Funny, I also have thought it’s about two gay men. But that’s just me, not Sinatra. 
Paul Simon has said he doesn’t like a lot of his earlier songs. He also singled out “The Dangling Conversation”.
He also hates perforiming “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. He has trouble remembering which order the lyrics are in and has to focus on someone in the audience. He says that real fans always get it right.
I saw them do just can’t get enough last year. It was fun. I didn’t know that about people (it is kinda cheesey).
Simple Minds don’t like don’t you (forget about me). Because they didn’t write it, they didn’t see themselves as a stadium band but the song mapped them as such, and they had no other hits.
Morrissey changed his tune about his Smiths work once he had some solo classics It’s not hate so much as denial of their looming presence over his career.
I heard the same about Berlin’s Take My Breath Away from Top Gun. It’s one of the very few songs that they recorded that they didn’t write, but it is their biggest and only (I think) hit.
Billy Joel sure is getting a lot of mentions in this thread! He also, if I recall correctly, dislikes “Piano Man” - more from it being overplayed than anything else. The stanzas are apparently just limericks (and yes, after finding that out, you can never hear it the same way again).
Also, John Lennon didn’t care for “Imagine.” But again, it was only after it became a huge hit - I think most artists like their songs at least a small amount when they first record them, but get tired of replaying them over and over and over again.
nm
Pinball Wizard by The Who.
As well as the basic melody and chords for the lyric sections, which would be the aspect of the song Jim hated singing.
Morrison added a phrase or two, Manzarek provided the famous organ riff, as well as the jazz chords (Coltraine?) improv section (IF I remember correctly); John decided on the latin beat. I say it’s a Robby song.
FWIW, Jim also famously hated Robby’s “Touch Me.”
My own contribution to the thread is Sergei Rachmaninoff, who came to detest his Piano Prelude in C#minor.
“1000 UK Number One Hits” (Kutner and Leigh, 2005) quotes Sinatra as saying the song was “about two fags in a bar”.
Well, thanks for the cite, I guess. I suppose the alleged comment may have been something Sinatra said, I don’t know. The book’s quote might be apocryphal or just plain old bullshit as well. It might also be something Sinatra said facetiously to dismiss the song or dissuade whoever he was talking to from commenting further on it. I’d be surprised if Sinatra ever thought the song was about homosexuals at the time he recorded it though. There’s nothing in the song’s lyrics to suggest a homosexual relationship, and given that the supposed quote comes some years after his death and that he never came under fire from gay rights advocates since the quote came well after the gay rights movement got underway I have to say I’m dubious as to the integrity of the cite.
Re: “Alabama Getaway”
They played it on SNL in 1980. I was surprised to see it called one of their more popular songs in an earlier post: I used to hang around with deadheads and barely knew of it. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it on the radio.
It was their second biggest hit single ever, after “Touch of Grey.” Granted, that’s not saying much – it only reached #68 on the charts – but still.
That you hung out with Deadheads and barely knew of it underscores how it was disliked by the band and most of its fans (interesting about SNL, though.)
Which album?
Kurt Cobain hated Smells Like Teen Spirit. he couldn’t believe a silly song he scribbled out in a few minutes would be the Big Hit.
And he hates Sounds of Silence too, apparently - as you say, maybe all his S&G material?
Which reminds me of a story. I heard him being interviewed on radio in England in 1980 on his One Trick Pony tour. The interviewer was a girl who couldn’t have been over 18 and clearly no idea who he was. But her research had discovered Simon and Garfunkel, so her Big Question was: “How hard is it to write songs by yourself after having been in a partnership with Art Garfunkel for so long?” (or words to that effect). You could hear his struggle to remain polite in the pause that followed, then he finally said “I wrote all those songs …”. She floundered a bit then came back with “Oh, is this generally known?”. Bad move. Simon says “I think everyone knows it except you”. Dead air for at least 20 seconds while she twists slowly in the wind … excruciating to hear, it was.
I hear he especially hates it when it’s used twice in one thread, including in the OP …
That was a dick move by Simon, if the age of the interviewer is accurate.
Shows you how carefully I read the OP. I shall commit seppuku at once.
Nah. Assuming it was a radio interview in a professional setting, I’d say her lack of preparation merited his reaction. Ignorance is no excuse for insulting an artist like that. Even a well-known dick like Paul Simon is entitled to a minimal level of professional respect.
What was the insult?
Seriously?