# What are the itty-bitty bits you love in certain songs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [March 19, 2019, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368 "2019-03-19T14:23:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/181 "2019-10-08T12:37:42Z")
The boys choir intro to _You Can’t Always Get What You Want_. > [@](#): > > **House:** As the great philosopher Jagger once said, “You can’t always get what you want”. > > **Cuddy:** Oh, I looked into that philosopher you quoted, Jagger, and you’re right, “You can’t always get what you want,” but as it turns out “if you try sometimes you get what you need.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2019, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/182 "2019-10-08T16:36:52Z")
Probably my favorite line in any Beatles song, from “Penny Lane”: _Though she feels as if she’s in a play/She is anyway_ ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/183 "2019-10-09T02:20:25Z")
Mine might be _Well the doctor came in Stinking of gin And proceeded to lie on the table._ (Rocky Raccoon) or possibly _She was well-acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane._ (Happiness is a Warm Gun) or maybe _If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao Ya ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow._ (Revolution) ok seriously _Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door_ (Eleanor Rigby) or Lennon’s “But I can’t complain”'s (A Little Help From My Friends) > [@LegendHasit](#): > > Prince’s When Dove’s Cry. I’ll go with the tasty opening guitar licks. Cool “Suck it!” @ [1:03](https://youtu.be/fPnrAkG-3sM?t=61) by some alt-right fucker. Odd-sounding “thud” drum getting hit every three seconds or so in “American Woman”. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/184 "2019-10-09T04:07:30Z")
One other one: Alex’s [guitar peeling @ 7:51](https://youtu.be/5w3s2T0VBug?t=467) at the end of Neil’s fill in Rush’s “Xanadu”. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/185 "2019-10-13T18:09:28Z")
Three bits from Roxy Music’s _Editions of You_, with the first one one, unfortunately, almost impossible to hear without headphones (or just crank the hell out of the volume if you can get away with it): Bryan Ferry’s louche [“mmmmm!” @ 0:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kxfGPWGaJ0), the goofy [“WOOOOOO!” @ 2:30](https://youtu.be/0kxfGPWGaJ0?t=147), and BF’s characteristic baahhing-like-a-sheep vibrato, on full display here [@ 3:30](https://youtu.be/0kxfGPWGaJ0?t=203) Always liked the jazzy-yet-at-the-same-time-totally-kick-ass ending to Hendrix’s _Freedom_, here at [3:43.](https://youtu.be/wDvlErh5zcc?t=213) Was hoping to find the studio version, but hopefully the yummy NSFW aspect here will compensate. One more ending: the off-the-rails piano [@ 4:34](https://youtu.be/7A0a1BWjFZI?t=261) in Bowie’s (live) _Aladdin Sane_. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/186 "2019-10-31T01:54:26Z")
Bumping due to insouciance. The New York Dolls come up with possibly the hottest wolf-whistle-on-steroids at [2:04](https://youtu.be/E1I4A5yazr4?t=118) in “Personality Crisis”. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/187 "2019-10-31T11:11:52Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > One other one: Alex’s [guitar peeling @ 7:51](https://youtu.be/5w3s2T0VBug?t=467) at the end of Neil’s fill in Rush’s “Xanadu”. Yeah, that’s a good example of throwing a little something new in the second (or third) time a section is played in a song. Most good songs do this, I’d wager. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/188 "2019-10-31T12:46:08Z")
The change in key about a third of the way through the \*\*\*St Elsewhere \*\*\*theme. Along with the driving beat, it adds a sense of urgency and maybe potential tragedy to the music, which is followed by a little ray of hope at the very end. Said change in key occurs just after the 1:00 minute mark in **this recording** : I love this theme. It's absolutely one of the best of the '80s, as was the series itself. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/189 "2019-10-31T13:27:45Z")
Maxine Nightingale’s Right Back Where We Started From–The way she belts out “get right back” with only the drum accompaniment is superb. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/190 "2019-10-31T14:14:03Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Yeah, that’s a good example of throwing a little something new in the second (or third) time a section is played in a song. Most good songs do this, I’d wager. Yeah and with “Xanadu” being such an awesome number, I see what you mean. A teeny weeny thing - when Robert Plant sucks in air just before he goes into “Heartbreaker”'s last verse at [3:40](https://youtu.be/EUFGJvYlPFk?t=219) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/191 "2019-10-31T16:50:17Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > Keeping this going, I’m reminded of what I always imagined was a beer bottle being knocked to the floor by a drunken Replacements member, in [Talent Show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX63Y7E_StU&t=2m9s). It might be something else, but that would be fitting. Thanks for this, I love rough-around-the-edges stuff like this. You want beer bottles getting tipped off tables? I grew up with a Clancy Brothers album, live from a pub, where a bottle broke. “Hit 'im again!” laughed a Clancy. And another said “Ah, Ireland. The land of happy wars and sad love songs…” Not on YouTube, but Ryan Adams and Gillian Welch did a very homemade but haunting “Dancing with the Women at the Bar” at a bar, with lots of bottles dropping and chairs getting dragged around. Also has a drunken ad lib: “This isn’t my gig… so I’m… not going to say anything.” ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/192 "2019-11-01T04:34:15Z")
