# What is your most hated song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [March 2, 2023, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621 "2023-03-02T22:37:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/281 "2023-11-21T12:53:40Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > This will sound cliché, but the song that I absolutely loathe is " **MacArthur Park**" The worst. Vile. I can’t hear the refrain without laughing my head off, so there’s that. (Hell, I’m sitting here laughing, just _thinking_ about the refrain.) Unfortunately, the rest of the song goes on _forever_ - it’s one of the longest songs ever to get airplay on pop music stations - and it isn’t funny, it’s just awful. > [@DrDeth](#): > > All time winner is _MacArthur Park-_ Richard harris cant sing Hard to believe he’s the guy who originally played Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies, roughly an eon later. > Lots of bad songs here i never hear, which is good. Same here - most of the songs that have been mentioned, I either have never heard, or maybe heard a few times a long time ago, or were ‘classic rock’ tunes that don’t bother me anymore because I stopped listening to classic rock stations about a decade ago. If I hear them at all, it’s because they’re playing over the sound system of a store I’m in. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/282 "2023-11-21T14:26:37Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > _I also nominate Close to You by the Carpenters- saccharine and creepy._ Here’s a **really** creepy song I heard recently on a web site that plays hits of the 1960s. I remember the song when it was a hit, but today it takes on a whole new meaning. _“Turn Around, Look at Me” by the Vogues._ The opening lyrics: _There is someone walking behind you_ _Turn around, look at me_ _There is someone watching your footsteps_ _Turn around, look at me._ It goes on like that. It’s supposedly a love song, but…anyone for stalking? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/283 "2023-11-21T15:41:37Z")
Aarrgghh, didn’t notice we have TWO threads on this same topic going concurrently. From the other one I mentioned Kyrie Eleison by Mister Mister, which combines the worst mondegreen, ever, and one of the most irritating melodic lines (as such). ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/284 "2023-11-21T16:06:14Z")
What mondegreen is that? Oh, I see it in the other thread. I never mondegreened that as I saw the title before hearing the song, and I grew up Catholic, where the phrase “Kyrie Eleison” shows up not infrequently in masses (though less so these days.) ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/285 "2023-11-21T17:20:08Z")
As a working musician, the one I hate most as a request is “The Birdie Song”. Though fortunately that doesn’t come up so often nowadays except with drunken wedding guests of a certain age. As a songwriter, by far the most cringeworthy is the ‘Pina Colada’ song. I would love to hear a realistic version where in the last verse they scream ‘you cheating bitch/bastard’ at each other and have a violent breakup. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/286 "2023-11-21T17:46:30Z")
Had to look that one up. Ah! “The Chicken Dance”. Didn’t know it had another name. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/287 "2023-11-21T17:51:34Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > What mondegreen is that? > > Oh, I see it in the other thread. I never mondegreened that as I saw the title before hearing the song, and I grew up Catholic, where the phrase “Kyrie Eleison” shows up not infrequently in masses (though less so these days.) I was raised Catholic as well but had never heard the phrase in question until I found out what the actual refrain/title was. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/288 "2023-11-21T17:53:08Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Had to look that one up. Ah! “The Chicken Dance”. Didn’t know it had another name. I think ‘Birdie song’ may be what it’s known by in the UK? But you know, there we are playing some decent Beatle songs etc, and THAT comes up. Doesn’t really work well for a guitar band anyway… but we hold our noses and go rumpty-tump for 3 minutes. Keep the customer satisfied… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/289 "2023-11-21T17:58:22Z")
Our missalettes in Chicago would print both “Lord have mercy/Christ have mercy…” and the alternate Greek “Kyrie Eleison/Christe Eleison…” for that part of mass. Most of the time the priest would choose the English version, but sometimes they’d mix it up. Same with “Lamb of God” and “Agnus Dei.” Plus there were some hymns with the phrase “Kyrie Eleison.” I first ran across the Mister Mister song in the early 90s in a synthesizer transcription book. I had somehow no memory of having heard the song before and was wondering why Mister Mister had a song with a religious title like that. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/290 "2023-11-21T17:58:58Z")
