Entertainment For Lively Minds
biggest hit, worst song
Posted by another Iain on 21 March 2011 - 11:16pm.
People sometimes seem to have their biggest hit with their worst song.
For example, Eurythmics, There Must Be An Angel. And the man who graced that recording with its harmonica solo, Stevie Wonder, I Just Called To Say I Love You.
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Easy....
Hey there now!
That's one of my favourite feelgood songs you're dissing. Honestly, how can you listen to those first few bars and keep still?
Yeah
I have to make a run for it too.
Sorry Sid.
Nothing against that song other than massive over exposure. It's the one DJ's always pull out for the B-52's when there are so many other great ( better) songs to choose, such as this
I'll give you fish
I love this song; certainly their best, and one I never ever tire of hearing.
yep
- it was the only single of their's I ever bought until I recently downloaded Roam from Amazon. I love it.
Frank Sinatra
My Way.
If not his worst song, then very close to it.
!!
I'd say quite the opposite: with the exception of the wonderful My Way, just about everything else Frank Sinatra did was awful.
Have you heard
In The Wee Small Hours and Watertown? Two great albums with none of the worn-out songs from nostalgia radio.
No I haven't
Thanks, Ola :)
Nope, this was their worst crime
Chuck Berry
My Ding a Ling
Not his best
But maybe quite apt!
Number 1 on the day I was born!......
And quite apt for me too, given the amount of trouble that my Ding-a-ling has gotten me into over the years.
If only I had just confined myself to playing with it.
Prefab Sprout
While certainly not a bad song, The King Of Rock And Roll isn't a very characteristically Sprouty track.
Macca
Mull of Kintyre
Duran Duran - Is There Something I Should Know
Bryan Adams - Everything I Do
Simple Minds - Belfast Child
good shout on Mull of Kintyre
that was a hanging offence.
Yes...
... but if anyone thinks that its his biggest hit then they must utterly insane.
9 weeks at number 1...
... and best-selling UK single ever until Do They Know It's Christmas?...
I've always liked Mull of
I've always liked Mull of Kintyre. Beautiful song about finding a place in this world that makes you feel calm and happy. I have a place like that, so the song resonates with me. Plus, I'm in the states so it never got played to death over here, or played much at all. For me it's just a lovely song. ... Now if someone wants to nominate Ebony & Ivory has his biggest hit, worst song, I'm in.
Surprised it was only 9 weeks, it seemed like an eternity
every week on TOTP those bloody Scots Guards would wander on to the screen.
Mr Maconie raised an interesting thought regarding "Mull..."
In that he thinks it is perhaps the biggest selling record in UK chart history that never (and I mean NEVER) gets played or requested on radio now.
Totally colloquial, but I suspect he's correct.
Good point
I think the same about I Don't Like Mondays - another massive big seller that never gets played.
Springsteen
Dancing in the dark
Sorry to be the first
...to do this, but that's the only song of his that I like!
That guy can dance, though
Credit where credit is due.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Under The Bridge
Not sure it's their worst (or even their biggest now) but it was the most unrepresentative from that album & highlighted Antony Kiedis's 'Pub singer does Marlon Brando' voice to me for the first time.
REM
Shiny Happy People.
The Sesame Street version was ok.
I have to disagree
Their big hit / worst song is Everybody Hurts.
Everybody Hurts
is a great song, simple, delicate and touching, but as I argued on a recent REM-related thread, it's been played/done to death and has lost its lustre, much like the equally ubiquitous 'Losing My Religion'.
In a parallel dimension...
Wings' Give Ireland Back to the Irish was No.1 for nineteen years, finally replaced at the top by Bryan Adams' (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, which is still there as I type.
Prince
"The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" being his only UK number 1.
Charlie Rich's version of
Charlie Rich's version of "Gett Off" conversely was magnificent.
[gets coat]
I preferred
his little-known double A-side 'Behind Closed Doors/Sexy Motherfucker' :-)
Can I just say I quite liked Wet, Wet, Wet
in their first few shiny pop outings, particularly "Wishing I Was Lucky" - but I get the feeling as our Sun dies and Earth is but a memory of space dust, "Love Is All Around" will be playing as Time itself ends
Popped In Souled Out
was a great poppy, soulful record. All self penned I believe. Sound of Summer 1987!
