I’ve read definitions online but I’m basically illiterate when it comes to music so those definitions are pretty much useless to me.
Can someone give me a couple examples of bridges? I’m very familiar with Elvis songs so if you can grab an example or two from him that would make things easy on me.
I don’t wanna be a tiger
Cause tigers play too rough.
I don’t wanna be a lion
Cause lions aren’t the kind
You love enough.
Like a river flows
Surely to the sea.
Darling, so it goes
Some things are meant to be.
Oh, let our love survive.
I’ll dry the tears from your eyes.
Let’s don’t let a good thing die
When honey, you know I’ve never lied to you.
Mmm, yeah, yeah
In popular music, the “bridge” is the part of a song (usually in the middle) with a different melody from the verses, acting as a contrast so that the song doesn’t get too repetitive.
In terms of Elvis songs, think of “Can’t Help Falling In Love.” It starts with the part that goes “Wise men say, only fools rush in…” That’s the first verse. Then comes “Shall I stay…” That’s the second verse. Notice that the melody–the tune–is the same as the first verse.
Then comes “Like a river flows…” That’s the bridge. Notice that the tune is different from the verses. It breaks up the pattern a little, making the song more interesting.
Then we get “Take my hand…” We’ve returned to the original melody again for the final verse. That middle part with the different melody has formed a connection–a “bridge”–between the second and third verses. We’ve gone from our original melody, through a contrasting one, and then returned to the first one again. This provides a sense that we’ve gone on a little journey, and come back home. It gives the song a sense of progression, and keeps it from just repeating the same melody over and over.
An Elvis song that incorporates verse, chorus, and bridge parts is “Suspicious Minds.”
“We’re caught in a trap […] When you don’t believe a word I say” - Verse. Tells the story
“We can’t go on together with suspicious minds […]” - Chorus. The repeated part. This usually contains the musical “hook,” the part that first comes to mind when you hear the name of the song. The sing-along part.
“So, if an old friend I know […]” - Verse. Continues the story
"We can’t go on together […] " - Back to the chorus.
“Oh, let our love survive I’ll dry the tears from your eyes […]” - Bridge - Musically shifts gears to contrast the verse and the chorus and usually lyrically echoes a departure in the narrative.
Then to a repeat of the first verse and then an outro (ending) based an a repetition of the first half of the first verse. (Not a usual way to end a song in this structure – typically you go to the chorus and fade out on that – but effective given the lyrics.)
“Everyday Tonality II” says
That definition is specific to jazz, which uses a different terminology than pop music. @pulykamell gave a perfect explanation for pop music.
To summarize:
Pop often has ABABCAB where A is the verse (words are different every time), B is the chorus (words are the same every time), and C is the bridge, which breaks up the pattern for interest. This is most likely what @Dodgy_Dude is asking about.
Jazz very often has an AABA form where each of those sections is 8 bars. The B section is called the bridge. The A section is just called “the A section.” The entire tune once through is called a chorus. The band plays multiple choruses as an improvisation vehicle.
I may be off the mark, but I think you are using “bridge” when you mean “chorus”.
This, to me, describes the chorus:
In popular music, the “bridge” is the part of a song (usually in the middle) with a different melody from the verses, acting as a contrast so that the song doesn’t get too repetitive.
Am I wrong?
mmm
And some songs are nearly impossible to figure out where the bridge is. An example is a very old hit song called Stardust. It just seems to wander from verse to verse.
In the song given there, I would say the bridge is correctly identified. Those are all AABA structures songs where there is no chorus, just verse and bridges. You can call the “I can’t help falling in love with you” a type of refrain, as it is repeated to clos3 out each verse.
A chorus, as I’ve always understood it, is repeated more often, usually after each verse. As pulykamell says, you could analyze “I can’t help falling in love with you” as a brief chorus or refrain if you wanted to, although I’ve never thought of it that way. I don’t consider “Can’t Help Falling in Love” as having a chorus.
This song form is called AABA, A representing the verse melody, and B the bridge melody. This structure is hugely common. You’ll find it all over classic Broadway, pop, rock, country. In practice it’s more often AABABA, because the bridge and final verse will usually be repeated. Oftentimes they’ll squeeze in a guitar solo somewhere, too. 
Some songs have both a chorus and a bridge, some don’t.
