Overrated, I agree about that. But the criteria is for it to be among their worst, and I don’t think it is. I think it is the best song on their entire debut, for instance.
It does sound like bad teenage poetry. That reminds me of an example from another genre. Dustin Hoffman: The graduate.
Devo “Whip It”.
And what makes it worse: it’s possibly the worst song on that album. I always thought that song was blah, and only really recently really gave the album a listen and realized some of the other tracks are really phenomenal.
"Take My Breath Away, " by Berlin, from Top Gun.
It’s a fun song, but “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel is miles away from, say, “San Jacinto” or “No Self Control” (or the entirety of Passion). It was a complete departure, which is also why it was commercially viable.
Gotta disagree here. I find the music complex, multi-layered and catchy, and the lyrics (“Now, you swear-n-kick-n-baig (beg) us, that you’re not a gambling man…then you find you’re back in Vegas, with a handle in your hand” and "Then you love a little wild one, and she brings you only sorrow; all the time you know she’s smilin’, you’ll be on your knees tomorrow…) are just too clever (the “kick-n-baig” us line) and evocative of the misery of impossible, helpless love (the “little wild one/on your knees” line).
My .02, anyway.
Come to think of it, I can’t think of a single bad Steely Dan song, although some of their post-2000 work (Two Against Nature/Everything Must Go) is a little weak and depressing compared with the work they did in the '70s.
The lyrics are interesting (all Steely Dan lyrics are) but come on, compared to My Old School, Kid Charlemagne or Turn That Heartbeat Over Again it is sorely lacking in the melodic department. No way should that be THE one song that represents Steely Dan’s whole career to the masses of people.
Post 2000 they had some good stuff too, though a little too produced-sounding for me (and that’s saying something, considering Steely Dan.) Best tracks on TAN are West of Hollywood, Negative Girl and Almost Gothic. Best tracks on Everything Must Go are Pixeleen, Lunch with Gina and Slang of Ages. (IMO.)
I think Joni Mitchell’s best known song would be Big Yellow Taxi. It is probably her worst song - which still doesn’t make it bad.
I think Muskrat Love is as well known as Horse with no name. Hate both songs. Terrible just terrible.
I would put forward Imagaine by John Lennon. I’ve always thought it was unbearably smug.
& I think Mull of Kintyre is one of the worst songs of all time. & normally I like Wings
Fernando by Abba. I know they aren’t cool but I like most of their stuff.
I agree it doesn’t have much of a melody. And that it doesn’t rank with the songs you mention. Still, it’s a good song. Even if the question were, “Which song by a group with no bad songs is the least good one,” I would still have trouble naming Do It Again as that song, although for the life of me I can’t think which one I would name. 
(The trouble with The Dan for me is that even if it’s a song I don’t particularly like, all I have to do is listen to it a few more times and eventually I wind up loving it. Good music is like that.)
Glad to hear you like Slang of Ages. I have to admit I haven’t listened to 11 Tracks of Whack so Becker’s voice came as a pleasant surprise.
Really? They’ve never heard “Surrender” or “I Want You To Want Me”? Do they only listen to Wuss Radio?
The Clash- Rock the Casbah
Nine Inch Nails - Closer
Someone who claimed to “know music” once told me the song was in a minor key. I’m not all that surprised that she’s wrong. I still think it’s overrated.
AAAA is even worse than what I wrote. But I guess it’s moot.
The arguments over which Beatles song is best-known kind of silly in this case, where 95% of music listeners know most of the hits. Call it a twenty-way tie for first.
Uh, Muskrat Love is by Captain & Tennille, not America. However, it definitely meets my criteria.
You’re both right; both acts recorded it. (Though I’m more familiar with the Captain & Tennille version myself.)
**Red, Red Wine **by UB40. Went to see them a couple months ago and when they started up with this one, Nigel and I looked at each other instantly and said “this would be a good time to get a drink”. It could simply be that it’s overplayed but it’s been my least favorite for as long as I’ve been listening to them.
Definately not their biggest hit ever but Queen’s Another One Bites The Dust which hit billboard #1 in the US on the best selling Queen album in the US is among the worst Queen songs IMHO.
Even now when listening to a Best Of or Greatest Hits album by them I usually skip over this track.
I would think “We Will Rock You” has to be the worst Queen song, and a strong contender for the best known. (Hey, they don’t clap “Bohemian Rhapsody” at sports events!)
You really think Fernando is Abba’s best-known song? I remember songs like Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia, and Money, Money, Money getting far more airtime on the radio.
I haven’t heard (or even thought of) Short People in ages. I Love L.A. was played at sporting events in Los Angeles, and maybe still is, so it has certainly had more staying power. And among his soundtracks are You’ve Got a Friend in Me and When She Loved Me from both “Toy Story” movies. The first sentence of his obituary depends on who writes it; there’s a lot to choose from.
Warren Zevon has done a lot of songs better than Werewolves of London.
I think the whole basis for this thread might not be a coincidence. I have long believed in a gateway theory of music, similar to the idea that marijuana is a gateway drug. We are not born with our artisitic tastes fully developed. We need something simple and catchy, easy to understand, to get us hooked on music. That explains the popularity of Britney Spears, or the Spice Girls, or Abba (and lots more), but they are a vital part of the process. We need that awakening; “if this is out there, just think how much more is out there!” But we all splinter off in different directions, alternative, punk, prog-rock, new age, hip hop, jazz, funk, whatever; so none of those ever have the same massive popularity.
So if that’s true of music as a whole, maybe it’s true for individual acts; what’s popular isn’t what’s best, just what’s easiest to like.
I’m puzzled by this comment. By “that album” I assume you mean Sounds of Silence (and not Wednesday Morning 3:00 A.M., on which the song first appeared). It seems to me that Simon’s lyrics on there are pretty much of a piece, and if you consider “The Sound of Silence” “bad teenage poetry,” I’d expect you to consider it all bad teenage poetry. “I Am a Rock” is particularly blatantly rooted in adolescent angst, which is precisely why the song resonated so strongly with me at the age of 12 that I made Sounds of Silence my first album purchase ever. (And the wonderfully overwrought “Blessed” turned out to be the same but even more so!)