# Hit Songs in Bad Taste **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 30, 2019, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784 "2019-05-30T16:39:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/101 "2019-05-31T16:04:08Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > “Fulsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash. > > I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. \*Folsom. And I’m more offended by people who cover the song but tweak the lyrics. I won’t even give individual credit, but there are a few covers that use “They say I shot a man in Reno; but that was just a lie”. Don’t like the song? Well, don’t cover it. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/102 "2019-05-31T16:48:36Z")
Murder ballads? They’ve been around for centuries, about someone who needed killin’, or was killed. Off the top of my head, ‘Delia’s Gone’, ‘Daemon Lover’, ‘The Knoxville Girl’, ‘The Long Black Veil’, and ‘Mack the Knife’ ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/103 "2019-05-31T17:23:33Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Their lyrics are clearly [workin’.](https://youtu.be/FMdPjklEosY?t=29) Don’t know how you hear “singin’” in that. My research says different. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/104 "2019-05-31T17:24:35Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Re: Baby It’s Cold Outside > > My bolding. [Is 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' About Date Rape? | Snopes.com](https://www.snopes.com/news/2017/12/18/baby-its-cold-outside/) > > j How is that date rape? That’s a date, a seduction. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/105 "2019-05-31T17:35:35Z")
Take This Job and Shove It, Johnny Paycheck. Charted #1 Everyone gets frustrated with their job. Expressing that venom in a song is over the top. Especially with violence at the workplace a modern reality. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/106 "2019-05-31T18:18:34Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > My research says different. Seriously? When someone says “who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?” I never thought anyone actually believed their own eyes (or in this case, ears) were lying. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/107 "2019-05-31T18:31:40Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Take This Job and Shove It, Johnny Paycheck. Charted #1 > > Everyone gets frustrated with their job. Expressing that venom in a song is over the top. Especially with violence at the workplace a modern reality. Threatening to quit a job is a far cry from threatening violence. The closest he comes to the latter is in the lines, > [@](#): > > You better not try to stand in my way > ‘Cause I’m walkin’ out the door I just don’t see this as being in bad taste at all. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/108 "2019-05-31T18:38:51Z")
The word in Rum and Coca Cola is clearly “workin’”, not “singin’”. BTW, the song was the subject of a copyright lawsuit. Morey Amsterdam had claimed copyright in the U.S., but the song was originally written by Lionel Belasco and the calypso singer Lord Invader (real name Rupert Westmore Grant). The original was even more clearly about prostitution. You can hear it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-CE4xYIyng). ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/109 "2019-05-31T18:42:00Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > I absolutely adore Afternoon Delight. I love the harmonies and my childhood self loved to sing this wonderful song about eating candy in the sunshine. What? You mean it’s NOT about eating candy in the daytime? Well, my 9 year old self does not believe you. My then-12 y.o. wife thought it was a fun song about fireworks. Who doesn’t like fireworks? I, too, don’t get the hate for “Afternoon Delight”. Good harmonies, nice beat, and cheerful lyrics that to me are not in bad taste at all; it’s obvious the narrators are singing the praises of happy, joyful, consensual sex. Fun little trivia fact - Starland Vocal Band had a short-lived musical variety show. For the presenter and emcee, they chose an up and coming young comedian named… David Letterman. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/110 "2019-05-31T18:56:15Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > My research says different. The Andrews Sisters sang “workin” on their hit recording. The lyrics to the original song by Lord Invader is “workin”. They modified lyrics that Morey Amsterdam (yes, that Morey Amsterdam!) plagiarized are “workin”. [Andrews Sisters version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeY2ORU5uU4) [Lord Invader version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjKxUMtC6uQ) There appears to be a version recorded by **Hot Chip** that changed the lyrics to “singing” but I can’t find a recording of it and it’s clearly not the original lyrics. > **[Rum & Coca Cola Lyrics - Hot Chip feat. The Andrews Sisters](https://www.lyricsbox.com/hot-chip-feat.