Like UB40, discovered a cover version that made them global superstars and got very very lazy. Shame.
I suppose personal habits didn't help.
Agreed, "Wishin I was Lucky" is a genuine work
of British pop genius. Snappy, riffy, urgently paced to lead you to the school dance floor and a pretty boy singer with shiny teeth. And with an underlying theme of exploring wasted working class youth in Thatchers wasteland.
Can't ask for more.
Sweet Little Mystery
and as I recall the follow up single was infact NME's single of the week, and a good 'un at that.
Now runs away before someone tells me I'm wrong.
Dexys Midnight Runners
C'mon Eileen
I don't understand why people would
knock this song. Is it it's catchiness or the funny dances it makes people do at weddings? It's a fabulous tune and almost bursts with energy - kind of sums the band up.
Absolutely agree
It's a brilliant song - brings the sun out, nice and shouty. Also has added bonus of reminding me of being four or five years old. Glorious.
I bought a load of their albums on the strength of hearing this recently, and 'Geno' aside, I was horribly disappointed.
Divine Comedy
National Express
Student favourites
OK it's not their worst song, but they've done miles miles better...
The Only One I Know
is the song the Charlatans will be remembered for. Great but not their best by a long way. Forever went to number one (I think); also not their best.
Think it IS their best song...
Some good stuff on Between 10th & 11th, Wonderland and Tellin' Stories but nothing to match the funky bum shaking bassline and the hammond break on TOOIK.
One to Another
is neck and neck with TOOIK in my book, but they couldn't really complain about being remembered for TOOIK.
This very ordinary piece by a band with 50 songs better
My favourite song by
them.
I'd say that all the Bee Gees' disco mega-hits of the
Saturday Night Fever era are hopelessly inferior to the songs on the first few albums.
I, on the other hand...
would say that the Bee Gees' disco hits are amongst the greatest records ever made.
Patrick is right.
And that's all I got to say about that.
Nah.
Golden Age for me.....'66, '67, '68.
This is in no way dismissing their own recordings from this era but the 'Maybe Someone Is Digging Underground' compilation of covers from the 60s is my favourite way of hearing The Bee Gees' 'toytown pop' stuff.
'Cowman Milk Your Cow' by Adam Faith is amazing.
Disco?
Rubbish clothes.
that's come as
a real surprise to me ranger old bean
Agree completely
I had a problem with them at the time because I was still fighting my own puny punk wars but I grew to love them to bits.
Creep.
Not Radiohead's worst (that accolade, of course, goes to the hilarious "Pop Is Dead") but a pretty mealy-mouthed excuse for a post-grunge moanfest. Although it is partially redeemed by Jonny's troll-throat-clearing noise.
SSSH
It's Oh So Quiet by Bjork has just come on the radio. I think that's the definitive answer to this question.
Good one
Her biggest 'hit' that perversely she left off her, um, Greatest Hits album in 2002. That's what happens when you let the fans choose these things.
Thanks.
I now have IOSQ permanently installed as an earworm.
Steeleye Span
I love their first four albums, but they'll always be best remembered for this piece of utter garbage...
What do you mean?!?
It's a folkin' classic
Maybe I'm ready for Heart FM or something
...but most of the examples here are the only songs I like by these artists.
Come On Eileen, Dancing in the Dark, Love Shack, It's Oh So Quiet...
Born Slippy is my favourite Underworld track (although I like loads more)
My rock snob credentials are seriously being called into question
Yes
I love Love Shack
But I don't love Shack.
Zackly.
Have an up.
*till rings*
Paranoid
Black Sabbath
Well, I kind of agree with you on a Greatest Hits level
But to be honest, surely they made worse songs than Paranoid?
I´m not brave enough to go through everything they did post Mob Rules, but I have heard Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die!. You need look no further.
I suppose
I was talking on a Greatest Hits level. They did do some duffers along the way didn't they? Born Again is awful & has probably the worst album cover ever.
Born Again has a pretty awful cover, yes
Haven´t heard it recently, but I´m willing to take your word for it.
I remember being young and thinking heavy metal covers always looked so damn cool, even Iron Maiden´s. Or, to be honest, especially Iron Maiden´s.
