# Absolutely crap songs that yet induce nostalgia **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 20, 2008, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341 "2008-02-20T01:30:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/21 "2008-02-20T19:36:34Z")
[QUOTE=Sunrazor] I dunno, is “Hey, Jude” considered a crap song? I was a huge Beatles fan in my teen years, and frankly couldn’t tell the difference between good and bad Beatles songs. If so, I’ve got a story to share; if not, never mind. [/QUOTE] It’s not crap, but I’d like to hear a story… ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/22 "2008-02-20T19:43:01Z")
So many pop-country songs from the 80’s and 90’s. I grew up listening to the stuff and songs that I would never listen to now like _Queen of My Double Wide Trailer_ by Sammy Kershaw, \*Daddy Never Was the Cadillac Kind \* by Confederate Railroad, or _Boot Scootin’ Boogie_ by Brooks and Dunn take me immediately back to my prepubescent and early teenaged years. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/23 "2008-02-20T19:44:43Z")
[QUOTE=Sunrazor] I dunno, is “Hey, Jude” considered a crap song? I was a huge Beatles fan in my teen years, and frankly couldn’t tell the difference between good and bad Beatles songs. If so, I’ve got a story to share; if not, never mind. [/QUOTE] It **IS** crap, but I’d like to hear the story… ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/24 "2008-02-20T19:48:37Z")
Oh, man. Don’t EVEN get me started. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/25 "2008-02-20T19:54:38Z")
That Dan Fogelburp song the goes “Deeper than … , Wider than … etc” The Pina Colada song Color My World. Any further back and we’re talking about disco. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/26 "2008-02-20T20:04:03Z")
[QUOTE=UncleRojelio] That Dan Fogelburp song the goes “Deeper than … , Wider than … etc” [/QUOTE] Berke Breathed wants his royalties for that… Oh, god, **Dung Beetle**! _I’ve Never Been To Me_ always puts me in mind of something like _Zoolander_, not because the song was in it (to my recollection, it wasn’t) but because it seems like it SHOULD have been in it, right down to the heartfelt, so-sincere interlude where she’s berating the liberated women of the world for wanting to be anything other than a mother and wife. It’s a perfect parody of ITSELF, which makes it High Camp, even if unintentionally. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/27 "2008-02-20T20:11:35Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] Berke Breathed wants his royalties for that… Oh, god, **Dung Beetle**! _I’ve Never Been To Me_ always puts me in mind of something like _Zoolander_, not because the song was in it (to my recollection, it wasn’t) but because it seems like it SHOULD have been in it, right down to the heartfelt, so-sincere interlude where she’s berating the liberated women of the world for wanting to be anything other than a mother and wife. It’s a perfect parody of ITSELF, which makes it High Camp, even if unintentionally. [/QUOTE] Great. Now that freaking song is stuck in my head. “I’ve been to paradise, but I’ve never been to me-eee-eee-eee.” Argh! ---
**Author:** ![the\_Lady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@the\_Lady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_Lady)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/28 "2008-02-20T20:11:55Z")
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle] I used to think I had hallucinated that! Mine is Never Been to Me, by Charlene. All us little girls sang along with the radio when it came on during that slumber party…fifth grade, maybe? We all went to the same Christian school and felt so daring singing that racy song. [/QUOTE] There was a time I frequented karaoke bars. Well, one in particular. Until it burned down. The system that was all the rage at the time had “videos” that went along with the songs. The one for Never Been to Me contained the antics of two fake Barbies (you know the kind - they’re Barbie-sized, but super cheap hollow plastic and terrible hair). At one point, one of the dolls rips the shirt off the other one. I don’t know why. I will never forget that image. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/29 "2008-02-20T20:17:26Z")
I’m cackling my ass off here because I have polluted all your brains! ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/30 "2008-02-20T20:21:13Z")
[QUOTE=Dung Beetle] I’m cackling my ass off here because I have polluted all your brains! [/QUOTE] One of these days… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/31 "2008-02-20T20:33:16Z")
