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Does anyone here have a list of songs that were HITS despite the fact they didn't have great hooks? Songs where the chorus or the hook didn't stand out that much, but the song was still great and went on to top the charts?

A ton of songs by Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, lots of folk stuff that is AAA.

Not very good or current, but the best I can do at the moment. Some of them may be debatable.San Antonio Rose.Kansas CitySix Days On The Road.Anytime. (Eddie Arnold)Are You Lonesome Tonight.Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain.Black Magic WomanCrying TimeDeep River BluesFolsom Prison BluesHeartbreak HotelHouse Of The Rising SunI'm So Lonesome I could CryMade In JapanMemphis, TennesseeMorning Has BrokenScarborough Fair

I think the key to this discussion is "that were hits"...Assuming when you use the word "hit" you mean in a commercial sense...Unfortunately to be a hit these days you almost always need some sort of a lyrical hook... alot of the songs above may have musical or theme hooks... but they don't seem to be flavour of the month right now.Just as well Dylan was cutting his teeth in the current climate... would he still have broken through?Who knows... I don't even know if this was the point of the original post... I've had three cups of strong coffee and had the urge to type!

Quote:I think the key to this discussion is "that were hits"...Assuming when you use the word "hit" you mean in a commercial sense...Unfortunately to be a hit these days you almost always need some sort of a lyrical hook... alot of the songs above may have musical or theme hooks... but they don't seem to be flavour of the month right now.Just as well Dylan was cutting his teeth in the current climate... would he still have broken through?Who knows... I don't even know if this was the point of the original post... I've had three cups of strong coffee and had the urge to type! I think you do have a fair point though....we live in a society with short attention spans now, and some of the songs that I grew up with, 'thinking or story songs with no hooks' might not succeed these days.Although, maybe the 'thinking or story type' type songs just aren't getting commercial radio play....they would in the past, but they don't get it now.Being older, I'm not familiar with some of the newer groups out there which have a following, the groups you never hear on VH1 or MTV. They may be getting radio play elsewhere on local college stations, so maybe they are getting some recognition. One thing I dislike about commercial radio play today is that it is so specialized....yeah, there have always been genre specific stations, but when I was younger, a lot of songs crossed over.....radio stations tended to play good songs without worrying if it fit a certain format. So, you could tune into anything from Southern rock to Led Zep to disco (which I thought sucked back then, hehe) to a country crossover hit, to Steely Dan which was jazz based. And some of those songs weren't 'hooky.'Also, good list Ed and Horace, although I'd have to say that some of Horace's songs are on the hairy edge of having 'great hooks.' I just thought of a great song which had no great hook.......that was the song, "Taxi" by Harry Chapin. Would a song like that be a hit today? It was one of those fantastic story telling songs with beautiful music and emotional appeal, but it might not succeed in today's market.

Quote: I think you do have a fair point though....we live in a society with short attention spans now what was it you were saying...?

Interesting post. Seems all the songs mentioned are pretty old. Does anyone have any examples of newer songs, after 2000, that were radio hits without killer chorus'?Dean

after 2000? That would be asking me to have paid attention to music over the last 7 years, I'm still reeling from all the great music I've been listening to, and I think I've made it as far as 1993 so far.So i'm trying to catch up, growing up inthe 70's really skews your interest in music.

Hey Chits, how about 'Superman(It's Not Easy)' by Five for Fighting? Elser

"Beautiful" Christine Aguilera? This brings up 'what constitutes a hook'?