light" EP.

"Peckham" ("'Ullo John Gotta New Motor?")

-- Dingbod Kesterson, Monday, 21 January 2008 12:15 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

^^^Goldie Lookin' Chain - You Knows I Love You

rebuffed
cordon bleu
parsons (green)

all from 'you will always find me in the kitchen at parties'

argh palmers green i mean

"Underpass" is surely represented in John Foxx' "Underpass" as well.

"The Clapping Song" has "materialize" and "rowboat". Any joy there?

Not a hit song as such, but there's an early Elton John song entitled "Grimsby" which includes the line "No Cordon Bleu can match the beauty of your pies and peas."

D12 - My Band "acapellas"

missy doesn't pluralise that in 'lose control'

Caramba's "Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot" is crowded with words that have only ever appeared in that particular song:

Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Num
Deba uba zat zat
Num
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num
A-num
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Num
Deba uba zat zat
Num
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num
A-num
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Deba uba zat zat a-num num
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Deba uba zat zat a-num num
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num
A-hoorepa hoorepa
HAH
A-huh-hoorepa a-num num
A-num
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Deba uba zat zat a-num num
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Deba uba zat zat a-num num
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa
HAH
A-num num
A-num
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
A-huh zoot a-huh
Deba uba zat zat a-num num
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Deba uba zat zat a-num num
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num
Num
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num
Deba uba zat zat
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num
a-num
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
deba uba zat zat
HAH
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num
A-num
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Deba uba zat zat a-num num
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Duuh
Deba uba zat zat a-num num
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num
HAH
A-num
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Deba uba zat zat a-num num
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Deba uba zat zat a-num num
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num
HAH
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Deba uba zat zat a-num num
HOH
Hubba hubba zoot zoot
Hubba hubba mo-re mo-re
Deba uba zat zat a-num num
A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num A-hoorepa hoorepa a-huh-hoorepa a-num num A-num

Did Orinoco ever appear in another song but "Orinoco Flow"?

Not in the Womble song.

"clarify" and "classify" - 99 red balloons

Abacab
Paranoimia (mentioned in the song iirc)
Paninaro

"Classify" is in "Pop" by N'Sync

(That Caramba song may not have been a worldwide hit, but it was huge in Scandinavia)

Interactive (Bis, 'Kandy Pop')
CD-Rom (Will Smith, 'Just The Two Of Us')
Will Oldham (Biffy Clyro, 'Saturday Superhouse')

someone gonna write a song with all these words in so we can launch it top 40 (must beat that shitty Lloyds song)

CD-Rom (Will Smith, 'Just The Two Of Us')

^^^Busta Rhymes - Fire It Up

Busta sez 'CD-Rom' in 'Fire It Up'

"Firestarter" ?

The lyrics for Snooker Loopy are so precise and expressive. I love them.

'boggles' is in Starshaped by Blur (not a single, though)

"well-thumbed" in Bowie's "John I'm Only Dancing"?

Surely surely ba-burly this has already been mentioned, but in case not:

virtually every single word in "The Name Game" by Shirley Ellis (U.S #6)

'jugulate' in Lisztomania

also, 'Lisztomania'

but was it a hit? yeah, sort of

It peaked at #11 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart in the US[1] and as well as #15 in Belgium.[2] ... The song came in at #4 in the Triple J Hottest 100, 2009,[3] making Phoenix the first French band to finish in the top 5 of the Hottest 100.

Also not a single but Gilbert has a 'The Mind Boggles' from his self-titled 2018 album - making this maybe the third or fourth time he's been mentioned here by me or houdinisaid.

Women of Country thread made me think of "Easy from Now On" and the word "fandangle"

Heard "Don't Sleep in the Subway" on the radio today: "wherefore."

Also has "deflated".

"allegorically" in Edwyn Collins' 'A Girl Like You'.

― PaulTMA, Thursday, December 3, 2009 7:04 AM (thirteen years ago)

Also, how about "metaphorically"?

Has any song besides White Town's "Your Woman" used the word Marxist, let alone "highbrow Marxist ways?"

― mike a, Thursday, January 24, 2008 1:43 PM

Just saw the video, wondered the same thing, and was compelled to check this thread… (late by 15.5 yrs)

Not the same but Bros' When Will I Be Famous has 'Karl Marx' (I'm guessing Marx is more common than Marxist).

'Dostoevsky' in Belle & Sebastian's 'This is Just A Modern Rock Song'.

Thankfully not a hit song.

xxp (to myself) Worth noting that personal (and ILM EOY poll!) fave "High School in Jakarta" went to #2 in Indonesia and #9 in Malaysia – and its lyrics, of course, include the phrase "Marxist girl with marijuana"

'time' by david bowie contains the word WANKING

not really a hit song tbf but it was on a hit album and off the top of my head i can't think of any other songs that feature that vile term

'I'm a wanker' (as in wanking, not the insult) is the chorus of Ivor Biggun and the Red Nosed Burglars' 1978 No. 22 chart smash "The Winker's Song (Misprint)"

Er, what is "wanking" if not a term to describe masturbating?

Wanker not wanking

I doubt that.

Has anyone other than the mighty Train ever had a hit song containing the words “soy latte”?

I don’t know but there is a lyric on the verve’s “comeback album” that goes:

“New York, I was Judas
She said 'A latte, double shot for Judas'”

Madonna's American Life hit number 37 on the Top 100. Does that count?

I'm drinking a soy latte
I get a double shotte

Also "mocha chocolate latte" in #1 "Lady Marmalade"

j/k

regret to inform you that the word "latte" appears in train's "drops of jupiter"

I think that's where the conversation started.

