Top 10 Songs with Unusually Long Lyrics

There are many lists about lengthy songs in terms of duration, but not about songs with long lyrics.

Longer songs usually also have longer lyrics, but not always. The longest songs do not necessarily have the longest lyrics because some shorter songs are very fast and/or the singer performs the lyrics quickly. Additionally, some songs include long instrumental sections that reduce the overall lyric content.

I used the number of characters (excluding spaces) as the most reliable measurement because, for example, the number of lines can be misleading. There are both long lines and short lines. The number of words can also be misleading because there are long words and short words.

In my original remix, the song order is objective, as the songs with the highest number of characters (excluding spaces) are placed at the top. However, you can vote and create remixes without any restrictions.

Some of my favorite songs of all time are on this list. These songs feature great music and lyrics. And yes, their lyrics are undeniably long.

The Top Ten

  1. Rap God - Eminem

    This one even got a place in the Guinness World Records for 'most words in a hit song'.

    Enough said.

    Especially since it's around 6 minutes when some of these others are around 10-20 minutes.

    Characters (no spaces): 6,305

    Characters (with spaces): 7,696

    Words: 1,540

  2. Mirror of Souls - Theocracy

    Characters (no spaces) - 6,274

    Characters (with spaces) - 7,900

    Pages - 5

    Words - 1,602

    Lines - 253

    Genre: Progressive Power Metal (Duration - 22:26)

  3. And Then There Was Silence - Blind Guardian

    Characters (no spaces) - 4,585

    Characters (with spaces) - 5,718

    Pages - 4

    Words - 1,088

    Lines - 255

    Genre: Progressive Power Metal (Duration - 14:06)

    Hansi Kürsch is one of the fastest metal singers. He sings more words per minute than most other metal singers. He doesn't sing fast all the time, but when he does, it's really fast.

  4. Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull

    My second favorite song ever. These lyrics are superb.

    Yep, a total of 7,515 characters for Part I and Part II.

    Duration:

    Thick as a Brick, Part I - 22:40

    Thick as a Brick, Part II - 21:06

  5. Apocalyptic Infinity - Spongebozz

    I mean, the contributions so far are nice and all but...

    Characters (spaces): 20,220

    Characters (no spaces): 17,495

    Pages: 8

    Words: 3,076

    Genre: hardcore hip hop, battle rap, diss track

    Duration: 18:29

    No chorus, and each line contains perfect multisyllabic rhyming and other complex rhetorical figures. Who says hip hop is dead by 2017?

  6. Empire of the Clouds - Iron Maiden

    Characters (no spaces) - 2,367

    Characters (with spaces) - 2,932

    Pages - 2

    Words - 548

    Lines - 84

    Genre: Heavy Metal (Duration - 18:01)

  7. Jesus of Suburbia - Green Day

    I like the guitar breakdown and lyrics on this song, but this song is overlong.

  8. Black Prophecies - Dark Angel

    Characters (no spaces) - 3,087

    Characters (with spaces) - 3,747

    Pages - 3

    Words - 652

    Lines - 111

    Genre: Thrash Metal (Duration - 8:29)

    One of my favorite thrash songs.

  9. Octavarium - Dream Theater

    It's not usual for prog songs to have lots of lyrics, but I've got to pay my respects to DT for doing this.

    Characters (no spaces) - 2,667

    Characters (with spaces) - 3,290

    Pages - 3

    Words - 597

    Lines - 158

    Genre: Progressive Metal (Duration - 24:00)

  10. Supper's Ready - Genesis

    11. The Newcomers
  11. ?

    I Watched the Film The Song Remains the Same - Sun Kil Moon

    Characters (no spaces) - 2,376

    Characters (with spaces) - 2,965

    Pages - 2

    Words - 573

    Lines - 61

    Genre: Singer-Songwriter, Contemporary Folk (Duration 10:31)

    Benji is a very wordy album. This song is very sad and personal. Highly recommended, as is the album in general.

  12. ?

    Mortal Man - Kendrick Lamar

    13. The Contenders

  13. American Pie - Don McLean

    Thanks for this one, vr46.

    And for the correct number of:

    Characters (no spaces): 3,420

    Characters (with spaces): 4,165

    Words: 870

  14. There Was Only One Choice - Harry Chapin

    Thanks, RaRaRasputin, great addition. Very impressive.

  15. I Am - Theocracy

    Damn, for a title only three letters long, this song has ridiculously long lyrics.

    Characters (no spaces) - 3,126

    Characters (with spaces) - 3,960

    Pages - 2

    Words - 819

    Lines - 102

    Genre: Progressive Power Metal (Duration - 11:00)

  16. As the World Bleeds - Theocracy

    Characters (no spaces) - 2,405

    Characters (with spaces) - 3,010

    Pages - 2

    Words - 590

    Lines - 83

    Genre: Progressive Power Metal (Duration - 7:56)

  17. Dante's Inferno - Iced Earth

    Characters (no spaces) - 2,336

    Characters (with spaces) - 2,845

    Pages - 2

    Words - 498

    Lines - 89

    Genre: Heavy Metal (Duration - 16:26)

  18. The Odyssey - Symphony X

    I don't know why the person who added it wrote there were 12,896 characters (no spaces), which I think isn't correct. But I would like to thank this visitor for adding the song because it's very good and is pretty long.

    Characters (no spaces): 2,944

    Characters (with spaces): 3,554

    Words: 718

    Duration: 24:09.

  19. Keeper of the Seven Keys - Helloween

    Characters (no spaces) - 2,101

    Characters (with spaces) - 2,613

    Pages - 2

    Words - 502

    Lines - 90

    Genre: Power Metal (Duration - 13:37)

  20. Wheel of Time - Blind Guardian

    Characters (no spaces) - 1,679

    Characters (with spaces) - 2,115

    Pages - 3

    Words - 423

    Lines - 120

    Genre: Symphonic Metal (Duration - 8:56)

  21. Tag Des Jüngsten Gerichts - Kay One

    Now this one may be tricky. The song was not released on any album or single. Kay One just uploaded a video to this song, which is partly autobiographic and partly a diss track aimed at Germany's most successful rapper, Bushido, to his YouTube channel. The original video has since been taken down but re-uploaded by other users and other websites. Why do I say all this? To show you that there is no official audio version.

    While the video contains about 20 minutes of pure storytelling rapping without a chorus or similar, it also contains about 5 minutes of talking. At certain points, recorded phone calls and interviews that expose Bushido and other artists involved in their relationship get played, and Kay One comments on them. I don't know if you regard those skits in between the main song as part of the lyrics as well, but nevertheless, even without them, I'm sure that this would be the longest song so far. Every lyrics website, however, included the talking in the lyrics:

    Characters (spaces): 29,218

    Characters (no spaces): 24,774

    Pages: 13

    Words: 4,967

    Genre: hardcore hip hop, storytelling hip hop, diss track

    Duration: 25:32 (I edited a version with only the rapping to listen to, it lasts 20:09 minutes)

  22. B.O.B. - Outkast

  23. The Devil Glitch - Chris Butler

  24. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin

  25. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen

    Characters (no spaces) - 1,566

    Characters (with spaces) - 1,953

    Words - 380

  26. Albuquerque - Weird Al Yankovic

    This isn't just a song. This is my upbringing. He is my father. He is my home.

    I used to live in Albuquerque. The lyrics are long and surprisingly, and scarily accurate.

  27. Legacy of Hate (Pt.1, 2, 3) - Celesty

8Load More
PSearch List