
DreamsTime
"Jessie's Girl," "Hot Blooded" and More - 5 of the Most Awkward Rhymes in Music History
By: Joe Hyer
Today we’re celebrating World Poetry Day. Sure, we could celebrate by writing something profound or by sharing the works of great poets like Shakespeare or Robert Frost.... but, alas, we aren't going to do either. We wanted to take a different route.
We’re celebrating by looking at some of the worst poetry, if you can even call it that, in music history. Now, we’re not faulting the artists or the songwriters here. Sometimes you’re in a creative pinch and need to get the song done, we get that. But these are some of our favorite affronts to the English language.
This one is just… rough. Love the song, but the lyrics actually rhyme “company” with “Serengeti.”
The lyrics are:
The wild dogs cry out in the night,
As they grow restless, longing for some solitary company.
I know that I must do what's right,
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti.
You can listen to this song here:
The word "book" in this song's chorus really bothers A LOT of people. Really, though, who knew the word “book” could kill a song so easily? These lyrics worked out perfectly until Paula Abdul went ahead and said “book,” right?
The lyric that frustrates so many:
Are you more than hot for me
Or am I a page in your history-book
Listen for yourself (the lyric comes up around 2:44 into the video):
This use of the word "moot" is a little strange, right? Legendary song, but "certainly no one has ever deployed the word 'moot' with as much pathos as Rick Springfield (did)," Billboard.com says.
We're talking about this line:
You know I feel so dirty when they start talking cute
I wanna tell her that I love her but the point is probably moot
Check it out:
“Hot Blooded” by Foreigner
These lyrics could win the award for tackiest rhyme, in our opinion. It works from a grammatical standpoint, but it's just a little weird. It just feels wrong using a temperature to complete a rhyme, or wait, is that just the genius of the song? Maybe we're crazy.
These are the lyrics:
That’s why I’m hot blooded, check it and see,
I got a fever of a hundred and three
You decide:
"You're So Vain" by Carly Simon
This song is a true classic, but the lyrics try to rhyme yacht and apricot? That makes for a pretty rough-rhyming couplet.
These are the exact lyrics:
You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf it was apricot
Check it out here:
Which songs did we leave out? Tell us on our Facebook page.