From Bad To Verse

Last week I noted "The Boys Are Back In Town" has a great verse but a rotten chorus. It got me thinking--it makes the song feel...lopsided. The chorus is supposed to be the highlight, where the "hook" is, so it feels weird when you like the verse better.

I started wondering if any other songs I like that had this property.

There's Outkast's "Hey Ya." Admittedly, the chorus is pretty catchy, but what really drew me to the song was the original verse. In fact, I'm disappointed when the second verse doesn't closely follow the style of the first, and that halfway through the song the group essentially drops the verse.

Paul McCartney's "Listen To What The Man Said" suffers from this problem even more. The song starts with two verses but then goes into the rather insipid chorus. Worse, at that point, McCartney dumps the verse and just keeps repeating the chorus. What a disaster.

Then there's Martha Reeves & The Vandellas "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave." It's my favorite Motown song, yet everything that makes it great is in the verse. The chorus almost seems like an afterthought.