# Artists who hate their biggest hit **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 31, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874 "2009-07-31T15:33:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/21 "2009-07-31T17:27:42Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > Radiohead dislikes playing Creep live. In fact, the guitarist even hated it while recording. The distinctive crunching chord before the chorus was added to ruin the song. Fail? That’s not my understanding: I believe Jonny didn’t come in with his big guitar chords until the chorus, but during rehearsals, when it didn’t matter, he would use a quick, hard strum to check during the lead-in to the chorus to make sure his guitar was ready for the big climax. The other guys liked it and it stayed in. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/22 "2009-07-31T17:56:38Z")
Arthur Conan Doyle infamously hated Sherlock Holmes so much that he attempted to kill him off, which didn’t go over well with his many fans. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/23 "2009-07-31T18:00:56Z")
> [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](#): > > Night Ranger reportedly hates _Sister Christian._ With good reason. ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/24 "2009-07-31T18:01:15Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Oh here we go. If you didn’t travel to England to attend a legitimate theatre production featuring Alec Guiness before 1977, you are _ **CULTURALLY ILLITERATE!** _ > > (blah blah blah snip) _sigh_ What I was pointing out is the alarming trend, witnessed multiple times per day on this board, of people being almost willfully ignorant of anything that happened before they were approximately 6 years old, whether it’s history or high culture or pop culture. I love _Star Wars_. I was a young teen when it came out. I knew at the time that Alec Guiness was a famous actor. As a kid and teen and young adult, I was fully aware of music, tv, and movies that were made long before I was born, and that wasn’t anything that unusual among my family or the other people I knew, and we were just working-class suburbanites. So yes, I feel justified in calling someone who only knows Alec Guiness as Obi-Wan _culturally illiterate_. ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/25 "2009-07-31T18:03:29Z")
> [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](#): > > Night Ranger reportedly hates _Sister Christian._ As well they should. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/26 "2009-07-31T18:19:55Z")
> [@Claire\_Beauchamp](#): > > _sigh_ > > What I was pointing out is the alarming trend, witnessed multiple times per day on this board, of people being almost willfully ignorant of anything that happened before they were approximately 6 years old, whether it’s history or high culture or pop culture. I love _Star Wars_. I was a young teen when it came out. I knew at the time that Alec Guiness was a famous actor. As a kid and teen and young adult, I was fully aware of music, tv, and movies that were made long before I was born, and that wasn’t anything that unusual among my family or the other people I knew, and we were just working-class suburbanites. > > So yes, I feel justified in calling someone who only knows Alec Guiness as Obi-Wan _culturally illiterate_. Even if this adds more fuel to the fire, I agree. It wasn’t like Guiness was almost entirely a stage actor who only got into movies with the \*\*Star Wars \*\*films. Prior to them, he’d been making movies for over 30 years and had won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in **Bridge on the River Kwai** (not exactly an obscure flick). Anyway, I think stories about Guiness’ dislike of the **Star Wars** movies have gotten a bit exaggerated over time. He did the first movie as a lark for which he’d be well-paid and get to work with a promising young director, George Lucas (who was just coming off his success with **American Graffiti** ). \*Nobody \*(including Lucas) thought the movie would become a gigantic blockbuster that would lead to five other films and spark a quasi-religion. I think what Guiness disliked was spending the last 25 years of his life dealing with obsessed **Star Wars** uber-geek fanboys who thought he was some sort of mystic and knew nothing about the rest of his career. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/27 "2009-07-31T18:23:23Z")
Flock of Seagulls still performs once in a while, and the lead singer hates having to sing “I Ran So Far Away” over and over. Tough shit, I say…you should have written another hit to beat it out. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/28 "2009-07-31T18:30:07Z")
> [@enomaj](#): > > The word encore reminded me that Rachmaninoff got sick of performing [Op. 3 No. 2 Prelude in C# Minor](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8ytY57u8_4) Which made something Harpo Marx did much more effective than he anticipated. [Harpo Speaks! - Harpo Marx - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=XCR14V7uMbsC&pg=PA284&lpg=PA284&dq=%22rachmaninoff%22+%22harpo+marx%22&source=bl&ots=guz7w3Yp9p&sig=wDPRiwl1qgYYCBkBDsRxGPmb61w&hl=en&ei=TzdzSqy9BIvwMr--kaAP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=%22rachmaninoff%22%20%22harpo%20marx%22&f=false) ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/29 "2009-07-31T18:31:44Z")
