I don’t know if you could call it their “worst” song, but Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop is arguably their best-known song and is the one I always skip over whenever I play Rumours or some compilation or other.
Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping.” Practically the only song they did that ever got exposure (in the US at least), but easily one of their worst. Catchy, sure, but they’ve done catchier songs with better melodies and much more interesting lyrics. I realize they’re not everybody’s cup of tea by any stretch, but they’ve certain done better.
I can’t really tell the different sometimes between Teen Age Riot and PDA, which both have sort of a generic hardcore melodic punk riff to em, not that there’s anything wrong with a little of that sometimes.
My opinion is that Jagged Gorgeous Winter does what those other songs try to do (at least with their guitar hooks,) but in a unique (if less punkish) way. But I agree that Teen Age Riot is better than average for a Sonic Youth song.
Kenny Loggins has a handful of nice songs under his belt and yet I imagine the main thing he’s known for is Danger Zone.
Likewise Crash Test Dummies, who were starting to get a following in the early 90’s playing interesting alternative songs. Then they made Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm.
How about “Short People” for Randy Newman and “Brand New Key” by Melanie Safka? Actually both of them are good songs, but they’re also novelty-ish songs that really fooled the public into ignoring their more serious work. (Newman once complained “the first sentance of my obitiuary will read ‘Randy Newman, Oscar winner and composer of Short People’.”) Harry Nilsson’s version of “Without You” also isn’t very indicative of his work.
Chuck Berry. “My Ding-a-Ling.” Top that!
Pink Floyd’s biggest hit is “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II).” It has a few things going for it – David Gilmour’s vocal and guitar solo, and a nicely venomous chorus you can shout along with – but there’s barely enough music in it to fill even two and half minutes, and the drumming, like most of the drumming on The Wall, is tepid and bland. And of course it has those kids on it. All in all, a far cry from “Shine on You Crazy Diamond.”
I dunno, I think PDA is a decent song but nothing special (also I don’t like Paul Banks’ voice). I think Teen Age Riot has one of the most iconic and memorable guitar riffs around to say nothing of the great vocal melodies and awesome intro.
The Police - Every Breath You Take
Insanely popular song, too bad it’s trash.
Interesting. If someone stopped me in the street and said, “Quick, name 10 Fleetwood Mac songs,” I don’t know if I’d have even come up with Don’t Stop.
Joan Osborne’s one big hit is “One of Us.” (You know, what if God was one of us?) Easily the worst song on a great album.
Joni Mitchell. I’m not sure what her best-known song is. It might be “Woodstock,” in which case that qualifies.
The Monkees, “I’m a Believer.” Catchy, but they got a lot better after Don Kirschner stopped feeding them pap.
“A Horse with No Name” is not the worst America hit. Their second single, “I Need You” has that distinction. “Horse” is just insanely catchy, which is why it gets in peoples’ heads, but that not a bad thing.
“Bang on the Drum All Day” by Todd Rundgren.
31 albums and this wretched, throw-away tune is the one that gets on commercials and movies and is played at every sporting event?
Good God, yes, perfect answer.
Free Fallin’ - Tom Petty
It’s a good song, but go listen to You Wreck Me and say Free Fallin’ is better.
Cheap Trick - The Flame. I dunno it it’s their worst song, I don’t think I’ve listened to it the whole way through. But more than once I have heard people talk about Cheap Trick being a “one hit wonder” because of this song.
Ween - Push th’ Little Daisies. OK, they have other songs almost as irritating as this but it is definitely down there with their worst.
311 has only really had 2 big hits this decade - Amber and a cover of The Cure’s Love Song. I wouldn’t put either inside the top one hundred 311 songs.
Neither “Yesterday” or “Michelle” were released as singles because the Beatles didn’t think they were representative of their overall sound.
If Yesterday wasn’t released as a single, how did it hit #1 on the singles charts in the US?
(It wasn’t released as a British single, true. At least, not until 1975.)
Ha. Interesting, I always associated the Pixies with Where is My Mind before I really knew them myself.
I’ll mention Metallica’s Nothing Else Matter here, for my greatest amusement. See, I remember my first Met’ concert ever, which happened around the time the Black Album hit the radios with that song. The crowd was 90% old metalheads, 10% screaching teenage girls. The teenage girls seemingly crowded around the stage. The band came on stage, and the screaching got louder. Then the band opened up with a souped up Battery, and the screaching… it got ghastly silent 
Simon & Garfunkel, “The Sounds of Silence.” Best critique of it: It sounds like bad teenage poetry. And I generally like Paul Simon’s stuff.