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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.*
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.
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.