Please see ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’ and ‘The Horse’s Mouth’ - Alec Guinness had every right to be annoyed when people only thought of him as ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’. ‘Culturally illiterate’ is a loaded term, but those are films you simply should have heard of, if not seen. Several times. ---
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/30 "2009-07-31T18:32:53Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Flock of Seagulls still performs once in a while, and the lead singer hates having to sing “I Ran So Far Away” over and over. Tough shit, I say…you should have written another hit to beat it out. I’ll bet their fans make them wear those 80s hairdos also. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/31 "2009-07-31T18:42:06Z")
Warren Zevon had a funny appearance on _The Larry Sanders Show_ where he complained that the only song anyone ever wanted to hear him perform was “Werewolves of London”. I know it’s a fictional show, but I suspect there was more than a kernel of truth to it… ---
**Author:** ![MrSquishy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/32 "2009-07-31T18:46:50Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > Movie soundtrack hits can sometimes be a mixed blessing. > > **Simple Minds** eventually resented the huge success of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” as they didn’t even write the song - and it was offered to both Billy Idol and Bryan Ferry before they agreed to record it. They were never able to match its success with subsequent singles. > > “Take My Breath Away” by **Berlin** drove a wedge between band members when it went to #1. I believe lead singer Terri Nunn persuaded the band to record it, while John Crawford rightfully felt it didn’t represent the band’s New Wave/techno-pop style. Along the same lines, I went to an **Iron & Wine** show and he got slightly irritated that people kept requesting “Such Great Heights” (which is from the _Garden State_ soundtrack). I don’t really blame him; he’s probably had to play it a million times and he didn’t even write it. Now that “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” is in the _Twilight_ soundtrack, I bet he gets sick of hearing teenage girls scream that out at shows too. Although at least he did write that one himself. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/33 "2009-07-31T18:55:44Z")
> [@Claire\_Beauchamp](#): > > So yes, I feel justified in calling someone who only knows Alec Guiness as Obi-Wan _culturally illiterate_. I feel justified in calling that characterization elitist and snobbish at best. Furthermore, I feel justified in saying that it is possible to know fuck-all about any roles Guiness might have played in the movies and still be quite culturally literate. Some folks just don’t like movies. That does not preclude them from being very much in tune with their culture. ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/34 "2009-07-31T19:01:08Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > Warren Zevon had a funny appearance on _The Larry Sanders Show_ where he complained that the only song anyone ever wanted to hear him perform was “Werewolves of London”. I know it’s a fictional show, but I suspect there was more than a kernel of truth to it… I saw (then met and drank with) Zevon at a bar in Scottsdale in 94 or 95. About halfway through the set some putz yelled, “Werewolves!” Zevon said (quoted as closely as I can recall it): Ya know the great thing about being around long enough to turn into an oldies act? I can take grim satisfaction from the fact that 10, 15 years from some asshole in some bar is going to yell, “Hey, Alanis! Do that song about the blowjob!” Gods, I miss that man. ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/35 "2009-07-31T19:04:48Z")
> [@enomaj](#): > > I think Billy Joel mentioned on an Oprah episode that sometimes _Just the Way You Are_ can get on his nerves. Joel is also famous for his hatred of Piano Man. He did a show here in Phoenix a few years ago and the local bubble-headed bleach blonde entertainment reporter asked him something like, “It must be a thrill for you to have audiences singing along with you on Piano Man after all these years.” Joel said (again, as closely as I recall), “Not really. I don’t care for the song. The melody is simplistic and repetitive and it’s not really musically interesting at all. I’d love to never have to sing it again, but my fans have given me the gift of this incredible longevity in a career not known for it, and I owe it to them to give them the show they want to see, rather than the one I want to play.” I thought he showed some real self-awareness and class there. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/36 "2009-07-31T19:22:23Z")
