Neither is poetic, at least as far as I could bear to listen. Prose doesn’t count, even horrifying prose. “Sunscreen,” like “The Americans,” was a reading of a newspaper column.
By the standards of this thread, yes. Kinda iffy, as the Shat is reading the lyrics of a real song, but popular enough to be a hit.
The repeated chorus of “Wir fahren fahren fahren auf der Autobahn,” is more spoken than sung and is treated like an atonal part of the musical landscape. The verse is entirely spoken, not sung. Altogether it is pretentious enough to count.
Eminem’s *Kim *is not rap per se - it’s just a long crazy monologue, with a few choruses thrown in. Doesn’t follow a beat, doesn’t rhyme. Very emotional - I’m not sure “moving” or “touching” would be the right words, but it kicks in the feels.
Our side of the pond has Léo Ferré who considered himself a poet first, a singer second. He did a lot a “poetry or free verse on a background melody”, like so.
Some of these might have singing in the chorus but spoken verses:
Butthole Surfers - Pepper
The Nails - 88 Lines About 44 Women
King Missile - Detachable Penis (lots of their songs, but the rest aren’t really hits)
Nada Surf - Popular
The Doors/Jim Morrison did a lot