I am looking for examples of songs that the artist wishes he or she had never done and why. Perhaps it’s a song that is not representative of their genre, but yet it’s the one song, perhaps the only song that everyone associates with them. Maybe it’s a song they’re burned out on playing at every concert, but everyone insists on hearing it anyway. Maybe it’s a song that has taken on a particular pop cultural significance that was never intended to be associated with it, or maybe they just had some afterthoughts about it after it was released.
Johnny Hit and Run Pauline by X. I don’t think they feel that strongly about it, but I think they regretted it because it was sort of depicting violence against a woman, and the fact that some of the less enlightened meatheads were moshing with extra enthusiasm to that song was giving them a bad vibe or something.
I remember an interview with Billy Joel where he admitted he was waaay burned out on a lot of his songs and his mind would wander during concert performances.
He even sang/talked an example on the piano.
Don’t Go Changing,
(i wonder what i’ll have for dinner tonight)
To Try And Please Me.
(a turkey sandwich would be really good)
I doubt any of them actually regret making it, but Monty Python’s spoof of John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” was removed from several editions of the album it appeared on and from the Instant CD Collection due to “legal advice.”
I seem to recall Michael Stipe professing his dislike for “Shiny Happy People”.
Bobby McFerrin is quite vocal that he eventually regrets recording “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Before that song, he already had a long successful career, and was a well-respected jazz artist. After the song, the general public considered him to be a singer of a simple-minded, one-hit wonder pop song.
I remember reading an interview with Natalie Merchant (of 10,000 Maniacs) saying that she cringes in embarrassment at some of her earliest songs, and admitted that in some of her ‘social consciousness’ songs, she tends to sound like a humorless schoolmarm. She didn’t name any specific songs though.
Sometimes in interviews Paul Simon expresses distaste for some of his more angsty Simon and Garfunkel songs, like “The Dangling Conversation”, but I’m not sure if he totally regrets making them – I recall him saying that he hates “Homeward Bound”, but if he can remember where and how he was when he wrote it, it’s not that bad.
I think members of Radiohead have talked about regretting how much of a hit “Creep” was. It sort of became their signature song and pigeonholed them as just another self-pitying grunge band even though their subsequent albums departed from that sound. Of course it only took until OK Computer and Kid A for them to successfully remake their image.
Roger Taylor of Queen is on record commenting about ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ “I never liked it much”.
Loudoun Wainright III includes in the song ‘How Old are You?’ which is about inane interview questions ‘Are you embarassed about Dead Skunk?’
In the video concert 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival - Joe Walsh makes some humorous comment about had he known Rocky Mountain Way would be so popular he probably would have written something else.
I seem to recall Simon saying something similar about “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy).”
I’ve heard that Sting considers ‘Every Breath You Take’ an evil song. It’s written from the perspective of a stalker, and the band was surprised when people took it as a love song and started playing it at weddings.
John Lennon has called “And Your Bird Can Sing” “Another horror.”
Matthew Fisher, formerly of Procul Harum, wrote a song complaining how much he hated to play “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” Of course, that was before he tried to get songwriting credit.
Has Sting ever said he regretted recording it though? I thought he just hated how the meaning is often lost on people.
I remember Dave Matthews saying he cringes evertime the crowd chants in unison “Mom it’s my birthday!” during What Would You Say.
I read Neil Young’s biography “Shakey”, and Neil expresses some regret about Southern Man. In particular, the finger pointing nature of the song. He said something to the effect of Canada and the Northern U.S. having plenty of racists, too.
I respect **KISS’ **business sense a lot more than I respect their music (which is basically not at all) - but I would assume they regret their disco turn I Was Made For Loving You
I would assume pretty much every artist feels that way about much of their catalogue, with different songs making the list over the years…
When **Wilco **played their Winter Residency last year here in Chicago, where they played every song they’d ever released over five nights of shows, Jeff Tweedy was embarrassed to have to do “I Thought I Held You” from their album, A.M.
He told the crowd that it was a bad song and that it would be a good time to go get a beer or something, and that he was only doing it out of obligation to play “every song.” He even sang some of the lyrics in an openly mocking tone. If you check the database of Wilco shows, where they show everytime a song is played, you’ll see that they’ve only done that song once or twice ever in their entire career.
Rupert Holmes has been quoted, when talking about The Escape, as saying that he regrets that song just due to so many people buying him pina coladas, a drink that he despises. 
Yeah, another horror added to like every single existing Beatles song, which at some time or another he claimed to be a horror. I don’t think he always really believed what he said though.