Barry Manilow crooning “Mandy” takes me right back to Married Student Housing, and I mean _right_ back, kazam! like that, I’m back in a 100 square foot concrete block apartment with blue-green carpet glued to the cement floor, a young newlywed sittin’ on the couch listening to the radio while Himself is at class. The radio playing on a stereo which we still possess, BTW, vintage speakers still intact, and which our youngest has recently been using to play her dad’s collection of Beatles records, having just discovered those lovable moptops thanks to an abysmal movie called _Across the Universe_. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/32 "2008-02-20T20:38:18Z")
When we were 12, my best friend and I choroegraphed a jazz dance to Roxette’s “The Look” and performed it at a talent show. I still live in fear that video footage of this will someday surface. There are many other crap songs from the early 90s which induce nostalgia, but Milli Vanilli’s “Blame It On the Rain” is in a special category. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/33 "2008-02-20T20:43:03Z")
There are so many. In my teen years (the 70s), I was one of those who always had a radio nearby, and it was always tuned to the local Top 40 station. So I have plenty of cheesy song + memory combinations. A few examples: 1977: Cruisin’ for chicks in my buddy’s '69 Chevy Malibu while Alan O’Day’s “Undercover Angel” blasts (as best it can) from the AM radio. 1977: Kenny Nolan’s “I Like Dreamin’” was on the air. But she was no dream, she was in my arms. Her name was Caroline. 1978: Meatloaf’s _Bat out of Hell_ album is released, and provides much food for discussion around the poker table. Turns out we all wanted “silver black phantom bikes” and to “see paradise by the dashboard light.” There are many, many more, of course. All I need to hear are these pieces of music, and I’m transported back. It’s kind of fun. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/34 "2008-02-20T20:49:12Z")
The “Taste of Chicago” features a free concert, but you have to wait until the end of the day for it. We were finished eating and really didn’t want to dawdle any longer, but as we meandered past the concert shell they were setting up and testing the equipment, and we hear the unmistakable plink-plink, plink-plink, plink-plink, plink-plink, opening chords of Foreigner’s [“Cold as Ice”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWDj_2QxdoQ). Well, there was no leaving at that point. The concert was a blast. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/35 "2008-02-20T20:56:33Z")
“Fat Bottom Girls” by Queen. “Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks. “Sister Christian” by whats-it (I can’t remember the band name). Anything by Sheena Easton or Gloria Esteban. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/36 "2008-02-20T20:57:52Z")
God forgive me, but “These Dreams” by Heart, to this day, reminds me of riding in a crappy old beater of a car, packed with fellow hormone-addled teenagers, with slim, lithe little Heather on my lap, smiling at me, then kissing my neck. Siiiiigh. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/37 "2008-02-20T20:59:45Z")
[QUOTE=overlyverbose] “Sister Christian” by whats-it (I can’t remember the band name). [/QUOTE] Night Ranger? ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/38 "2008-02-20T21:01:21Z")
Starship - _We Built This City_ Huey Lewis - _Hip to be Square_ Baltimora - _Tarzan Boy_ Romantics - _Talking in Your Sleep_ Wang Chung - _Everybody Have Fun Tonight_ Kenny Loggins - _Danger Zone_ and _Footloose_ Falco - _Rock Me Amadeus_ Go Go’s - _We Got the Beat_ Toni Basil - _Hey Mickey!_ M - _Pop Musik_ ABC - _Poison Arrow_ Phil Collins & Phillip Bailey - _Easy Lover_ Glenn Frey - _The Heat Is On_ Pointer Sisters - _Neutron Dance_ Steve Miller Band - _Abracadabra_ ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/39 "2008-02-20T21:10:07Z")
[QUOTE=overlyverbose] “Fat Bottom Girls” by Queen. [/QUOTE] Except this is an awesome song that induces nostalgia, not crap song. Now, GET ON YOUR BIKES AND RIDE! ---
**Author:** ![bytheway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df705f/32.png) [@bytheway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bytheway)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2008, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341/40 "2008-02-20T21:11:04Z")
[QUOTE=the Lady] There was a time I frequented karaoke bars. Well, one in particular. Until it burned down. The system that was all the rage at the time had “videos” that went along with the songs. The one for Never Been to Me contained the antics of two fake Barbies (you know the kind - they’re Barbie-sized, but super cheap hollow plastic and terrible hair). At one point, one of the dolls rips the shirt off the other one. I don’t know why. I will never forget that image. [/QUOTE] My drinking buddy (DB) used to request this song for the bar hostess to sing, and then DB would get all weepy. Never did get around to asking DB why the image of fake Barbie being raped affected him so deeply. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/absolutely-crap-songs-that-yet-induce-nostalgia/438341.md?page=3)