Great/classic songs that don't have a middle eight/bridge

Haych

I have to confess that when writing I get hung up on the bridge.

I can usually come up with some good riffs/hooks/progressions for the verse and chorus parts but when it comes to the bridge I'm usually stuffed.

While having a bridge can bring the song almost to a climax, drive the point home or lead into that epic solo it's also not necessary and putting one in for the sake of just having a middle eight is rather arbitrary if it serves no purpose to the song.

It occurred to me a while ago that some of the greatest and most loved songs ever written don't have a middle eight.  Heck, some don't even have a progression deviation in the chorus (hmm, some song about a southern state of the US springs to mind).

So, in the interests of inspiration please list a few songs you like that don't have a bridge?

TIA

pigface

An example is one of my favourite songs, 'Johnny and Mary' by Robert Palmer.

Danny1969

A lot of songs with repeating chord sequences don't tend to have a proper bridge, songs like With or Without you, Sex on Fire, Get Lucky etc. 

Stuckfast

Wichita Lineman!

Quite a few Beatles songs, eg Help, Norwegian Wood, Nowhere Man, Lady Madonna, Revolution, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds...

Haych

That makes me feel a whole lot better. If the biggest band ever gets away with it then it’ll work for me too  

Nitefly

Haych said:

That makes me feel a whole lot better. If the biggest band ever gets away with it then it’ll work for me too  

"Feel a Whole Lot Better" by The Byrds (or Tom Petty) is  a great song without a bridge   

Danny1969

I was thinking about this and was suddenly struck by the thought that Folsom prison blues not only contains no bridge but also no chorus !! it's basically just 3 verses and 2 solos. 
Just goes to prove, there's no rules in music 

Jaycee

Olivers Army ...... Elvis Costello

pigface

Jaycee said:

Olivers Army ...... Elvis Costello

Not sure about that one. What would you call the section beginning with "Hong Kong is up for grabs"?

pintspiller

I always liked a middle eight section in a song. In the last originals band i was in (20+ years ago), the guitarist said, "If we'd stop adding bridges to the songs we'll have a bigger set in no time." So everything just became verse-chorus-verse-chorus for us.

There's probably more songs without a middle eight than with I'd say. Certainly in the material I listen to.

Danny1969

So is the bridge the part that leads the verse into the chorus and the middle 8 a short piece not heard before in the song that generally leads to the final choruses ? ... because that's how I've always thought of them 

pintspiller

The terms can have different meanings between nations. I have a habit of using either, sometimes in the same sentence.

In the UK the middle eight is the bit before the solo or last string of choruses, but I think the Americans call it the bridge. Whereas the bridge in UK is anything between two sections, what Americans call pre-chorus for a section between verse and chorus.