The Song Words Puzzle
Solution

1. Bismillah occurs in the Queen song "Bohemian Rhapsody":

   Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
   Bismillah! No, we will not let him go! Let him go!

2. cockatoo is one of the possessions disposed of by Rolf Harris in the song "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport".

   Keep me cockatoo cool, Curl,
   Keep me cockatoo cool.
   Don't go acting the fool, Curl,
   Keep me cockatoo cool.
   All together now!

3. detergent occurs in the Rolling Stones song "Get Off of My Cloud":

   I live in an apartment on the ninety-ninth floor of my block,
   And I sit at home looking out the window imagining the world has stopped,
   Then in flies a guy dressed up like a Union Jack,
   And says I've won five pounds if I have his kind of detergent pack.

4. electrodes occurs in the Bobby Pickett and the Crypt Kickers song "The Monster Mash":

   From my laboratory in the castle east
   To the master bedroom where the vampires feast,
   The ghouls all came from their humble abode
   To get a jolt from my electrode.

5. fanqui is a slang word meaning "European"; it comes from Chinese, where it means literally "foreign devil". It occurs in the Beatles song "Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite", and is used jokingly as the last name of a traveling exhibitor:

   The Hendersons will all be there,
   Late of Pablo Fanqui's fair,
   What a scene!

6. fontanelle occurs in the Bare Naked Ladies song "When You Dream":

   His fontanelle pulses with lives that he's lived,
   With memories he'll learn to ignore.
   And when it is closed, he already knows
   He's forgotten all he knew before.

7. gavotte occurs in the Carly Simon song "You're So Vain":

   You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht,
   Your hat strategically dipped below one eye, your scarf it was apricot,
   You had one eye on the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte.

8. Guggenheim occurs in the Sheila Nicholls song "Fallen for You". (Check out the soundtrack for "High Fidelity"):

   Thought about you all the time,
   Walking through the Guggenheim,
   Like a rhyme in my mind,
   And there you are in my car,
   But we don't drive very far.

9. mediocrity occurs in the Simon and Garfunkel song "Homeward Bound":

   But all my words come back to me
   In shades of mediocrity
   Like emptiness in harmony;
   I need someone to comfort me.

10. Swarthmore occurs in the Mamas & the Papas's song "Creeque Alley":

    When Cass was a sophomore,
    Planned to go to Swarthmore,
    But she changed her mind one day.
    Standing on the turnpike,
    Thumb out to hitchhike,
    Take her to New York right away.

    a song which also, by the way, refers to "mugwumps"!
11. United Nations occurs in the Blue Cheer song "Summertime Blues":

    Gonna take two weeks,
    Gonna have a fine vacation;
    I'm gonna take my problems
    To the United Nations.

12. vestal occurs in the Procol Harem song "A Whiter Shade of Pale":

    One of sixteen vestal virgins
    Who were leaving for the coast,
    And although my eyes were wide open
    They might just as well been closed.