The song that inspired this was Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event, which manages to be awesome and sad and perfect without the need for a chorus.
Let’s hear some more!
Blind Melon - No Rain
I don’t think there’s a chorus in there…
The most recorded song-without-a-chorus has to be Memory from CATS.
There’s tons and tons of prog rock that has, almost by definition, no proper chorus. How about:
Genesis - The Knife
Genesis - The Musical Box
Genesis - Fountain of Salmasis
Genesis - Can-Utility and the Coastliners
Genesis - Supper’s ready
Genesis - Dancing with the Moonlit Knight
Genesis - The Battle of Epping Forest
(You get the idea…)
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man
King Crimson - Epitaph
King Crimson - Lizard
King Crimson - Elephant Talk
…
Pink Floyd - Dogs
Pink Floyd - Sheep
… As a matter of fact, this is starting to get a bit long, so I’ll leave some for other posters.
I think Stairway to Heaven would qualify.
And Billy Joel’s Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.
Also Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.
Unchained Melody? The ‘I need your love’ refrain could be considered a chorus. Not sure.
Roger Waters - 4:50 AM (Go Fishing)
Suzanne Vega - Tom’s Diner
Megadeth - In My Darkest Hour
I always considered this to be the chorus:
What qualifies as a “real chorus”? I suspect there are a lot of songs like this.
For example, does “Lola”'s repeated “La-la-la-la-Lola” count as a chorus?
Speaking of the Kinks, Ray Davies (at least once you get past the earliest stuff) tends to usually write a complete lyric without resorting to much repetition. In “Come Dancing,” for example, the bit that functions as the chorus has different words each time it comes around.
Dylan and Springsteen had plenty of sogs without choruses: For instance, “All Along the Watchtower” and “Thunder Road”, respectively.
The Guinness Book of Records says that “Yesterday” by The Beatles is the most covered song. “Yesterday” also doesn’t have a chorus.
Lots of other Paul McCartney songs lack choruses: “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” is the first one that pops into my head, but there are a ton of others he wrote in that “suite” style. Not McCartney, but “Happiness is a Warm Gun” also is without a chorus.
“A Day In The Life” by the Beatles doesn’t have any chorus. Unless you count “I’d love to tuuuuuuurrrrn yooooooouuuuuuuuu onnnnnnnnnn” as one!
Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song” (actually, many, if not most, Radiohead songs don’t have proper choruses)
“Little Girl Blue,” as made popular by Frank Sinatra
“Margaret vs. Pauline,” “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood,” and “Favorite” by Neko Case
Really?
Why she had to go, I don’t know
She wouldn’t say.
I said something wrong, now I long
For yesterday
Leonard Cohen has quite a few, including his masterpiece Bird on the Wire, Dress Rehearsal Rag, and Joan of Arc.
Kristopherson’s Jody and the Kid and Billy Dee are two more.
Thanks for the OP The Airborne Toxic Event are Gods and have become my new favourite band. May only be for 2 days but they are very, very good and I will own everything they release.
Hmmm, musically it’s structured more like a bridge. I can see how it could be considered a chorus, though, as it repeats once during the song.