Making breakfast yesterday morning, I had the CD jukebox going and I heard “Fly Robin Fly.” As nearly as I can tell, this song is just six words long. It got me thinking, “I wonder what the highest ratio of time spent actually singing to word count is?”
There’s songs like “Tequila,” of course, which would win the absolute “fewest number of words in songs that have words,” but that’s not quite what I’m thinking. I’m thinking of things like George Harrison’s “Got My Mind Set On You” (parodied in the above linky).
I know it’s not quite what you’re going for, but: Great Gig in the Sky (or, as the priest at the Catholic Student Center at my alma mater called it: “The Orgasm Song”).
Switching genres, there’s a rather long duet in Rigoletto which consists entirely of the word “addio”.
“Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” has 14 words and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” has 12 words, not bad from an A-list band (sorry Silver Connection) and songs with actual lyrics (sorry “Great Gig”).
“Love to Love You Baby” by Diana Ross. IIRC the only words are “love,” “to,” “you” and “baby” in various permutations. And the original is something like sixteen minutes long.
Also, Handel’s “Amen” fugue from Messiah, and Randall Thompson’s “Alleluia” (which, if I recall correctly, ends in “Amen”, giving it two words). There are other Aleluias and Amens out there, as well as all the “Kyries”, which have three words (“kyrie”, “Christe”, and “eleison”.)
