Ooh, I bet you’re wondering how I knew
About your plans to make me blue
With some other guy you knew before.
Between the two of us guys, you know I love you more.

In those first four lines we witness confrontation, envy, dismissal (“with some other guy” cuts like a knife) and what could be either a plea or a goodbye, depending on whether you hear “love” or “loved” (I can hear it either way, depending on my mood, and can’t seem to find the official lyrics online). “I bet you’re wondering how I knew” is a phenomenal line on its own: when secrets come out, the response is often “how did you find out? Who told you?” The song latches onto that paranoia from both sides right away, and keeps pulling on it: People say believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear.

The song’s lyrics never reach those early heights again, but then few songs since have even come close.

Note: I know this wasn’t originally Marvin Gaye’s song – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles had their version rejected, then it launched as a song for Gladys Knight and the Pips – but it’s definitely his song now. Listen to the Gladys Knight version again, and the difference is thrown into stark contrast.

More Opening Lines

Do You… – Miguel

Do you like drugs?

Well, that’s certainly one way to start a song.

Do You…, the fourth track from Miguel’s 2012 opus Kaleidoscope Dream – which I’ve written about before, you might remember – gets straight to the point. It’s a solid icebreaker: do you like drugs? I suppose if the answer is no, you can safely skip to the next track, though you’d miss out on a typically cheeky track that hits maximum romance right at the outro (but we’ll also save that until the end.)

But that line’s just the first line of the intro, not the verse, which picks up in territory to which everyone – even avowed drug-haters – can relate.

Have you ever felt alone?
Do you still believe in love?

A one-two punch of intimate questions, bam-bam, that’s almost enough to convince you that you’d misheard the very first line. But, if you’re in any doubt, it’s short-lived.

But do you like drugs?

Yeah, forget about your dreams for the future, or that suffocating loneliness that grips you at night: it’s really important that we find out if you like drugs. Because Miguel does (MDMA on occasion, apparently). And you know what else Miguel likes, of course: sex.

I’m gonna do you like drugs tonight.

What’s clever about that is how it reframes the persistent question, and even though I’m not sure how one would go about “doing” a person like drugs (roll them up and burn them?), Miguel’s gift is that he doesn’t half make it sound like fun.

More Opening Lines

I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Marvin Gaye