# Favorite and Least Favorite Number 1 Year-End Pop Songs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522 "2012-12-19T13:43:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/1 "2012-12-19T13:43:37Z")
Going by [the first column of this list here on wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Year-End_number-one_singles_and_albums), what has been your favorite number 1 year-end pop song, and which has been your least favorite? I’m gonna have to go with The Sign by Ace of Base, for nostalgic and iconic reasons, as my favorite number 1 song. My least favorite, which I hate with a burning passion, is In Da Club by 50 Cent. Hate hate hate that song and never got why people liked it. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/2 "2012-12-19T13:49:37Z")
Favorite: “Hey Jude” Least favorite: “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” with “Joy to the World” a close second. ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/3 "2012-12-19T13:51:12Z")
1. Careless Whisper… okay okay hate me… I love Wham… ignorance is kind… thiers no comfort in the truth… pain is for to find… (and the cheesy spanish guitar lick) Superwoman by the incredibly hot Karyn White is a close second… Hated… Ughh “Love will keep us together”… Captain and Tennille… that silly beat… stop…cause i really don’t love this… stop… please thinking of us… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/4 "2012-12-19T14:15:06Z")
Christmas obviously turns peoples’ brains into porridge. What a treacly smarmy brain-numbingly awful collection of songs that is. “Macarena” “Boom Boom Pow” “That’s What Friends Are For” “I Will Always Love You” “My Sharona” “Shadow Dancing” “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” “Sugar Sugar” Every time I look I find another cringe-maker. Even songs that are somewhat catchy are among the worst tripe that good groups ever did. “Hello Goodbye” “Physical” “Faith” “Ballad of the Green Berets” is in a special hell all its own, though. As for favorite, Vaughn Monroe’s version of “Riders in the Sky” is an all-time classic. [The original recording](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ais2uSUwIuY). [A more powerful live version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHo6ug6yAmw). ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/5 "2012-12-19T14:16:32Z")
Exapno, remember that these are year-end charts, so they take into account sales and airplay for the entire year, not just around the end of the year. These songs were ostensibly the most popular of the popular songs of each year (they had to be released in that year, sometime, and were not necessarily all that popular by the time December rolled around). ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/6 "2012-12-19T14:22:58Z")
Theme…from “A Summer Place”… From “A Summer Place”…it’s the theme…from “A Summer Place”… Theme…from “A Summer Place”… From “A Summer Place”…it’s the theme…from “A Summer Place”… www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ymQ8E89-Ao ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/7 "2012-12-19T14:24:31Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Exapno, remember that these are year-end charts, so they take into account sales and airplay for the entire year, not just around the end of the year. These songs were ostensibly the most popular of the popular songs of each year (they had to be released in that year, sometime, and were not necessarily all that popular by the time December rolled around). Sorry. I misinterpreted your title. So let me extend my rage to the collective idiocy of the entire buying public. There. I feel better now. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/8 "2012-12-19T14:26:11Z")
Favorite (as if there were any doubt): “TiK ToK” by Ke$ha, 2010 Least favorite: it’s hard to choose between “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night (1971) and “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack (1972). What a bad couple of years if that’s the best they could come up with. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/9 "2012-12-19T16:03:10Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > Favorite (as if there were any doubt): “TiK ToK” by Ke$ha, 2010 > > Least favorite: it’s hard to choose between “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night (1971) and “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” by Roberta Flack (1972). What a bad couple of years if that’s the best they could come up with. Don’t blame the charts people! It’s just based on sales and radio play, as far as I know 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/10 "2012-12-19T16:05:11Z")
Favorite – probably either “Heartbreak Hotel” or “Hey Jude”. Least favorite – there’s a lot of competition on that list, but I’d have to go with “Sugar Shack”… not only my least favorite on the list, but one of my personal candidates for worst pop hit of all time. Out of all the songs released in 1963, that one was the top!? ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/11 "2012-12-19T16:06:46Z")
I’m getting the sense here that we dopers really hate a lot of pop music, and the number 1 top hit of each year seems to be a distilled list of hated pop. Why am I not surprised? ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/12 "2012-12-19T16:51:56Z")
I don’t know many of the really new or really old songs, so with that caveat: Favorite: \*Bridge over Troubled Water \*by Simon and Garfunkel. Honorable mentions: \*Call Me \*by Blondie and \*Somebody that I Used to Know \*by Gotye. Least favorite: \*Sugar Sugar \*by the Archies. Honorable mention: \*Silly Love Songs \*by Paul McCartney. ---
