Spoken word in songs

[greendemon]

Love it, hate it, don't mind it...?

I'm not talking about rap, obviously. Specifically, spoken-worn passages in otherwise sung songs.

Some examples:

All Saints - Never Ever



Human League - Human




Personally, I'm in the hate camp. I think there are occasions when it works - I don't hate it at the start of 'Never Ever', for example - but a lot of the time I find it unbearably cheesy and it only takes away from the song. It is the single worst thing about 'Human' in my opinion.

It's a bit more of a retro thing but it has been cropping up in a few albums/songs lately and so like most things that annoy me, I wanted to post about it.

[Earl Purple]

The Look Of Love by ABC. And also a couple of lines in Poison Arrow which is a conversation.

[Whitneyfan]

There's the spoken part in Charlene's 'I've never been to me', and also Elvis 'Are you lonesome tonight', both of which don't really ruin the song.

I don't really think it's any different to rap in a song.

[Pablo]

I think its one of those where it depends on the song itself. If the song told a story, fitted with the tune and the speaking part is hard to melodise with the tune, the speaking part isn't too big of a deal.

The Never Ever monologue (as I like to call it) to me doesn't fit with the song but I suppose that what makes it appealing. Same with Atomic Kitten - Whole Again.

Some songs I don't understand why there is a speaking part - songs by Britney Spears come to mind.

[Robbie]

Most of the time it seems to come across as being cheesy. It also spoils the flow of a song (assuming the song was decent to start with, so that rules out 'I've Never Been To Me' by Charlene!).

[Good Old Days]

I love spoken words parts in Britney's hits "Lucky" and "Oops!".

YVA - I Dangu

[Robin]

There’s plenty of good songs so I like it, off the top of my head:

- David Bowie - Modern Love
- Len - Steal My Sunshine
- Black Country New Road (all their songs)
- Nada Surf - Popular
- Eels - Susan’s House

[TheThorne]

Oct 12, 2023 20:16:52 GMT 1 Robin said:

There’s plenty of good songs so I like it, off the top of my head:

- David Bowie - Modern Love
- Len - Steal My Sunshine
- Black Country New Road (all their songs)
- Nada Surf - Popular
- Eels - Susan’s House

Some of those are a bit different, the really cheesy ones tended to be 80s or 90s rnb when the singer would stop singing and he would try and go all sexy talk, stuff like 'I just wanna be with you tonight. can't wait to hold you' etc cringe... one of the worst and THE WORST was R Kelly, worse than cringe now.

I am trying to think of particular examples but it just all merges into US radio sludge in my head.

[Milliways]

First one that comes to mind is the song that kicked off the 2000s

“The country was founded on the principle that the primary role of government is to protect property from the majority. And, so it remains….”

[SheriffFatman]

There was a terrible bit in End Of The Road by Boyz II Men, which is mad because the whole track is terrible but this bit was even worse than the rest. They performed it on Top of the Pops and it was painful, but I think they edited it out of the radio version and the 7" release because they knew it would just be too much for a UK audience to take.

[Earl Purple]

Apart from Motownphilly I didn't like any songs by Boyz II Men.

Sheriff Fatman itself (by Carter USM) has spoken parts, of course, and I thought you were going to comment on those.