> [@Claire\_Beauchamp](#): > > _sigh_ > > What I was pointing out is the alarming trend, witnessed multiple times per day on this board, of people being almost willfully ignorant of anything that happened before they were approximately 6 years old, whether it’s history or high culture or pop culture. I love _Star Wars_. I was a young teen when it came out. I knew at the time that Alec Guiness was a famous actor. As a kid and teen and young adult, I was fully aware of music, tv, and movies that were made long before I was born, and that wasn’t anything that unusual among my family or the other people I knew, and we were just working-class suburbanites. > > So yes, I feel justified in calling someone who only knows Alec Guiness as Obi-Wan _culturally illiterate_. Your standards of cultural literacy are ridiculous and contradictory. My favorite movie came out 40 years before I was born. My favorite book came out 20 years before I was born. The drummer of my favorite band growing up died a year before I was born, and they never played or recorded together again. By all this, one would think I’d be culturally literate in Claire Beauchamp’s erudite eyes. But wait. I was negative 4 when Star Wars came out, and knew fuck all about Alec Guiness until I was at least 12 and watched the “special edition” VHS tapes which talked a little bit about him being a renowned British actor. I still think of him primarily as Obi Wan Kenobi. Guess I’m riffraff after all. (And by the way, do you not find it funny, in all your tomsnobbery, that your definition of culture seems to be merely “modern pop culture”?) ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/37 "2009-07-31T19:23:59Z")
A lot of bands and artists who are “album artists” and not single artists, were often required by their labels to put out a commerical single. The Motels “Only The Lonely” was a good example. They were told if they wanted to keep their contract they better record a hit single, even though the band wasn’t a singles type act. Andy Kim of “Rock Me Gently” fame said while he didn’t dislike the single it set him on the wrong path. People kept expecting him to make more songs like that and that song was a fluke. I like what Pat Benetar had to say in an interview in _Rolling Stone_ magazine. She said that she often gets tired to playing her old music but then she remembers that her fans haven’t heard the songs as much as she has. And to each fan, each of her songs probably holds a special meaning, to them alone. And then she’s quite happy to perform her songs again. I like that attitude ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/38 "2009-07-31T19:24:29Z")
> [@Claire\_Beauchamp](#): > > What I was pointing out is the alarming trend, witnessed multiple times per day on this board, of people being almost willfully ignorant of anything that happened before they were approximately 6 years old, whether it’s history or high culture or pop culture. I love _Star Wars_. I was a young teen when it came out. I knew at the time that Alec Guiness was a famous actor. As a kid and teen and young adult, I was fully aware of music, tv, and movies that were made long before I was born, and that wasn’t anything that unusual among my family or the other people I knew, and we were just working-class suburbanites. We’ve been over this over and over and over again. Calling someone out over not knowing more about your favorite actor/singer/author/goat felcher does not make you literate and the other person illiterate. Instead, it makes you seem like a bully. Thousands of movies have been released since 1977 and thousands more were released before it. If someone only knows of an actor because they starred in the most popular movie of all-time has very little to do with what they might know. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/39 "2009-07-31T19:50:43Z")
Joe Walsh just before playing “[Rocky Mountain Way](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcveyL_7xn8)” - “Well, if I knew I’d have to play this song the rest of my life I probably would have wrote something else. But it’s too late. You’re stuck with this one.” And I could swear this is a deja vu thread. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874/40 "2009-07-31T20:07:57Z")
> [@Claire\_Beauchamp](#): > > _sigh_ > > What I was pointing out is the alarming trend, witnessed multiple times per day on this board, of people being almost willfully ignorant of anything that happened before they were approximately 6 years old, whether it’s history or high culture or pop culture. I love _Star Wars_. I was a young teen when it came out. I knew at the time that Alec Guiness was a famous actor. As a kid and teen and young adult, I was fully aware of music, tv, and movies that were made long before I was born, and that wasn’t anything that unusual among my family or the other people I knew, and we were just working-class suburbanites. > > So yes, I feel justified in calling someone who only knows Alec Guiness as Obi-Wan _culturally illiterate_. OK? Lucas cast Guinness almost as a cameo; certainly to add \*tone \*to the proceedings. Guinness had had one of the mos distinguished careers in movies–nevermind stage–of anyone, ever, well before Lucas came along. If he had died in 1976, he’d still have one of the greatest resumes in film history. So yeah, anyone who thinks of\* Star Wars\* as the peak–as little more than a blip gone horribly awry–of Guinness’s career is blindlingly culturally illiterate. Wanna put Star Wars in perspective? Check out the Ealing comedies Guinness did, or _The Bridge on the River Kwai_, or _Great Expectations_. Just one of those, let alone all of them and more, will demonstrate to you how much Guinness was slumming–yes, I said slumming–to do the Lucas stuff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-hate-their-biggest-hit/504874.md?page=3)