Songs with a spoken part

[Dappled]

What do you think about songs with a spoken part? Like when Elvis says “You know, someone said that the world's a stage and each must play a part," and so on in Are you lonesome tonight.

What do they add to the song? Would the song be better off without it? What kind of songs do have spoken parts, romantic songs, sad songs, songs with a serious touch? Did the Beatles or the Rolling Stones ever record a song with a spoken part? What about songs which are spoken in their entirety, like Lorne Greens Ringo?

[OLD 55]

Good topic Dappled ! I think some of them are a bit corny but there are a lot that I like. Ringo's great. Lorne Greene had a very distinctive way of speaking and it's a good story. Elvis' Are You Lonesome Tonight could probably have done without it. I think his monologue is based on the old Al Jolson version.

Two I like are Les Crane's Desiderata and Tom Clay's Abraham, Martin And John/ What The World Need Now Medley. Of course they have strong musical backing to enhance them; so does Ringo. (And news flashes too in Tom Clay's).

[bazooka]

the Rolling Stones ever record a song with a spoken part?

How could you forget Jagger's bit at the end of The Stones' Something Happened To Me Yesterday:

Well thank you very much and now I think it's time for us all to go.

So from all of us to all of you, not forgetting the boys in the band, and our producer, Reg Thorpe, we'd like to say "God Bless".

And, if you're out tonight, don't forget,

if you're on your bike, wear white.

[OLD 55]

Wouldn't you call that an addendum rather than part of the song bazooka?

(And stop saying you're old. I'm older than you).

[Judo]

I have quite a few songs in my collection which have a spoken part. They do add a certain something to the song, though I can't quite put my finger on it.

I think some songs just cannot do without a spoken part, e.g. "The cost of my love" (a mother to her little boy - sorry I need help here with the artist's name).

As for songs which are spoken in their entirety, I would say these are recitations, not songs.

[Dappled]

A quiz: Who said "Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist?" in what song?

[OLD 55]

Bobby Pickett in Monster Mash of course !

But I wouldn't class that as a "spoken part" really.

[Dappled]

That was fast, 55! Another one, and this time from a regular song:

To make people laugh, that's what I do

Even though my heart is broken, broken into.

Who sang what song??

[bazooka]

Wouldn't you call that an addendum rather than part of the song bazooka?

(And stop saying you're old. I'm older than you).

Well I think I might call it an appurtenance, but what does a whippersnapper like me know.

It is just that sometimes I'll make a reference, and then consider that it predates a large portion of the Songfactor herd by two, three decades or more. I am the same age as Dappled, and Steel2Velvet, I believe. Uncle Joe is in the same neighborhood, has a year or two up ... But 55, don't say you're old

... you're Ancient!

[MarcM]

Pretty much everything recorded by William Shatner is in the spoken word and I love it.

[bluesboy]

Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall - Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots ('44)

Into each life some rain must fall

But too much is falling in mine

Into each heart some tears must fall

But some day the sun will shine

Some folks can lose the blues in their hearts

But when I think of you another shower starts

Into each life some rain must fall

But too much is falling in mine

SPOKEN (Ink Spots Version):

Into each and every life some rain has got to fall

But too much of that stuff is fallin' into mine

And into each heart some tears gotta fall

And I know that someday that sun is bound to shine

Some folks can lose the blues in their heart

But when I think of you another shower starts

Into each life some rain must fall

But too much is fallin' in mine

[phil]

How about (You're My) Soul And Inspiration by the Righteous Bros. Bobby Hatfield speaks;

Baby, I can't make it withoutcha. And I'm, I'm tellin' ya, honey-you're my

reason for laughin', for cryin', for livin', and for dyin'.

And Patches by Clarence Carter

[katie_sane]

Atlantis by Donovan has that spoken bit at the start:

"The continent of Atlantis was an island

which lay before the great flood

in the area we now call the Atlantic Ocean.

So great an area of land, that from her western shores

those beautiful sailors journeyed

to the South and the North Americas with ease,

in their ships with painted sails.

To the East Africa was a neighbour, across a short strait of sea miles.

The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of The Atlantian culture.

The antediluvian kings colonised the world

All the Gods who play in the mythological dramas

In all legends from all lands were from fair Atlantis.

Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships to all corners of the Earth.

On board were the Twelve:

The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist,

The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends.

Though Gods they were -

And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind

Let us rejoice and let us sing and dance and ring in the new

Hail Atlantis!........"

[Dappled]

Atlantis by Donovan has that spoken bit at the start:

Yes, and that's one of my favourite Donovan songs too. Love that spoken part and the background music.