By contrast, think of the Beatles’ “Let It Be.” That’s a traditional verse-chorus structure, where each verse has different lyrics, and each one is followed by a chorus with the same lyrics (“Let it be, let it be…”). This song doesn’t have a bridge.
I leave it to others with more professional musical experience to either correct or expand on this–I’m strictly an amateur–but that’s my understanding.
What song/artist is this? Where’s the bridge? Why is that part considered the bridge?
That’s “Don’t Be Cruel” by Elvis. Then “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis. And, finally, “Suspicious Minds.”
Well, to be perfectly accurate and pedantic, all performed and popularized by Elvis; “Don’t Be Cruel” was written by Otis Blackwell. “Can’t Help Falling In Love” is a song based on a French melody, “Plaisir d’Amour”, and written by Hugo Pieretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss. “Suspicious Minds” is written by Mark James.
I go into the “Suspcious Minds” example a little more in depth in my post pointing out the verse, chorus, and bridge, as that song has an example of each. There are also parts called “pre-choruses” in some songs, as well as intros and outros. What parts need clarification or expounding?
Not every song is going to follow a structure with clear, delineated verse/chorus/bridge like this, but the vast bulk of pop songs do.
Sorry for being so cryptic. @pulykamell correctly IDed the songs, The lyrics I posted were just the bridges of each song. The OP, being an Elvis fan would recognize them.
I use the words “chorus” and “refrain” not quite as synonyms. The former I use to refer to that “sing-a-long” section of a song that contains the hook, and the latter I use for those little bits that are repeated that aren’t quite long enough to be choruses. So, for example “Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, jingle all the way” is a chorus, but the “Don’t Be Cruel” lines in “Don’t Be Cruel” at the end of each verse I’d call a refrain.
Not everyone makes this distinction – some use the words completely interchangeably and fold in what I call the refrain with the verse. But, looking online, I don’t seem to be idiosyncratic with my definition. Wikipedia’s definition includes this distinction when it is made.
I’ve also seen arguments that what we call a “pre-chrous” is what really is a true “bridge” and that what we call a bridge is really a “Middle 8.” In that case, I don’t make a distinction between “bridge” and “middle 8” (to me they are the same), but that musician does. That’s different than the vocabulary the musicians I’ve worked with use and how I’ve always read it in works talking about music, but it point out that sometimes it can get tricky.
Another amateur interpretation…
You’ve got a melody with verses. The tune stays the same but the words change as you perform it.
Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer’s day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soulShadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy, linen land
There’s a part that’s repeated. That’s a refrain. If a bunch of people sing, it’s a chorus. The refrain may be a chorus and I think that people often call it a chorus informally because many sing with it—they may not know many verses, what order they’re in, etc. But it can be one voice, a refrain.
Now, I understand what you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they’ll listen now
(2 more verses, refrain, then…)
Bridge:
For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry nightYou took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you, Vincent
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you
(Back to verses, refrain with slight change at end)
Tidbit:
Guitarist Mike Rutherford explained in an interview in 2006:
[There are] three bits of music in “Abacab” and we refer to them as ‘bit A’, [correcting self] ‘Section A’, ‘Section B’, and ‘Section C’. And at different times they were in a different order. We’d start with section A and then have section C and then have section [pauses] and at one point in time, it spelt “ABACAB”. And you’ve got the final version where it’s not that at all, it’s like “ACACACUCUBUBUGA”.[4]
Abacab (song) - Wikipedia
Is there even a bridge? There is the “introductory verse”, then ABAC.
I never thought so, and it’s a very difficult song to sing. In fact, for many years I thought someone wrote it when they were drunk. But then I’m an amateur musician.
Yeah, some versions skip that 16-bar intro verse, and go ABAC after. I’m not entirely sure why we’d necessarily start lettering from the part after the first 16 bars. I see no reason not to label it AA BCBD if you wanted to, but I do see that Wikipedia does call it ABAC with a 16-bar intro verse. Perhaps it’s because these first 16 bars are often dropped and people do real feel it more of as an “intro” than a verse.
But, as you can see, this means songs don’t necessarily have to have bridges or choruses. Sometimes, it’s best to just describe parts as A, B, C, etc., rather than using descriptive names.
To further confuse things, Standards from the 1900’s used “Verse” for a rambling introductory section, and “Refrain” for the song proper. The verse is sometimes omitted, depending on the song.
For Stardust, the Verse is “And now the purple dusk of twilight time” and the Refrain is “Sometimes I wonder why I spend the lonely night”.