Percussive-rattle-type-thing

A list of songs featuring the strange ball-on-a-springy-stick that is the vibraslap.

Now available as a Spotify collaborative playlist - so you can enjoy spotting those vibraslap deployment moments.

Learn to play one here on
YouTube.

• 5000 Volts - Dr Kiss Kiss (YouTube). Quick twang wherever there is a suitable gap.
  
• Lily Allen - LDN
  
• Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper (only once, in the middle eight)
  
• Carpenters - This Masquerade
  
• The Clash - Revolution Rock (very subtle)
  
• The Clash - Last Gang In Town. Quiet one near beginning.
  
• Cheap Trick - The Ballad of TV Violence
  
• Lou Christie - I'm Gonna Make You Mine (YouTube)
  
• Gabriella Cilmi - Nothing Sweet About Me
  
• Culture - Stop The Fussing and Fighting. Extensive use in the intro
  
• David Essex - Oh What A Circus (tons)
  
• Dana - All Kinds of Everything
  
• Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno. A big one in the middle, and some other more subtle ones.
  
• E.L.O. - Jungle
  
• Gloria Gaynor - Never Can Say Goodbye
  
• The Guillemots - Through The Windowpane (faint)
  
• Billy Idol - Eyes Without A Face (lots, but mixed well back)
  
• Kaiser Chiefs - What Did I Ever Give You
  
• Kenny - Heart of Stone
• Joan as Police Woman - Shame
  
• John Kongos - Tokoloshe Man (overdone)
  
• Bob Marley - Satisfy My Soul (lots)
  
• Sugar Minott - Good Thing Going
  
• Walter Murphy - A Fifth of Beethoven
  
• Mylo - Otto's Journey
  
• New Seekers - Neverending Song of Love
  
• Noah and The Whale - Five Years' Time (plenty, mostly in the chorus, starting about 1:45 in)
  
• Billy Ocean - Red Light Spells Danger
  
• Odyssey - Inside Out
  
• Santana - She's Not There
  
• Stereophonics - I Miss You Now
• Paul Weller - Empty Ring. Right at the beginning, and several times throughout.
  
• The Raconteurs - The Switch & The Spur. Two big ones that serve as parentheses for the middle section.
  
• R.E.M. - Orange Crush
  
• Roxy Music - The Space Between
  
• The Zutons - Harder & Harder (near the end)

Points will not be given for copying from the list at Wikipedia

Pop Quiz time

This isn't a list, it's more of a quiz. Listen to the intro, and name the song and artist. Email the answers to ian (dot) hall (at) oup (dot) com, rather than posting them in the comments, as that will spoil everyone's fun. I'm hoping you will find some quite challenging.

1. Number 1
   
2. Number 2
   
3. Number 3
   
4. Number 4
   
5. Number 5
   
6. Number 6
   
7. Number 7
   
8. Number 8
   
9. Number 9
   
10. Number 10
    
11. Number 11
    
12. Number 12
    
13. Number 13
    
14. Number 14
    
15. Number 15
    
16. Number 16
    
17. Number 17
    
18. Number 18
    
19. Number 19
    
20. Number 20
    

If it helps, they were all singles released in the same year.

Brrrrr, Brrrrr.... Brrrr, Brrrrr

Songs where the central theme is phones or the use thereof. Peripheral mentions of ringing someone up don't count.

• 5.7.0.5. - City Boy. But there's no reply.
  
• 634-5789 - Wilson Pickett, the Blues Brothers, Bon Jovi and (best of all, says Chris) Ry Cooder.
  
• Babe - Take That.
  
• Beechwood 4-5789 - The Marvelettes. You can call me up and have a date any old time - very obliging.
  
• Call Me - Blondie. Appelle-moi, mon cherie.
  
• Donna - 10 CC. Scores extra points for phone sound effects.
  
• Hanging On The Telephone - Blondie.
  
• Hello, This Is Joanie (The Telephone Answering Machine Song) - Paul Evans. Joanie just died in a car crash, but hey, at least we can still hear her voice on the answering machine.
  
• I Just Called To Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder. Free key change with every chorus.
  
• Is Vic There? - Department S
  
• Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - In Deep.
  
• Love It When You Call - The Feeling.
  
• Memphis, Tennessee - Chuck Berry. Long distance information, give me Memphis Tennessee.
  
• Midnight Moonlight - The Be Good Tanyas.
  "If you ever get lonesome / and you're down in San Antone / just beg, steal or borrow / two nickels or a dime / and call me on the phone."
  
