# Worst songs of the 70s **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [November 7, 2021, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924 "2021-11-07T04:58:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/141 "2021-11-09T02:54:22Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Indiana Wants Me? It’s the police dishing justice. The state wants him, not Dr Jones. And why do the police want him? Because in the first verse he dished out his own brand of law enforcement. QED ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/142 "2021-11-09T02:59:02Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Because in the first verse he dished out his own brand of law enforcement. QED He’s just a regular killer. He killed a guy that SAID bad thing about his woman. That’s not vigilantism. It’s plain old murder. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/143 "2021-11-09T06:21:33Z")
I’m not sure I can quite make it through this thread. It burns. I know so much of it already, but feel compelled to listen to a lot of it again so I really know how bad it is. So I have to pause at post 69 or so to note: > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Another improbable #1 hit. The chorus, in particular, makes my eyes water. Hehe, I dearly love that song. > [@SmartAleq](#): > > This one is so funky you might miss just how cancelled Jimmy Castor would be if this came out today. We sure loved it back in the day though. The studio version wasn’t nearly this good either. My, that rules in its own loony way. How did I never hear this before? > [@pkbites](#): > > This is the flip side of **“Seasons in the Sun”.** > > It did get some air play in the 70’s. Why I don’t know. > > _Put the Bone in, she yelled out once more!_ Good lord, just the placeholder lyrics, huh? I’d have to say that this thread gives me hope for my long, unsuccessful musical career. I’ve just been writing the wrong sort of crap for decades. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/144 "2021-11-09T06:39:06Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > In the “McArthur Park” and “You’re Havin My Baby” genre, I offer this piece of crap for which I have an almost irrational hatred. [Midnight at the Oasis.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlrKETxwRvM) Good lord. Before now, I just thought this song sucked. Now I realize it’s jazz wielded as mental weapon. I think you might win this if these songs were ever brought together in a head to head combat of sucking. ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/145 "2021-11-09T06:53:44Z")
The guitar player–maybe Amos Garrett?-- is terrific. Muldauer’s not bad, either. ---
**Author:** ![BigDfromLA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@BigDfromLA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigDfromLA)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/146 "2021-11-09T07:13:35Z")
You Light Up My Life is absolutely horrid. Pat Boone is a fraud and a phony and his daughter sings the song. Just ugly all around. Physical by Olivia Newton-John is horribly bad as well. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/147 "2021-11-09T13:05:43Z")
I have a confession. I liked many of the songs listed and I still do… We put these songs at the top of the charts, I didn’t know any better and there was influence by friends and society. Once upon a time Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods was my favorite group (until I graduated to Elton John). Recently I checked out an album of their “greatest hits” which includes songs that I knew and some I have never heard before. I still liked (more or less) the songs that I liked back then. But, when I heard other songs for the first time, without any association, I got it. I couldn’t listen to those songs. Now I see how others see Billy Don’t Be a Hero and their other songs. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/148 "2021-11-09T13:46:08Z")
I actually put “Sky High” in the small group of pure disco songs I can tolerate. It’s pretty catchy. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/149 "2021-11-09T15:19:21Z")
This is what I came to post. There are some other doozies in this thread though. WOW! ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/150 "2021-11-09T15:21:06Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I’ve also heard of more than one person who thought the title line was “Whoa, ho, ho, it’s my dick, you know, never believe it’s not so.” I’m not one of them, but it does kinda sorta sound like it. My grandma was one of them. She pretty much thought all pop culture was eeeeeevil, though. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/151 "2021-11-09T15:27:37Z")
I, too, love most of the songs listed here. The reason I chose Anka’s “Having My Baby” is because of the brazen misogyny it contained. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/152 "2021-11-09T15:53:19Z")
