Snapshots #410: Songs Without Words In The Title

I thought about calling this collection: Songs With Nonsense titles. But some of them aren't strictly nonsense, they're just not words you'd find in the dictionary. (Watches all the pedants run to find their dictionaries.) Call them what you want, here are fifteen songs with no actual words in their titles...

15. Adrian - SOS! What a kerfuffle.

"Adrian - SOS" was an anagram.

Diana Ross - DoobeDood'nDoobe, DoobeDood'nDoobe, DoobeDood'nDoo

14. Come in, Spanish lads.

"Venga" means "come" in Spanish.

The Vengaboys - Shalala Lala

And if you recognised the Vengaboys from the photo, hang your head in shame. Until yesterday. I thought they were all boys!

13. Office David climbs Ronnie.

David Brent was in The Office. If he climbed Ronnie Wood, he'd be...

Brenton Wood - The Oogum Boogum Song

12. Like Beck, almost.

Beck's surname is Hansen.

Hanson - Mmmbop

Look - they grew up!

11. Sorry, Bono I... no, I can't complete that sentence.

"Sorry, Bono I" was an anagram. I have nothing to apologise to Bono for.

Roy Orbison - Ooby Dooby

I like his backing band in that video.

10. Senior officer required to take care of this boil.

A Major is a senior officer. You lance a boil, but only under medical supervision.

Major Lance - Um Um Um Um Um

9. Tony Stark: lepidopterist.

Tony Stark is Iron Man. A lepidopterist collects butterflies.

Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Why couldn't they have just called it In The Garden Of Eden?

8. Asking for them is an insult to the chef.

Salt-N-Pepa - Shoop

7. Primal Scream headspinner.

Bobby Gillespie is in Primal Scream.

Dizzy Gillespie - Ooh Bop Sh’bam

6. High Street Chemist rebrands itself as discotheque.

Extra marks if you recognised these guys, with a song that shares a title with the one above... but not much else.

Boots For Dancing - Ooh Bop Sh'Bam

5. Raunchy paperbacks.

Black Lace - Agadoo

I had to get Black Lace in here one day. The fact that they appear on the same weekend as the Vengaboys... well, clearly I have no shame.

18 million youtube views can be wrong!

4. Sheeran's market stall.

Ed Sells!

The Edsels - Rama Lama Ding Dong

3. A can of beans or... some Nescafé and ice.

In the REM song The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, Michael Stipe sings, "A can of beans or black-eyed peas, some Nescafé and ice." But you knew that.

Black Eyed Peas - Dum Diddly

2. In the beginning, he had a kit.

In Genesis, he has a drum kit.

Phil Collins - Sussudio

Phil Collins revealed that "Sussudio" was just some nonsense he made up.

To which we replied, "So's the rest of your back catalogue, Phil!"

1. Bilinguals revolt when they hear his name.

"Bilinguals revolt" was an anagram.

Gilbert O'Sullivan - Ooh Wakka Doo Wakka Day

Ooga shaka ooga shaka ooga shaka back in here next Saturday for more shoobedebopbopbop.

The Glorious 10th: My Top Ten Gimme... Songs

I'm putting The Glorious 10th on hold for a while as it's become a bit of a chore. I'm enjoying Saturday Snapshots a lot more and that's kind of made The Glorious 10th superfluous. Apologies if you enjoyed it, but the second something on your blog becomes like work, you're better off retiring it or you'll just end up resenting the whole blog. I may bring it back next year in a slightly different way (that takes less adding up). We'll see.

Anyway, here's the answers to last month's Gimme... Top Ten. You can add up your own points if you want... that was starting to give me palpitations.


10. Iggy & The Stooges - Gimme Danger

The Swede bagged this one. Classic Iggy.

9. Violent Femmes - Gimme The Car

Martin was first out of the traps this month... and he was the only one to suggest this.

8. Abba - Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)

Most of you knew this would be a definite contender. Martin got it first by default.

7. The Subs - Gimme Your Heart

Really surprised that nobody got this, a lost power-punk gem from Stiff Records. Not to be confused with The UK Subs. This was their only single, but it was a belter.

6. Laptop - Gimme The Night

Less surprising that this one wasn't guessed, but I was very into Jesse Hartman's music 15-20 years ago, and I had hoped one of you guys might have remembered him too.

5. Queen - Gimme The Prize

Another one I'm hardly flabbergasted nobody got since the handful of you who'll admit to Queen fans promptly draw the line once the band enter the 80s. A Kind of Magic was my first Queen album though and I loved it to death - still do. This is one of many tracks from that album taken from the soundtrack of Highlander. Brian May's fireplace guitar is burning up here and how anyone can resist Freddie singing about being "the god of Kingdom Come", I'll never know.

4. Brenton Wood - Gimme Little Sign

Back to the ones you did get - well done to Lynchie & C for remembering this lost soul gem.

3. ZZ Top - Gimme All Your Lovin'

Onto the obvious ones, then. I love ZZ Top, and most of you seemed to agree that this should be in there - Walter even guessed its #3 position on my chart!

The video is a masterpiece of 80s cheese.

2. The Spencer Davis Group - Gimme Some Lovin'

Steve Winwood was still in nappies when he recorded this one. Both Jez and Walter thought it should have been Number One. They may well be right,

1. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter

Lynchie called this one. End of the world desperation writ large. The Stones were rarely so powerful or scary.

Extra point to Jez for namechecking Merry Clayton.



Don't worry, Saturday Snapshots will continue... tomorrow!