-the-andrews-sisters-rum-and-coca-cola-lyrics-g5mx87m.html)** > > Full and accurate LYRICS for "Rum & Coca Cola" from "Hot Chip feat. The Andrews Sisters": If you ever go to Trinidad, They make you feel so very glad, ... ETA - Ninja’d, but I’m posting anyway ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/111 "2019-05-31T19:25:12Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > My then-12 y.o. wife … Which reminds me, no Jerry Lee Lewis contenders? ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/112 "2019-05-31T19:26:18Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > You have a lot of general misogyny of course in your 60’s and 70’s hits (You’re Having MY Baby, Treat her like a Lady, anything by the Eagles), and your various odes to 16 or 17 year olds which were more acceptable back then vs. now, but wouldn’t call those bad taste. Some may point to Ram Jam’s Black Betty, but that was of course not an original but a remake of a Leadbelly tune, plus the song lyrics mention race, but aren’t racist per se. > > #92 peak position is way out of the guidelines, but the fact that “I want my Baby Back” by Jimmy Cross could chart at all, especially in the early 1960’s, when it is about a guy so broken up about his girlfriend’s death he digs up her coffin and joins her, should earn special mention! “I Want My Baby Back” was a quite clever, if a bit over the top, parody of the dead-lover-tear-jerker genre that was popular at the time. It made fun of hits like "Tell Laura I Lover Her, “Where Can My Baby Be”(the original, not Pear Jam’s cover), and “Leader of the Pack”. I am glad to find out that it actually charted. I got introduced to it through Doctor Demento. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/113 "2019-05-31T19:37:56Z")
It may be somewhat obscure at this point, but in 1972 the Fort Worth Texas group Bloodrock had the top-40 hit “D.O.A.” It describes the grizzly aftermath of a plane crash in sickening detail as told from the perspective of a dying man. On the strength of that single, its source album, Bloodrock 2, went gold. Pity they could not continue their success. They were a good group and they made several albums worth hearing. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/114 "2019-05-31T19:39:34Z")
_[The Rake’s Song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD1Aj7EYDog)_ –The Decemberists #5 on Billboard ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/115 "2019-05-31T19:43:45Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > My Sharona by The Knack hit #1 for 6 weeks. > > _I always get it up > For the touch > Of the younger kind_ > > Ew… If you dislike that one, your certain to not like “Baby Talks Dirty” from the same album. ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/116 "2019-05-31T19:45:04Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Take This Job and Shove It, Johnny Paycheck. Charted #1 > > Everyone gets frustrated with their job. Expressing that venom in a song is over the top. Especially with violence at the workplace a modern reality. Was far less a reality 38 years ago when the song came out though. And in reading the full lyrics the only things he threatens to do is quit the job. But I suspect this post was meant as a joke. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/117 "2019-05-31T19:54:44Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > How is that date rape? That’s a date, a seduction. Because according to some, with truly twisted standards, if persuasion is employed than the woman is being manipulated and is not truly consenting. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/118 "2019-05-31T20:00:31Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > [_Run For Your Life_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzHXtxcIkg4)-The Beatles. “Norwegian Wood” is more subtle, but almost as sinister. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/119 "2019-05-31T20:35:46Z")
> [@TimfromNapa](#): > > “I Want My Baby Back” was a quite clever, if a bit over the top, parody of the dead-lover-tear-jerker genre that was popular at the time. It made fun of hits like "Tell Laura I Lover Her, “Where Can My Baby Be”(the original, not Pear Jam’s cover), and “Leader of the Pack”. I am glad to find out that it actually charted. I got introduced to it through Doctor Demento. Of course, I meant Pearl Jam. God I hate auto-correct! ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784/120 "2019-05-31T21:26:55Z")
> [@](#): > > There are plenty of songs about killing, or wanting to kill, unfaithful lovers… Criminal, yes, by modern standards, but I wouldn’t say it’s in “bad taste” if it’s a theme as old as mankind. Especially if you include operas! Yep, that one’s so common it doesn’t even register for me. And across genres. “Two Black Cadillacs” being a more recent country example. But I could probably name 10 without having to look too hard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-in-bad-taste/834784.md?page=7)