Title-Only Chorus

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    "I whupped Batman's ass
    I whupped Batman's ass
    I whupped Batman's ass

    I whupped Batman's ass."
    —Wesley Willis, Take a wild freaking guess.

    A Music Trope. A song whose chorus consists entirely of the song title, repeated over and over again, perhaps with slight variation. Particularly common in modern pop music, this can be good marketing, as the listener will tend to notice and remember the song title. It's hard to pull off depending on the song structure and the syllables.

    Compare Title Theme Tune and Chorus-Only Song.

    Examples of Title-Only Chorus include:

    :

    • Every song ever written by Wesley Willis.
    • Static-X - "Reptile"
    • The Beatles have a few of these:
      • "Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds"
      • "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
      • "Girl"
      • "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" may not have a chorus, but...There is only the one lyric.
      • "Helter Skelter"
      • "Don't Let Me Down"
    • Big Pun - "Nigga Shit"
    • Billy Joel - "Pressure".
      • "Only the Good Die Young".
    • Bruce Springsteen - "Born in the USA".
      • And this example from the same album:

    I'm goin' down down down down
    I'm goin' down down down down
    I'm goin' down down down down
    I'm goin' down down down down

    • Crash Test Dummies - "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm"
    • Daft Punk - "Around the World". Except this exceeds the trope, as it's the entire song.
      • Alongside this is "Robot Rock,", "Television Rules the Nation," and pretty much every other song with discernible lyrics on Human After All, including the title track.
      • Well, that particular song does have one other line.

    We are human
    After all
    Flesh and blood
    After all

    • Deerhoof - "Panda Panda Panda", which changes the last "panda" with various words like beep-beep or China.
    • Duran Duran - "Girls On Film", which, amusingly enough, has been covered by Wesley Willis.
    • Electric Six - "There's Something Very Wrong With Us, So Let's Go Out Tonight"
    • Men at Work - "Who Can It Be Now?"
    • White Zombie - "More Human Than Human"
    • In Culto - "Welcome to Lithuania (The Land of the Beautiful Ladies)".
    • George Harrison - "I've Got My Mind Set on You"
      • And Weird Al's parody, "This Song's Just Six Words Long"
      • The original version by James Ray has the title as the first three lines of the chorus, but the last line is different ("I know what I've got to do.")
    • REM - "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," "Talk About the Passion," and "Sweetness Follows," if you don't count the "ohs" as words.
    • Van Morrison - "Gloria"
    • Velvet Underground - "Sweet Jane"
    • Sam & Dave/Elvis Costello - "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down"
    • Sly & The Family Stone - "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)", "Stand!"
    • LCD Soundsystem - "Yeah", "Pow Pow"
    • Manic Street Preachers - "You Love Us"
      • Then there's "A Design For Life" and "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next", arguably the two most well-known Manics songs.
    • Lieutenant Pigeon - "Mouldy Old Dough"
    • Metallica - "Frantic"
    • About half of all Iron Maiden songs from the Somewhere in Time album onwards.
    • Electric Light Orchestra - "Evil Woman"
    • Sade - "Smooth Operator"
    • Several songs by ACDC, like Highway to Hell, You Shook Me All Night Long, Rock N Roll Train. One can often learn the name of the song by listening to the only thing they're shouting in the chorus.
      • Make that almost every song by ACDC.
    • Rage Against the Machine are big fans of this. Most of their songs that don't have a Title-Only Chorus at the very least have a one-line chorus, like "Killin' in the Name".
    • Material Issue's "Valerie Loves Me", though they usually only sing it once per chorus.
    • Redbone - "Come and Get Your Love"
    • Elliott Smith - "Needle in the Hay."
    • The Police love this trope, particularly in their earlier stuff - "Roxanne," "So Lonely," "Don't Stand So Close to Me," "Walking in Your Footsteps," "Can't Stand Losing You", "When the World is Running Down You Make the Best of What's Still Around," "Spirits in the Material World" (more or less), "The Bed's Too Big Without You," "It's Alright for You", "Hole in my Life," "Born in the '50s", "Truth Hits Everybody," "Driven to Tears," "Rehumanize Yourself", and there are probably a few more.
    • The Residents - "You Yesyesyes".
    • Weird Al Yankovic - "Albuquerque".
    • Nightwish - "Master Passion Greed", "Meadows of Heaven"
    • Marilyn Manson - "I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)"
    • The Living End - Whats On Your Radio? The first half of the chorus and the last line anyway.
      • All Torn Down fits better.
    • Van Halen - "Panama"
    • Yes - "Leave It"
    • Judas Priest - "Breaking The Law", "Hell Bent For Leather"
    • The B 52s - "Rock Lobster"
      • As well as "Trism" and "Girl From Ipanema Goes To Greenland".
    • War - "Why Can't We Be Friends?"
    • Dolly Parton and of course Whitney Houston - "I Will Always Love You"
    • Toots & The Maytals - "54-46 (That's My Number)". The better known remake/sequel they did a couple years later ("54-46 Was My Number") doesn't qualify, though.
    • Arguably, "Trogdor" by Strong Bad.
    • The Arrogant Worms come close with "Don't Go Into Politics". Every other line is "don't go into politics/science/music", alternating with "you'll end up dead".
    • Spoon - "Sister Jack".
    • "Help Me" by Timo Maas featuring Kelis.
    • Paramore - "(You Are) The Only Exception".
    • The Pixies - "Where is My Mind".
    • Philip Glass - "Koyaanisqatsi"
    • Screeching Weasel - "You'll Be In My Dreams Today".
    • Reel 2 Real - "I Like To Move It"
    • Nirvana - "Something In The Way". Not to mention that the chorus is practically the only audible part of the song.
    • Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Californication" (although the exact lyric is actually "Dream of Californication"), "Me and My Friends", "Behind the Sun".
    • Many, many songs by Drivin' N Cryin' follow this trope.
    • "Gimme More" by Britney Spears
    • "Liar" by Emilie Autumn
    • Ween did this a lot on their earlier songs: among many others, there are "Licking The Palm For Guava," "L.M.L.Y.P.," "Right To The Ways And The Rules Of The World," "Boing," "Molly," "Can U Taste The Waste?," "I Play It Off Legit," "Flies On My Dick," "I Can't Put My Finger On It," "Mister, Would You Please Help My Pony?," and "Cover It With Gas And Set It On Fire."
    • Aerosmith - "Dude Looks Like a Lady"
    • "I just wanna say I love you" by Potret
    • "Blind" by Talking Heads. Interestingly, the title is one word and it's used in the chorus fourteen times each verse.
    • Culture Club - "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" and "Church of The Poison Mind"
    • Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Linda Ronstadt - "Ooo Baby Baby"
    • Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc." is a milder example.

