Somewhat OT: The worst Pop tunes of the 50's thru 90s

burnsbyrne · Post by **burnsbyrne** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 9:18 am

What's comforting to me is that I don't recognize 90% of these song titles.
Mike

markv · Post by **markv** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 9:19 am

geek4music wrote:
Chuck_Clark wrote:This whole topic is a cheat and a fraud!

It's limited to pop. Any list of worst songs which by its very nature excludes "Achy-Breaky Heart" is plain BOGUS!

Quite right Chuck. My fault. Let it be decreed that Country Western is also fair game.

If country music is fair game then I would have to submit

"Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks.

The fact that the song would encourage an entire bar full of inebriates to sing along as loud as they could is what puts it high on the list for me. Shudder!!

Chas' list of irritating songs matches mine almost exactly. I think quite a few of the songs on the various lists may have been OK until the pop radio stations (soon to be one big Clear Channel station?) here in the US started playing them ad nauseum every minute of the day.

Broken Wings by Mr. Mister was one I liked the first few times I heard it but then it just became dreck after the thousandth time I heard it.

I just remember that during the 80's you couldn't go through more than a dozen or so stations without hearing a Steve Winwood song. He had some classic pukers. Higher Love...AARRGGHH

MarkV

amar · Post by **amar** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 9:58 am

scottielvr wrote:There is no shame in it... though I suspect you are probably too young to have been subjected to "Disco Duck" and the Bee Gees and... oh, never mind, I'm showing my age. I was in college in the 70s and proudly wore a T-shirt that said "Disco Sucks." Classy.

and...many years ago, on one accursed evening someone held a party in a yard behind the house I lived in. It went on till 4 in the morning, I had to go to work the next day, and they played "Like A Virgin" at least 72,000 times...over and over... it got more and more shrill each time till I was sure my head would explode. It was not a song, it was an instrument of torture. Uh, is it possible I'm not objective about this genre? ...

Speaking of disco duck, now, i may be veering off the topic here, but...emm....howard the duck......*puke*

Chuck_Clark · Post by **Chuck_Clark** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 10:09 am

OK, I can't resist any more.

But since my CTS is acting up, only the worst of the worst.

1. The aforementioned Achy Breaky Heart. This one qualifies as a defense against manslaughter charges.

2. John Ashcroft's "Let The Eagle Soar". In an ideal world, the eagle would wheel low and dump a load on the singer/songwriter, except that he'd then be arrested by the FBI as an enemy combatant.

3. Anything rap. The entire genre, no exception.

4. Anything disco - basically as unredeemable a genre as #3 but with less vulgarity.

WyoBadger · Post by **WyoBadger** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 10:48 am

I liked Winwood's old stuff when he was with Traffic. "John Barleycorn Must Die" is just plain cool. I agree with you on his later stuff, though.

There's a bumper sticker you occasionally see on old pickup trucks around here; it says "Real Cowboys Don't Line Dance." Good stuff.

markv wrote:
geek4music wrote:
Chuck_Clark wrote:This whole topic is a cheat and a fraud!

It's limited to pop. Any list of worst songs which by its very nature excludes "Achy-Breaky Heart" is plain BOGUS!

Quite right Chuck. My fault. Let it be decreed that Country Western is also fair game.
If country music is fair game then I would have to submit

"Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks.

The fact that the song would encourage an entire bar full of inebriates to sing along as loud as they could is what puts it high on the list for me. Shudder!!

Chas' list of irritating songs matches mine almost exactly. I think quite a few of the songs on the various lists may have been OK until the pop radio stations (soon to be one big Clear Channel station?) here in the US started playing them ad nauseum every minute of the day.

Broken Wings by Mr. Mister was one I liked the first few times I heard it but then it just became dreck after the thousandth time I heard it.

I just remember that during the 80's you couldn't go through more than a dozen or so stations without hearing a Steve Winwood song. He had some classic pukers. Higher Love...AARRGGHH

MarkV

Pat Cannady · Post by **Pat Cannady** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 11:23 am

How about "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany

"I Saw Him Standing There" by Debbie Gibson who should apologize to the remaining members of the Beatles for ruining their song

"Invisible Touch" by Genesis

"Susudio" Phil Collins ought to apologize to every musician who has contemplated slitting his or her wrists while listening to this trite piece of crap.

"Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood

The entire soundtrack to "Top Gun", including the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost that Loving Feeling". As if it weren't bad enough when it was released back in the 60s.

Really, anything with the overly loud drum machines, crappy synthesized horns, and mediocre-to-just-plain-awful songwriting and musicianship that typified mid-80s pop music can just go to Hell and not come back as far as I'm concerned. It reminds me of awful clothes (remember Miami Vice?), bad haircuts, the Reagans, the suburbs, and middle school.

kevin m. · Post by **kevin m.** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 11:40 am

Pat Cannady wrote:

Really, anything with the overly loud drum machines, crappy synthesized horns, and mediocre-to-just-plain-awful songwriting and musicianship that typified mid-80s pop music can just go to Hell and not come back as far as I'm concerned. It reminds me of awful clothes (remember Miami Vice?), bad haircuts, the Reagans, the suburbs, and middle school.

Right on Pat!-The 80's was a SH**E decade"!
We in the U.K. had Maggie Thatcher

(Reagan's bit on the side

),The worst popular 'culture' ever (though 'now' is pretty down there in the mediocre stakes),Yuppies with their me,me,me, greed culture,a war that needn't have been fought ,if the warning signals had been noted,the destruction of the British manufacturing base, alienation of whole communities,did I mention Maggie Thatcher

?

rebl_rn · Post by **rebl_rn** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 5:23 pm

Actually, I quite like "Friends in Low Places" (though like many songs it is probably over-used). And, not that it means anything, it was #6 on CMT's industry-voted-on 100 greatest country songs ever. (If anyone cares, "Stand By Your Man" was #1).

Speaking of Disco Duck, the very first album that I ever owned as truly mine (and not a hand-me-down from my siblings) was "Sesame Street Fever". The cover had Grover in the classic Saturday Night Fever pose. I remember there was a disco version of the Rubber Ducky song, I don't remember the other songs. But I loved that album.....

I agree that anything by Whitney, Celine, or Mariah should be on the list.

One more thing, I think "I Saw Him Standing There" was Tiffany, not Debbie Gibson....but then they were pretty interchangeable.

Beth

Post by **Nanohedron** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 5:50 pm

You know, looking over this thread it occurs to me why I dove headfirst into ITM; all I have to do if anyone should ask is refer them to this thread. Longwinded explanations pale in the face of hard examples.

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 8:41 pm

First , a defense,

Steve Windwood on the Blind Faith album wasn't too shabby.

The Bee Gees- before disco- were great- I loved New York Mining Disaster

Now , on to (ugh,) country- the only type of music my husband listens to, but only if it's "beer drinkin' music" the real thing-

the worst is ANYTHING by George Jones- especially He stopped lovin' her today, OR Tammy "Whinette"-D-I-V-O-R-C-E

Borrowed Angel- "belongs to someone else......"

There was also one, I think by Porter Wagoner, that said something about
" I drank a fifth of courage and walked in". I've thankfully wiped the rest out of my mind.

And finally, Almost Persuaded- this has to be the ultimate

Holt · Post by **Holt** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 9:12 pm

I'm new, is this what they call a "rant"? :roll:

AngeloMeola · Post by **AngeloMeola** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 10:12 pm

Check out this site if you need any inspiration.
http://www.wanderers.com/wanderer/drivein.html?

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 5:37 am

Holt wrote:I'm new, is this what they call a "rant"? :roll:

Not really. It's just one of the many off topic discussions that never cease here at C&F.

brad maloney · Post by **brad maloney** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 6:26 am

"I believe I can fly, I believe I can really fly".... I don't know who wrote it but you know what I'm talking about.
"With my cheeks spread open" -creed
Any of those screachy little b*tch boy rage against the nine inch corn biscuit dingbats

TomB · Post by **TomB** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 9:51 am

[quote="cowtime"]

especially He stopped lovin' her today,

Yes, got to agree with you here. I was going to add this one when I saw that you had already done so.

Although I do like a lot of country music, be definition, most songs that have a lot of "talking" in them, instead of singing, are really terrible.

All the Best, Tom