A friend of mine is a big fan of Sabbath´s TYR from 1990. I´ve definitely heard that one more than necessary.
Stevie Wonder
I Just Called To Say I Love You
Chris De Burgh - Lady In Red
Warren Zevon - Werewolves of London (although it is a fun song)
Neil Young - Heart of Gold
If you think Heart Of Gold's Neil's worst song
then you haven't heard much Neil Young.
To be fair
The thread is biggest hit, worst song, and Heart Of Gold is the only song of Neil's that has bothered the upper reaches of the charts.
But you're right there is far, far worse than HoG (which is actually a pretty good song IMHO).
Good point!
Either way Heart Of Gold is nigh on perfect to me. The only criticism I'd have is that it could be longer which is ironic considering many of the great man's songs are far too long.
Van the Man
Not a hit originally in the UK, but 'Brown Eyed Girl' gets 99 airings for every one of anything from his entire back catalogue on British radio!
Them (the greatest UK r 'n' b group by a considerable distance) aren't best served by 'Here Comes The Night' either.
No wonder Van's always grumpy.
Chimney Singing's dictum applies
See above.
OK
But does 'Brown Eyed Girl' rate 99 more plays than anything in his catalogue and 999 plays to every one of, say, 'Jackie Wilson Said'?
Doesn't anyone at Heart FM get up in the morning and think, 'You know what, I'll play another song, just for this one day only, by that grumpy Irishman.'
Just once?
Presumably not, through fear....
...of making just one listener switch over to Absolute or Capital on hearing a song that they don't immediately recognise.
Mind you, if you're going to play 'Brown Eyed Girl', you may as well give 'Glad Tidings' a spin.
it could be worse
although omnipresent on the airwaves, at least, B.E.G is a good song. Whereas "Whenever God Shines His Light", His Holy Miserableness's collaboration with Saint Clifford of Webb is enough to make any passing angel pull the plug out of a Bourbon bottle and head for the nearest whorehouse
Blue Monday
No matter how many copies of the "biggest selling 12" single of all time" New Order shifted, none of them have ever darkened my door. Fond as I am of the majority of their output, this one's always been a particular blind spot of mine.
I am of a similar mind, but ...
... I think part of the problem is that, at that time of recording, the production overshadowed the song; if you consider the version on Top Of The Pops (which I haven't looked for on YouTube, partly because it's a memory I cherish and don't want besmirched, partly because I'm, by nature, lazy), it's not a bad song at all.
And from The Word favourites REM...
Losing My Religion. If it hadn't been force-played at me at least 500 times since its release, I might not bristle over the portentous but utterly vacuous lyrics. I mean, what on earth is the man singing about? I see no story, no coherent statement, no progression, just a reeling off of worthy but empty lines worthy of Noel Gallagher himself. Or do you beg to differ?
Do I beg to differ?
I do. It's about being creepily obsessed with someone. Sure, the lyrics are impressionistic and not very specific - like much vintage Stipe - but when you know that it's supposed to be creepy, the words ring very differently.
Vacuous possibly
In the Gallagher realm, no.... that's a faintly awe-inspiring level of terrible you are talking about there
Rod
Do ya think I'm sexy?
Do you really think he will be reading this?
No.....he'll be too busy....
Sailing.
Yes, yes, I'm in the cloakroom already...
Grab his old raincoat
as it will never let you down
Yeah Six Dog
you wear it well.
it shows off your
hot legs
and when you get home
your missus will think ooh tonight's the night...
put her
handbag and gladrags on and ooh la la, you can take her up gasoline alley
Some guys have all the luck
let's just hope it doesn't end in a broken dream
and if she won't let you
Maggie May
Maggie May didn't
but Cindy, incidentally, did.
Boom, tish
No, don't
Stay with me.
The Pretenders
Love the band but Brass In Pocket always makes me turn off the radio.
madness
Not really their worst ever songs, but how come whenever you hear Madness on the radio, it's invariably 'House of Fun' or 'Our House'?
