Hit Songs Without Choruses

Over on a music forum I monitor we're trying to come up with a list of hit songs that did not include a chorus.

The list is surprisingly short.

Can you guess what we've found so far?

Marty Robbins El Paso.

That wasn't on the list but that's a good one. Other "story songs" like "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "Ode To Billie Joe" too.

El Paso immediately popped into my mind when I read your question, as it was recently used as the background music for the final episode of the TV show Breaking Bad.

Haven't seen it.

That's a shame. It's probably the best program ever on basic cable, and certainly superior to anything ever on broadcast tv.

That's like saying beaver anal glands produce the best-tasting vanilla substitute among non-bean vanilla substitutes.

I haven't been able to watch network "entertainment" TV in decades.

I'm with you on network tv. There are a couple of programs I watch because my wife likes them. But I can't think of any network entertainment programs I've liked in many years (except the Simpsons, of course).

On rare occasion, something decent will show up on cable. BBC America had a program called Copper, about the New York police in 1864. It was a unique program (and I'm using unique properly in this case) and actually quite enjoyable. So naturally it was cancelled after two years.

_Howard wrote:

It's probably the best program ever on basic cable.

I guess Sopranos and Six Feet Under weren't "basic cable" were they.

Those were both on HBO, a premium channel, as was The Wire.

Frickin' FCC.

What's the FCC got to do with it? There's no law that says decent programming can't be on broadcast television. The FCC doesn't censor basic cable.

Back the the original intent of this thread: Hows does one define "chorus"? I can think of a couple  of Tom Waits songs that have a single repeating line ending a couplet in which the first line always differs. Is that a chorus?

The distinction between a chorus and a bridge is fuzzy at best. Quite a few songs fall into gray areas.

But very few contain no repetition at all.

"Hey Jude"?

Sing through the lyrics in your head. There's a chorus.

I guess there really is a chorus, although the words vary slightly.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Sing through the lyrics in your head.  There's a chorus.

Thanks a whole fucking bunch for this. Now I can't get the song out of my head. And I no longer have enough extra space up there to support musical accompaniment.

Sorry. Maybe you need to put another nickel in.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Sorry. Maybe you need to put another nickel in.

Put another nickel in? In the nickelodeon?
Great. Now a really old song stuck up there. Thanks again. 
Who else remembers Teresa Brewer?