Funnily enough, that was actually a mistake. They were going to do the song over again, but then decided to keep it as is. “Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face/ And in the evening she’s a singer with the band” is still one of my favorite song lines. 
There’s no technical term for this? Anyway, do these count:
Bermuda Triangle - Barry Manilow
Bermuda Triangle
It makes people disappear
Bermuda Triangle
Don’t go too near
But she
Doesn’t see my angle
And she thinks I’m being dumb
So Bermuda Triangle
Here we come!
Bermuda Triangle
Makes my woman disappear
Bermuda Triangle
Don’t go too near
Looking
At it from my angle
Do you see why I’m so sad
Oh Bermuda Triangle
Very bad!
Bermuda Triangle
It makes people disappear
Bermuda Triangle
Don’t go too near
But look
At it from my angle
And you’ll see why I’m so glad
Now Bermuda Triangle
Not so bad!
If You Like Pina Coladas - Jimmy Buffett
‘If you like Pina Coladas, getting caught in the rain
If you’re not into yoga, if you have half a brain
If you like making love at midnight in the dunes on the cape
I’m the love that you’ve looked for write to me and escape’
“Yes, I like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain
I’m not much into health food, I am into champagne
I’ve got to meet you by tomorrow noon and cut through all this red tape
At a bar called O’Malleys where we’ll plan our escape”
“That you liked Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain
And the feel of the ocean and the taste of the champagne
If you like making love at midnight in the dunes on the cape
You’re the lady I’ve looked for, come with me and escape”
“She’s Leaving Home” certainly qualifies, both for the main lyrics and the parenthetical ones
She (We gave her most of our lives)
Is leaving (Sacraficed most of our lives)
Home (We gave her everything money could buy)
She’s leaving home after living alone
For so many years (Bye bye)
She (We never thought of ourselves)
Is leaving (Never a thought for ourselves)
Home (We struggled hard all our lives to get by)
She’s leaving home after living alone
For so many years (Bye bye)
She (What did we do that was wrong)
Is having (We didn’t know it was wrong)
Fun (Fun is the one thing that money can’t buy)
Something inside that was always denied
For so many years (Bye bye)
She’s leaving home
Bye bye
What I came to say.
This is (officially in my mind) my daughter Jett’s song. She was in a foster home where she was abused by her foster father and ignored by her foster mother. We sent clothes ahead and that was what she was wearing when we adopted her. They gave her NOTHING but trauma and scars.
You can keep my things they’ve come to take me home.
In the live recording Gabriel doesn’t change that last line. I have no idea why not.
The ending choruses of the Christmas carol “What Child is This?” all differ from one another. Some songbooks, and even hymnals, just include the chorus from the first verse, because the chorus from the third verse is has some real downer lyrics, But
IMNSHO, one needs to hear them all to get the complete message.
#1
This, this, is Christ the king, whom shepherds guard and angels sing.
Haste, haste, to bring him laud, the Babe, the Son of Mary.
#2
Raise, raise the song on high, the virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy, for Christ is born, the Babe, the Son of Mary.
#3
Nails, spear, shall pierce him through, the cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail, the Word made flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary.
How could I miss Still Alive? Not sure if it has a “chorus”, though:
Still Alive
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake
You just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake
And the science gets done and you make a neat gun
For the people who are still alive
Now these points of data make a beautiful line
And we’re out of beta, we’re releasing on time
So I’m glad I got burned
Think of all the things we learned
For the people that are still alive
Look at me still talking, when there’s science to do
When I look out there it makes me glad I’m not you
I’ve experiments to run, there is research to be done
On the people who are still alive
Its sequel, Want You Gone, has a more distinct chorus that still changes slightly:
You want your freedom? Take it
That’s what I’m counting on
I used to want you dead but
Now I only want you gone
You’ve got your short sad life left
That’s what I’m counting on
I’ll let you get right to it
Now I only want you gone
Go make some new disaster
That’s what I’m counting on
You’re someone else’s problem
Now I only want you gone
There’s a Japanese singer called Gackt who does this constantly. Almost all of his hits have at least two different versions of the chorus, if not different wording to the same melody every time they’re sung. In “Vanilla”, the last line of the chorus is ‘boku wa kimi no vanilla’ (“I’m your vanilla”) the first time, ‘kimo to boku not burning love’ (“You and me, not burning love”) the second, and ‘kimi wa boku no bannin da’ (“You’re my keeper”).
“Last Song” has two completely different choruses, which are alternated verse - A - verse - B - bridge - A - B.