• Name And Number - Curiosity Killed The Cat
  
• Nobody Home - Pink Floyd.
  
• One Of The Boys - Mott The Hoople. Can't find the recording now, and the lyrics give nothing away, but I'm pretty sure this has something to do with phones.
  
• Pennsylvania 65000 - Glenn Miller Band
  
• Private Number - Judy Clay & William Bell. And several other songs of the same name.
  
• Red Frame White Light - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. About an old-fashioned UK phone box.
  
• Ring Ring - Abba. "The happiest sound of them all." Not in our house.
  
• Ring Ring - Mika. "Is that you on the phone? / You think you're clever / But you're never saying nothing at all."
  
• Sylvia's Mother - Dr Hook. And the operator said "40 cents more for the next three minutes..."
  
• Talk To Me Baby - The Blues Band.
  
• Telephone - Diana Ross
  
• Telephone - Lady Gaga feat. Beyoncé
  
• Telephone Call from Istanbul - Tom Waits
  
• Telephone Line - E.L.O. Let it ring for evermore.
  
• Telephone Man - Meri Wilson. She got it in the kitchen, she got it in the hall...
  
• Wanna See Your Telephone Bill - Telephone Bill and the Smooth Operators.
  

Stuttering and stammering

A list of songs involving repetitions of a consonant or vowel before being passing onto the following sound. That's stuttering to you and me.

• 19 - Paul Hardcastle. N-n-n-n-nineteen. S-s-s-s-Saigon. Only allowing one example of this kind of sampling.
  
• Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman Turner Overdrive. B-b-b-baby.
  
• Bad to the Bone - George Thorogood & The Destroyers. B-B-B-B-Bad to the bone.
  
• Bennie & The Jets - Elton John. B-b-b-Bennie & The Jets.
  
• Boogie Woogie/Rock 'n' Roll - Komeda. There's a p-p-p-...lots of this...-p-p-party going on.
  
• Boom! Shake the Room - DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. The f-f-f-f-fresh p-p-p-prince is who I am / so tell my mother that I never wrote a whack jam / but some times I get n-nervous and start to stutter / and I f-fumble every word for word I utter / so I just try to ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chill / but it gets worse-a but worse-a but-but-but worse still / I need the c-c-c-crowd to k-k-k-kick it to me.
  
• Changes - David Bowie. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.
  
• Check It Out - Beastie Boys. Check-ch-check-check-check-ch-check it out / What-wha-what-what-what's it all about / Work-wa-work-work-work-wa-work it out /
  Let's turn this motherfuckin' party out.
  
• Checkin' It Out - Lil Chris. Ch-ch-ch-checking it out!!! t-t-taking my chances,
  
• Chuck E's in Love - Rickie Lee Jones. He gonna s-stutter when he talks.
  
• Doctor Doctor - UFO. N-nervous boy.
  
• Dr Beat - Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine. Doc-doc-doc-doc Doctor Beat.
  
• I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor - The Arctic Monkeys. And lighting the fuse might result in a bang. B-b-bang. Go!
  
• John Wayne is Big Leggy - Hayzee Fantazee. J-j-j-j-j-j-John Wayne.
  
• Julie Anne - Kenny. "Ju-Ju-Ju-Ju-Ju-Ju-Ju-Ju-Julie Anne like a fool
  I ran away ran ran ran ran away." I'm almost ashamed to have remembered that one.
  
• L-L-L-Lucy - Mud.
  
• Mary of the Fourth Form - Boomtown Rats. M-m-m-m-m-m-Mary!
  
• My Generation - The Who. Why don't you all f-f-f-fade away?
  
• My Sharona - The Knack. M-m-m-my Sharona!
  
• Never Be Lonely - The Feeling. B-b-b-baby! I think I'm going c-c-c-crazy.
  (YouTube)
  
• Push It - Salt 'N Pepa. Ahh, push it / Push it good / Ahh, push it/ P-Push it real good.
  
• Respect - Aretha Franklin. Re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-spect.
  
• Saturday Night - Kaiser Chiefs. P-p-p-party. P-p-p-pneumothorax. Etc.
  
• S-s-s-single Bed - Fox
  
• Sussudio - Phil Collins. Su-su-sussudio.
  
• Stutter Rap - Morris Minor and The Majors. Funny how that rhymes with "utter crap".
  
• Tick - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. T-t-t-time, you take it.
  
• Welcome to the Jungle - Guns 'n' Roses. Watch it bring you to your shun n,n,n,n,n,n,n,n,n,n,n,n knees, knees.
  