It also has Tae Bo in it, though I've heard of Tae Bo or, indeed, this song.

xp ah yes, my bad

is "aenima" by tool a hit?

(xxp) never heard of, that is

Good question. Do we define "hit" in terms of chart performance and/or radio play? Or familiarity with the general populace?

I am an adult American urban human who is reasonably well-versed in popular rock and roll music. I have never willingly heard a song by Tool (or Primus or Dream Theater or a thousand other bands with fervent followings).

By now, I think "Familiarity" has taken hold. But, bonus points for an actual chart hit...

"Tae Bo" is actually an even better pull from that same song (although I could see a rule where "proper nouns" don't count)

Jay-Z bragged about doing Tae-Bo on Girls, Girls, Girls (US #17) and Nas dissed him for it on Ether.

"Proofread" in Zebra Katz's "Ima Read"?

Forgot--"hit song." Well, it was a big hit in my house.

From "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes":

Thrill me to the marrow

"Pitchfork" appears in one hit song.

"Combine Harvester" by The Wurzels.

I thank you.

― Mark G, Monday, 6 June 2011 09:27 (twelve years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Which also has "gaiters", "wurzels" and "gallivanting".

The Wurzels' "I Am a Cider Drinker" has "britches", "tadpoles" and "newts"

("scrumpy" appears in both songs so is disqualified.)

Meanwhile their minor (#32 hit) "Farmer Bill’s Cowman" has "smock", "broody", "faggots" (the foodstuff), "squelching", "drake", "muck", "shovel", "milking", "ploughman" and "Somerset".

isinglass
noun
1. a kind of gelatin obtained from fish, especially sturgeon, and used in making jellies, glue, etc. and for fining real ale.

Blossom Dearie "Surrey With the Fringe On Top".

The song is also linguistically significant for containing the only recorded use of the word "abacinate", as mentioned in Christopher Foyle's Foyle's Philavery: A Treasury of Unusual Words.[21]

Nat King Cole omits "abacinate" from his version of Surrey with the Fringe on Top. I'll have to check out Blossom Dearie's version.

Half Man Half Biscuit’s ‘Rawlplugs of yesteryear’ appears to be the sole use of ‘Rawlplugs’ in a song. Thermoplastic from the same song has been used 7 times according to Lyrics.com.

The song is also linguistically significant for containing the only recorded use of the word "abacinate", as mentioned in Christopher Foyle's Foyle's Philavery: A Treasury of Unusual Words.[21]

― Kate (rushomancy), Sunday, November 17, 2024 1:54 AM (seven months ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's in slayer's "angel of death"

In fact it's mentioned up on the page, next to the little discussion about Saskatchewan. I still dream of that place. "Wrap me in your blanket, dance me around." And then it turned out that Buffy Sainte-Marie was a huge fake! Who can you trust.

Or is it whom? I think it is. "You can trust her" = "whom". "He is untrustworthy" = "who". So it's whom can you trust. You can trust her. Whom can you trust. Who trusts you? She trusts you. Who trusts you? She trusts you. Whom can you trust. You can trust her. Whom can you trust. You can trust her. I want to take the blanket off. I want to take the blanket off. But I can't! I hop, and when I hop I never get off the ground. I want to take the blanket off.

Whom. Google Street View makes me feel sad. For all the places I'm never going to visit. Because it's easy to click a mouse and look at the world from the comfort of my mostly-unflooded wine cellar. Easy and free. It's hard to actually go places and also expensive. I've followed the road up into the Northern Territories. It ends at a place called Pingo Canadian Landmark:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingo_Canadian_Landmark

What is a pingo? It's an ice-filled mound. They're essentially surface volcanos - but filled with water instead of lava. The water that freezes into ice, pushing up the ground into a small hill. Pingo Canadian Landmark contains one-quarter of the world's supply of these things. I often wonder why the British Empire didn't strip-mine Canada before handing the place over to the Canadians. We could have had that ice! We could have used it to quadruple the land area of the United Kingdom. Those trees were ours. The permafrost, the peat, the soil. All of that was ours. And we just gave it away to a bunch of people who don't appear to have done anything at all with it. But perhaps they're keeping it for last. As the climate warms the people of Canada will migrate north. They have empty space. And we have Scotland. The future is north.

Is El Chombo's "Chacarron" cheating? It was a hit in the UK back in 2006. It got to #20 and then went on to become an internet thing. The chorus is "menauhmaunowhaunommoohonoomoo". But you can't have nonsense songs. Such as e.g. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Titch's "Zabadak", for example. Because the lyrics aren't words, they're sounds, and there are more sounds than there are words. Like "eek" and "ooh". For example. "Gah". "Ptong". "Zrrap". The Futurists had something to say about that.

It's the heat. That's why I'm digressing. It's hot. Big Science, Laurie Anderson. That's the next topic. She was smart! She still is. An actual artist with an arts degree. The words on that album are really simple. The vocabulary is straightforward. She doesn't use distemper or ostensibly. Almost as if she wanted to communicate her message in the most effective way, to the widest possible audience. And that, my friends, that is why I use short words. And slightly longer words, but common words. That is the reason. That is why. That is why I am concise.

"Water is just hot ice." - James Harkin

^ an improvement over what a friend of mine used to be fond of saying, "farts are just gaseous shit"

Just like Pagliacci did / I try to keep my sadness hid

Smokey Robinston and the Miracles, Tears of a Clown

The song "Mr. Sandman", written by Pat Ballard and popularized in 1954 by The Chordettes, references Pagliacci in the lines, "Give him a lonely heart like Pagliacci, And lots of wavy hair like Liberace."[44]