100 Songs Where Waiting Plays an Important Thematic Role

1. The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice ("...then we wouldn't have to wait so long.")
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps ("Wait. They don't love you like I love you.")
3. Bruce Springsteen - Waiting on a Sunny Day
4. Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends

Fugazi -Waiting Room

6. Tom Petty - "The Waiting"

7. The Kinks - Tired of Waiting

8. Led Zeppelin- Fool in the Rain
9. Genesis - Misunderstanding

10. "...For a Girl Like You"--Foreigner
11. "...For My Man"--Velvet Underground

12. replacements - can't hardly wait
13. dawson - dawson's creek theme
14. high on fire - 10,000 years
15. soundgarded - room a thousand years wide

16. Flash and the Pan - Waiting For A Train
17. Bob Marley - Waiting In Vain

18. Billy Stewart "Sitting In The Park"
19. Quarterflash "Harden My Heart"

(There are probably at least 100 songs just about waiting by the phone, but I won't list those.)

such as

20. blondie - hanging on the telephone

21. Rolling Stones - I Am Waiting

22. napoleon dynamite - waiting for the end of the world

23. Sydney Youngblood - Sit and Wait

24. neil young - powderfinger

25. Mt. Goats - Blues in Dallas

26. Palace - Agnes, Queen of Sorrow

27. DJ Hell - Keep on Waiting

28. Green Velvet - Waiting 4 the Day 2 End
29. Depeche Mode - Waiting for the Night

30. Long Long Time - Linda Ronstadt
31. Who'll Stop the Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
32. Waitin' in School - Ricky Nelson

33. Chainsaw Kittens - I'm Waiting (leeanne's song)

34. Stones, Waiting on a Friend
35. Leonard Cohen, Waiting For The Miracle to Come
36. Pink Floyd, Waiting for the Worms

37. Elvis Costello, Waiting for the End of the World

(oh well oops that was a duplicate, carry on.)

37. creedence - who'll stop the rain

38. It's A Long Line (But It Moves Quickly) - The Mendoza Line

39. I've Been Waiting - Matthew Sweet

40. "Waiting On A Fried" - Rolling Stones

"Friend" of course

And shit. I scrolled past it earlier, the lack of "Rolling" threw me on #34.

I'll back out of thread slowly.

Mordy and I were talking about this last night. What about songs (albums?) that sound like waiting? Immediately P-Funk, James Brown, et al. come to my mind, e.g., waiting for the bridge or various climaxes to come. But that might be less sounding like waiting than putting us in a state of waiting (same thing?).

I imagine almost any pop song involves waiting...for the second "Brooklyn owes the charmer under me" to complete the melodic promise of the first or for Sisqo to make good on his flights of fancy in the second verse of "The Thong Song." But a song would have to move beyond the time constraints of the pop(ular)* song to truly give the sense of waiting which is why P-Funk, Brown etc. came up.

Or not. Is there a shortish song that strands the listener melodically or harmonically (or?) to the point where it starts to sound like waiting?

* See that Komar/Melamid thread

carly simon - anticipation

41. Yeah yeah Yeahs - Maps (I think that the tension really builds up in the during the 'wait!' part, you're definitely waiting for the pay-off guitar part there)

Madonna - "Hung Up"
Gwen Stefani - "What You Waiting For?"

44. Van Halen - "I'll Wait"

Maps was in the very first post!

Duh! Oh noes! Okay, scratch that and replace with the appropriate Yo La Tengo track off New Wave Hot Dogs - is it 'Did I Tell You'?

45. Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait

46 . Husker Du - Standing In The Rain

probably two dozen or so Smiths or Morrissey songs

I Know it's gonna happen someday
stretch out and wait
you just haven't earned it yet baby

48. "i see you shiver with antici...(say it!)...pation"

49. tom waits - martha

wait i'm thinking of jim croce operator, man they had some patient operators in the 70's

The Smashing Pumpkins, "Waiting."

51 Bananarama, Robert De Niro's Waiting

52. The Judds - "Why Not Me?"

53. The Beatles: Long, Long

54. The Stranglers - Hanging Around

55. Funkadelic - I'll Stay

"Heart-Shaped Box" (...wait! I've got a new complaint")

57. Please Mr Postman - The Marvelettes

58. Sun Ra - We'll Wait For You

59. Waitin Around to Die - Townes Van Zandt

60. The Doors - Waiting for the Sun

mountain goats - alphonse mambo

62. Harry Nilsson - Waiting

63. Pere Ubu - Waiting for Mary

64. Thin Lizzy - Waiting for an Alibi

65. Wedding Present - This Boy Can Wait

66. Buzzcocks - Time's Up

All this and the ultimate waiting song still missing?

67. The Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting for the Man

already in at 11.

