Hit Songs in Bad Taste

[Kent_Clark]

Squeeze Box by The Who. Although it’s really too silly to be truly offensive, IMHO.

[DrDeth]

@Treppenwitz

Deservedly panned in the recent past, Baby it’s Cold Outside deserves a mention. And what a story - after having been called for being suggestive of date rape, it made the Billboard download top ten.

It gets weirder - the Wiki page tells the story of it being suspended by radio station

You couldn’t make it up.

j

It is not in ANY way suggestive of date rape. Not even a little.

[Slow_Moving_Vehicle]

@Stephe96

“He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)” by the Crystals in 1962, written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King (!)

ETA: not sure if it was a, um, “hit” though

Carole King revealed a few years ago that she was a domestic abuse survivor, as well.

The whole song isn’t bad, but Mungojerrie’s In The Summertime has those skeevy lines:

If her daddy’s rich, take her out for a meal.
If her daddy’s poor, just do what you feel…

[DrDeth]

@bobot

Since bad taste is relative, I’ll include a really, really successful song, your taste can be the judge. Start Me Up by the Stones is another in a long line of rock and roll songs about sex. (Hi, AC/DC!) As many times as people had these lyrics pass through their brains, a little focus on the lyrics brings about another take on the song. Like when the Folksmen perform it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzkILGr2-Ok

Yeah, it’s sex, so?

[DrDeth]

@Just_Asking_Questions

Rum and Coca Cola.

Both mother and daughter are whores servicing Yankees. Just because it whooshed over the Andrew Sisters’ heads doesn’t make it any less offensive.

…

Their lyrics were “Both mother and daughter singin’ for the Yankee dollar” the original was “Both mother and daughter/Working for the Yankee dollar”, that’s kinda suggestive if your mind works like that, but…

[Mean_Mr.Mustard]

@Slow_Moving_Vehicle

…The whole song isn’t bad, but Mungojerrie’s In The Summertime has those skeevy lines:

If her daddy’s rich, take her out for a meal.
If her daddy’s poor, just do what you feel…

People 'round here get worked up over this lyric but I don’t see it. If daddy’s rich he’ll spring for the meal. Otherwise the two of you will have to find a free way to have (consensual) fun.

And…Mungojerri???
mmm

[bobot]

@DrDeth

Yeah, it’s sex, so?

Yeah, that’s why I mentioned that bad taste is relative. I was hoping to ward off stupid responses.

[Slow_Moving_Vehicle]

@Mean_Mr.Mustard

People 'round here get worked up over this lyric but I don’t see it. If daddy’s rich he’ll spring for the meal. Otherwise the two of you will have to find a free way to have (consensual) fun.

And…Mungojerri???
mmm

My mistake - Mungo Jerry. I watched Cats earlier tonight, and assumed the band was named after the cat.

[ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness]

My Sharona by The Knack hit #1 for 6 weeks.

I always get it up
For the touch
Of the younger kind

Ew…

[Jeff_Lichtman]

I Gotcha by Joe Tex is the rapiest hit song I’ve ever heard.

[Just_Asking_Questions]

@DrDeth

Their lyrics were “Both mother and daughter singin’ for the Yankee dollar” the original was “Both mother and daughter/Working for the Yankee dollar”, that’s kinda suggestive if your mind works like that, but…

Their lyrics are clearly workin’. Don’t know how you hear “singin’” in that.

[Marvin_the_Martian]

The Homecoming Queen’s Got A Gun was a hit on Dr. Demento back in the day, but would be even more tasteless today…

[Banksiaman]

(He’ll never be an) Ol’ Man River by Australian band TISM, sometimes known by their full name This Is Serious Mum.

Wikipedia - song, TISM - Wikipedia
YouTube clip
On traditional Greek instruments

chorus:

I’m on the drug
I’m on the drug
I’m on the drug
That killed River Phoenix

It did very well, making it into No 23 on the national single charts, so properly qualifying for this thread.

Go them!

[LLCoolL]

@WOOKINPANUB

…I think Heart’s awful song All I Wanna Do is pretty tasteless. I suppose there have been women who picked up total strangers and boned them for the sole purpose of getting pregnant because their partner couldn’t, but maybe lets not sing about it…

Written by Mutt Lange. Must be some kind of wish fulfillment for him. Ugh.

[LLCoolL]

@Annie-Xmas

Also, “This Girl Is A Woman Now” is in bad taste because the idea that a young girl becomes a woman by having sex is wrong on a lot of different levels…

Just checked out the lyrics. Ugh. Really, really bad.

[Peter_Morris]

@Slow_Moving_Vehicle

The whole song isn’t bad, but Mungojerrie’s In The Summertime has those skeevy lines:

If her daddy’s rich, take her out for a meal.
If her daddy’s poor, just do what you feel…

@Mean_Mr.Mustard

People 'round here get worked up over this lyric but I don’t see it. If daddy’s rich he’ll spring for the meal. Otherwise the two of you will have to find a free way to have (consensual) fun.

You’re both missing the worst part of it.

[Treppenwitz]

Re: Baby It’s Cold Outside

@DrDeth

It is not in ANY way suggestive of date rape. Not even a little.

As the lyrics unfold, one voice (usually female, labeled “The Mouse” by Loesser on the original lyric sheet) ticks off a list of excuses to flee while the other (usually male, labeled “The Wolf”) tries every gambit in the book to get her to stay, presumably for the night

My bolding. Is 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' About Date Rape? | Snopes.com

j

[Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank]

@CalMeacham

I had never heard of this song until I read about it in Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs. I still have never heard it.

Well, that’s pretty easily fixed in this really modern world, what with the internet and whatnot.

Pretty catchy. Honestly, no small portion of song lyrics are complete shit. If the music has merit and/or the voice singing them sounds good, then the content of the lyrics doesn't seem to matter.

[hogarth]

I nominate “The Battle of Kookamonga” by Homer and Jethro. It won a Grammy, but its lyrics seem pretty skeevy nowadays – Boy Scouts leering at girls skinny-dipping and then chasing after them and hoping to catch them in order to “rub” and “make sparks”.

[robardin]

@Shodan

Don’t know if it counts as a hit, but Elvis Costello’s Alison. Linda Ronstadt did a very pretty cover of it, but ISTM that murder is in bad taste.

Wait… What? “Alison” is about murder?! Never thought of that myself, and googling it now shows Elvis Costello himself denying/puzzling over that interpretation.

Quite a few of my biggest facepalm reactions are already mentioned, though I’ll firmly put myself in the camp of supporting the classic song Baby, It’s Cold Outside as depicting a “coy woman playing along with a seduction” rather than an innocent, unknowing victim of date rape.

Especially “Brown Sugar” by the Rolling Stones. What the hell? It’s not even couched in figurative terms.

A few months ago, in a bookstore, my kids and I heard a Beach Boys song gleefully looking forward to going to the beach where there’d “have some fun” because there’d be “two girls for every boy”. They all literally said out loud, “What the f–?” (They are teenagers and we were doing a college visiting tour.)

I Googled what the song title was. It was… “Surf City”, it reached #1 in 1963, and was actually recorded by “Jan and Dean” but written by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.