The Current

Great Music Lives Here ®
Listener-Supported Music
Donate Now
Coffee Break

Coffee Break: Interjections

Jerry Lee Lewis performs at the Rainbow in London in 1972.
Jerry Lee Lewis performs at the Rainbow in London in 1972.Graham Wood/Getty Images, via NPR

by Anna Reed

November 03, 2017

This morning we played Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" for our musical History Highlight and we learned that professional wrestler Ric Flair started using his "Wooo!" catchphrase in 1974 after he heard Jerry Lee Lewis sing the lyric, "Goodness gracious, great balls of fire, woo!"

That fact inspired our idea for today's set of music, based on interjections. An interjection is a part of speech that shows the emotion or feeling of the author - like yeah! woo! wow! hey! - so let's focus on songs that feature these exclamations this morning.

For today's 9:30 Coffee Break, what songs do you want to hear with interjections?

Respond with your song ideas in the comments below.

Have an idea for a Coffee Break topic? Submit your idea for a future theme and browse past Coffee Breaks in our archive.

Songs played

Blur - Song 2
The Beatles - You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Beck - Wow
Bjork - It's Oh So Quiet
The Rolling Stones - Get Off of My Cloud
Roger Miller - Dang Me
EMF - Unbelievable
Little Richard - Tutti Frutti
Devo - Uncontrollable Urge