10 Songs You Can Name by Hearing Just One Word

WatchMojo

To call these songs catchy would be a major understatement. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at songs that are instantly recognizable from just one random, and possibly nonsensical, word.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:05 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at songs that are instantly recognizable from just one random and possibly nonsensical word.

00:13 [Music]

00:20 One rule, the word cannot be the song's complete title. Sorry, Roxanne.

00:24 [Music]

00:27 Number 10, "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" - Backman Turner Overdrive.

00:30 [Music]

00:37 According to multiple sources, "baby" is one of the most commonly used words in pop music.

00:43 With that in mind, one wouldn't think that hearing just that one word would be very helpful in identifying one specific song over any other.

00:50 [Music]

00:55 But while that might be true for the generic word itself,

00:59 that all changes when you hear it sung the way Randy Backman does it on the Backman Turner Overdrive hit "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet".

01:04 Backman had originally recorded the song like that as a joke for his brother who stuttered.

01:09 [Music]

01:14 However, when he later tried doing it straight, it just didn't sound right.

01:18 So the stutter was made permanent, and an instantly recognizable song was born.

01:23 [Music]

01:30 Number 9, "Eye of the Tiger" - Survivor.

01:33 You probably don't even need any words at all when it comes to this track.

01:36 That opening riff is all you need to hear to know it's "Eye of the Tiger".

01:40 [Music]

01:48 But if we're talking about one specific word here, then "Tiger" is the one that also gives it away.

01:53 [Music]

02:00 Now, given that we can't think of many other songs where the word "Tiger" is featured so prominently,

02:05 the word itself is probably enough for most people to get the song.

02:08 [Music]

02:16 However, the way Dave Bickler sings it adds just that little bit more

02:19 recognizability to it to make it very much worthy of this list.

02:23 [Music]

02:30 Number 8, "Wonderwall" - Oasis.

02:33 [Music]

02:37 Oasis named their debut album "Definitely Maybe",

02:40 and "maybe" turned out to be "definitely" in a key word in identifying a couple of their songs.

02:45 [Music]

02:51 Now, we cannot talk about Oasis and the word "maybe" and not mention "Wonderwall".

02:55 One of the band's biggest hits, the way Liam Gallagher elongates the "maybe" in the chorus

03:00 instantly puts this track in the forefront of any listener's mind.

03:03 [Music]

03:11 Although, we could see there being some hesitation in deciding if that "maybe"

03:14 comes from "Wonderwall" or from the hit single from their first album "Live Forever".

03:18 The latter also features a similarly elongated "maybe" from Gallagher.

03:22 [Music]

03:27 Number 7, "Shout" - The Isley Brothers.

03:30 Well, next up on our list is "Shout" by The Isley Brothers.

03:33 Or should we say...

03:35 [Music]

03:39 Next up on our list is "Shout" by The Isley Brothers.

03:42 [Music]

03:50 Not only is this 1959 hit tune super recognizable from just one word,

03:54 it just so happens to be the first word of the song.

03:57 Actually, it's even the first sound of the song.

03:59 [Music]

04:06 All we have to hear is that lengthy acapella and elongated "Waaaaaayyyy"

04:11 and we will all be shouting out the name of this track in no time.

04:15 Pun totally intended.

04:17 [Music]

04:24 Number 6, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - The Tokens.

04:27 [Music]

04:34 While The Tokens made "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" a hit in 1961,

04:38 the song actually began its life in 1939 as a song called "Mbube" and was written in Zulu.

04:43 [Music]

04:50 This fact comes in handy when we talk about the one word that makes the song so wonderfully recognizable -

04:56 "Awimowe".

04:56 [Music]

05:03 What does it mean, you ask?

05:05 Well, nothing actually.

05:06 It's a nonsensical word that is assumed to have come from a mishearing of the original Zulu lyric "Wimbube",

05:12 which means "You're a lion".

05:13 [Music]

05:21 So while the word isn't actually a word, it is all you have to hear to name the song.

05:26 [Music]

05:33 Number 5, "Bennie and the Jets" - Elton John.

05:36 [Music]

05:43 As that awesome scene in "27 Dresses" showed us,

05:46 most people don't actually know most of the lyrics to Elton John's great 1974 track "Bennie and the Jets".

