Most hilariously bad song ever?

What is the most hilariously bad song ever to have received any amount of commercial success? It doesn’t count if the song is funny on purpose (unless it fails in that aim and is funny despite it), really bad but not funny, or if it never made the charts anywhere.

I already posted this one in the earworm thread after I found it while looking up another song, but I fail to comprehend how Japanese Boy by Aneka, a squawking Scottish woman wearing the world’s worst wig, ever hit #1 on the British Pop charts (even in 1981). The video, however, is not only hilariously gaudy, but the comments also show that you can find a fan for anything. I also gather that it was featured on GTA: Vice City (you have to love their sense of humor sometimes).

And another submission: what do you get when you combine one Indian-Egyptian female singer, a black American rapper, generic German dance music, and really bad costume design? There Is a Star by Pharao (sic). It’s mainly funny (as opposed to just being bad) because of the hilarious contrast between the rapper and the rest of the song; it’s almost like they dubbed him in (and don’t forget the lyrics they have him singing!).

Valete,
Vox Imperatoris

I’m not here to start no trouble, I’m just here to talk about the Superbowl Shuffle.

Wow, I can’t believe they got an NFL team to do that.

Valete,
Vox Imperatoris

“Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani. There’s the title, first of all - nobody’s sure what it’s supposed to mean - but what makes it great is the stupid, stupid lyrics in which a woman in her mid-30s tries to act tough by pretending to be a high school student. That combination still cracks me up.

Japanese Boy is really fun to listen to while playing GTA Vice City :slight_smile:

One of the standard answers to this question is MacArthur Park.

‘My Humps’ (Black Eyed Peas) springs to mind.

I love the Weird Al version of that (“Jurassic Park”).

Valete,
Vox Imperatoris

Simple plan’s How could this happen to me has become synonymous with bullshit emo melodrama.

Heres a Youtube link to song. Perfect teenagers crying in a montage music in some crappy high school TV drama.

Yes, but which version?

I prefer Richard Harris’ version if I want to experience true dreckiness in all its splendour. William Shatner’s is not quite, the teeniest eeniest mote not so bad.

Oh, I definitely have a submission for most melodramatic song (and especially video) ever: All the Things She Said by t.A.T.u., the Russian duo who lied-by-omission about being lesbians for three years. They managed to garner the most hilariously negative allmusic review I’ve ever seen, too. I think the song is alright, though. :o

Valete,
Vox Imperatoris

Well, in terms of bizarre concept, wretched production and horrendously, hilariously bad execution it’s tough to beat Nervous Norvus’ 1956 hit song “Transfusion” (about the perils of reckless driving):

ZZZZZZOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM
Tooling down the hightway doing 79
I’m a twin pipe papa and I’m feelin fine
Hey man dig that was that a red stop sign
[Scrreeech-BANG, tinkle]
Transfusion, transfusion
I’m just a solid mess of contusions
Never, never, never gonna speed again
Slip the blood to me, Bud

Several more verses follow, each with its own car crash sound effects and hipster line about getting blood, concluding with

Hey, daddy-o
Make that type O, huh
Atta-boy
(Scrreech-BANG etc.)

More unbelievably, that was not Nervous Norvus’ only hit (He had “Ape Call” and “Dig”, another hipster chronicle)*.

*Before his brief time at the pinnacle of recording success, he worked as a truck driver.

How about “I Love” by Tom T. Hall, perfectly sent up in this video

I’ve mentioned this one before in other threads, but what about He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss), co-written by Carole King!

I can’t remember if Murray Head’s hit One night in Bangkok
is supposed to be funny or not, but it cracks me up every time I see it.

Best line:
*One town is very like another when your head’s down over your pieces brother. *

SSG Schwartz

Personally, I think “Indian Reservation” by Paul Revere and the Raiders deserves at least an Honorable Mention. That and “Seasons in the Sun.”

Since it’s supposed to not just be bad, but HILARIOUSLY bad, I nominate the totally hilarious “Good Morning Starshine”. Ooby glibby dooby bibby blobby blooby…

I just realized I forgot Sugarland. Jennifer Nettles trying to dance cracks me up everytime I see her. A couple examples: Settlin’, and Down in Mississippi (Up to no good).

Funnier than anything else I’ve seen on teh net.

SSG Schwartz

“There Goes My Baby” by the Drifters wouldn’t make most Bad Song lists, but deserves to.

I have an old two-record set covering Atlantic Records’ early years which includes this song. One of the heads of the record label comments in the liner notes how appalled he was when he first heard the demo, with a bloated string section seemingly working against the vocalists and guitar/saxophone accompanists, resulting in a cacophonous mess (which it is). He got talked into releasing it anyway, and it was a huge hit (got to #2 on the pop charts) and started a new trend in the use of strings on R&B recordings.

It’s still dreadful.

For me, it’s a tough call between ‘Philosophy of the World’ and ‘My Pal Foot Foot’ by The Shaggs. Both are hilarously bad.