Sometimes, whatever stream-of-consciousness nonsense a musician comes up with during the composition period of a song ends up making it to the final cut. Or, those original, bizarre lyrics become famous anyway, despite not making it to the final track. Those are the cases for the following legendary rock songs. Each of them feature some very famous lyrics that were originally just supposed to be placeholders. Let’s take a look!
Videos by American Songwriter
“Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers (1971)
“I know, I know, I know…”
This famous folk rock R&B tune from Bill Withers famously features a bridge with the words “I know” repeated a whopping 26 times. According to Withers, that was meant to just be a placeholder for better lyrics. However, other musicians who listened to the early cut of the song convinced him to keep the bridge as-is, as it was pretty effective filler. They were right. “Ain’t No Sunshine” ended up becoming a No. 3 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
Songfacts: Ain’t No Sunshine | Bill Withers
The part where Withers repeats “I know, I know,” has become a very recognizable piece of the song, but it wasn’t what he had in mind. Withers told Songfacts: “I wasn’t going to do that, then Booker T. said, ‘No, leave it like that.’ I was going to write something there, but there was a general consensus in the studio. It was an interesting thing because I’ve got all these guys that were already established, and I was working in the factory at the time. Graham Nash was sitting right in front of me, just offering his support. Stephen Stills was playing and there was Booker T. and Al Jackson and Donald Dunn – all of the MGs except Steve Cropper. They were all these people with all this experience and all these reputations, and I was this factory worker just sort of puttering around. So when their general feeling was, ‘Leave it like that,’ I left it like that.” When Songfacts asked Graham Nash about this interaction, he remembered it well. “I was in the studio where we cut the first CSN record – it’s on the corner of Selma and Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles,” he said. “I was taking a break, probably smoking a joint outside, and I heard this music coming from one of the other studios. I was curious, and I walked in. And there was this African American with a guitar, sitting on a chair, with his foot on a box. That was the rhythm he was creating. He finished the song, and I said, ‘Who are you, man? That’s a fantastic song! What’s going on in your life?’ And he says, ‘Well, I’m kind of giving up. I can’t seem to break through. Nobody seems interested. Maybe I’ll just give up.’ And I said, ‘Wait a second. I don’t know who the f–k you are, but you cannot give up. What you have is an incredible gift. You should recognize that and get on with it.’ And he loved that.”
“Yesterday” by The Beatles (1965)
“Scrambled eggs / Oh my baby how I love your legs / Not as much as I love scrambled eggs.”
Paul McCartney came up with “Yesterday” in a flurry. And the song was originally titled “Scrambled Eggs”, as confirmed by Barry Miles’ Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. As he worked on the composition and melody, he used the above-mentioned line for a while before writing the final words of the song. Naturally, the “scrambled eggs” bit didn’t make it into the final song, which ended up becoming one of the greatest love songs of all time. But that line has become famous enough despite never making it to the final cut. That’s probably because it sounds so silly.
“Sussudio” by Phil Collins (1985)
“Su-sussudio / Just say the word, oh, su-sussudio.”
This funk-rock jam from Phil Collins can be found on the album No Jacket Required. And, according to Collins himself, the lyrics were totally improvised and meant to be placeholders. However, when he went back to try and find lyrical replacements, he just couldn’t find anything better.
“So I kinda knew I had to find something else for that word, then I went back and tried to find another word that scanned as well as ‘sussudio,’ and I couldn’t find one, so I went back to ‘sussudio,’” said Collins.
Photo by Bob King/Redferns
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