    "Feel good- (Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it) Feel good-"

    • Coal Chamber's "loco"
    • U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
    • David Francey's "All Lights Burning Bright."
    • Lady Gaga's "Again Again"
    • Bruce Cockburn's "Wondering Where The Lions Are." It's not at all surprising that this is also an Audience Participation Song where he sings the line and the audience echoes it.
    • Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)", "Out Of The Frying Pan (And Into The Fire)", "Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" and "Everything Louder Than Everything Else". Interestingly, as well as all having extremely long titles (and subsequently rather long choruses by the standards of this trope), they're all from the same album ("Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell").
    • Iron Maiden's "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son".
    • Alexandra Burke's duet with Cobra Starship "What Happens On The Dancefloor."
    • Maximum the Hormone's "Chu Chu Lovely Muni Muni Mura Mura Purin Purin Boron Nurururerorero".
    • Britney Spears' Womanizer does this in the first half of the chorus. Maybe a little more variation than most songs under this trope. Sing along! "Womanizer, woman, womanizer, you're a womanizer..."
      • "Oh, womanizer, oh, you're a womanizer baby."
      • "You-you-you are... you-you-you are... womanizer, womanizer, womanizer..."
      • "Boy, don't try to front, I-I know just-just what you are-are-are..."
    • Adele's "Rumour Has It".
    • Every Airbourne song. Period.
    • "Harassing The Conman" by Everything Else.
    • "Run For Your Life" by Riot (the one from Fire Down Under, not Thundersteel)
    • About half the songs on Death's Scream Bloody Gore.
    • Your love, your love, your love, is my drug by Ke$ha
    • Shaggy's Ah-I-E-Oh.
    • Europe (band)'s "The Final Countdown".
    • Curve - "Hell Above the Water"
    • Red Red Meat - "Chain Chain Chain" (on first listen, the chorus may also be the only intelligible part of the song too)
    • Garth Brooks - "Way Of The Girl" from In The Life Of Chris Gaines.
    • "Come Over" by Kenny Chesney
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