Or It Must Be Love
cos most radio stations are programmed by computers with a motorway service station range of music. For one of the greatest singles bands you wouldn't know it from the tracks that get played
Excuse me ev'rybody
Driving in My Car? Need I say more?
so that's madness's career
so that's madness's career distilled down to four tracks... don't know about anyone else, but if 'night boat to cairo' ever came on the radio, it would send me off into the day with a smile on my face.
That and several other songs have that effect ...
And as for Our House being one of their worst singles... purleese! That descending piano and brass stabs sound great to this day...
Our House
Is a magnificent record, from the clever little bass twang a few bars in to the fade at the end. Brilliant.
The Strawbs
Part of the Union.
Intriguing..
..could you possibly elucidate on your interpretation of the meaning of Losing My Religion? I know that the phrase itself is Southern slang for "blowing one's top", so I'm wondering how does that fit in with the "creepy" thing?
Sure.
I read this as the narrator reproving himself for being so obsessed with the object of his obsession, knowing that there's more to life than thinking about one person (whom he thinks about more than he thinks about himself).
These are sort of half-formed thoughts about the things he's done to stay close to his obsessee, which he stops himself fully articulating, while still admitting "I set it up" - presumably their meeting (or various meetings over the course of the relationship).
Like most Stipe, this is pretty impressionistic stuff, but I read it as the narrator thinking about how he's lost control of his obsession and insinuated himself into every part of the object's life.
The whole song strikes me as a tension between him wanting to do the right thing, confess his various creepy, obsessive tendencies, but not quite being able to. He knows he should confess, but he's worried that it'll ruin everything.
Again, deliberately obscure and vague, but I see this as him worrying that his obsession has gone much too far and that he's losing control of himself, fearing (or fantasising about) discovery. The ending bit - "that was just a dream... why try?" - seems like he's not yet been rumbled, and still can't stop himself obsessing.
As I say, creepy. And I'm probably reading too much into it, but I went through a genuine R.E.M. obsession as a student and spend far too much time trying to make sense of Stipe's lyrics.
Nice one Bob
Although I've always known what the song is supposedly about it's never really been all that clear to me.
The creepiest bit must be when the play it live and Stipey introduces it by saying "this song is about... you."
Not my interpretation
I've seen it as regrets over a lost love and trying but failing to find the right words to apologise.
It's open for discussion on Friday, of course.
I first read the "creepy" interpretation...
...in one of the R.E.M. biogs - I think it was probably "It Crawled From The South" - direct from the lips of Stipe. Although he's been deliberately obstructive and downright deceitful on the subject of his lyrics on more than one occasion, so maybe he was deliberately leading the fanboi likes of me down a blind alley.
I understood it as
having to change his ways to keep the girl. IE. I am losing my religion meaning I am changing my personality just so I can keep you.
There again it could mean something else altogether.
Losing my religion is apparently...
...a Georgia phrase meaning to go off at the deep end, lose the plot.
That is also my
That is also my understanding, makes all the above conjecture somewhat moot. It's a song about losing your temper.
The Police
that stalking one - what's it called?? Every Breath You Take. Every cake you bake every leaf you rake. Useless.
Babybird
This put me off them for years;
A lot of Stephen Jones' stuff is excellent yet he will always be remembered for this. Although it still makes me laugh when you see it used as a romantic song when it is anything but!
I still think babybird are britpops version of the fall
Not many songs about tanktops though
So it is redeemed on a knitwear basis at least
Van Halen
Jump.
A band with one of the greatest guitarists ever born, playing an 80's pop/rock song famed for its synthesised opening chords.
Have you seen this..
Rhubarb?
That...
is fantastic!
Wake up, the answer to this is ....
... The Boo Radleys.
Talking Heads..
the radio invariably plays Road to Nowhere with its awful, static, military beat and (synthesised?)accordion. What a disservice to a great band with loads of good tracks.
Was it their biggest hit?
Yes and No
You're right in that it was their biggest hit in the UK, but I have never considered it to be a weak song.
For my part I've never been that fond of Once In A Lifetime, by far the weakest track on an otherwise brilliant album.
Yes and no, the second..
agree with you, Carl, that Remain was a cracking album but disagree about Once, one of the Heads' greatest songs.
Taste, eh?
|May I suggest this is towards the arse end of the Dan canon
Mind you, the Dan canon
is quite a good canon to be at the arse end of.