A:
furitzusuku kanashimi wa masshiro na yuki kawaru
[sadness keeps falling, turning into pure white snow]
zutto sora wo miageteta
[I’m always looking up at the sky]
kono karada ga kieru mae ni ima negai ga todoku no nara
[I only wish that before this body vanishes]
mou ichido tsuyoku dakishimete
[I could hold you tightly one more time]
B:
toozakaru omoide wa itsumademo mabushisugite
[the far-off memories will always be too dazzling]
motto soba ni itakatta
[I so wanted to stay by your side]
mou nido to aenai kedo itsumo soba de sasaete kureta
[though we won’t meet again, I would have been always with you]
anata dake wa kawaranaide ite
[only you are unchanging]
(Translation extremely rough. Things that end in -te are sort of a nebulous all-purpose verb form that can serve as anything from simple present + conjunction to ongoing to habitual, etc etc etc. Translators who have asked Japanese musicians what that’s meant to equate to in English usually get kind of a shrug.)
It’s not terribly common in other Japanese pop music, to the point where I wonder if he picked up from the English-language stuff he listened to as a teen. The only other Japanese musicians I know of who use it are heavily influenced by some form or another of American rock.
Nitpick: The name of the song is “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” and the artist is Rupert Holmes.
I’m rockin’ the suburbs*
Just like [Michael Jackson / Quiet Riot / Jon Bon Jovi] did
I’m rockin’ the suburbs
Except that [he was / they were / he was] talented
I’m rockin’ the suburbs
I take the checks and face the fact
That some producers with computers
Fixes all my s***ty tracks
–Ben Folds
First line skipped in chorus 3, since Ben’s still screaming "F************K" from the (2nd?) bridge
Oh, so Jimmy Buffett made a cover?
No wait, this article 5 Songs the Internet Thinks Are by the Wrong Artist | Cracked.com says he’s not even related to the song. What?
I always used to get Pina coladas and Margaritas mixed up, too.
Bob Dylan’s Just Like A Woman gets my vote for the greatest one word change in the chorus:
The first two:
She takes just like a woman, yes she does
She makes love just like a woman, yes she does
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl.
The final verse and chorus:
It’s was raining from the first
And I was dying there of thirst
So I came in here
And your long-time curse hurts
But what’s worse
Is this pain in here
I can’t stay in here
Ain’t it clear that.
I just can’t fit
Yes, I believe it’s time for us to quit
When we meet again
Introduced as friends
Please don’t let on that you knew me when
I was hungry and it was your world
Ah, you fake just like a woman, yes you do
You make love just like a woman, yes you do
Then you ache just like a woman
But you break just like a little girl.
Changing “take” to “fake” is a stroke of genius.
Men at Work - Down Under:
“Do you come from a land down under?
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.”
“I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.”
“Do you come from a land down under?
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.”
“Redneck Woman” by Gretchen Wilson:
And I know all the words to every Charlies Daniels/Tanya Tucker/Ol’ Bocephus song
“Farewell Angelina” by Bob Dylan:
Farewell Angelina/The sky is on fire/And I must go
…The sky is trembling/And I must leave
…The sky is folding/I’ll see you in a while
…The sky’s changing colors/And I must leave fast
…The sky is embarrassed/And I must be gone
…The sky is erupting/I must go where it’s quiet
Today in the grocery store I hear The Mamas and The Papa’s Creeque Alley for the first time in decades, and have to add it to this thread:
McGuinn and McGuire just a-gettin’ higher
In L.A., you know where that’s at
And no one’s gettin’ fat except Mama Cass
McGuinn and McGuire still a-gettin higher
In L.A., you know where that’s at
And no one’s gettin’ fat except Mama Cass
McGuinn and McGuire couldn’t get no higher
But that’s what they were aimin’ at
And no one’s gettin’ fat except Mama Cass
McGuinn and McGuire just a-catchin’ fire
In L.A., you know where that’s at
And everybody’s gettin’ fat except Mama Cass
Don McLean’s “And I Love You So” has the first chorus as:
And yes, I know how lonely life can be
The shadows follow me
And the night won’t set me free
But I don’t let the evening get me down
Now that you’re around me.
McLean changes “lonely” to "loveless in the next chorus. I don’t know why.
Seasons In The Sun - Terry Jacks
We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed
Were just seasons out of time
We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song
Like the seasons have all gone
We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the stars we could reach
Were just starfish on the beach
All our lives we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed
Were just seasons out of time
Ian Dury: Billericay Dickie. Each chorus suggests something different to ask Joyce and Vicky, and also uses a different epithet to describe what kind of thickie he isn’t (blinkin’, flippin’, effin’, etc.).
Janis Ian’s At 17, first chorus:
And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say “come dance with me”
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn’t all it seems at seventeen…
2nd Chorus:
We all play the game, and when we dare
We cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown
That call and say: “Come on, dance with me”
And murmur vague obscenities
At ugly girls like me, at seventeen
I’ve got one more!
Down By The River - Albert Hammond
Down by the river, down by the river
Said: come in the water’s fine down by the river
Down by the river, down by the river
A silver fish lay on its side down by the river
Down by the river, down by the river
‘Mighty willows weep’, said he, ‘down by the river’
Down by the river, down by the river
The banks will soon be black and dead down by the river