• White Lines (Don't Do It) - Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel. Yeah man th-that’s that’s raw, wuh.
  
  

And don't forget the Joker

Lemmy's passionate defence of gambling has once again come to my ears, and prompted me to start a list of songs mentioning cards of the playing variety.

• The Ace of Spades - Motorhead
  
• The Queen of Spades - Styx, also in Shape of My Heart - Sting.
  
• The Queen of Hearts - Dave Edmunds, and in Desperado - The Eagles.
  
• The Queen of Diamonds, in Desperado - The Eagles. Also a track by Chiodos.
  
• The Queen of Clubs - KC and The Sunshine Band. Cheating, this one.
  
• Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts - Bob Dylan
  
• The Jack of Diamonds, in Shape of My Heart - Sting.
  
• Jack O'Diamonds - Odetta.
  
• She's Got The Jack - AC/DC. I think they may mean that metaphorically.
  
• From a Jack to a King - Ned Miller
  
• Deck of Cards - T. Texas Tyler and many others. And a special mention for Max Boyce for his Welsh Rugby Union Rulebook version.
  

Elvis lives on... through the medium of song

Scouting For Girls prompted me to kick off a list of songs that mention or allude to Elvis, e.g.

• Scouting For Girls - Elvis Ain't Dead (Coz I Heard Him On The Radio)
  
• Kirsty McColl - There's A Guy Works Down The Chipshop Swears He's Elvis
  
• Kate Bush - King Of The Mountain
  
• Thin Lizzy - a track off Black Rose (have to find out which one) has "The King is dead. The King of Rock 'n' Roll is dead" in the fade out.
  
• Cher, Marc Cohn - Walking in Memphis
  
• Paul Simon - Graceland
  
• Colorblind James Experience - I'm Considering A Move To Memphis
  
• Elvis is Dead - Peter & The Test Tube Babies (YouTube)
  

but when I looked into it,
someone had done it already, and quite comprehensively.

You ain't nothing but a dead dog

Songs paying tribute, or even just casually mentioning, dead dogs.

• Old Shep - Elvis Presley. In which Old Shep gets old and has to be executed, despite saving Elvis's life. There's gratitude.
  
• Bellman - The Watersons. He's gone where the good doggies go.
  
• Swarthfell Rocks - The Watersons. Poor Lilter! "A finer little hound never ran above the ground/He was the bonniest little hound in the number." But alas he bought it in a hunt around Ullswater. Foxes 1, Hounds 1.
  
• Old Tige - Jim Reeves. In which faithful Old Tige guides his owner through the mist to safety, despite having been dead for three years. Spooky!
  
• Old Blue - many artists, including Joan Baez and The Byrds. "When old Blue died he died so hard/He shook the ground in my back yard". That's one big dog.
  
• 12 Dog Blues - Seasick Steve. In which Trixie has 12 pups, then goes missing, presumed dead.
  
• It's All Good - Seasick Steve. In which Boss the hound is no longer around. "I used to sit at home and play for my dog, but he's dead now..."
  
• Dogsongs 1 and 2 - The Be Good Tanyas.
  
• Dead Dog Song - Okkervil River
  

Honourable mention to Bedd Gelert (has anyone recorded this?) - in which poor old faithful hound Gelert is wrongly accused of infanticide and skewered by his master Llewellyn, when in fact he was saving the bairn from a ravenous wolf. That's what happens when you jump to conclusions.

How are you spelling that?

Songs where a word is spelled out for the benefit of the listener, or perhaps just because the songwriter needed to fill up an awkward gap.

