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12 Songs That Always Had Us Checking The Album Insert For The Lyrics

By Matt |

Chris Rock once had a saying; "If the beat's alright, she will dance all night." There's a lot of truth to that statement, and there's plenty of proof to be found in songs where, for whatever reason, we can't understand what the artist is singing about.

In the case of these 10 massive hit songs, we've loved them for years and instantly remember them, but probably couldn't tell you what the person was actually saying.

Sean Paul - "Like Glue"

Sean Paul could have the most profound lyrics in the history of music for all I can tell, but I'll be damned if I'll ever know.

R.E.M. - "It's The End of The World"

Don't lie, the only part of this song you know is the chorus.

Missy Elliott - "Work It"

Most of the song isn't actually that hard to remember, but the parts where her vocals are reversed are damn near impossible to understand without listening really carefully.

Eiffel 65 - "Blue (Da Ba Dee)"

We had no idea what this song was about back then, and we still don't now.

Snow - "Informer"

A white kid from Toronto (with a surprising amount of street cred) took on rap-reggae, and while it's catchy as hell, there is NO way you had any idea what Snow was talking about.

Some of these next songs are freaking incomprehensible...

Michael Jackson - "Smooth Criminal"

MJ had a real knack for throwing in some quick lyrics that we all struggled to understand, and Smooth Criminal is definitely the peak of that.

Ol' Dirty Bastard - "Shimmy Shimmy Ya"

ODB was a hell of a lyricist, but sometimes it was absolutely impossible to understand him.

The Cranberries - "Zombie"

Barenaked Ladies - "One Week"

One of the catchiest rock songs of all time is also one of the absolute hardest to understand, but that doesn't stop us from trying to sing along.

Talking Heads - "Burning Down The House"

I gave up on this one a long time ago. What even is this?

Lou Bega - "Mambo No. 5"

Yeah, I still remember the chorus word for word too, but past that, nobody understood what the hell Lou Bega was getting at.

The Kingsmen - "Louie, Louie"

The original, the classic, the complete nonsense. Love it.

What song could you absolutely not understand?

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