Ummmm, for example? I reread the thread and do not see a one.
Of the songs I know on this list (and granted, I recognize very little from about 2000 forward and about 1963 back) I’m surprised to find things like “Men in Black” (4 weeks at #1), which may not be “the worst” but it was definitely not a good song.
OTOH, “Ice Ice Baby” is definitely total dog shit.
::needle screech:: What? In a category that includes such epicallly craptastic works as “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree” and “We Built This City”, you’re nominating “What’s Up”? A decent rock ballad with great, brassy vocals? 4 Non Blondes is still in my playlist, and I occasionally listen to “What’s Up”. It’s no “The Sound Of Silence”, but it’s a good song that’s nowhere near as soul-destroyingly hideous as some of the others mentioned here.
Sheesh.
I was so excited to open this thread and name Pachelbel’s Canon, just to link to this!
There have got to be dozens of artists in the same boat, who hate the one hit that everyone demands they play. I know Grace Slick hates We Built This City (and rightly so).
You. In the back seat with the dogs, where you can’t reach the radio.
I have to go with this one.
Rhyming “what the heck” with “hugged my neck”? Really?
A lot of good ones here. I’ll nominate Okie From Muscogee, by Merle Haggard for a country tune. And Ballad Of The Green Berets, by Barry Sadler for pop charts. “Fighting men, who jump and die” always sounded like a poor career choice.
I was going to vote “Disco Duck” as well, but, then again, it’s pretty clearly trying to be dumb, especially with the band name as “Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots,” so if sincerity is part of the equation for “worst,” I may have to disqualify it. But, yeah, it’s horrible.
“Disco Duck” is what’s called a “novelty song.” You might as well nominate “Grandma Got Runover by a Reindeer,” or “Monster Mash.”
Of course, I know that. the former never made it close to #1, though. The latter, did.
Sugar Sugar by The Archies spent 4 weeks as #1. Various stories claim that Don Kirshner tried to force it on The Monkees prior to assembling a studio band, leading to demands for more autonomy in their music.
No! That’s a great bubblegum pop song! No one shall besmirch “Sugar Sugar” on my watch!
Ugh, 96 Tears by ? and the Mysterians has to be on this list. Heard it this weekend, it just suuuuuuxked.
Another funny Pachelbel sketch by Rob Paravonian.
This deep into the thread and nobody’s named “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero”? #1 both in the U.K. and the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974.*
Billy, don’t be a hero
Don’t be a fool with your life
Billy, don’t be a hero
Come back and make me your wife
If I remember correctly, “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero” was inducing nausea somewhere around the same time as “Seasons In The Sun”. Or maybe it was “The Night Chicago Died”. A time of horribleness.
*there were two different versions, one by Paper Lace and another by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. Blurgghh.
What is wrong with you people?!?!?!! 96 Tears is a garage rock classic
My Ding-a-Ling, for two reasons
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It’s a terrible piece of crap, the kind of thing that’s sung at frat parties
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It’s Chuck Berry’s only #1 song, which represents all the injustice in the world
Agree. I love that song.
OK, this one I can get behind.
:tweet tweet tweet:
:chirp chirp chirp:
Is it true that payola was the main reason that this glurge hit #1?
“Bat Dance” by Prince has to be in the conversation.