# Songs with false endings **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2004, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980 "2004-12-09T19:41:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Raven\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@The\_Raven\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Raven_1)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/21 "2004-12-10T02:50:57Z")
Howyadoin, On one of the MTV Unplugged CDs, Elton John does a fantastic solo rendition of “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”, just him and his piano. The crowd’s really into it, starting to applaud wildly at what they think is the end, then he jerks them around to a false ending, building to a crescendo, then turning it around again… He does this _3 times_ before he finishes. Great stuff, by a man who really knows how to work an audience. -Rav ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/22 "2004-12-10T02:54:13Z")
> [@monster](#): > > yes, I do force my son to listen to my Monkees CDs. 🙂 you **monster**!! ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/23 "2004-12-10T03:02:14Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I take that back… I think Sing, Sing, Sing (at least Benny Goodman’s version) has one, and that’s much older. Also Goodman’s “Don’t Be That Way” has a long decresendo towards the end that is interrupted by a huge drum solo before siding into the end. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/24 "2004-12-10T03:02:16Z")
> [@monster](#): > > And yes, I do force my son to listen to my Monkees CDs. 🙂 What’s the number for child protective services? ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/25 "2004-12-10T03:17:52Z")
“Let Me” by Paul Revere and The Raiders also fades completely out and has some silence before they come in with the chorus again. That messed up a lot of DJs when it was new! “there’s Paul Revere and the Raiders and their new **ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma Let me, let me** …” I don’t know that this really qualifies, but on first pressings of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On” single, it almost completely fades out, then the engineer turned up the volume knob briefly before fading it out again. It’s not like that on subsequent pressings, or the album, or the CD. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/26 "2004-12-10T03:40:03Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > What’s the number for child protective services? 867-5309 _sits back and watches everyone get forced to sing_ ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/27 "2004-12-10T03:50:45Z")
_Do You Love Me?_ by The Contours. Also one of the best spoken intros to a song. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/28 "2004-12-10T05:26:01Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I take that back… I think Sing, Sing, Sing (at least Benny Goodman’s version) has one, and that’s much older. Haydn was doing it back in the 1700’s. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/29 "2004-12-10T09:09:09Z")
“Brush Up Your Shakespeare” from _Kiss Me, Kate!_ has, I believe, appr. 17 encores. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/30 "2004-12-10T14:34:03Z")
Since the OP mentioned King Crimson… there’s a break in the cacaphonous finish toi “21st Century Schizoid Man” where the song seems to come to an end… but the cacaphony briefly resumes a few seconds later. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/31 "2004-12-10T14:56:32Z")
> [@fishbicycle](#): > > BTW, re: Strawberry Fields Forever, that fade was intentional, and not to hide an edit. We bootleg collectors have all the available outtakes and unreleased mixes, and there is no edit in that spot. The edit comes at almost exactly one minute into the song. I have quite a few Beatles boots myself actually. I don’t really know what George was on about, but there are a lot of eyebrow-raisers like that in his book “Summer of Love.” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/32 "2004-12-10T15:16:59Z")
The rousing, toe-tapping _Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald_ by Gordon Lightfoot has appropriate end points at each of its final **four** verses. Anyone of them would have made a complete song, and kept the typical Lightfoot fan from screaming “come ON, already!” Eric Carmen’s ballad _All By Myself_ faded to a dead stop before coming back for one last chorus. This not only confused disc jockeys, but thoroughly screwed up my radio station’s automated system. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/33 "2004-12-10T16:25:01Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > I have quite a few Beatles boots myself actually. I don’t really know what George was on about, but there are a lot of eyebrow-raisers like that in his book “Summer of Love.” Yeah, George Martin is the wrong person to ask about what went on at Beatles recording sessions, even though he was there. His memory has been blunted by the passage of time, and age, and I’ve read where he “remembered” stuff that never happened. It’s really odd, thousands of people who weren’t even born when those records were made can tell you more about how it was done, right down to the _n_[sup]th[/sup] degree of detail. But the people who made them have little or no memory of the actual processes. If you want to know, get the books by Mark Lewisohn. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/34 "2004-12-10T16:35:18Z")
Yeah. I read this article the other day where this guy tried to find out where/when he got his Rickenbacker painted black (it was originally Maple Glo, a natural wood finish). This guy went all over the place trying to find out exactly who painted it and with what. Crazy, OCD shit. Actually, I found the article fascinating, but I’m…not crazy…really ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/35 "2004-12-10T17:13:32Z")
On an album called Damnation by Opeth, there’s a song called Closure which goes into a really cool riff, then just cuts out in the middle of it and goes into the next song. There’s no closure to the song, get it? ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/36 "2004-12-10T17:28:52Z")
My Fave: **Mike Watt & Friends** (In this case; **Eddie Vedder** ) doing (or is it falsely ending) [Against The Seventies](http://sg1.allmusic.com/cg/smp.dll?link=u205c3cpncewdi1gw5twz6v&r=20.asx) ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/37 "2004-12-10T17:57:21Z")
> [@An Arky](#): > > Yeah. I read this article the other day where this guy tried to find out where/when he got his Rickenbacker painted black (it was originally Maple Glo, a natural wood finish). This guy went all over the place trying to find out exactly who painted it and with what. Crazy, OCD shit. > > Actually, I found the article fascinating, but I’m…not crazy…really Oh, Jebus! :smack: Theat “he” would be John Lennon… ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/38 "2004-12-10T17:59:48Z")
Not sure if this really counts or not, but another example from the **Beatles** would be the end of the “Abbey Road” medley. After an extended pause, “Her Majesty” finishes the album. Another one that always has me guessing is an instrumental called “In Shades” from \*\*Tom Waits’ \*\* “Heartattack and Vine”. Lots of stops, applause, starts again. ---
**Author:** ![EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@EvilHamsterOnCrack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilHamsterOnCrack)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/39 "2004-12-10T20:02:17Z")
Theres one by a band I listen to a lot: Suburban Legends - Up All Night. You think the song ends… and then: “Whoo!” and it continues. Makes for easily telling who the fans are in the concert and who’s just clapping because they’re enjoying it. Anyways, it’s a pretty good song, if you’re into ska (3rd wave) ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980/40 "2004-12-10T20:24:13Z")
John Mayer’s “My Stupid Mouth” \*I’m never speaking up again… starting now. \ One more thing, Why is it my fault…\* For some reason I really like the way he does that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-false-endings/278980.md?page=3)