Greatest Twist-Ending Songs

Citizen Kane. Primal Fear. Parasite. Malignant. Whether it’s a final-scene reveal or a bonkers mid-point change of direction, nothing makes a movie memorable like a good old-fashioned plot twist. That same strategy can work magic in music, with some tunes gaining timelessness by taking a sharp narrative turn. Here are 15 of the greatest twists and twist-endings in songs.

15. Fancy – Bobbie Gentry/Reba McEntire

“Fancy” (uploaded to YouTube by Reba McEntire)

The 1952 film Ruby Gentry inspired singer-songwriter Roberta Lee Streeter twice. It first inspired her stage name (Bobbie Gentry). Second was that the plot, combined with a touch of her own poor background, led to her writing the song “Fancy.” “Fancy” relates the tale of a young girl of that name whose own mother, in a somewhat shocking twist, turns her out to prostitution in hopes of a better life.  By the song’s end, Fancy has achieved wealth and a disdain for the “hypocrites” who resent how she got it. On the Billboard charts, the song went #26 Country and #31 on the Hot 100 in 1969. Reba McEntire’s 1991 cover version went #8 Country but has been so persistently popular that it sold over two million units. The McEntire cover was #65 on Rolling Stone’s 2024 list of the Greatest Country Songs of All Time.

14. One – Metallica

“One” (Uploaded to YouTube by Metallica)

“One” might pack less of a twist if you know that the song was inspired by Dalton Trumbo’s anti-war novel and subsequent film Johnny Got His Gun. The protagonist of the song begins by relating his plight of being trapped in darkness where “Nothing is real but pain now.” By the last verse, we learn that the “narrator” is the victim of a landmine, having lost all four limbs as well as his sight, speech, and hearing, leaving him trapped in what’s left of his body. It’s a harrowing statement about people’s inhumanity, made more immediate by the blistering guitar work of Kirk Hammett.

13. Space Oddity – David Bowie

“Space Oddity” (Uploaded to YouTube by David Bowie)

A commercial and critical breakthrough for Bowie, “Space Oddity” is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential songs in rock. It also has a heck of twist that plays in direct opposition to the optimism about and obsession with space travel that was happening around the time of the Moon landing. Major Tom is on his mission, which is going well (“really made the grade,” in fact) when things take a dire turn. He loses communication with Ground Control and it soon becomes clear that the astronaut is never going to make it home. Now, to be fair, there are a good many people who consider to see the song as a more metaphorical journey open to interpretation, but a literal reading of the text yields our conclusion here.

12. Summer Rain – Belinda Carlisle

“Summer Rain” (Uploaded to YouTube by Belinda Carlisle)

“Summer Rain” fits in sonically with other effusive tunes by Go-Gos lead singer Carlisle. But rather that the hope of “Leave a Light on for Me” or the rush of “Mad About You,” “Rain” is a deeply sad song. It seems inviting at first, wistfully recalling two lovers dancing in the rain. However, the train mentioned near the top grows ominous as it’s referred too later as a “military train” and pays off darkly as Carlisle lets the audience know that the dance was “was the last time that I saw him,” indicating that her love died while at war.

11. Everybody Knows – Leonard Cohen

“Everybody Knows” (Uploaded to YouTube by LeonardCohen)

A lot of the great Canadian songsmith’s works have twists to them, many playing on his dark and ironic sense of humor.  But “Everybody Knows” works on a different level. The song starts by starkly referencing social and financial injustice as just facts of life. Then Cohen takes a swerve toward the personal, shifting to the idea that “everybody knows” these societal truths, but that they also know that his love is cheating on him. Cohen ratchets that up from “everybody knows that you’ve been faithful/give or take a night or two” to “Everybody knows you’ve been discreet/But there were so many people you just had to meet without your clothes.” As if that weren’t enough, Cohen takes another turn to suggest that not only is society a mess and his lover unfaithful, but also the apocalypse is coming.

10. Brilliant Disguise – Bruce Springsteen

“Brilliant Disguise” (Uploaded to YouTube by Bruce Springsteen)

The Boss has always been known for his arena-shaking anthems, but there are many gems to be found when he turns in down. His sedate Tunnel of Love album contains this terrific song about the deep suspicions that can undercut a relationship. Throughout the entirety of the song, Bruce muses on various actions, wondering if the woman in his life is who she really presents herself as, or if various clues point to a different truth. But then, near the end of the song, he turns it around, challenging his lover to ask if it’s in fact him who’s the one who has been “disguised” all along.

9. I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love with You – Tom Waits

“I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love with You” (Uploaded to YouTube by Leg Channel)

The gravel-voiced barroom bard hit an early career high note with this ode to unrequited longing. The narrator sits at the bar, silently longing to communicate with a woman he sees while not wanting to get too attached. The more he thinks about it, the more he fears that she will fall in love with him. As the night nears last call, the narrator turns back to see that she’s left. At that moment, he realizes that he is in fact in love with her, and yet she’s gone. Poetry, man.

8. Ode to Billie Joe – Bobbie Gentry

“Ode to Billie Joe” (Uploaded to YouTube by Bobbie Gentry)

Is it really a twist if we can’t rely on what anyone in the story is expressing? Or is the twist exactly that: We can’t rely on what anyone says, so we never learn the exact truth? That’s the through-line of “Ode to Billie Joe,” as Bobbie Gentry relates the story of a young woman and a young man named Billie Joe McAllister. Much of the surrounding events are left ambiguous, but a couple of things are certain: Billie Joe has died at the Tallahatchie Bridge, and the narrator’s mother believes that she previously saw Billie Joe and the narrator throw something off of the same bridge. To Gentry’s credit, she never acknowledged what she herself meant in writing the song, and doesn’t necessary endorse the explanation given in the eponymous movie that followed. Maybe this is a case where the twist and answer are the same thing: you never really do know the complete truth of anything.