Jimmy Page’s greatest ever bit:p: atonal high note at [4:46](https://youtu.be/-rmtJ6-EY1E?t=277) in “Dazed and Confused”. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/193 "2019-11-01T15:32:14Z")
Two “instrumental bridge” moments: When the brass kicks in around two-thirds of the way through Petula Clark’s “Downtown,” and the soaring strings before the final chorus of the Shirelles’ “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/z_m4Qb0iW-o/maxresdefault.jpg "Petula Clark ~ Downtown (1964)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_m4Qb0iW-o) The first one is just so damned \*BRITISH\*, while the second is the icing on the cake for one of Carole King's best works. :o ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/194 "2019-11-01T15:49:24Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Jimmy Page’s greatest ever bit:p: atonal high note at [4:46](https://youtu.be/-rmtJ6-EY1E?t=277) in “Dazed and Confused”. Always liked that. Always thought I was one of like 3 people in the world that noticed it. Glad you’re the 4th. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/195 "2019-11-01T16:16:23Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Two “instrumental bridge” moments: When the brass kicks in around two-thirds of the way through Petula Clark’s “Downtown,” and the soaring strings before the final chorus of the Shirelles’ “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” My favorite instrumental bridge moment: in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Call Me the Breeze”. In the second 8 bars of the piano solo…not the piano part, but the horns in the background. That little Doo…[rest]…da dada da dah dah dah dah, dooo…is the coolest. thing. ever. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/196 "2019-11-01T17:41:43Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The change in key about a third of the way through the \*\*\*St Elsewhere \*\*\*theme. Along with the driving beat, it adds a sense of urgency and maybe potential tragedy to the music, which is followed by a little ray of hope at the very end. > > Said change in key occurs just after the 1:00 minute mark in **this recording** : > > I love this theme. It's absolutely one of the best of the '80s, as was the series itself. Yay for the 80s! Here’s Carly Simon in “Let the River Run”. I love the energy in the lines (it’s cued up to them) “Oh, my heart is aching/We’re coming to the edge, running on the water” and then the key change at 1:19 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/cv-0mmVnxPA/hqdefault.jpg "Let The River Run - Carly Simon") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv-0mmVnxPA&t=68) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/197 "2019-11-01T19:01:42Z")
Speaking of Carole King, here she is singing “It Might as Well Rain until September.” I love the strings (plucked and otherwise) and multiple key changes. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GbKE0gJETA0/hqdefault.jpg "Carole King - It Might as Well Rain Until September") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbKE0gJETA0) ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2019, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/198 "2019-11-03T00:33:10Z")
I don’t know the exact technical/musical term for it, but the quick 7 or 8 bar guitar pick that accompanies the chorus part of the German punk band Wizo’s song ‘Kopfschuss’. It occurs 3 or 4 times in the song, the first at the 40 second mark. [WIZO - Kopfschuss - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO-s1GmL0Ek) Don’t know why, but that little detail really makes the song “cook” to me. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2019, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/199 "2019-11-03T02:01:47Z")
John’s countdown at the beginning of Ringo’s (It’s All Down To) Goodnight Vienna, “Ah-one, two, one, two, three, four,” followed by, “Alright!” ---
**Author:** ![joemama24\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce7236/32.png) [@joemama24\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joemama24_98)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2019, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368/200 "2019-11-03T02:46:52Z")
The little half notes Slash plays during the vocal parts of Sweet Child O’ Mine. Not so much on the album but some of the live performances are awesome. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-itty-bitty-bits-you-love-in-certain-songs/831368.md?page=11)