photo by Hillary Tozier
Sounds like a species of turtle, eh?
Meet the circle-back ending.
A circle-back ending is a conclusion that repeats lines of lyric from the very beginning of the song. As the name suggests, it can give a really satisfying sense of the narrative having made a loop.
From a structural perspective, this is cool because it creates kind of a secondary chorus.
Great storytelling… and problem-solving.
One great example of the circle-back is Big River by Johnny Cash. In that song the entire first verse is repeated at the song’s conclusion.
It serves Big River well, because there’s otherwise there’s no lyrical chorus—not even a refrain! Just a simple instrumental hook between verses. The verses themselves are pure narrative, without pause—Cash wants to keep the story chugging forward.
By repeating the first verse again after the main action resolves, he’s signaling to us that the song is soon to end—so we don’t feel like he’s just dumped us off the back of the boat.
This trick also makes the song more memorable—no other line in the lyric of Big River recurs, so Cash was wise to serve us the title and the core idea one more time before he lets us go.
Another example: the song “Brother” by Murder by Death repeats the lyric’s opening line near the very end of the song.
“Fourteen years have passed since that day
but still nothing has changed.”
Perfect conclusion for a song in which the narrator is left frustrated, right back where he started.
Tips for using it in your own songs
- It should suit the story. You probably shouldn’t do it just to try to get your song up to radio length.
- The music can certainly change. You may find you need to change a note or two of the vocal melody so that the ending feels conclusive and resolved, for example. You may also change the music to give the repeated line more interest and emotional punch.
- It’s a great way to end a song that has no chorus, as we saw in Big River, above.
- Think of it as a lyrical frame that will appear only as a pair of bookends.
Good luck, and have fun! 
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Nicholas Tozier is an independent singer, songwriter, private music instructor, blogger, and instructor at Ampersand Academy of Dance & the Performing arts centered in Gardiner, Maine. His first album, A Game with Shifting Mirrors, is slated for self-release in Fall 2010.