That chorus you sang
along to? It was a verse
answering itself.
Cohen's *Hallelujah*, Kanye's *Jesus Walks*, Madonna's *Like a Prayer*, The Melodians' *Rivers of Babylon* — eight of the most-sung songs in modern memory all rest on a single verse. Sometimes the title quotes it. Sometimes the lyric merely imitates it. Sometimes the chorus is the other half of a Psalm.
U2 left the stage one by one. The crowd kept singing — which is what a psalm is for.
The band leaves the stage one by one. The crowd keeps singing. Psalm 40 was always written for the voices that continue after the singer stops.
Coolio quoted half of David's verse. The half he kept is the half about fear.
The opening line of *Gangsta's Paradise* is the opening of Psalm 23:4. The song stops there. The verse continues — and the continuation is what the song is missing.
Drake titled the song after a phrase older than him. Jeremiah wrote it first — I know the plans I have for you.
*God's plan* is Drake's title and one of the most-quoted Old Testament half-verses in modern English. The original recipients were not graduates. They were people in chains.
The song asks Jesus to walk with him. The verse opened the door first — come unto me, all ye that labour.
Kanye expected the song to be banned from radio for saying *Jesus*. It went the opposite direction. The verse beneath it had the same problem and the same outcome — an invitation broader than its handlers wanted.
Seeger borrowed almost every word. The verse already had the rhythm of the song.
Seeger added almost nothing — *turn, turn, turn* and one closing line about peace. Everything else was Ecclesiastes 3, written roughly twenty-five centuries before the Vietnam draft.
Cohen sang the broken hallelujah. David wrote the verse — a broken heart God does not despise.
*The broken hallelujah*, Cohen sang. Psalm 51 names the same posture — a broken and contrite heart, the only sacrifice the verse says God will not despise.
The Melodians sang the exile. The verse wrote it first — by the rivers of Babylon, we wept.
*By the rivers of Babylon, where we sat down, there we wept when we remembered Zion.* The Melodians and Boney M kept the verse almost whole — they only removed the verb that hurt most.
Madonna sang as if calling the name. The Psalter wrote it first — I have called upon thee.
*Just like a prayer*, Madonna sang — naming the form without insisting on the faith. The verse behind it is shorter and older — *I have called upon thee.*
Sam Smith borrowed the idiom. The verse first wrote it — fingers, plaster, a king's hall.
*The writing's on the wall* is one of the oldest English idioms still in use. Daniel 5:5 is where it came from — fingers, plaster, a king who could not read what they wrote.