67. Ariel Pink - For Kate I Wait

another try

68. Joni Mitchell - Blue Motel Room (the whole song sounds like she has written it when waiting for the rain to stop or something)

69 smiths, how soon is now

Badly Drawn Boy "Everybody's Stalking" (don't wait for me, I'll wait for you)

71. Eric Clapton, "She's Waiting"

72. The Band - "The Weight"

73. Killing Joke (/Metallica) - "The Wait"

74. The Beatles - "Blue Jay Way"
75. Hank Williams - "Weary Blues From Waitin'"

Jimmie Rodgers - Waiting For A Train

76. Wire, Practice Makes Perfect

77. Madness - Return of the Las Palmas 7

78. Human League - Don't You Want Me

Hahaha I was just about to type that

http://www.businesspundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/hard4money.jpg

79. Girls Aloud - Waiting

sorry, 80.

The band where waiting plays an important role:

http://cache3.vuze.com/assets/903/2078309/92791/Y55FPWGSSZBGCENWDR7GH2NZR47BFQ5S.jpg

81. "Waiting for the Band" - Nicky Hopkins (The Tin Man Was A Dreamer)

82. Bob Marley & the Wailers -- I'm Still Waiting

absolutely beautiful and probably one of the best things they ever did outside of "Mr. Brown"

how did we get to 83 without this one?

84. Ying-Yang Twins - "Wait (The Whisper Song)"

85. The Damned "Wait For The Blackout"
86. Boyd Rice "Disneyland Can Wait"
87. The Pretenders "The Wait"
88. The Darkside "Waiting For The Angels"
89. Dean & Britta "Wait For Me"
90. New Order "Waiting For The Siren's Call"
91. Warren Zevon "Trouble Waiting To Happen"
92. Boss Hog "Get It While You Wait"
93. Kate Bush "I'm Still Waiting"
94. The Vapors "Waiting For The Weekend"
95. Flaming Lips "Waitin For Superman"
96. Adverts "We Who Wait"
97. Sleater-Kinney "I'm Not Waiting"
98. Bananarama "Robert De Niro's Waiting"
99. ABBA "I've Been Waiting For You"
100. The Runaways "Waitin For The Night"

Shit, y'all forgot my favourite one:

101. Comsat Angels - Waiting for a Miracle

seems to me the Beatles did a song about waiting...what was it called again?...oh yeah:

"Wait"

10.15 saturday night

104. Joni Mitchell - Car on the Hill
105. Sandie Shaw - Girl Don't Come
106. The Chiffons - Tonight I'm Gonna Dream
107. The Shirelles - Big John

108. Altered Images - A Days Wait
109. Alternate Learning - Let's Not Wait
110. Articles of Faith - Wait for Me
111. The Atlantics - Can't Wait Forever
112. The Beat - Don't Wait up for me
113. Bluebells - Will She Always be Waiting
114. Cabaret Voltaire - Wait and Shuffle
115. The Clean - I Wait Around
116. Delta 5 - Waiting
117. Distractions - Waiting for Lorraine
118. Dr. Octagon - Waiting List
119. Thirteenth Floor Elevators - Wait for My Love
120. Fastbacks - Wait
121. Feelies - Waiting
122. Peter Jefferies - While I've been Waiting
123. Kidda Band - Wait til your father gets home
124. Neutral Milk Hotel - Someone is Waiting
125. Nodzz - I Can't Wait
126. Sebadoh - Waited Forever
127. Sonics - He's Waitin'
128. Stiff Little Fingers - Wait and See
129. Troggs - Somewhere My Girl is Waiting
130. Venom P Stinger - Inside the Waiting Room
131. Wingtip Sloat - Holding, Waiting
132. Wipers - Wait a Minute
133. The Pop! - Waiting for the night
134. Wasps - Can't Wait til '78

and a hundred others. Sorry if I've duplicated anything (figured that being past 100 should be liberating...).

135. Ain't Misbehavin' - Fats Waller
136. Awaiting On You All - George Harrison
137. Stop, Wait & Listen - Circus

25 Seconds to Go - Johnny Cash

"Waiting For a Star to Fall" by that boy and that girl, um...Boy Meets Girl?

jesus christ people, WHITE LION - "WAIT"

141 Youssou N'Dour & Neneh Cherry "7 Seconds"

Madonna, "Justify My Love"

143 RHCP: By the Way ("Waiting in line to see the show tonight...")

144. durutti column - tomorrow (both the people waiting in line and poor vini having to wait 'for so long')
145. montgolfier bros - pro celebrity standing around (roger getting progressively more pissed waiting for his date to turn up, but is happy when she finally arrives two hours late)

146. Chrisette Michele "Ephiphany" (sitting home alone waiting for her man to come home yet again, she suddenly has the titular "epiphany" and decides that she's leaving him).