Quite..
and doesn't visiting guitarist Elliot Randall do a great job on it?
EDIT: On the record, not here.
The arse end of Dan is, for me, the stuff Fagen didn't sing on on that first album. And the dreaded Blues Beach.
Well I actually listened to
Well I actually listened to this on vinyl last night on my main system and it sounded awesome.
I can't take my eyes off
Denny Dias' velveteen dungarees - quite horrifying....
More than a little surprised
That no one has yet instanced Another Brick in the Wall (or Another Toad in the Hole, as the NME described it).
The Great British Public on the Clapham Omnibus know a couple of bits of DSOTM from their use in adverts or bits of film with cash registers on, but for most, Pink Floyd are best known for ABITW.
Which is a pity...
Yes, yes, yes.. but hardly their worst single
Compare it with other Floydian 45s such as "It Would Be So Nice", "Not Now John" and "Point Me at the Sky" and I think it comes out of the fray pretty well...
Blur
Country House
And believe me, I bloody love Blur
Solid Air
is not the best John Martyn song and I am of the opinion that sentimentality puts it up there the same as Wonderful tonight by Eric Clapton, Lady in red by Chris de Burgh and One day like this by Elbow. You can also consider the same to be the case for Your song by Elton John, Imagine by John Lennon and a whole host of others. Just because they hit an emotional nerve with the listeners doesnt mean they are great.
Oh Steve!!!
There's an argument about what is the best John Martyn song. In fact I think I'll start a thread about it when I've posted this. But to bracket it with Wonderful Tonight or Lady In Red. Them's fighting words…..
I don't think sentimentality comes into it because I'm pretty sure when I first heard Solid Air I had no idea it was about Nick Drake and it wouldn't have bothered me too much if I had known because for many years my exposure to Nick was limited to Time Has Told Me which was on the Nice Enough To Eat sampler. I think it used to be skipped a lot anyway just to get to 21st Century Schizoid Man.
One Night in Bangkok
This was Murray Head's biggest hit by a long way, and is about the only song he is remembered for. A pity as he neither wrote it nor even sings on it.
Given that Murray was the greatest singer-songwriter we ever had, this is a terrible shame. This is the song he *should* have been remembered by:
Poor Murray was so badly marketed, even today most people think Say It Ain't So Joe was written by Roger Daltrey or Gary Brooker (who both did far more successful cover versions).
Seconded
Also some of the songs on Nigel Lived - quite lovely.
The Barenaked Ladies
are one of my favourite bands. But whenever I tell that to anyone, I then wind up having to explain that yes, One Week happens to be their worst song, and they shouldn't be put off by that, and they're actually incredibly great, and some of their other stuff is incredibly moving.
Basically, One Week is a terrible, terrible record.
But this isn't:
(although it has a terrible, terrible video)
Nononnononoooo!
The worst thing they ever did? I know your BNL evangelism has been patchy, but 'fess up - One Week is great fun. And you know all the words about golf clubs and Japanese film directors. Don't you?
Don't lie - I know...
Two more...
Genesis - never was a band worse represented by its mega selling singles. Invisible Touch in particular - No.1 in the U.S. and huge over here. And I can't stand it.
And on another tack altogether: Echo Beach - very pleasant song but makes it impossible to introduce people to Martha & the Muffins and their delightful ouevre. Like this:
- less than two years on from Echo Beach. You don't hear The Hoosiers progress this fast.
FACT: They were the first band to feature the sonic tinkerings of Daniel Lanois. Long before Gabriel or U2...
Nickelback
are an interesting conundrum. "How You remind Me" and "Rock Star" were both huge hits, enormous but which was worse? To admit one of them is worse by definition means you "preferred" the other but how can that be? It is a circle of of shite with no end. QED or even DFS, my head hurts now.
With you there, Mr A.
Nickelback make my head hurt and my soul puke and my ears want to leave the planet.
How You Remind Me...
...CRACKS me up. For that reason alone I would always give it ear-room. There should be more laughter in the world, especially laughter unintentionally caused by arrogant, earnest, Canadian röck manchildren.
Let's Dance
although one of David Bowie's best-selling singles was only rescued by Nile Rodgers' production.