05:51 [Music]

05:59 However, while Jane and Kevin couldn't agree on most of the words Elton is singing,

06:03 they and everyone else know exactly how the chorus goes.

06:06 Or more specifically how John sings the name "Bennie" in said chorus,

06:10 adding a few extra stuttering B's to the name.

06:13 [Music]

06:19 On its own, "Bennie" might not be enough for some people to know the song,

06:23 but add a few stuttered B's to the beginning of it and we'll all be up on the bar screaming it out to the crowd.

06:28 [Music]

06:35 Number 4, "Hooked on a Feeling" - Blue Swede.

06:38 We can't stop this feeling deep inside of us that "Hooked on a Feeling" is a song that is

06:42 instantly knowable with just one word, "Ooga Chaka".

06:45 [Music]

06:51 Okay, so maybe it isn't really a word, but rather a hyphenated expression

06:55 that was meant to sound like a Native American war chant.

06:58 [Music]

07:05 But putting the cringe-worthy cultural appropriation aside for a moment,

07:09 there's no denying its recognizability in the pop music canon.

07:12 Sing it, say it, or just see it written down,

07:15 "Ooga Chaka" and "Hooked on a Feeling" go hand in hand.

07:18 [Music]

07:25 And let's not forget that dancing baby.

07:28 Ally McBeal fans will know what we're talking about.

07:30 [Music]

07:37 Number 3, "I Will Always Love You" - Whitney Houston.

07:41 [Music]

07:45 Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" was a record-setting smash hit back in 1992,

07:51 and it has what has got to be one of the most iconic vocal moments in the history of pop music.

07:56 [Music]

08:04 Sure, the whole song is a singing masterclass,

08:06 but what's the moment we all know and wait for?

08:10 That's right, the music stops for just an instant and then we get the "I" in "I Will Always Love You".

08:15 [Music]

08:23 But it isn't just an "I",

08:25 it's a five-second vocalization of that one simple word that is instantly unmistakable.

08:30 [Music]

08:38 Number 2, "All Star" - Smash Mouth.

08:41 You don't have to be the sharpest tool in the shed to know what song you're listening to

08:44 when you hear that very first lyric of Smash Mouth's 1999 hit track "All Star".

08:49 The first word of the song is "somebody", but not just any somebody.

08:53 [Music]

09:01 The way lead singer Steve Harwell sings it,

09:03 with that slight pause between the "some" and the "buddy",

09:06 makes this a very distinctive somebody.

09:08 [Music]

09:13 And one that immediately gives away what song it is.

09:16 Although if someone still can't name the song after hearing that one word,

09:20 we wouldn't judge them or put up our finger and our thumb in the shape of an "L" on our forehead.

09:24 [Music]

09:31 Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions.

09:34 "Wannabe", "Spice Girls", "Zig-a-Zig-Ah", need we say more?

09:39 [Music]

09:43 "Kokomo", "The Beach Boys".

09:45 Most of the locations in the first verse would work, but we think "Montego" is the most obvious.

09:50 [Music]

09:57 "Rop It Like It's Hot", "Snoop Dogg" featuring Pharrell.

10:00 A six-second long snoop. What other song could it be?

10:04 [Music]

10:11 "Thunderstruck", "AC/DC".

10:13 The word "thunder" hits you like thunder in this classic rock track.

10:17 [Music]

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10:38 Number 1. "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Queen".

10:42 [Music]

10:49 With "Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody", the hard part isn't just finding one word that makes the song instantly recognizable,

10:55 but rather picking just one of the words that does so.

10:57 [Music]

11:04 We can start with the 16th century Commedia dell'arte generic clown character.

11:08 Did you know that's what a Scaramouche is?

11:10 Can you think of another song with the word Scaramouche in it?

11:13 [Music]

11:17 How about Beelzebub or Fandango?

11:18 [Music]

11:25 But we're not done yet.

11:26 While "Mama" is a much more general music lyric,

11:29 the way Freddie Mercury elongates it on multiple occasions in the second and third verses

11:34 can only mean "Bohemian Rhapsody".

11:36 [Music]

11:42 Do you believe we missed any obvious ones?

11:44 Let us know in the comments.

11:46 [Music]

11:53 Did you enjoy this video?

11:55 Check out these other clips from WatchMojo

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12:01 [Music]

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