# Is there any SONG that we ALL would agree is good (if not great)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [January 7, 2026, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427 "2026-01-07T11:53:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/141 "2026-01-09T08:58:34Z")
Is there anyone who actually dislikes “Cold as Ice” by Foreigner? ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/142 "2026-01-09T08:59:11Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > That’s neither a vote for, nor is it a vote against, but even so, maybe we could look for something that doesn’t remind some of us of an action-adventure musical comedy. Ok, fine. I’m not going to suggest “Boom Boom Boom Boom”, “Boogie Chillen” or “Shake Your Tail Feathers”. Actually, no, I take that last one back. Ray Charles’ version of everything is probably the best version of that thing. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/qdbrIrFxas0/maxresdefault.jpg "The Blues Brothers (1980) - Shake a Tail Feather Scene (4/9) | Movieclips") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdbrIrFxas0) Damn, that movie has great music. > [@Stephe96](#): > > Is there anyone who actually dislikes “Cold as Ice” by Foreigner? Oh jeebus hell yes. I hate their entire catalog. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/143 "2026-01-09T09:44:19Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Is there anyone who actually dislikes “Cold as Ice” by Foreigner? To me, it brings back some particularly embarrassing middle-school slow-dancing incidents that I’d rather not expand on. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/144 "2026-01-09T10:00:44Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Can’t stand it. Maybe it’s overexposure, I don’t know, but I will change the radio station when it comes on. I really don’t think there can be an answer to this question. Of the songs mentioned skimming the thread, “Dock of the Bay” comes closest for me, though there are a number of other songs I like (Especially “Here Comes the Sun”). I’d vote Ode to Joy and “Linus and Lucy” as well if we’re counting songs without words (which are not technically “songs,” if one is being pedantic.) Ah, but _Ode to Joy_ **does** have words, so I’d say it qualifies as a song. Beethoven set Friedrich Schiller’s poem “An die Freude”—soloists and full chorus included—to the 4th movement of the Ninth. Sure, the tune’s often heard instrumentally, but the original is very much sung. As for its near-universal appeal, I submit [this documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il4N9v92T50&list=RDil4N9v92T50&start_radio=1&t=1s) as Exhibit A (long, but worth it). ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/145 "2026-01-09T11:35:50Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > It’ll probably never win, but my submission is “Chaise Longue” by Wet Leg. I don’t think I heard that one before. I really liked it at the beginning, It got too repetitive and then I gave up on it. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/146 "2026-01-09T12:31:50Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > No. No. A million times No. Oh, well, back to the drawing board. 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/147 "2026-01-09T12:32:01Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > Ah, but _Ode to Joy_ **does** have words, so I’d say it qualifies as a song :smack: Of course it does! ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/148 "2026-01-09T12:53:46Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Lol! I read once that if you have an earworm that you can’t get rid of, The Girl from Ipanema is the perfect song to erase the earworm. Works for me! I like “Love Shack” for this, just be aware of the obvious risk. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/149 "2026-01-09T12:56:53Z")
I really enjoy Wet Leg (my first post-lockdown concert in 2021!), and Chaise Longue is a banger, but, I have to say, it definitely isn’t for everyone and some of the lyrics border on cringe/trying too hard to be clever. I personally try to ignore the lyrics. My wife finds it annoying as hell (and I totally get that.) ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/150 "2026-01-09T13:13:59Z")
[Aha - Take on Me](https://youtu.be/djV11Xbc914?si=JbA-Si4vvosAWN6M) Only flaw I guess is: don’t pick it for karaoake! ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/151 "2026-01-09T16:55:28Z")
My pick for songs that people seem to just stop what they’re doing and groove along to… Soft Cell - Tainted Love Outkast - Hey Ya Weird Al - Word Crimes ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/152 "2026-01-09T17:04:06Z")
Wonderful - thanks for the link. > "I think a lot of people knew that this record was going to be a classic,” says Freeman. "So that background chorus — which I wanted a lot louder, but he disagreed — included Pete Seeger and James Taylor and Livingston Taylor and Carly Simon. It was quite a star-studded cast, and one that I really should have photographed.” Pete Seeger! I had no idea. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/153 "2026-01-09T17:20:10Z")