7. The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia – Vicki Lawrence

“The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” (Uploaded to YouTube by Vicki Lawrence/TuneCore)

Vicki Lawrence is best known for The Carol Burnett Show and Mama’s Family, but she was also a one-hit wonder with the 1973 #1 “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.” Written by her husband at the time, Bobby Russell, the song is a tangled Southern Gothic tale right out of the Flannery O’Connor school. A female narrator explains that her brother learned about his wife’s various infidelities, but upon arriving at the home of a man (Andy) with the intent to kill him, he finds that someone beat him to it. The brother is rushed through a trial and hanged, after which we learn that the narrator (“Little Sister”) actually killed Andy as well as her cheating sister-in-law (who she assures the listener “will never be found”). The immensely popular tune has been covered by artists like Tanya Tucker and Reba McEntire, and was adapted into a film with a plot that bears little resemblance to the song.

6. He Stopped Loving Her Today – George Jones

“He Stopped Loving Her Today” (Uploaded to YouTube by GeorgeJonesOfficial)

Widely regarded as one of, if not the, greatest country songs of all time, “He Stopped Loving Her Today” is a full-on emotional gut-punch. Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman, who wrote more than their fair share of country hits, composed the song and gave it to Jones in 1978. Jones initially hated the song for being depressing, but the singer, who was in a six-year-long drought of hits following drug and alcohol problems, finally recorded it and released it in 1980. Jones was rewarded with a #1 country song and a career revival. The “depressing” nature that Jones disliked was that the final twist that is the subject of the tune, where a man is hopelessly in love with a woman who leaves him, and finally stops loving her because he dies.

5. Betty – Taylor Swift

“Betty” (Uploaded to YouTube by Taylor Swift)

Taylor Swift is the modern queen of the break-up song. For “Betty,” she puts on the guise of a male narrator (James) who is love with Betty and wonders what will happen if she “shows up at [her] party” and confesses his love “in front of all your stupid friends.” The early parts of the 2020 song get the listener on the side of James and his seemingly unrequited longing. However, Swift (and her co-writer William Bowery, aka Swift’s ex Joe Alwyn) pull the rug out from under listeners in the bridge when they reveal that James is in this boat because he had a summer-long fling with another woman.

4. Cat’s in the Cradle – Harry Chapin

“Cat’s in the Cradle” (Uploaded to YouTube by RHINO)

One of the cultural avatars of songs with twist endings, Harry Chapin’s epically depressing 1974 tune follows the relationship of a father and son through the decades. The son repeatedly seeks his father’s attention, only to be turned away for work and other distractions. By the time that the father retires, his son has grown, moved away, and has kids of his own. The father is ultimately struck by the realization that his son no longer makes time for him, just as he never made time for his son.

3. One Tin Soldier – The Original Caste/Coven

“One Tin Soldier” by Jinx Dawson/Coven (Uploaded to YouTube by boyjohn)

Written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, the original version of “One Tin Soldier” was recorded by Canadian group The Original Caste and hit #34 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970. A year later, a better-known version recorded by Jinx Dawson, lead singer of metal influencers Coven, reached #26 on the strength of being featured in the film Billy Jack. Dawson, with Coven, performed the song on American Bandstand that November. The song is essentially a fable about the Mountain People, who are rumored to guard a great treasure, and the Valley People, who covet it. Despite the fact that Mountain People offer to share, they are butchered by the Valley People. In a grim twist, the Valley People discover that the “treasure” is simply a stone that reads “Peace on Earth.” Perhaps even more brutal than the ending of the song is the first half of the song’s chorus, which asserts, “Go ahead and hate your neighbor/Go ahead and cheat a friend/Do it in the name of Heaven/You can justify it in the end.”

2. Always the Last to Know – Del Amitri

“Always the Last to Know” (Uploaded to YouTube by Del Amitri (Del Amitri Official))

Scottish alternative band Del Amitri has been rocking for 45 years. Best known for their 1995 hit “Roll to Me,” it’s their 1992 Top 40 entry “Always the Last to Know” that brings them here. A shimmering and wistful love song, “Always” follows a narrator who has lost his true love to another and is bemoaning all of the milestones in her life that he’ll miss as, since they’re no longer together, he’ll “be the last to know.” The band (and in particular, lead vocalist/bassist Justin Currie) really lure you in to the singer’s longing before lowering the last-minute boom: “Or if he’s cheated on you/Like I cheated on you, oh/You were the last to know.” There’s really no other way to put it: Damn.

1. Lola – The Kinks

“Lola” (Uploaded to YouTube by The Kinks)

A wise man once said, “Most songs that are misunderstood get that way because people just don’t listen” (okay, that was me).One of the most glorious examples of that would be 1970’s “Lola” by Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, The Kinks. The song concerns a young man who had “left home just the week before” and meets Lola in a club in Soho. The young man falls for Lola before learning that Lola is a man, a fact that doesn’t negate the young man’s feelings. Though the song was controversial at the time, it was still a big hit (#9 in the U.S.); people are still continually discovering what it actually means as it’s never really left rock radio. Thanks to the infectious nature of the chorus (specifically, “Lola/Lo-lo-lo-lo-Lola”), the tune has been at the center of infinite barroom and frat house sing-alongs, enthusiastically shouted by many people with no idea what they’re celebrating.