Musicians Whose Weakest Works Get the Most Airplay

Cafe Society
1

There are a few artists who have written a lot of great songs, but the songs that get the most airplay are inferior works, far less powerful than most of their work. (Clearly this is a matter of opinion, but I bet it will be fairly easy to come to a consensus in many cases.)

I’ll start by nominating the song that inspired the topic: “Have you ever seen the rain?” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. The lugubrious exercise in kvetching in a low, moany, whiny voice is orders of magnitude worse than anything else CCR has done, especially worse than their other hits. It can’t compare to the driving urgency of “Born on A Bayou” or the hypnotic thrill of Suzy Q or the infectious joy of “Looking Out My Back Door.”

The song sucks, it blows, and it’s far and away the one most frequently played on the radio. I do not understand!

The floor is open for counterarguments and other nominees.

2

Bobby McFerrin: Don’t Worry, Be Happy

“Here’s a little song I wrote, which compares unfavourably with every single other item in my catalogue --La la la la la la la, la la la la la”

3

I don’t hear that one all that often on the local classic rock station. If we get CCR , it is usually Fortunate Son, Born on the Bayou, or Bad Moon Rising.

4

Do you have a cite that it plays more often? I don’t recall hearing it in years. Maybe you have a local radio programmer who has a fetish over the song.

I would guess that Fortunate Son gets more play, though I don’t have any evidence.

5

I came into this thread to post this one, only to see it gone at #2.

(I won’t worry, though.)

6

I think Tom Petty is a great performer who has put out a variety of songs. He has a lot that havce gotten airplay, but the worst one he had that was popular was Freefallin’

It’s a three cord, three cord song. A three cord, three cord song

7

Stations tend to play “Jessica” by the Allman Brothers.

Up until “Smooth,” Santana was only represented by “Evil Ways.”

8

I’m a huge fan of Todd Rundgren. Between his solo works and the bands he has lead, he’d written hundreds of songs and several dozen albums, ranging from pop and rock, to blues, Philly soul, prog rock, techno, show tunes and even bossa-nova and rap.

So why, in the name of all that is holy, is the stupidest thing he ever penned his most popular? Why is it played on commercials and sporting events?

9

OK, there is the cord going from his guitar to this guitar amp, and the one going from his microphone to the mixing board. Where is the third one?

10

I’m gonna second this one. I sure hear it more often than Don’t Worry, Be Happy, which is a solid candidate.

11

I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing by Aerosmith.
Feel free to close this thread now.

12

I hope this thread isn’t going to be another celebration of how fashionable it is to slag off an artist’s biggest hit.

13

That rests on the assumption that anything else Aerosmith did was any good.

14

Because it’s simple stupid fun, of course–practically made to order for those purposes.

I agree it’s the least interesting of the Rundgren stuff I’ve heard, which isn’t all that much.

15

Jimi Hendrix

The man did things with a guitar that nobody else even dreamed of, but the only thing you ever hear on the radio is Hey Joe and Fire.

16

“Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes.

17

Off the top o’ my head…

Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
J. Geils - Freeze Frame
Grateful Dead - Truckin’ / Casey Jones
The Band - The Weight/Up On Cripple Creek
Canned Heat - Goin’ Up The Country

18

And “Ramblin’ Man”, which is even worse.

I nominate “The Joker” by the Steve Miller Band. But also:

“Owner Of A Lonely Heart” and “Roundabout” by Yes

“Touch Of Grey” by the Grateful Dead

“Black Water” by the Doobie Brothers

“Karn Evil 9, Part 2” by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (the song that begins, “Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends”)

“Silent Lucidity” by Queensryche

A lot of power ballads by otherwise hard-sounding bands fit this category.

ETA: Beaten on “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” but had a different Grateful Dead nominee.

19

Yeah, but those weren’t weak songs. Plus, I hear Purple Haze. And, some of the really guitar-centered stuff is not all that approachable by a general audience.

I’m going to have to nominate Lionel Ritchie. I think he wrote most of the songs for the Commodores, and some of that stuff was just fantastic. His solo stuff, which gets much, much more airplay is not just weak compared to his other stuff, it’s just awful in general.

How about Stevie Wonder? Some of the funkiest songs ever written were by him, but you hear “I Just Called to Say” or “Ebony and Ivory” or “Sunshine of My Eye”. Compare that to “Maybe your Baby” or “Higher Ground”

ETA: Have to agree with Mixolydian about Yes as well.

20

Good call.

Kinda the same reason that Chuck Berry’s only No. 1 is “My Ding-a-Ling”?