Gotta take exception to a couple of mentions: Poco is NOT cheese (well, they did have a Not-Unlike-Chicago’s-Peter-Cetera-Lounge-Act phase, but they got quickly back to country-rock basics).
And if you include " I Think We’re Alone Now", don’t use Tiffany’s relatively lame cover.
And Mother’s Lament is wonderful. Just ask my kids, who MADE me sing it while I washed them up (in Clapton, Bruce, and Baker’s Overly Cockney Accents).
And by the way, "The angels replied…
‘Oh, your baby has gone down the plug-hole!/
Your baby has gone down the plug… /
The poor li’l thing /
was so skinny and thin /
It shoulda been washed in a jug’… ( in a jug ) "
Come to think of it, my kids were sick little scamps!
Your definition of “cheese” is much different than mine. For that matter, there are quite a few songs mentioned in this thread that I wouldn’t consider cheese.
Seems to me that if the song is up-tempo, then it doesn’t qualify as cheesy. Might be bad. Or annoying. But in my opinion, the song would have to be somewhat overwrought to be on any cheese list I’d create. Nonetheless, there are great cheesy songs listed already.
But, I don’t think I’ve seen this song mentioned, which is unusual because I’ve heard people cite this song as the epitome of cheese:
Can’t believe it took 60 posts for someone to mention this one. In my book, Seasons in the Sun wins the all-time cheese-covered trophy made of cheese and filled with liquid cheese.
Has “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” been mentioned yet? I have yet to hear a cheesier song than that. It’s like shoving Velveeta straight into your ear canal.
LOL! Big amen from this corner of the congregation. “Turn, Turn, Turn” ~ Pete Seeger, but made famous by the Byrds, based on the rivets in the book of Ecclesiastes.
On a differnt note, has anyone mentioned “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Rooster; maybe not technically cheese, but waaay over the top vocal-wise.
“Ben” ~ Michael Jackson His vocal stylings were flawless, but a love song to a rat is, well, cheese plus cheese.
Bliss arrives in tuneless packages when Leonard Nimoy sings “Love to make love to you” and “Clouds”
But do you really want to blow your mind with gouda man? The put on your big assed headphones and sink into the fetid aroma of “The ballad of Bilbo Baggins”.
Ok maybe we want a better style of actor singing
MacArthur Park by the Late Sir Richard Harris is bound to make you wish he’d never made that damned cake.
Blast forward to the eighties when Eddie Murphy was the biggest star in Hollywood. Just when the world thought he could do no wrong he decided to give us a look into the mediocrity he was ready to fall into when he rocked us out and let us know that he just wanted to Party all the time
Finally to honour a certain singer’s passing how about that group of kids who could dance and sing a storm in the seventies? You know the group of brothers who dressed funky and had the little guy with the pipes who could belt out a tune. Yeah I’m talkin’ 'bout these brothers but wait… you should see them live for the full effect
Would the epic-tragic- story-song genre of the mid 70s qualify as cheese?
I’m talking about Tony Orlano & Dawn, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” Vicky Lawrence “the Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia”
**Harry Chapin **“Cat’s In The Cradle”
Has anyone mentioned Helen Reddy’s “Delta Dawn” (much cheesier than Tanya Tucker’s performance)?
Would you like some whine with your cheese? Janis Ian “At Seventeen”.
…
You know the group of brothers who dressed funky and had the little guy with the pipes who could belt out a tune. Yeah I’m talkin’ 'bout these brothers but wait… you should see them live for the full effect
QUOTE]
I watched the live video with the sound off, and Dayumm! Those little mofos are freakin hot, with their slim, toned, lithe young bods in their tight little jumpsuits with the big ol belts, dancing around. Jeez Louise.
There is a significant difference between “cheesy” and “cliche” although they often go hand in hand. There can be a great song that becomes iconic then gets overused as a sports anthem or whatnot and loses all its cool. I think a few songs in this thread are the ones that have fallen victim to having become cheesy via cliche, some are just cliche and don’t really belong in the fromagerie.
There are so many great cheeses here, I’m going to have to distill my playlist carefully.
Edit: Perhaps I should separate it into pre-1980s cheese (since so much of the 80s bubblegum pop is cheesy) and move hairbands into its own category.
Yep. I think there is definitely a distinction to be made.
Combining the responses in this thread with my own memory, I think the 1970s wins hands-down as the cheesiest decade of the rock era. Thank goodness for bands like Queen and Supertramp – seems like everything else was either cheesy or disco.
Well, no playlist of insipid earworms is complete without “brandy” and “Jimmy Loves Maryanne” by Looking glass. Then there’s “rock me gently” and “Life is a rock but the radio rolled me”