NYT playlist collects 10 pop songs built on nonsense lyrics

The New York Times Amplifier newsletter compiled a playlist of 10 pop songs whose titles or choruses are deliberate nonsense, ranging from Phil Collins’s “Sussudio” and the Police’s “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” to the Beatles’ “Ob‑La‑Di, Ob‑La‑Da” and Adriano Celentano’s “Prisencolinensinainciusol.” The newsletter notes examples and origins cited by artists and biographers: Sting said in a 1993 Q interview that he was “intrigued with why songs like that worked” and that “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” was “an articulate song about being inarticulate.” Phil Collins told VH1’s Storytellers in 1997 that “Sussudio” was a nonsensical word that popped out while improvising and that he kept it because he could not find another word that scanned as well.

Key Topics

Culture, Nonsense Songs, The Amplifier, Lindsay Zoladz, Phil Collins, The Police