Lou Rawls starts out Dead End Street with this monologue:

I was born in a city that they call "The Windy City"

And they call it the Windy City because of "the Hawk"

The Hawk

The Almighty Hawk

Mister Wind

Takes care of plenty business

'Round winter time

The place that I lived in

Was on a street that uh

Happened to be one of the dead-end streets

Where there was nothing to block

The wind the elements

Nothing to buffer them for me

To keep 'em

From knockin' my bed down d'y'hea'm

I mean really sockin' it to me

When the boiler would bust and the heat was gone d'y'hea'm

I had to get fully dressed before I could go to bed

Course I couldn't put on my "goulashes" 'cause they had buckles on 'em

And my folks didn't play that

They said "don't you tear up my bed clothes wit' dem boot hushies on"

But I was fortunate

Soon as I was big enough to get a job and save enough money

Get a ticket

Catch anything I split

And I said "one day I'm 'onna return

And I'm gonna straighten it all out"

And I'm 'bout ready to go back now

So I thought I'd tell you about it

Ah they say this is a big rich town

But I live in the poorest part

I know I'm on a dead-end street

In a city without a heart

I learned to fight before I was six

The only way I could get along

When you're raised on a dead-end street

You've gotta be tough and strong

Now all the guys I know gettin' in trouble

That's how it's always been

When the odds are all against you

How can you win

[The Seeker]

And don't forget Stanley Unwin on Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces. He tells part of a story at the beginning of almost every song.

[Lucky]

How about (You're My) Soul And Inspiration by the Righteous Bros. Bobby Hatfield speaks;

Baby, I can't make it withoutcha. And I'm, I'm tellin' ya, honey-you're my

reason for laughin', for cryin', for livin', and for dyin'.

I love that bit! That phrase gets me right here.

[OLD 55]

To make people laugh, that's what I do

Even though my heart is broken, broken into.

Who sang what song??

I wish I'd seen this before Dappled (been watching TV - can't miss LOST).

I'm not sure, but I think it might be either Leo Sayer or Freddie Mercury/Queen, The Show Must Go On ??

[OLD 55]

Well I think I might call it an appurtenance...

But 55, don't say you're old... you're Ancient!

IMpertanance more like it, you cheeky Young Gun.

[Dappled]

I wish I'd seen this before Dappled (been watching TV - can't miss LOST).

I'm not sure, but I think it might be either Leo Sayer or Freddie Mercury/Queen, The Show Must Go On ??

Neither of them, 55, but that phrase The show must go on is part of the lyrics. It's a mid 60s song.

The Shangi-Las talked a lot in their songs too to great effect. Remember Remember, Footsteps on the Roof, Past, Rresent and Future?

[daslied]

I always cracked up when the deep-voiced guy from Boyz II Men would do a little interlude, in seemingly every song.

"You know, baby, sometimes a man can do things. It's not that I don't love you, it's just that I don't care. Now let me draw you a bath."

And then there's always:

"They didn't know who they were, or what they were doing. But, oh, how they danced. The little children of Stonehenge."

[RonJonSurfer]

How about Future Legend by Bowie:

Future Legend"

And in the death

As the last few corpses lay rotting on the slimy

thoroughfare

The shutters lifted in inches in Temperance Building

High on Poacher's Hill

And red, mutant eyes gaze down on Hunger City

No more big wheels

Fleas the size of rats sucked on rats the size of cats

And ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes

Coverting the highest of the sterile skyscrapers

Like packs of dogs assaulting the glass fronts of Love-Me Avenue

Ripping and rewrapping mink and shiny silver fox, now legwarmers

Family badge of sapphire and cracked emerald

Any day now

The Year of the Diamond Dogs

"This ain't Rock'n'Roll

This is Genocide"

Of course the first chords of Diamond Dogs rip in right here...

[Tenacious_Peaches]

I always cracked up when the deep-voiced guy from Boyz II Men would do a little interlude, in seemingly every song.

"You know, baby, sometimes a man can do things. It's not that I don't love you, it's just that I don't care. Now let me draw you a bath."

Shut up...that's exactly what I thought when I saw this topic. Of course.

And then there's always:

"They didn't know who they were, or what they were doing. But, oh, how they danced. The little children of Stonehenge."

[Uncle Joe]

The Moonglows' "The Ten Commandments Of Love"

Joe Hinton's cover of Willie Nelson's "Funny (How Time Slips Away)"

[Jenny]

Smokey Robinson's "Baby, baby don't cry" has two spoken lines at the beginning and two before the second verse. I think they work very well in the song.

Does Barry White's spoken part at the beginning of "Can't Get Enough of Your Love" count?

[Shawna]

A song that none of you have probably even heard (shame on you!) that is positively hysterical and almost entirely spoken is

"Jack Vs. Jose" by Roger Clyne. Check out the lyrics on SF, it's a work of art.

Let's not forget "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie. Another one that always makes me smile.