I think a better approach is to name songs we don’t like but can understand from an objective point of view why it’s considered good. For example, I hate _Unchained Melody_, but I would be wrong to say it’s a bad song. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/154 "2026-01-09T19:30:22Z")
> [@Patx2](#): > > Blue Bayou by Linda Rondstadt I would prefer Poor Poor Pitiful Me, personally. What about Superstition by Stevie Wonder? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/155 "2026-01-09T19:55:02Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Any time I hear “The Girl from Ipanema,” I think of the scene in _The Blues Brothers_, where the Brothers are riding the elevator to the Cook County Assessors’ Office. A Muzak version of that song is playing as they ride up. And I’m sure that I’m not the only one who thinks that. > > That’s neither a vote for, nor is it a vote against, but even so, maybe we could look for something that doesn’t remind some of us of an action-adventure musical comedy. Maybe you could retrain yourself to think of a Haruki Murakami short story instead. > **[The 1963/1982 Girl from Ipanema](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1963/1982_Girl_from_Ipanema)** > > The 1963/1982 Girl from Ipanema (1963/1982年のイパネマ娘; 1963/1982-nen no Ipanema-musume) is a short story by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, written in 1982. The title references "The Girl from Ipanema", the famous Bossa nova song that was first released in March 1964 in the album Getz/Gilberto. The story follows the musings of an unnamed narrator as he contemplates the song, detailing one memory to the next. It culminates in his meeting with the metaphysical girl from the song, and his expressio... ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/156 "2026-01-09T20:04:27Z")
Everyone loves the “Macarena,” right? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/157 "2026-01-09T20:25:25Z")
It’s okay, but it’s no Friday. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kfVsfOSbJY0/maxresdefault.jpg "Rebecca Black - Friday") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVsfOSbJY0) ---
**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:** [January 9, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/158 "2026-01-09T20:38:10Z")
[![](https://i.gifer.com/1nzI.gif) ](https://i.gifer.com/1nzI.gif) ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/159 "2026-01-10T01:43:58Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > How about “Satisfaction”? _Anyone_ have a problem with “Satisfaction”?! Depends. The song, I have no problem with. But I hate Mick Jagger (yeah, I know he is supremely talented, but I can’t see the talent for the assholery). The DEVO version of Satisfaction is wonderful. Every time I hear it, I imagine the Devo musicians saying, “psst … Mick … _this_ is how you do it right.” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427/160 "2026-01-10T03:03:37Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Depends. The song, I have no problem with. But I hate Mick Jagger That raises an interesting question I’ve been meaning to ask. If someone specifically doesn’t like a song because they can’t stand the singer (e.g., Jagger, Sinatra, Dylan and the Carpenters are just a few singled out here) – does that **automatically** disqualify every version of that song by every singer for all time? Some examples. Here are various covers of All Along the Watchtower (I’ve truncated a vcouple of the long intros in some of these) First we have Dave Matthews ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/p7wAohYGf04/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/p7wAohYGf04?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=RDp7wAohYGf04&start=279 And Neil Young ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/1DBewzgXgYk/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/1DBewzgXgYk?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=RD1DBewzgXgYk&start=159 A female version by Barbara Keith ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WusPVypSR_c/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/WusPVypSR_c?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=RDWusPVypSR_c A bluesy cover from Julia Othmer ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Ap3tc2U50oY/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ap3tc2U50oY?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=RDAp3tc2U50oY And an acoustic version ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/MhTesTSJbsg/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/MhTesTSJbsg?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=RDMhTesTSJbsg [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-song-that-we-all-would-agree-is-good-if-not-great/1026427.md?page=9)