Some more 70s soft rock dreck. ‘Baby Come Back’ from the band Player. [Player, Baby Come Back](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLtmmFjxSoc) ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/153 "2021-11-09T16:51:05Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > > [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > > > I wonder how many songs are hated due to overplay. I grew to loathe “The Things We Do for Love” by 10cc for that reason. Another song by 10cc that never got played enough: I’m Not in Love. > > My experience was quite the opposite. I have a mild distaste The Things We Do for Love, but I truly loath I’m Not in Love. It seems like I heard that damn song constantly in the late 1970’s-early 80’s. I didn’t care much for it the first time - I despised it at after unavoidable listen #51. > > Not a big 10cc fan. Dreadlock Holiday is okay. I’m pleased to see the level of loathing for 10cc here. It reminds me that I’m in the company of good people. Now… it occurred to me today that I know something about them which is so utterly useless that I could not, in fairness, describe it as a fun fact. From the [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deceptive_Bends) for the album Deceptive Bends > The title of the album was taken from a sign warning of dangerous curves in the southbound A24 between Leatherhead and Dorking in Surrey. Gouldman said in 1977: “Every day I used to travel down from London and see the sign, ‘Deceptive Bends.’ It struck me to be quite a subtle word the Department of Transport was using, and Eric agreed it was a nice title.” The sign is no longer there. I used to work just down the road from there. This is pretty much exactly where the sign used to be: https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=%213m2%212sen%214v0%216m8%211m7%211sLyVKUwrr3YEwdH2q53Sc-A%212m2%211d51.2792814%212d-0.3259651%213f178.21%214f9.0%215f0.75 j ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/154 "2021-11-09T17:25:27Z")
I think I’m realizing as I read the thread that after growing up listening exclusively to the radio through about 1979 or 80, I pretty much moved all my listening to cassettes/8-tracks in the car and vinyl (and eventually CDs) at home. So a lot of these songs are a little fresh for me still, and I still like them. The 10cc song “I’m Not in Love” in particular still resonates with me, especially now that I know about the complicated, clever way they turned voice choruses into playable notes to fill out the song. Great stuff there. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2021, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/155 "2021-11-09T23:45:55Z")
I’m Not In Love is probably my least favorite 10CC song - not that I’m any kind of huge fan of the band or deeply into their discography, but I don’t have any particular distaste for their other oft-played hits, I just find INIL to be really tedious. Yet looking at the comments on its Youtube video, it’s remarkable how many people truly adore it. There are a lot of commenters describing it as “hypnotic” and I guess I can actually see how, at the time, it would have been perceived that way due to its use of various trippy sound effects which I take it were uncommon at the time. It makes sense that it would continue to resonate with those who heard it in their youth and found it alluring. Still, I find it pretty dreary and dull, and it goes on for far too long. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2021, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/156 "2021-11-10T20:12:33Z")
My friends, I give you **Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep** , by Middle of the Road. Warning: mental bleach required, and serious danger of a complete lapse into psychosis. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HSNSTerj2Kc/hqdefault.jpg "Middle of the Road - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep - Totp 1971") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSNSTerj2Kc) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2021, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/157 "2021-11-10T20:18:37Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > My friends, I give you **Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep** , by Middle of the Road. Warning: mental bleach required, and serious danger of a complete lapse into psychosis. > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSNSTerj2Kc&ab\_channel=charliemouse1234](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSNSTerj2Kc&ab_channel=charliemouse1234) And the credits ran over the “performance”. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2021, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/158 "2021-11-10T20:24:36Z")
I also just noticed that in those credits, known serial sexual predator Jimmy Savile introduced the song. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2021, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/159 "2021-11-10T20:54:26Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > My friends, I give you **Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep** , by Middle of the Road. You know, that’s actually pretty darn catchy. Of course, I have no desire to listen to it a second time. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2021, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924/160 "2021-11-10T21:57:33Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > You know, that’s actually pretty darn catchy. > Of course, I have no desire to listen to it a second time. It’s catchy until you wake up in the middle of the night in a straight jacket, screaming for someone to please give you a needle full of rat poison. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-songs-of-the-70s/953924.md?page=9)