You don’t even have to hate the song itself. Just a particular version of it.
My choices are a tie between Bruce Springsteen’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, with that fake laugh in the last part where he repeats the chorus ad nauseum, and Cory Hart’s putrid rendition of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”.
When I was a kid, my father used to say (over and over and over ) that when I was switching to my adult teeth I always reminded him of this song, so I came to hate it.
Years later I learned it was a big number for Spike Jones and his City Slickers, but even that couldn’t rehabilitate the song. I still hate it.
Springsteen’s offering is a good (or should that be bad?) candidate; that spoken narrative might have sounded funny once (or not), but hearing it over and over is about as much fun as eating sand.
Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe and Wine is just an awful dirge. Actually, pretty much all of his Christmas songs have been terrible.
I love Christmas music, but I have come to nearly hating any vocal version of “Winter Wonderland” because, after a lifetime of not paying much attention to the lyrics, I’ve noticed how damn stupid they are. Still makes for a great instrumental, though. Unless I’m thinking about the unsung words.
Gotta agree with BabaBooey. I turn homocidal when I hear Feliz Navidad. I lived in El Paso for 20 years, and the Powers That Be in that city apparently decided that a bilingual song was the perfect unofficial offical holiday anthem. That f*cking song was played on a loop at the bus plaza, banks, and at some shopping centers EVERY year. Not to mention the nauseating frequency with which it was played on TV and on the radio.
My high school choir director tried to have us sing that song one year. In an almost unprecidented move, he caved under a storm of protest.
Damn you sir. BTW, a trivia side note: In America, that means ‘Merry Christmas’ in Mexican. (TM Randy Hickey)
I have two hated songs, and a specific version of a third.
Do You Hear What I Hear? I wish I didn’t. I can’t stand any version of this horrible song.
The Twelve Days of Christmas. I hate hate hate this song, but there’s actually one version I can stand - a fairly mangled version sung by Relient K.
And the specific performance that grates? Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer by Jewel. At one point she breaks into this horrible be-bop routine and my ears actually manage to develop muscle tissue and fold themselves shut. Teh horrar…
Mine is from waaaaay back: from the Dennis The Menace TV show. It’s the episode where he sings “Silent Night” I used to run from the room when that little tow-head started in with his treacly crooning.
For perpetrating “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime”, Sir Paul McCartney should be boiled in his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.
Just about any song that glorifies the crappiest season of all–winter.
That phony Bing Crosby liked White Christmasses because the only snow he ever saw was the fake stuff on a sound stage.
Mel Torme gleefully extolling Jack Frost nipping at my nose, idiots who want the snow never to end, who make snowmen and call them Parson Brown all belong locked-up in a looney bin somewhere.
There have been a few mentioned here already that I hate (Feliz Navidad, especially—damn you, Jose Feliciano!).
I must, however, add “Mary, Did You Know,” sung by anyone. It’s like e-mail glurge set to music. Bad music.
Also, I used to hate Elvis’s version of “Blue Christmas,” but I have since heard the Porky Pig version about eight times a day on the crap oldies radio station my cow-orker insists on blasting in the main part of our office. The Elvis version suddenly doesn’t sound so bad.
Every single [del]fuc[/del] [checks forum] infernal hymn, carol, novelty song, special Christmas album, childhood favorite, chipmunk and barking dog. I loathe them, each and all.
This is my second year of hearing the same 40 pieces of crap revolve over and over and over and over. Today, if I had to pick the one I hated the most, it would be Peggy Lee’s “Snow.”