Repetitive songs contain a large proportion of repeated words or phrases. Simple repetitive songs are common in many cultures as widely spread as the Caribbean,^[1] Southern India^[2] and Finland.^[3] The best-known examples are probably children's songs. Other repetitive songs are found, for instance, in African-American culture from the days of slavery.^[4]

Self referential songs quote their own lyrics; one example is "The Song That Never Ends". Cumulative songs build from one verse to another, like bricks on a pile, as in "Old McDonald Had a Farm". 'Counting songs' may count up or down, as with "99 Bottles of Beer".

Another type of song describes a circular phenomenon (see Recursion). In "There's a Hole in My Bucket", the singer-narrator attempts to fix a leaky bucket, only to find out that ultimately one needs to have a functional bucket in order to effect the repair. In "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", flowers were offered to soldiers, who fell in a war, new flowers grew on their graves, those flowers were given to soldiers and so on.

In children's songs, repetition serves various educational purposes: repetition aids memory,^[5] can aid in learning punctuation and reading skills,^[6] and is very valuable in learning (foreign) languages.^[7]

Repetitive songs are also found in traditional work songs. Examples abound in African-American culture,^[8] in political groups,^[9] and among traveler, marchers, and walkers.^[10] see Slave Songs of the United States.

• "Michael Finnegan"
• "The Song That Never Ends"
• "There's a Hole in My Bucket"
• "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt"
• "Found a Peanut"
• "Versace (song)"
• "Yon Yonson"
• "10 Green Bottles"
• "99 Bottles of Beer"
• "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet"
• "Ti amo"
• "Ievan Polkka" (5th stanza) by Loituma, seen frequently in the infamous "Leekspin" animation
• "The Wheels on the Bus"
• "If You're Happy and You Know It"
• "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"
• "Badger Song"
• "Around the World"
• "The Rockafeller Skank"
• "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am"
• "Do What U Want"
• "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
• "Jack Your Body"
• "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"
• "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)"
• "The Twelve Days of Christmas"
• "Gucci Gang"
• "Green Grow the Rushes, O"
• "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly"
• "Five Little Monkeys"
• "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar"
• "Little Bunny Foo Foo"
• "The Farmer in the Dell"
• "Ten German Bombers"

• Donald Knuth, "The Complexity of Songs"
• Cumulative song
• Repetitive music