• 'A' Bomb in Wardour Street - The Jam: A.P.O.C.A.L.Y.P.S.E. apocalypse!
• A.B.C. - The Jackson Five. Technically they're not really spelling out a word.
• B.A.B.Y. - Rachel Sweet
• D.I.S.C.O. - Ottowan
• D.I.V.O.R.C.E. - Tammy Wynette, Billy Connolly
• D.O.A. - The Foo Fighters
• Don't You Love Me No More? by Henry Priestman - R.E. D.U.N. D. A. N. T. spells "misery". Not sure he's got that quite right, but heck, great song.
  (YouTube)
• Feeling Called Love - Pulp. F.E.E.L.I.N.G. C.A. Double L.E.D. L.O.V.E.
• Fire in Cairo - The Cure. F.I.R.E.I.N.C.A.I.R.O.
• Give Him A Great Big Kiss - The Shangri Las. When I say I'm in love you best believe I'm in love L.U.V. (Also quoted by the New York Dolls in the intro to Looking For A Kiss.)
• Gloria - Van Morrison. G.L.O.R.I.A.
• H.A.P.P.Y. Radio - Edwin Starr. Station H.A. (H.A.) P.P.Y.
• H.O.A.R. - Bo Burnham. With a capital H-O-A-R / Ignorance is bliss / Who needs feminism / With an ass like this.
• Legal Man - Belle & Sebastian. L.O.V.E. love is coming back.
• L.O.V.E. - Nat King Cole, Joss Stone. L is for the way you look at me /
  O is for the only one I see /
  V is very, very extraordinary /
  E is even more than anyone that you adore can.
• L.O.V.E. - Al Green
• M.E.T.H.O.D. Man - Method Man (also a contendor the eponymous records list I haven't posted yet) (YouTube)
• Pinhead - The Ramones. D.U.M.B. everyone's accusing me.
• P.R.E.T.T.Y.G.R.E.E.N. - in Pretty Green covered by Mark Ronson feat. Santo Gold
• P.U.N.K. Girl - Heavenly (YouTube)
• R.A.M.O.N.E.S. - The Ramones
• Respect - Aretha Franklin: R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
• R.O.C.K. - Bill Haley
• R.O.C.K. in the USA - John Cougar Mellencamp
• Rollin' - Limp Biskit. L.I.M.P. Biskit is right here.
• Venice Queen - Red Hot Chilli Peppers. G.L.O.R.I.A. Is love my friend
• Y.M.C.A. - The Village People
• Yvonne - The Saw Doctors. Y.V. O.N.N.E. Yvonne.

Stuff 'n' that

Inspired by watching a band called Free 'n' Easy, while eating fish 'n' chips with liberal application of salt 'n' vinegar, I felt it was time for a list of bands with 'n' in their name.

• Guns 'n' Roses. Controversial. Appetite for Destruction's original cover has Guns N' Roses, while its replacement has two blobs that might be meant to be apostrophes, one either side of the N. The general consensus seems to be Guns N' Roses.
  
• Salt 'n' Pepa. Controversial. Wikipedia has them down as Salt-n-Pepa, which would rule them out for this list; their album Hot, Cool & Vicious has Salt 'n Pepa on the cover, Very Necessary has Salt 'n' Pepa. What is a pedant to do?
  
• Sniff 'n' The Tears (Wikipedia - sad to read that they failed to get Driver's Seat into the UK Top 40 because of a problem at the pressing plant)
  
• Kid 'N Play. Ruled out for only ever using one apostrophe on their covers. And for favouring a capital N.
• Steve 'n' Seagulls. From Finland!

Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

Again, either real or imaginary sisters are allowed.

• The Andrews Sisters
  
• The Bangles
  
• The Beverley Sisters
  
• B*Witched - Edele and Keavy Lynch
  
• The Boswell Sisters (LastFm)
  
• Breeders - Kim and Kelley Deal
  
• Brothers and Sisters
  
• The Cheeky Girls
  
• CocoRosie - Sierra Rose Casady ("Rosie") and Bianca Leilani Casady ("Coco")
  
• The Corrs
  
• The Darby Sisters (LastFm)
  
• The Dezurik Sisters (If you like yodelling...)
  
• The Ennis Sisters (LastFm)
  
• The Jackson Sisters (LastFm)
  
• The Lewis Sisters (LastFm)
  
• Kate & Anna McGarrigle
  
• Mary Mary - Erica Monique Atkins and Trecina "Tina" Evette Atkins
  
• The Miller Sisters (LastFm)
  
• The Nolans
  
• On! Air! Library! - twins Claudia and Alley Deheza
  
• The Paris Sisters (LastFm)
  
• The Peasall Sisters (MySpace)
  
• The Pointer Sisters
  
• The Puppini Sisters
  
• The Rogers Sisters
  
• School of Seven Bells - twins Claudia and Alley Deheza
  
• The Scissor Sisters
  
• Shakespeare's Sister
  
• SHeDAISY: Kassidy, Kelsi, and Kristyn Osborn
  
• Silly Sisters (Fine Horseman on LastFm) - Maddy Prior & June Tabor, not really sisters.
  
• Sister Sledge
  
• Sisters of Mercy
  
• The Soul Sisters (LastFm)
  
• Twisted Sister
  
• Rachel Unthank and the Winterset - Rachel and sister Becky
  
• Voice Of The Beehive - formed in London in 1986 by Californian sisters Tracey Bryn and Melissa Brooke Belland
  
• The Watson Twins - identical twin sisters named Chandra and Leigh Watson