**Author:** ![happycamper\_5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cab0a1/32.png) [@happycamper\_5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happycamper_5)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/13 "2012-12-19T19:13:33Z")
Favorite? If we’re choosing based on what we can remember, then When Doves Cry. Hated? I know you said pop song, but this one got plenty of play on pop radio - Amazed by Lonestar. At the time, I couldn’t walk into any store or even get within a hundred yards of a radio without being subjected to it. If you insist on a pop song, then probably I Will Always Love You. This song was part of my HS graduation ceremony. Why is still a mystery to me. > [@drewtwo99](#): > > My least favorite, which I hate with a burning passion, is **In Da Club by 50 Cent**. Hate hate hate that song and never got why people liked it. But have you heard it like [this](http://youtu.be/qJwaG7XR1Xs)? > [@Ponch8](#): > > Favorite (as if there were any doubt): “TiK ToK” by Ke$ha, 2010 What do you think about the Deconstructed EP? I admit, I’m not a usual fan, but that one’s caused to re-evaluate my opinion of her. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/14 "2012-12-19T19:44:07Z")
I know very few songs before, say 1963, and know very few songs after, say 1995. So, in the 30ish years in between I’ll go with: Favourite: I want to Hold Your Hand Least Favourite: When Doves Cry Really, I dislike just about all of these songs. I’d turn the radio off or change stations for the vast majority of them. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/15 "2012-12-19T20:06:08Z")
> [@happycamper\_5](#): > > What do you think about the Deconstructed EP? I admit, I’m not a usual fan, but that one’s caused to re-evaluate my opinion of her. I also enjoy this EP. It includes “Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You,” which her mom wrote for Dolly Parton back before Kesha was even born. My favorite track is “Blow,” which is a totally chilled-down version of the hit but has a swear word that wasn’t included in the original. I thought the inclusion of “The Harold Song” was a curious (but still good) choice, because the original is already pretty low-key. > [@Ponch8](#): > > Favorite (as if there were any doubt): “TiK ToK” by Ke$ha, 2010 To be fair to everybody else who’s ever recorded a song, I guess I should name my favorite song in the non-Kesha division: Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/16 "2012-12-19T20:26:13Z")
Favorite: _Call Me_ or _I Want to Hold Your Hand_ Least Favorite: _Bette Davis Eyes_ (I hate that song) > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > “Ballad of the Green Berets” is in a special hell all its own, though. I may have a fix for that. Next time you hear it, imagine it with the lyrics from _The Brady Bunch_. _Here’s the story Of a lovely lady Who was bringing up Three lovely girls…_ > [@drewtwo99](#): > > I’m getting the sense here that we dopers really hate a lot of pop music, and the number 1 top hit of each year seems to be a distilled list of hated pop. Why am I not surprised? My theory of pop music is that it functions like a gateway drug. When you first become aware of music, you go for the easy, the catchy, the stuff that you can like instantly. We outgrow it, as we are meant to, and some people look back with disdain on the stuff of their youth. But our tastes fragment into a hundred different directions, so nothing is ever as popular as that first quick fix that got us hooked in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/17 "2012-12-19T20:51:04Z")
Hmmmm. I can’t pick just one, so here’s several for each. Note that I think Cher’s 1999 _Believe_ is the last song I actually recognize. I’m not big on contemporary pop music. (Nor was I big on it in 1999, as the list below indicates. :P) Favorite: _The Battle of New Orleans_, Johnny Horton _Hello, Goodbye_, The Beatles _Folsom Prison Blues_, JC _Walk Like an Egyptian_, The Bangles _The Sign_, Ace of Base _Gangsta’s Paradise_, Coolio (who the fuck is “L.V.”?) Least: _I Can’t Help It (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)_, The Four Tops _Bridge over Troubled Water_, Simon & Garfunkel _I Will Always Love You_, Whitney Houston _Candle in the Wind 1997_, Elton John (I love the original; I hate Dianafying it.) _Believe_, Cher ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/18 "2012-12-19T22:49:35Z")
Favorites: The overproduced, overwrought _Bridge over Troubled Water_. _I Want To Hold Your Hand_, of course. _Candle In The Wind_, not necessarily for the 1997 version, but for the 1974 version Least: _ **BELIEVE** _. WTF is wrong with you people to like this song that much? ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/19 "2012-12-19T23:05:23Z")
I am really out of touch with pop culture I only recognize about 1/3 of the songs rock songs and very few of the R&B or country songs. But my favorite on the list is “When Doves Cry”. I don’t think I can name a least favorite. If I don’t like a song I will change the radio channel so I never really remember the songs I don’t like. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2012, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522/20 "2012-12-27T05:59:16Z")
Best: “Heartbreak Hotel”, Elvis in '56. Worst: “Look Away”, Chicago in 1989. First off, this Kath and Cetera less band shouldn’t have called itself Chicago anyway. Second, I never even heard this song anywhere in 1989. Finally, the song is the most nondescript piece of easy listening sludge you’ll ever hear. At least “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” and “Boom Boom Pow” are so utterly awful they’re fascinating. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-and-least-favorite-number-1-year-end-pop-songs/644522.md?page=2)