The Byrds turned one verse of Dylan’s “All I Really Want to Do” into a bridge.
Not just jazz, but also Tin Pan Alley songs, most of which have 32-bar choruses. One example is Over the Rainbow. In that song, the bridge starts with “Someday I’ll with upon a star” and ends with “That’s where you’ll find me.”
ABACAB? It isn’t anywhere.
Look up on the wall
There on the floor
Under the pillow
Behind the door
Where’s that confounded bridge?
I like instrumental bridges (is it still called a bridge in that case?). Julia Dream by Pink Floyd has a nice bridge as does David Gilmour’s Murder.
Murder bucks the rock trend by not having a chorus.
Strawberry Fields Forever has an intro based on the verse, and begins with the chorus.
Ironically, one of the great versions of that song. Oh Memory!
As mentioned above, many Broadway musical numbers/Tin Pan Alley songs have a verse and a chorus, the verse being an introductory piece or narrative section, but several songs return to the verse when seen on stage. Here’s Lady Be Good from the sheet music:
Most jazz versions of standards skip the verse and play the chorus, such as Lester Young and Count Basie:
They’re not trying to set up a song; rather the song is a vehicle for improvisation.
Most jazz versions dispense with the verse and start at the refrain, but some performers do know them:
And if we want to discuss Stardust, sure it wanders about—but what a great song, if not the greatest.
The Who - “Bargain”
XTC - “Making Plans For Nigel”
Another Quick Who One - “Long Live Rock” (good n’epically rockin’, this bit - one of the band’s high points, IMO)
Talking Heads - “Take Me to the River”
The Police - “Every Breath You Take”
rattle off a few more -
Elvis Costello - “Shabby Doll”
For any Ozzy freaks out there, this is one is from his heart (kinda pounding left side too hard), in “I Don’t Know”
Found one more Elvis - “Watching the Detectives”
First, you quoted me wrong. Second, listen to Ticket To Ride (which repeats the bridge twice in this type of form)
…wasn’t he just riffing on a Phil Collins lyric?
Oh, now I hear the whooshing sound.
Though to be fair, I never knew why ABACAB was named the way it was until this very thread.
It’s where Macio takes you.
Right, not every song has a bridge.
Just adding another song with the classic structure, ABABCB, with the bridge in a different key. Bridge is bulleted.
Six o’clock already
I was just in the middle of a dream
I was kissin’ Valentino
By a crystal-blue, Italian stream
But I can’t be late
'Cause then I guess I just won’t get paid
These are the days
When you wish your bed was already made
It’s just another manic Monday (Woah, woah)
I wish it was Sunday (Woah, woah)
'Cause that’s my fun day (Woah, woah, woah, woah)
My I don’t have to run day (Woah, woah)
It’s just another manic Monday
Have to catch an early train
Got to be to work by nine
And if I had an aeroplane
I still couldn’t make it on time
'Cause it takes me so long (Oh, oh)
Just to figure out what I’m gonna wear
Blame it on the train
But the boss is already there
It’s just another manic Monday (Woah, woah)
I wish it was Sunday (Woah, woah)
'Cause that’s my fun day (Woah, woah, woah, woah)
My I don’t have to run day (Woah, woah)
It’s just another manic Monday
-
Of all my nights
-
Why did my lover have to pick last night
-
To get down?
-
(Last night, last night)
-
Doesn’t it matter
-
That I have to feed the both of us?
-
Employment’s down
-
He tells me in his bedroom voice
-
C’mon honey, let’s go make some noise
-
Time it goes so fast
-
(When you’re having fun)
It’s just another manic Monday (Woah, woah)
I wish it was Sunday (Woah, woah)
'Cause that’s my fun day (Woah, woah, woah, woah)
My I don’t have to run day (Woah, woah)
It’s just another manic Monday (Woah, woah)
I wish it was Sunday (Woah, woah, woah, woah)
'Cause that’s my fun day (Woah, woah)
It’s just another manic Monday
In “Psycho Killer”, not only does the bridge change up the key (from A minor to Bm↔G, he starts singing lyrics in French:
Ce que j’ai fait, ce soir-là
Ce qu’elle a dit, ce soir-là
Réalisant mon espoir
Je me lance vers la gloire…
Wow, that was absolutely fantastic. How is it that I have not seen this video at any time in the last 35 years?
Would like to see (an admittedly impossible to compile) stat on the ratio of bridged to non-bridged Top 40 songs over, say, the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s; see if maybe there’s any trend going one way or another, over time.
I think I might stand corrected on an earlier post about “Watching the Detectives” - what I thought was a bridge was simply another verse, but with overlapping vox. (I think)
This (Stones) bridge I’m a bit more sure about:
Maybe, in case you are British, because the B.B.C. determined that
the video’s split-second editing technique could possibly trigger “epileptic fits” in viewers.