Here it’s something I associate with either polka bands or prerecordings. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/291 "2023-11-21T18:00:20Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Our missalettes in Chicago would print both “Lord have mercy/Christ have mercy…” and the alternate Greek “Kyrie Eleison/Christe Eleison…” for that part of mass. Most of the time the priest would choose the English version, but sometimes they’d mix it up. Same with “Lamb of God” and “Agnus Dei.” Plus there were some hymns with the phrase “Kyrie Eleison.” My father grew up when they still did Latin masses. In East Cleveland in the late 60’s/early 70’s at least they had stopped doing it, cannot recall singing any Latin at all while in church. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/292 "2023-11-21T18:03:33Z")
Our current Catholic Church still does Latin Agnus Dei from time to time (and this is a left-leaning Paulist Church that even had “Black Lives Matter” on their marquee), and I never learned the actual words beyond “Agnus Dei qui something something mundi, then something something something ends with pacem, and there’s a miserere or two in there.” ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/293 "2023-11-21T18:18:17Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Here it’s something I associate with either polka bands or prerecordings. True. Usually one can get away with saying, why don’t you ask the DJ for that. Or, sorry, we don’t know that one. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/294 "2023-11-21T18:22:49Z")
Yeah, like you said, not really a guitar band song. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/295 "2023-11-21T18:29:02Z")
Fun fact: The German pop band Pur called themselves Opus at some point but changed their name when this Austrian band Opus had their breakthrough with _Live is Life_. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/296 "2023-11-21T18:40:59Z")
I knew that! 😁 And I find the former band Opus, now Pur, even worse than the Austrian Opus… ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/297 "2023-11-21T19:18:33Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > “Turn Around, Look at Me” by the Vogues I’d never heard of this one, but [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_Around,_Look_at_Me) tells me it’s been recorded several times, including by Glen Campbell and by the Bee Gees. Now I wonder if it was an inspiration for the openly and deliberately creepy song “[Turn Around](https://tmbw.net/wiki/Lyrics:Turn_Around)” by They Might Be Giants. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/298 "2023-11-21T19:33:02Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > I was raised Catholic as well but had never heard the phrase in question until I found out what the actual refrain/title was. _Everybody say his own ‘Kyrie Eleison,’ doin’ the Vatican Rag!_ -Tom Lehrer ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/299 "2023-11-21T20:01:21Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I think you’re taking the premise of a comedy song much too seriously. I mean, it’s like hearing someone ask, “How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb?” and responding, “why would it ever take more than one person to change a light bulb?” > > Sure, for a father to actually name his son ‘Sue’ and then abandon him would be two horrible things to do. But you could also dump on the mother for not calling him Bill or George; no reason why she’d ever have to let anyone know his birth certificate said ‘Sue.’ But c’mon, it’s a setup for an extended joke, it’s not something you analyze I’m afraid we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. I don’t see the song as just one big joke. There may be some humor in it, but it is clearly more than that. It states a message and attempts to make a point. And I don’t agree that people will just treat it as humor and not analyze the message. I once had a disagreement with an acquaintance when, during a debate, I expressed the opinion (in my capacity as a children’s and youth rights activist) that the law should regulate what you can name your child and he categorically disagreed, claiming that parents should even be allowed to give their children blatantly embarassing names, in the interest of [the parents’] liberty. He cited this song as a justification for his stance. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2023, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621/300 "2023-11-21T20:04:57Z")
> [@themapleleaf](#): > > claiming that parents should even be allowed to give their children blatantly embarassing names, in the interest of [the parents’] liberty. He cited this song as a justification for his stance. I’m … not so sure that’s a valid takeaway from that song even if you do take it completely seriously. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-most-hated-song/980621.md?page=16)