What is the longest spelled-out word or lyric in popular music?
At first I thought “S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!” from KC and the Sunshine Band.
But then the Squirrel Nut Zippers Hell has “D and the A and the M and the N and the A and the T and the I-O-N” being longer.
Doper-hive-mind…what’s the longest?
The Pulp song “F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E” spells out the title. That’s pretty long.
Well, that trumps my suggestions from the Elvis Costello catalog (P.P.S. I L-O-V-E Y-O-U and I S-T-A-N-D A-C-C-U-S-E-D). How about longest single word? I’ll submit the Jam’s “‘A’ Bomb in Wardour Street”: A-P-O-C-A-L-Y-P-S-E.
A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E is also 10 letters.
Be aggressive, Faith No More, B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E.
I believe that was by the Bay City Rollers. Not KC et al.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has “hasenpfeffer” (12) in Magic Foot, and “elanguescence” (13) and “weltanschauung” (14) in Second. Although “elanguescence” is more of a spoken line in the middle of the song.
Do kids’ songs count? My kids love the
I-L-O-V-E-C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E-M-I-L-K
song.
Aesop Rock’s “Coffee” has T-A-K-E-N-O-P-R-I-S-O-N-E-R-S. It’s not even the longest in the thread, but it’s up there.
There was a song in the early 70’s called Scrumpdillyicious. It had 2 versions. One was a generic version that did not make reference to Dairy Queen and did not spell out the word in the song (the kids sang S-C-R-U-M-P dillicious scrmpdilliious is a land for you and me). There was a second, commercial version that mentioned Dairy Queen and did spell out the entire word in the song. Both versions were released on a 45 single.
Forgot to mention the Rutles:
Do I have to spell it out?
C-H-E-E-S-E A-N-D O-N-I-O-N-S
O no…
M-E-T-H-O-D-O-F-L-O-V-E
Hall and Oates.
What do I win?
(I love spelling songs)
There’s also the S-A-F-E-T-Y D-A-N-C-E.
Why were there so many spelling songs in the 80s?
Add on to that that they say each letter TWICE and you may have a winner.
In that case I’ll nominate Robert Fripp’s “Exposure,” which has the title spelled out over and over throughout the entire song.
Here’s another one. The B-52s “Communicate.”
As far as spelling out one word, “I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T do you know what that means?”
It’s by Webbie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCUiGArhW2M
I guess “A-L-B-U- . . . querque!” doesn’t count.
Well, for painfully dragging the process out, I nomimate American Woman.
The song, too.
Actually, each letter in SAFETY is said four times, but DANCE isn’t spelled out.
I think Frank Zappa spends more time spelling out “mar-juh-reen” in "Australian Yellow Snow’ than the Guess Who take to get through their whole song!
What’s the matter with you people? Does no one remember the alphabet song? A-B-C-D-E-F-G, etc. 26 letters.