No, just British. A “hoarding” is a billboard.
Goddamned shrews.
You’re right that it’s not as good as the rest of the song. But the song itself is so great and the rest of that verse is so funny that I can let it slide.
Then Mr. Ocasek should call them high heels and I will stop cringing. Nobody uses the term “high shoes”.
I’ve always wondered what “take on me” means. I know the songwriter was not a native English-speaker, but… 
Well, that’s WHY it’s called that.
Zevon was alternately brilliant and SWTF in his rhymings.
That’s why I mentioned it. I thought it was something of a recurrent meme (is that the right word?) on these here message boards.
That’s Rio, by Duran Duran.
Yes, different words can work in different songs.
There were high shoes in the 70’s. Really high shoes.
Casting about for a rhyme with She’s Always A Woman To Me prompted Billy Joel to claim that “she can’t be convicted; she’s earned her degree.”
Show of hands from each woman here who’s earned her degree? Yeah, okay. And how many of you can be convicted? I see no hands went down.
From Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top”:
Your words poetic are not pathetic. On the other hand, babe, you shine
If her/his words are in fact not pathetic, and she/he, moreover, shines, then there is no “on the other hand” about it. I’d suggest “as a matter of fact, they shine”, though that does switch the action from the person to the person’s words. But it least it makes sense that way.
Wrap your legs round these velvet rims…
What’s a velvet rim, Boss?
See also: “it’s delightful, it’s delicious, it’s . . . de-lovely.”
Could be a word by word translation of “ta på meg!” = “touch me!”.
Aha! Logical!
Not so much lyrics but pronunciation: In the Alicia Bridges disco classic I Love the Nightlife - she says:
*I want to go where the people dance,
I want some action … I want to live!
Action … I got so much to give,
I want to give it. I want to get some too.*
Except she pronounces action “Ack-Shawn” - I’ve never heard anyone ever pronounce that word that way ever. Unless they were singing that song.
While we’re talking about bizarre pronunciations, how about “Everyday Is A Winding Road” by Sheryl Crow? There’s a line about “living on coffee and nicotine”. But the way she pronounces “nicotine” sounds a lot more more like nigger-teen. Why on earth would you pronounce it that way?
1975, not that much earlier. I was going to point out that the original was written/performed by an English band, but it turns out the lead singer/lyricist is a yank after all.